1. Old habits die hard
This episode reinforced a theme of both “Master and Apprentice” and “Toil and Trouble,” which was that the New Republic was exactly what its name implied: a new version of a flawed government. When Hera is speaking to Mon Mothma and co. about the threat that Thrawn is presenting them, you can practically hear the voices of the old bureaucracy coming out of these much younger folks’ mouths. While I think the idea to, essentially, demilitarize is the ‘right’ idea, it is also a very, very stupid one in the world of Star Wars, and even a demilitarized state would want to ensure that they stay war free. What Hera is suggesting seems outlandish to them – how could Thrawn and Ezra have survived? – but the cost of investigating that idea is surely far less than the cost of even a small war if things intensify.
This attitude is not totally uncommon for Star Wars, but this soon after the Battle of Endor, the New Republic seems especially shitty for ignoring the request of a hero general to do a small-scale operation that could prevent a war. This seems like a personal rebuttal of Hera by people who clearly don’t really know her, despite knowing her resumé. This is so antithetical to the Rebellion built by the time of Return of the Jedi, but seems perfectly aligned with the New Republic of The Force Awakens.
2. Jacen!
Right after that absolute bummer of a scene, we get the most important scene in the episode: we get to meet Jacen Syndulla, Hera and Kanan’s son, who expresses his desire to be a Jedi (“like my father before me,” though he doesn’t actually say the line). He, like he rest of the world, expresses their surprise at Sabine being in Jedi training, but that’s old hat at this point.
The reason that Jacen even mentioning being a Jedi is significant here is that we know what happens to the Jedi in the aftermath of this era. Concurrently to this series, Luke is beginning to build his Jedi temple which, eventually, will lead to the birth of Kylo Ren and the ascendency of the First Order. Jacen looks to be slightly older than Ben Solo, but it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that Jacen is one of the trainees at Luke’s temple. Was he killed by Ben? Is he one of the Knights of Ren? Or, does he follow Aunt Sabine in Ahsoka’s tutoring into something that isn’t quite being a Jedi, but is being a Force user?
3. Deliberate and methodical amid chaos
One of the knocks against this show, aside from it being impenetrable to non-Rebels viewers, is that it has been slow thus far. And while I can understand that comment, I’d instead say that it has been methodical and deliberate. Whether it was the “Master and Apprentice” scene of Ahsoka finding the map, or Sabine’s extended training sequence in “Time to Fly,” we are meant to take note of how Ahsoka is doing things. Yes, she was trained by a Jedi, but her goal is not to be a Jedi and, it is revealed here, that her goal for Sabine is not really to be a Jedi, either. She’s trying to align the Mandalorian, Force, and rebel parts of Sabine in order to ‘solve’ her and make her into who she is meant to be.
This is most brilliantly shown during the dogfight by the giant hyperspace loop, where the plan never deviates, despite the incoming danger. Hell, the whole ship almost goes up in flames because of the lack of panic. Ahsoka is deliberate with all she does, even to points where others would call her methodical nature unsafe. I really love this bit of her characterization, especially when it allows us to see cool shit like…
4. Space fighting!
Much like Plo Koon in The Clone Wars episode “Rising Malevolence” and a little bit like Leia in The Last Jedi, we see Ahsoka take to the exterior of her ship to wield her lightsaber and do force shit. God, I love this, and it is another example of Dave Filoni being unafraid to bring what made the animated series he made so special into the live-action world. It is played off perfectly, and Ahsoka does some amazing stuff, but none of it feels particularly ‘unrealistic’ for Star Wars. It’s a believable decision for Ahsoka to make, based on what we spoke about in the earlier point, and it is pretty badass.
Continued below5. Speaking of Filoni stuff…
This episode gave us not only some purrgil stuff, but explanations of the purrgil in a way that live-action viewers can comprehend without having seen Rebels. In addition, it shows the purrgil have some kinship with Ahsoka, or at least a slant towards the light side of the Force, as it helps Ahsoka and co. escape while blocking Shin Hati from following them. We all sort of knew where this series was going with Thrawn and Ezra, but with the hyperspace loop and travel to other galaxies, it is also starting to do some of the cleanup of the sequel trilogy. This explains how the First Order could’ve traveled to the Unknown Regions, it gives some insight into the whole Exegol thing, and it also shows how the New Republic could’ve gotten itself played so thoroughly.
Filoni’s business card should read “Fixing Star Wars since 2008.”
