Summary
An action-heavy episode is a welcome improvement, even if it remains a little unclear where Dave Filoni intends to take this story and some of its more far-out concepts.
This recap of the Disney+ series Ahsoka Season 1 Episode 4, “Fallen Jedi”, contains spoilers.
“Fallen Jedi” turns out to be both a literal and metaphorical title in the fourth episode of Ahsoka, with space wizards falling left and right throughout; falling from their ideals, of course, falling from their potential, their backgrounds, and their lofty galactic reputation, but also falling flat on their faces, disappearing in puffs of smoke with nary a wisp of a valid fan theory left behind.
This feels like a very deliberate ploy of Dave Filoni to convince us that Ahsoka is doing its own thing, but also that it’s doing the same things as always.
The entire episode is filled with lightsaber duels, fist-pumping anti-authoritarian rebel heroism, and nods and winks for fans of Rebels – but also a whispered assurance that some of the concepts of that show, which until now have been familiar only to the die-hard fans who saw the animation, are going to be explored on a much bigger live-action canvas.
Ahsoka Season 1 Episode 4 Recap
Things kick off where we left them in Episode 3, with Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang still stranded on Denab, trying to acquire the Star Map before Morgan Elsbeth uses it and her giant hyperspace ring to hurtle through space – and perhaps time – to return Grand Admiral Thrawn to power.
With the stakes having risen quite considerably in a short space of time, Ahsoka gives voice to the unavoidable moral conundrum of the episode – destroying the Star Map and losing Ezra, who disappeared with Thrawn, is preferable to the “Heir to the Empire” returning to a galaxy still smarting from its totalitarian shackles, and if the choice between the two emerges, Sabine has to make the right call.
There’s little time to think about this, though, as it’s basically all action from here on out.
Who dies in “Fallen Jedi”?
Remember, all those fan theories about who Inquisitor Marrok might be under that mask? Well, forget them. He’s nobody, and Ahsoka runs him through in this episode with barely any effort. He dies in a puff of green smoke, never – one assumes – to be seen again.
This comes after a funny punch-up between Huyang and an HK droid, and while Sabine is busy dueling Shin Hati again.
The duels in this episode are the best in the season thus far, though the stakes are admittedly lacking a little. Ahsoka versus Marrok is fun but ultimately inconsequential since our hero gets the upper hand so easily. I did like Sabine’s rematch with Shin Hati, though, especially how it worked in Sabine’s ongoing character development.
If you recall, last week Ahsoka and Huyang had a conversation about how Sabine can be her own kind of Jedi irrespective of her lack of affinity for the Force, and that setup pays off here. When Shin gets the upper hand, Sabine thrusts out her open hand Force Push-style, but nothing happens. Shin reminds Sabine that she has no power, and then Sabine shoots her in the grid with her Mandalorian wrist launcher.
Point proven, I suppose.
Why does Sabine give the Star Map to Baylan?
Ahsoka also duels Baylan Skoll, who’s much more of a match for her, and this was my favorite choreography of the episode.
But the duel is secondary to a ticking-clock narrative device that sees Morgan Elsbeth trying to receive the coordinates from the Star Map in time to get the hyperspace ring out of Dodge before Hera, who has recruited Carson Teva’s X-Wing squadron and disobeyed the New Republic’s direct orders, destroys the ring.
There’s everything to play for, then, and it comes back to that conversation earlier in the episode about Sabine making the tough call. While Ahsoka is battling Baylan, she turns up, acquires the Star Map, and holds it at blaster point. But instead of just destroying it, she tries to use it as a bargaining chip to save Ahsoka, whom Baylan has the upper hand on.
Sensing some potential for manipulation, Baylan whacks Ahsoka off the cliff to her presumed death, though obviously not really, and then convinces Sabine with basically no effort whatsoever to hand the Star Map over so that she can be reunited with Ezra. She’s taken hostage, Morgan receives the coordinates to Thrawn’s location, and the heroes suffer a near-total defeat.
Ahsoka Season 1 Episode 4 Ending Explained
What is the World Between Worlds?
The World Between Worlds, also known as the Vergence Scatter, is a concept Filoni dreamed up in Rebels. It’s basically a plane within the Force that links all moments in time together through a series of pathways and doors – basically narrative convenience given physical form.
And true to that form, “Fallen Jedi” uses it to bring back the most fallen of all Jedi, Anakin Skywalker, who presents himself to Ahsoka as a last-minute cliffhanger, with Darth Vader’s heavy breathing in the background implying that we may well be building towards yet another confrontation between former Master and former Apprentice before the season’s out.
You can stream Ahsoka Season 1 Episode 4, “Fallen Jedi”, exclusively on Disney+.
