Disney Plus’ live-action show Ahsoka hits a new high with “Part Five: Shadow Warrior”. The return of a fan-favorite character and their chance at redemption drives this part to the top of the heap. This episode is written and directed by Dave Filoni. It premiered on September 12, 2023 on Disney Plus. There are just a few more episodes left this season and lots of strings to tie together.

Spoilers for Ahsoka abound in this article. Read with caution!

Ahsoka Episode 5 | Summary & Recap

The episode starts on Seatos right where we left off. The Ghost sets down by the reflex point, just outside of the circle. Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) steps out, scanning the area with her pistol. Seeing nothing, she comms Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), but his squadron has not found anyone either. Jacen Syndulla (Evan Whitten) and Chopper step out of the Ghost to explore with Hera. She stops them before they enter the reflex point because she hears something. She looks behind a pillar to find Huyang (David Tennant) holding Sabine’s Mandalorian helmet. He laments that he told Ahsoka and Sabine to stay together, but they never listen. They leave him to mourn the loss of Ahsoka and Sabine.

Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) are in the World Between Worlds. Anakin reminds her that she lost a fight against Baylan Skoll, and she remembers. Anakin says that’s a good thing, that she still has a chance to live. She asks Anakin why she is in this liminal space, and he tells her it’s to finish her training, something he was never able to do for her. Her final lesson is simple, "Live or die". Anakin ignites his blue blade. Ahsoka refuses to fight him, but he charges, and they duel.

Jacen and Chopper sit on a cliff, looking out to the sea. Huyang tells Hera that the map is destroyed beyond repair and that they must go soon to catch up with the villains. Teva runs to Hera to tell her they need to go back to HQ. Suddenly, Jacen says that the water is strange. He can feel something out there. He tells Hera to listen, but she only hears the waves. Jacen says that he hears lightsabers clashing. She focuses and starts to hear them. Hera and Teva head back to their ships to search for Ahsoka and Sabine again.

Ahsoka and Anakin’s duel continues. She kicks him in the head. Anakin smiles and cuts the floor out from under her. She falls into a big cloud of dust. As the cloud dissipates, a younger Ahsoka (Ariana Greenblatt) lays face down on a battlefield, surrounded by Phase I Clone troopers. They are on one of her first missions, The Battle of Ryloth, during the Clone Wars. Anakin and Ahsoka run into the fray.

After the fight, Ahsoka holds a dying clone trooper’s hand. Anakin tells her that there are more Separatists coming and she needs to fight. She blames herself for the deaths of the Clones. Anakin tells her that it’s a war, they are no longer the peacekeepers that Obi-Wan taught them to be. Instead, they must be soldiers. She worries that she will have to teach this lesson to her Padawan. An explosion goes off in the distance and the fighting starts anew. Anakin walks away with his lightsaber lit. During a brief flash, she sees the silhouette of Darth Vader before another flash turns him back to Anakin. 

Jacen and Chopper are still on the cliff watching the X-Wings do a sweep of the ocean. Hera and Huyang are in the Ghost talking about where the missing Jedi could be. Huyang is surprised that the New Republic even approved this mission. Hera tells him that it wasn't approved, which takes Huyang by surprise. They talk about Ahsoka. Huyang says that she’s like her former master, Anakin. Jacen comms in to Hera to tell her that Chopper has found something and they need to fly low to find it.

An older, but still young, Ahsoka is fighting in the Siege of Mandalore. She watches the battle and tells Commander Rex (Temuera Morrison) to fight on. Anakin walks up behind her. He doesn’t know about the Siege. Ahsoka reminds him that he was busy at that time. They start to talk. He tells her that she is part of a legacy, but she says that her legacy is nothing but death and war. Anakin doesn’t believe that. He believes there is more to her. He says they need to go back to the beginning. He turns away and ignites his red lightsaber. His eyes are yellow like the Sith Lord he becomes. They duel again. He pushes her back into the World Between Worlds.

He flashes between Vader and Anakin again as their duel intensifies. He kicks a saber from Ahsoka’s hands. She eventually disarms him, threatening him with his own blade. Her eyes turn yellow for a split second. She turns off the saber and says she chooses to live. Anakin’s eyes go back to normal. He smiles and disappears. Water rises in the World Between Worlds, and she floats in the seas of Seatos, born anew. A New Republic pilot dives into the water and pulls her into the Ghost.

Jacen and Chopper, still on the cliff, watch as the crew comes back. Ahsoka recuperates. Huyang tells her that she’s been out for one rotation, she would have died if not for Jacen, and that Sabine is still missing. He hopes Ahsoka knows more about the situation and hands her the sliced map.

She exits the Ghost and Jacen hugs her. She thanks him for saving her life. He asks her about the lightsaber battle, prompting Hera to have Huyang take him to Ahsoka’s ship. Ahsoka uses the map to try and get an imprint from Sabine. She can hear the battle and Skoll’s manipulation through the Force. She tells Hera that Sabine is with them, but she’s afraid to go after them. Teva walks over and tells Hera that the fleet is coming, but not to help. Hera leaves to deal with that. Ahsoka hears a pod of Purrgil in the sky.

