After months of waiting, Disney’s Ahsoka, a Star Wars offshoot, has finally premiered today, and it stars one of the most charismatic characters in the series to grace the animated world. First seen 15 years ago in The Clone Wars, the audience was introduced to a Togruta warrior, Ahsoka Tano. A fierce lightsaber wielder who trained in the ways of the Jedi, she’s the protagonist of this new series, although this isn’t the first time the new-generation audience is meeting her. We’ve seen her previously in Rebels as well as The Mandalorian, thereby providing a much-needed memory jog for the viewers who might not be familiar with the brilliant character. Rosario Dawson reprises her role as the titular character as she remains steadfast in her pursuit of Admiral Thrawn while a new danger lurks in the shadows.
Spoilers Ahead
Who Are The Intruders On The New Republic Ship?
Episode 1 of Ahsoka sets up the premise with much exposition, for it’s been a while since fans were presented with a Star Wars show that departs from the original lore. A ship of the New Republic is moving through space when the crew picks up an unknown ship that’s using a Jedi code. When the captain allows the unknown ship to board, two hooded figures emerge, and they’re none other than Baylan Kroll (the dearly departed Ray Stevenson) and his apprentice, Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno). The mysterious arrivals unsheathe lightsabers and slice through the crew onboard before rescuing Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto). Those who’ve stuck around since The Mandalorian remember how Ahsoka defeated Morgan and arrested her. The ship was supposed to deliver Morgan to face trial, but before long, the crew is decimated, and the convict is freed, whose first concern is retrieving the map that shall lead her to Admiral Thrawn. However, she’s not alone in the pursuit, and her arch-rival Ahsoka Tano also has the same goal.
What Does Ahsoka Find Underground?
We meet our heroine, Ahsoka, as she strolls through a deserted, sandy patch with large obelisks forming a weird circle. With a swift spin with her dual lightsabers, Ahsoka slashes the ground, descends into the underground, and follows a set of puzzles to unearth a carved sphere. This little ball contains details about her nemesis Thrawn’s location, but Ahsoka barely gets time to catch her breath as she’s surrounded by droids outside the underground chamber. A Jedi trained by none other than Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka slices through the machines with ease and leaps onto the ship driven by her trusted droid, Huyang, as the hostile droids self-destruct.
Who’s Sabine Wren?
Ahsoka meets up with Hera Syndulla, the pilot of the Ghost Ship and an invaluable member of the Lothal Rebellion, and shares the contents of the map she’s just retrieved. Inside the map are details about Thrawn, although Hera finds it odd that the Admiral might still be breathing. This is also where Ezra is mentioned, and for context, we change scenes to Lothal (not the ancient city of the Indus Valley Civilization). While the citizens of Lothal gather to commemorate the memories of the crew of Ghost, especially Ezra Bridger, believed to have been killed in the Battle of Lothal, Sabine Wren is missing. Sabine, an important member of the crew, is racing in her speeder to her small home, where she plays a recording of Ezra, someone she’d come to see as her brother.
Ahsoka’s arrival changes the mood, as she announces that there’s a chance Ezra might be alive, but to get to him, Ahsoka needs her former apprentice’s help. However, tensions run high between the two women until Huyang comes bearing important news. Having analyzed the lightsabers used in the New Republic’s ship, the droid concludes that one of the weapons belongs to Baylan Skoll, a skilled Jedi who fell out of the loop after the Clone Wars ended. Ahsoka hands Sabine the map and implores her to solve the puzzle so that they can head for Thrawn, and by extension, Ezra’s location, at the earliest. But when has a direct order by a superior that’s been given with a lot of thought ever been followed by their less experienced and immature counterpart?
What Happens To The Map Containing Thrawn’s Details?
Of course, Sabine takes off with the map and heads to her home in the middle of nowhere, away from the safety of the Imperial building. Using her brilliance, Sabine discovers the correct way to open the sphere, which gives a 3D image of entire galaxies with clues as to where Thrawn might be located. Like clockwork, she’s ambushed by two droids, and while she manages to finish one, the other steals the map and ensures to destroy every machine in Sabine’s workplace to remove every record. By the time Sabine catches up to the thieving droid, she’s faced with Shin Hati, standing with her own lightsaber. Armed with her ‘brother’ Ezra’s lightsaber, Sabine faces off against the intruder who stands between her and the quest of seeking out her brother. A fight ensues, and Shin quickly begins gaining on the former apprentice of Ahsoka Tano, who’s heading towards the scene of the duel. However, she’s a little too late, and Shin drives her red laser through Sabine’s gut before fleeing with the map as the Ghost member collapses on the ground.
How Does Episode 1 End?
The map with details about Thrawn’s whereabouts was stolen by Skoll’s apprentice, Shin, and she’ll now be heading back to her master and Morgan with the newly discovered piece of the puzzle. Although Sabine had a brief idea where Thrawn might be located, with her equipment destroyed and her being critically injured, there’s a slim chance the Jedi will have any luck in discovering clues. Surely Morgan Elsbeth, a so-called witch, will have better luck making sense of an ancient puzzle that contains details of her master as she prepares to bring him back. However, we can say with certainty that Sabine survived the attack, but it will leave her smarting from much deeper wounds; she’ll be the newest youngster to know what happens when you don’t follow the advice of the elders. While Ahsoka looks for clues in the next episode to get to Thrawn, Sabine is bound to run into trouble looking into her former master’s eyes, knowing that she’s unintentionally handed the enemies the location of the greatest threat to the galaxy, probably since Emperor Palpatine.