After the fifth episode effectively wrapped up many of the major storylines in the regular “Star Wars” galaxy, there was little place else for the sixth episode to go but tackle what it has been teasing all season.
“AHSOKA” EPISODE 6 SPOILERS AHEAD
With Ahsoka herself effectively sidelined for the episode short of some brief screentime with Huyang, the episode dealt primarily with Morgan Elsbeth’s ship arriving on a desolate planet and meeting with a seemingly well-prepared Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen).
So arrives a working Star Destroyer that has seen better days in the decade or so it has been in exile, a group of Storm Troopers (dubbed Night Troopers here) who’ve obviously been through a lot, and the blue-skinned mastermind himself.
Thrawn makes his live-action debut over thirty years after the character was first created for Timothy Zahn’s 1991 novel “Heir to the Empire”. Then, later in the episode, came the reveal of a now bearded Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) who has been residing in a village of insectoid/turtle rock people.
With the episode, some firm answers come into play along with new questions. The ‘who is Marrok’ craze of the first few episodes? Seemingly unimportant after all.
“The Expanse” star Wes Chatham’s mysterious Captain Enoch role? Revealed as Thrawn’s Storm Trooper leader who dons a Roman Empire-esque gold mask incorporated into his regular helmet.
This is already stirring social media talk that like Marrok, he’s potentially a product of the dark magic of the Nightsisters/Witches of Dathomir. Said witches, a known presence in the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” cartoon, make their live-action debut here too.
Despite having a ship, it appears Thrawn and his crew have spent their missing years around the planet of Peridea – a graveyard for space whales and the mythical ancestral home of the Dathomiri. Same goes for Ezra who appears to have been hiding out for years within a day’s ride from where Thrawn touches down on the planet.
The question now is where the remaining episodes will go. With just two episodes left, the goal of the overall series is looking more and more being about reuniting the ‘Rebels’ crew and getting both Thrawn and Ezra into the regular galaxy of the Mandoverse to set up creator Dave Filoni’s team-up movie.
This means the eighth episode probably will offer little in the way of closure, and begs the question of when these characters will appear next.
Back in February, Jon Favreau revealed he already had all of the fourth season of “The Mandalorian” written and was mindful of the events in both ‘Ahsoka’ and the upcoming ‘Skeleton Crew’ series. Could this mean Thrawn, Ezra, Sabine and more showing up next season on “The Mandalorian”? We’ll see.
For now, just two episodes remain. How did you feel about the sixth episode, which is streaming on the Disney+ service now.
