August 06, 2024
Star Wars: Ahsoka Episode 7 | Summary, Recap, & Review
As Season 1 of Star Wars: Ahsoka nears its finale, heroes and villains prepare for their final battle. Learn more in this recap and review of Episode 7!
8
Thrilling
Episode 7 of Ahsoka is full of action and heart-felt reunions. Tensions rise as our heroes and villains prepare to face each other in the season finale.
Pros
Nelson Lee as Xiono does an amazing job.
Star Wars legend Anthony Daniels (C-3P0) makes an appearance.
Ahsoka’s character is coming out of her shell.
Cons
Thrawn hasn’t made much of an appearance.
The planet could have looked more alien.
Buy: Star Wars Merchandise & Gifts
Buy: Star Wars Merchandise & Gifts
Table of Contents +
Disney Plus’ live-action show Ahsoka is coming to an end and the tension has never been higher than in “Part Seven: Dreams and Madness”. The title is a reference to Skoll’s line in the last episode about Peridea's true nature. This episode is written by Dave Filoni and directed by Geeta Vasant Patel. It premiered on September 26, 2023 on Disney Plus.
Spoilers for Ahsoka abound in this article. Read with caution!
Ahsoka Episode 7 | Summary & Recap
The episode opens with Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) in front of a New Republic military hearing for her actions on Seatos. Chancellor Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), Senator Hamato Xiono (Nelson Lee), and other senators are on the panel. Senator Xiono says they can’t let a General run around, flouting the rules on a whim. Hera says that she was just defending the New Republic in the best way she knew how.
Mothma tries to calm the tensions by asking Xiono if they can agree that something happened on Seatos. He declines, saying that it is nothing but a fairy tale. Hera brings up multiple incidents where Imperial forces banded together, including the recent events on Mandalore with Moff Gideon. Xiono, again, laughs it off as nonsense. He strips her of her rank and says she will be court-martialed for disobeying a direct order.
Suddenly, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) comes in with a data transcript from Leia Organa. The transcript says that Leia personally sanctioned the mission to Seatos. Xiono tries to dismiss the evidence, but he is voted down. He drops the charges and the hearing is dismissed. In private, Mothma tells Hera that she knows it wasn’t authorized by Leia, but she did eventually approve it. Hera tells her they need to prepare for the worst with Thrawn.
On Ahsoka’s ship, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) spars with a hologram of her former master, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). Huyang (David Tennant) tells her that the Purrgil are decreasing in speed as they near their destination. She wants to get on the planet to find Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) as soon as possible. Huyang reminds her that the Purrgil could have taken them to a completely different galaxy or planet.
While exiting hyperspace, the Purrgil inadvertently enter an Imperial minefield around Peridea. Ahsoka and Huyang leave the Purrgil’s mouth, and the space whales jump to hyperspace to avoid the mines. They spot the Eye of Sion, signaling that they are in the right place. The ship and the exploding mines are dead giveaways.
At the Nightsister fortress, Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) hears a report from Enoch regarding the pod of Purrgil. Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) hands Thrawn a datapad with all the information they have on Ahsoka. Enoch informs them of Ahsoka’s ship, and Thrawn allows them to enter the planet. Elsbeth questions this decision. Thrawn wants to observe her tactics, which could be unpredictable, like her master.
The Noti walk across the plains with their homes on their backs. Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) and Sabine pull the biggest home. Ezra is still processing the fall of the Empire and the death of the Emperor. She catches him up on what the rest of Phoenix Squadron is doing. She tells him that Ahsoka took her on as an apprentice. He’s surprised and asks if she is coming. Meanwhile, Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), and a gang of bandits watch them from a distance.
Thrawn asks the Great Mothers to locate Ahsoka. Ahsoka tries to locate Sabine and Ezra through the Force. Sabine recognizes Ahsoka’s probing and smiles. One of the Great Mothers says she has found Ahsoka. Thrawn tells Enoch the coordinates, giving them permission to open fire. A rain of turbolasers blast at Ahsoka and Huyang. She pilots her ship toward Peridea, pursued by starfighters.
Huyang can't land because it is against Jedi protocols to do that when they are under attack. Ahsoka tells him to disengage the stairs, so she slides out onto the plains below. She lands in front of Skoll. They draw their lightsabers and begin to duel.
Some of the bandits approach Ezra and Sabine. She hands him his lightsaber, but he says he doesn’t need it because the Force is his ally. Sabine starts fighting with blasters and the lightsaber while Ezra just fights with his fists. After a Noti knocks out one of the bandits, Ezra throws another one with the Force. Hati attacks him from behind, singeing his hair. He starts fist fighting her. Sabine finishes off another bandit and then starts battling beside Ezra. Thrawn’s gunships show up to take them out. Ezra leaves Sabine to fight with Hati.
