Episode 6 of Ahsoka, “Far, Far Away” left fans feeling pretty fantastic…and we should all have a bad feeling about that. Dating back to his work on Star Wars Rebels, Dave Filoni has occasionally chosen to end seasons of his series with two-part blockbusters. Those blockbusters, however, don’t typically go well for the heroes and often leave things unresolved until the two-part premiere of the next season. With only two episodes left in the first season (to be directed by Geeta Vasant and Rick Famuyiwa, respectively) of Ahsoka, things are trending in that direction again.
With most of the action taking place on Peridea, “Far, Far Away” gave us the first Star Wars story set outside of the galaxy far, far away we’ve all come to know and love and that means, to some extent, all bets are off. No matter what you think you know about Star Wars, things are likely to be a little different in this new galaxy. And indeed despite intentionally layering in some of the familiar Star Wars tropes like marauders reminiscent of Tusken Raiders and horseshoe crabs who dress like Jiminy Cricket reminiscent of Jawas, Ewoks or whichever strange species you want to compare them to, something just ain’t quite right on Peridea. Revealed to be the ancestral home of the Nightsisters of Dathomir–a group of witches who have already been well-established to view and use the Force quite differently than groups like the Jedi or Sith–Peridea, as explained by Baylan Skoll, is a place of great and terrifying power. “Far, Far Away” reveals just the tip of that iceberg as any further exploration of it takes a back seat to the reunion of Sabine and Ezra and the return of Thrawn. However, as wonderful as Ezra looks sporting a beard reminiscent of his father’s, as perfect as Lars Mikkelsen is bringing his Thrawn to live-action and as terrifying as Thrawn’s Chimaera full of some interesting-looking Stormtroopers is, Ahsoka isn’t done with Peridea just yet.
First and foremost, it’s made very clear that Ahsoka and Huyang–who may have been revealed to be the narrator of every Star Wars story we’ve ever been told–are indeed on their way to Peridea thanks to the Purrgil. Ironically enough, while Sabine and Ezra are entirely unaware that Ahsoka is on her way, Thrawn is, as Thrawn does, preparing for the possibility of her throwing a monkey wrench into his long-gestating plans. The Grand Admiral has already indicated that he’s low on troops and it now seems only a matter of time before Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati face off with the reunited, Ahsoka, Sabine and Ezra, who could do quite a bit of damage to the Heir to the Empire’s plans.
And so it seems that “Far, Far Away”, while a very neat episode of the ongoing Filoni-verse narrative in its own right, is the calm before a very nasty storm and likely the conclusion “second act” of the New Republic era of stories. Though the cavalry, in the form of Ahsoka, is coming to Peridea, there’s almost certainly nothing she can do to prevent Thrawn and his minions from making the jump back to the galaxy from whence they came. Expect, as is often the case in Filoni’s stories, for the heroes to suffer–and perhaps even die–as they fight valiantly against the evil Empire. While Filoni has done a masterful job of putting his own spin on Star Wars, specifically the Force, he still loves to follow the path laid out by George Lucas and the master storytellers from whom he drew inspiration. So, if Ahsoka is the end of the second act of a larger story–in the way that Attack of the Clones, The Empire Strikes Back and The Last Jedi were in their corresponding trilogies–the next two episodes are going to hurt.
