Star Wars ‘Ahsoka’ Episode 4 Review - Does the Title Hint at the Fallen Quality of the Series?

Ahsoka episode 4 is the most ambitious and emotional installment of the Disney+ series so far, as it takes the titular character and her ally Sabine Wren on a journey through the mysterious World Between Worlds, a dimension that connects all points in time and space in the Star Wars universe. Along the way, they encounter familiar faces, old enemies, and shocking revelations that will change their lives forever.

Ahsoka and Sabine land on Seatos, a planet where they hope to find a map that leads to Thrawn and Ezra, their missing allies. But they are not the only ones looking for the map: Morgan Elsbeth, a Nightsister who uses dark magic, and Baylan Skoll, a former Jedi who blames Ahsoka for Anakin’s fall, are also after it. They have hired Shin Hati and Marrok, two bounty hunters, to track down Ahsoka.

While their ship is being repaired by Huyang, a droid professor, Ahsoka, and Sabine argue about whether they should risk the galaxy’s fate for Ezra’s sake. They know they are in enemy territory, alone, stranded, and outnumbered, but rather than taking security precautions they just send their droid alone and engage in an exercise of slowly staring at each other and saying some words. I guess the makers wanted to make the conversation deep and emotionally connecting, but as the dialogues seemed like they were written by 5-year-olds, it all failed miserably.

The enemy scouts them for a few minutes, They had Huyang in a vulnerable position, they could have easily shot him in the head from far away, but they sent a droid to engage in a hand-to-hand fight. How thoughtful of them! Ahsoka wants to destroy the map if they can’t get it, while Sabine refuses to give up on her friend.

They are attacked by Morgan’s assassin droids and decide to split up and find the enemy base. Ahsoka and Sabine encounter Shin and Marrok in the woods. Ahsoka kills Marrok and Sabine chases Shin. Ahsoka reaches the enemy base and faces Baylan, who reveals that he knows Anakin and tries to turn her to the dark side.

They duel with their lightsabers, while Sabine catches up with Shin. Ahsoka grabs the map, but it burns her hand. She throws Shin against a pillar with the Force, angering Baylan. He pushes Ahsoka off a cliff, leaving Sabine alone with him.

He tells Sabine that her family was killed in Mandalore and that Ezra is the only one who can fill her heart. He offers to help her find Ezra if she gives him the map. Sabine reluctantly agrees, but Shin tries to kill her with the Force.

Baylan stops Shin and contacts Morgan, who activates the Eye of Sion, a huge ship that can jump to Thrawn’s location. Hera and Carson arrive with their fighters and try to stop Morgan from escaping. But Morgan jumps to hyperspace, creating a shockwave that destroys most of the fighters.

Ahsoka wakes up in the World Between Worlds, a mystical realm where time and space are distorted. She hears a familiar voice calling her “Snips”. She turns around and sees Anakin Skywalker, her former master and friend.

With this episode, I have almost lost all faith in Ahsoka’s redemption. The runtime of the episode could easily have been cut to half if they cut the long awkward staring, boring wide-shots, and Ahsoka just standing with her lightsaber staring at her enemies! Well, what’s the point of having lightsabre fights if one can get stabbed in the stomach by it and wake up completely fine the next episode? I guess Marrok is also fine.

I have had a really hard time connecting with the characters and getting emotionally invested in them because the four episodes barely revealed anything deep about them. Sabine is just Sabine, but she loves her brother, Ahsoka is a well-trained Jedi master, and Hera is a mother and a rebel general. I mean why bother with deep-diving into character’s minds, their motivation, their emotions, and all if you can just fill the runtime of wide shots of alien planets, and characters just staring at things?

A world where you can literally travel at the speed of light, have droids that can fight and train and are a lot better than our AI systems, travel to different galaxies in seconds, and have a plasma sword that can cut through rocks like butter, those are not unbelievable things! A hologram of a map is so amazing that our strong-intimidating looking character literally calls it ‘Witchcraft’. Yes! Genius dialogue writing.

The episode also fails miserably in its long-awaited ‘money-shot’, the return of Anakin Skywalker! The writers are so excited to have him back and surprise the audience, that they literally tell the audience 5 minutes before that they are going to reveal him! Even a person with a handful of brain cells could have guessed that Anakin is coming after Ahsoka and Baylan talk about him in the middle of a fight.

And where should you keep the most important piece of object in the entire series, which is the only way of bringing back your leader and taking back the throne, the object your enemies are looking for, the object that you have worked hard and killed for? If you have guessed at a cliff outside your highly-fortified ship, completely unguarded that even an animal can damage it, you are completely right!

In short, Ahsoka episode 4 is a disappointing and frustrating installment of the Disney+ series. It fails to deliver on the promises of the previous episodes and instead resorts to cheap tricks and clichés to create artificial drama and suspense. Ahsoka episode 4 is a low point in the series and a disservice to the fans of Ahsoka Tano and Star Wars in general.

Final Score - [3/10]