Review: Ahsoka, "Part Eight: The Jedi, The Witch, and the Warlord" | Season 1, Episode 8
Ending right where we need to be
“Just shadows in the starlight.”
I feel like Michael Bluth this morning, as if I’m holding a bag with the words “Dead Dove, Do Not Eat” written on them, wondering what exactly I was expecting. Over the last couple weeks especially, I have noted (as have some of you in the comments) the patently unlikely idea that Ahsoka would end with swift, if not satisfying, resolution. Indeed, “The Lion, The Witch—”…sorry, “The Jedi, The Witch, and the Warlord” offers nothing remotely close to resolution. At the moment, there’s no confirmed second season for Ahsoka, and while creator Dave Filoni is aiming to expand this story into a grander feature-length epic, it’s still in the development phase.
The promise of following up on this story feels suitable, considering that our heroes have relied on hope through most of the season and cling to it tightly in the finale. But that doesn’t hide the sense I had in watching “The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord” of wanting more. From a brief look at a few other articles, I imagine that many of you may have found greater enjoyment (or at least recognition) at some key moments, such as Baylan Skoll standing in front of a statue of some portent or the owl Ahsoka glimpses off in the distance near the conclusion, or even the fact that Grand Admiral Thrawn has not only left Peridea but has returned to the planet of Dathomir. These Easter egg-style winks and nods went over my head, which would be fine if the surface-level thrills were sufficiently entertaining. Certainly some of the twists in the finale, such as the Nightsisters using their dark magick for real this time and turning Night Troopers into zombies, were effective and creepy. At times, the grand adventure I was hoping for from Ahsoka slid into place.