Skoll and Ahsoka have been dueling this whole time. Huyang flies by and strafes the ground. The two split, and Ahsoka uses the smoke to escape. Ezra tells the Noti to take shelter. Two gunships land and dispatch several Night Troopers. The two Jedi keep fighting with Hati while the Night Troopers encircle them. They are about to fire when Ahsoka rides into the convoy on Skoll’s Howler.
A battle ensues. The Jedi may be outnumbered but they're winning, as Skoll is not around to help fix the odds. Thrawn sees this so he orders his troops to retreat. He sees this as a victory since they are able to continue with their cargo transfer to the Chimaera and will most likely be done before Ahsoka gets to them. Thrawn plans to waste Ahsoka’s time so that he can go through with his plans.
Ahsoka tells Hati to surrender and offers her help, but she runs away. Ahsoka and Ezra hug. Everyone is reunited, and Huyang arrives with Ahsoka’s ship.
Ahsoka Episode 7 | Review & Analysis
Performances | 9/10
To start, Nelson Lee as Xiono is such a little weasel. His performance had a way of just worming under my skin. Xiono is supposed to be a character we hate. He’s actively antagonistic against our heroes, he is representative of the bureaucracy that was prevalent in the Empire, and he hates droids (Chopper getting mad at him calling C-3P0 “a mere droid” was hilarious). It’s hard for an actor to play a weasel. You have to straddle a line between people just hating your guts while still being an effective character. Lee did a great job at that.
Ahsoka graced us with another returning Star Wars legend and that is Anthony Daniels as C-3P0. The most consistent character and actor throughout the entire saga makes his grand appearance at the beginning of the episode. When Daniels passes, there is no way C-3P0 can be recast. He’s just too iconic in that role.
If you recall in my first review, I talked about how I hate how Jedi are portrayed in these live-action shows. They’re all so stoic and monotone. Dawson has really brought Ahsoka out of her shell throughout the series. There is a lot of emotion in her after her death on Seatos. We actually hear her laugh in this episode when she sees Ezra. She’s healing from the trauma of fighting in two wars. It’s great to see.
Speaking of Ezra, Esfandi is absolutely killing it. Watching him onscreen is almost like watching his Rebels counterpart. Out of all of the animated to live-action characters (outside of Thrawn who is literally the same person), he captures his character the best. His earnestness to protect the Noti and Sabine, his quick wit, and even his voice is similar. Excellent work.
As for everyone else, they’re all still great. Stevenson was given some time to smolder which was some fan service we all needed.
Direction | 7/10
There’s a lot of minutiae that fleshes out the world of Peridea that can go unnoticed. The hyperspace lanes have more of a rainbow blur instead of the blue lines we are accustomed to. One of the better differences is how the holograms look. I think it’s supposed to be implied that it is Nightsister magic instead of actual hologram technology, considering how grainy and wavy it is. It’s a thoughtful detail to add.
There were lots of great fights this time around and none of them felt like too much was going on. All of them looked great and were easy to follow except when the pod came out of hyperspace. The minefield was crowded with the whales and it made everything too hard to follow for me. There was just too much happening in that one scene.
My biggest issue was that nothing outside of Thrawn and the Nightsisters’ base looked like something extragalactic. All the fights took place on plains that could have been in our real-life galaxy instead of some fantastical place. If all of this was taking place in the Star Wars galaxy, it wouldn’t be much of an issue. However, this is the first time that the story has drifted out from a galaxy far, far away. This is completely new territory. Instead of going for something visually out there, they went with a rocky planet with wide open spaces.
Although, as I think about it, maybe it’s an intentional choice. Peridea is surrounded by a graveyard of space whales. The only human-like life are the Nightsisters and some bandits. Maybe it’s supposed to hint that life in this galaxy is few and far between. Something must have happened to leave the planet so desolate.
Well, I guess I changed my own mind.
Ahsoka Episode 7 | Final Thoughts & Feelings
I enjoyed this penultimate episode for the most part. It did rely more on duels and battles instead of furthering the plot, but it can’t all be Star, we have to have some Wars in there too. The more the show goes on, the more clear it is that this is just a love letter to Star Wars Rebels. That’s not a bad thing by any means, just more of an observation.
I’m hoping Thrawn gets more screen time in the final episode. He’s such an incredible character who has been squandered so far in this series. Even I, a big fan of the character, have been underwhelmed by his presence in the show thus far. He’s the heir to the Empire! He’s barely done anything so far! At least onscreen.
There is only one episode left in the season. The stakes are high. Thrawn is still powerful, and he has allied himself with the Nightsisters, who are just as powerful. Will Ahsoka and company be able to stop him? I hope so. Mainly so the cute creatures we’ve seen this season will be saved.