Ahsoka continues its winning streak in Episode 7, ‘Dreams and Madness.’ Other than one glaring problem, I enjoyed this episode thoroughly. We’ll get to my complaint in a minute. Let’s start with what worked, which was most everything here.
We pick back up where last week’s episode left off, with Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) and the wonderful droid Huyang (David Tenant) still flying with the star whales to Peridea, a planet in an all-new galaxy where the hyperspace creatures come to die, and where Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) have been stranded.
Back in the OG galaxy, General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is facing a possible court martial for disobeying the New Republic when a surprising OG character arrives. It’s C3-PO (Anthony Daniels) who shows up to tell Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) and the other Senators that Hera was actually sent on the orders of Senator Leia Organa herself. Senator Xiono (Nelson Lee) doesn’t buy it, but he ultimately relents and Hera is off the hook, telling Mon Mothma afterward that with Thrawn on the rise, they need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
This was a fun cameo, though I admit I’ve grown leery of cameos in Star Wars shows in general. These have been overused across The Mandalorian and Boba Fett / Obi-Wan etc. whereas in Andor we got a fully fleshed-out Mon Mothma rather than just a one-off “Hey isn’t that cool!” style cameo.
In any case, most of the episode is about Thrawn tracking down Ahsoka using the Great Mothers’ magic (I’m still unclear why these witches pay homage to Thrawn) and Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and Shin (Ivanna Sahkno) tracking down Ezra and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). We get more of the adorable Noti and their quirky pod-ships and we get lots of great fight scenes.
All of this works wonderfully. Baylan continues to be the most intriguing character here, with motives I simply can’t quite figure out. He tells Shin to destroy Sabine and Ezra, saying that her ambitions lead her down a different path from his own. It’s all very cryptic! He still fights Ahsoka when she arrives, but he doesn’t seem upset when she gets away. I’d call it grudging respect, but I don’t think it’s even grudging. What’s his game in all of this?
Thrawn is also terrific here, showing himself to be a strategist first and foremost. Despite not destroying any of his quarry, he sees it as a victory. The combat bought him the time he needs to load up his Star Destroyer, The ISD Chimaera, and leave Peridea and this galaxy behind.
But my absolute favorite part of this episode was Ezra. Esfandi does great work bringing this Rebels character to life, and the writing is perfect. When Sabine tells him that Ahsoka has taken her on as apprentice, his reaction is “What, why?” which cracked me up. When they’re surrounded by Stormtroopers and about to be killed, he tells them to wait. “Can’t we just . . . talk?” he asks, hilariously. “Don’t you want to take us prisoner?” It’s too good.
Ultimately, and unsurprisingly, the good guys manage to get the upper hand and the bad guys make a hasty retreat, though in many ways it appears both sides score points. Thrawn is about to leave and head back to make war against the New Republic and Ezra reunites with old friends and finally a chance at returning home—though I’m not sure how since they don’t have the hyperspace ring or any whales to take them.
My one problem with this episode remains—like last week—the way they’ve written Sabine Wren. When she and Ezra are cruising with the Noti, he tries to get some information out of her and she just brushes him off and avoids telling him the truth—for no reason. I mean, sure, she’s likely ashamed of what she’s done, but she and Ezra are old pals and she would know he’d understand.
Ezra wouldn’t be upset with the decision she made, especially since it would be pretty obvious how Baylan manipulated her. The main problem is that Sabine is actually a smart character and wouldn’t risk both their lives keeping secrets. At this point, she would know Thrawn was up to something just letting her go like that, but she continues to evade Ezra’s questions or tell him that there are dark Jedi on the planet.
It’s an infuriating way to write Sabine’s character because it makes her look so childish when she is not, in fact, a child but rather a war-scarred veteran Mandalorian and slightly-trained Jedi (though a bad one).
In any case, I can mostly overlook this but it bugs me and I think Sabine deserves better.
Scattered Thoughts:
- The music this week was off the charts. Composer Kevin Kiner is absolutely killing it here, giving Ahsoka a fresh score that feels very Star Wars without bombarding us with the original trilogy themes. It’s lovely.
- Hayden Christensen continues to impress me as well, even though he only has a brief holographic scene with Ahsoka this week. He’s really nailing the Clone Wars version of his character and it makes me like him more than ever.
- Captain Enoch is a cool bad guy and it turns out he’s played by Wes Chatham who you might recognize from The Expanse where he played Amos Burton.
- I love that Ezra turned down the lightsaber and blasters saying that the Force was all he needed but by the end he was using one of the Stormtrooper blasters like his life depended on it. Also, when he blocked Shin’s lightsaber with the Force you could see the laser itself bending back. That was neat!
- This episode felt too short. I don’t know how they wrap all of this up with just one more episode. We still have no idea what Baylan is up to (and, tragically, it could be that whatever Dave Filoni wrote for his character might now be up in smoke due to Stevenson’s passing).
- Ahsoka laughing was nice! My big complaint with Dawson’s performance has been how wooden it’s been, so seeing her loosen up a bit and emote more is just nice, and that whole scene at the end was very wholesome and sweet.
- Huyang continues to steal the show.
- There were fears that Ahsoka would be just another “girl boss” show but those were totally unfounded. There’s a nice mix of male and female characters on both sides of the equation especially now that Ezra is back.
- All the different fight styles were cool. Once again, Baylan with his two-handed broadsword approach. Ahsoka duel-wielding. Sabine combining lightsaber and blaster stance. Ezra going full Force, ditching weapons altogether after years without a blade or guns.
- Oh, and the Noti firing the slingshot and the rock just bouncing off the bad guy’s armor was hilarious. “Uh oh!” (It certainly reminded me of the Ewoks).
- Last, but not least, Senator Xiono made an enemy for life by uttering the phrase “mere droid” in front of Chopper.
All told, another very enjoyable episode, though as we approach the season finale next week, all I can think is that there is simply no possible way they’ll satisfyingly wrap up Baylan’s arc. Perhaps they can bring him back recast, behind a mask or something, next season. We shall see.
One possible clue to Baylan and Shin’s arc is in their last names, Skoll and Hatti. In Norse mythology, Skoll and Hati are two mythological wolves in pursuit of Sol and Mani, the sun and the moon, in an attempt to devour both. Skoll means “one who mocks” and Hati means “one who hates” and none of this can possibly be a coincidence.
Skoll pursues the sun, while Hati pursues the moon.
From the Eddic poem Grímnismál we get this passage:
Skoll is the name of the wolf
Who follows the shining priest
Into the desolate forest,
And the other is Hati,
Hróðvitnir’s son,
Who chases the bright bride of the sky.
Food for thought!
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