On the Ghost, Hera is talking with Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly). She wants Hera to return with the fleet. There will be a hearing to decide whether or not she will keep her rank. She signs off, leaving Hera to think about her choices. Ahsoka enters and tells them how to find Sabine with the Purrgil. They fly off to follow the pod.

The squadron flies through the pod of Purrgil. They are searching for a larger one for Ahsoka to commune with. She steps out on the wings of her ship wearing a new white robe. She has become Ahsoka the White. A giant Purrgil rises up in front of her. The fleet approaches Seatos. Hera warns them not to come near so they don’t frighten the pod. Teva stalls the fleet to prevent them from coming near the planet. 

Ahsoka communicates with the Purrgil. It opens its mouth. She tells Huyang to fly the ship inside. Huyang asks if they are for sure going where Sabine is. Ahsoka doesn’t know, but at least they’re going somewhere.

Hera comms the New Republic fleet and tells them to move their ships as the Purrgil fly towards them. Ahsoka promises Hera that she will find them. The Purrgil jump to hyperspace.

Ahsoka Episode 1 | Review & Analysis

Performances | 10/10

There were lots of great performances in this episode. Tennant does an incredible job with Huyang. Droids are, obviously, robots, so it can be hard to portray emotion properly. Tennant has such solid control over his voice that he doesn’t need movement to make us feel something. Huyang holding Sabine’s helmet at the beginning? Very impactful.

Hayden Christensen was done so dirty in the prequels. Lucas was not a great dialogue writer or director so Christensen didn’t have much to work with. He came across as either wooden or too over the top, there was no in-between. In this episode, you could really see how much better he is under a competent director. I’m a very vocal prequel hater, and he’s one of the main reasons I dislike them. However, his performance in this show has made me reconsider. 

The part of the episode that really made me think differently about him was his scene with Greenblatt on Ryloth. He took a quick turn from joking with her to being incredibly serious about being a leader in the war. Anakin was raised by Obi-Wan to be a peaceful protector. You can see how much the war is affecting his mental state in that scene. If only there was that much depth in the prequels, they may have been good films.

Greenblatt’s portrayal of Ahsoka was another shining spot in this episode. She was able to toe that line between confused adult Ahsoka and childish Padawan Ahsoka. Playing a character who remembers the war but is watching everyone around her experience for the first time is a difficult role. Most child actors wouldn’t be able to pull that off, but she succeeded well. She was also just a brilliant actor.

Direction | 9/10

Look, I like establishing shots as much as the next guy, but there were so many at the beginning of the episode. It was a bit much. It honestly felt like Filoni was just padding out the episode to hit the 50-minute runtime, but that’s about the only bad thing I have to say in this section.

The opening scene really played into that feeling of melancholy from the ending of the last episode. Last week’s episode ended on a really dour note. Sabine believes that Ahsoka is dead, the map to Ezra Bridger has been lost, and Ahsoka herself meets her old master who she knows is dead. It’s a sad time for our heroes. The color palette of Seatos really helped the scene feel hopeless as well.

The World Between Worlds scenes were the big highlights of this episode. The duels were very well choreographed, especially the initial duel between Ahsoka and Anakin. The flashbacks and appearance of Anakin make the audience wonder if Ahsoka is truly dead or is in some sort of Force limbo. It’s unsettling.

The flashbacks were all so well done. The Clone Trooper armor looked fantastic. This episode was actually the first time that physical Phase I Clone Trooper Armor was used in Star Wars. Everything in Attack of the Clones is done by CGI. The Phase I armor has that goofy fin on top of the helmet which I thought would look silly in real life, but it wasn’t too distracting. That could just be nostalgia glasses, however. 

Anakin and Ahsoka’s duel on Mandalore had some really striking shots. The dusty atmosphere and clouds obscuring them allowed Filoni to highlight the lightsabers better. The beams of light popped out while the combatants themselves were just silhouettes.

Ahsoka Episode 5 | Final Thoughts & Feelings

I love Star Wars so much, but a lot of recent content hasn’t been able to capture the magic of the series for me. The Skywalker Saga was so rich and made me care about characters that aren’t present in the TV shows. However, this episode took me back. It honestly felt so magical. The duels, the World Between Worlds, everything came together perfectly to make me feel something I haven’t felt in a long time.

The sense of awe I felt while watching the Purrgil fly around the New Republic ships was overwhelming. Filoni did a great job conveying how the people on that ship would have felt seeing these leviathans out of their view screens. I felt the same way. 

Absolutely the best episode yet, and I am so excited to see where it goes from here. I have a feeling we will see Grand Admiral Thrawn in the next episode after years of waiting.

Final Score | 10/10