After four Clone-heavy episodes, we are back with a second Ahsoka-centered installment in “Deal No Deal.” Let’s dig in.
Mistakes are valuable lessons often learned too late.
1. Ahsoka is pretty cagey
There are lots of reasons why Ahsoka is likely not cool sharing exactly how she knows so much/has so many unusual skills with Trace and Rafa, but it would be helpful from a viewing standpoint if we were told precisely why. It seems like Ahsoka is perhaps afraid of what will happen if they know that she was a Jedi, but this seems a little silly for a few reasons. First of all, if they are anti-Jedi, she can say “well, so am I; I left the Jedi.” If they’re pro-Jedi, she can play up her training.
But more than anything, she’s basically a useless team member if they don’t know how to utilize her skills. The one time in this episode that she used a Jedi ability, to mindtrick the Pikes, she didn’t go far enough with it, perhaps because she didn’t want to answer too many questions from the sisters. And so, we are building to the inevitable conclusion of this where Ahsoka comes clean, which grows more frustrating each minute.
2. Spice running
One of the big revelations of The Rise of Skywalker was that Poe Dameron, as some point, was a spice runner. Spice is the Star Wars generic term for drugs, and it is an undercurrent that runs through a bunch of Star Wars stories, whether it is the enslavement of wookies as spice miners, or the suspicion of spice running being the reason that 1/3 of all ships are boarded in the ‘Legends’ novels.
This seems like exactly the type of gig that down on their luck folks in debt would turn to to attempt to crawl out of financial straits. It also seems like a terrible idea, but only those with a little more knowledge would know that, and these two rubes from the lower levels just aren’t in the know enough to realize that getting out broke is probably the best possible outcome.
3. An encounter with ‘older brother’/academy teacher
In this episode, we get the first encounter between Ahsoka and Anakin since she walked out on the Jedi order at the end of season 5. The encounter is brief, and involves Anakin sensing Ahsoka in a passing ship or, at the very least, sensing a presence he can’t put his finger on. It is implied that, yes, he knows it is her, and he lets her ship pass, despite being in a military lane, because he feels for his former prodigy.
4. A connection to Solo
The Clone Wars already had one connection to Solo, which is Maul, but this episode introduces another, which is Kessel and all that entails. We don’t see them do the Kessel Run, exactly, but we see the slaves of Kessel, here people instead of droids and wookies, which is a key moment for Solo, and feels less so for Trace and Rafa, but it appears at least mildly illuminating for them.
But this continues the post-Disney acquisition goal of connecting everything together, and making the universe feel more like one place and less five or ten different versions of the same place. I appreciate that dedication, even if at times it seems like more work than it should be.
5. Still not really what the season was promised to be
I promise this is the last time I will mention this, but this season still feels like something other than what was advertised, which was the fall of Mandalore, and the ‘conclusion’ of this series. These past two episodes have been pretty good, but they still feel slight compared to the idea of waiting all these years to conclude. Was Dave Filoni really thinking “I’ve got to get the Pikes involved with Ahsoka and two new characters, it’s all I’ve wanted to do creatively since 2013!”
This season has been fun, and good, but not quite epic. Let’s turn that around, Lucasfilm.
