TV Review: ‘Ahsoka’ Season 1, Episode 6 — Payoffs Delivered
by Frank Martin
If it wasn’t evident before, it’s pretty clear now that Ahsoka is a sequel to Star Wars Rebels. This show hasn’t just been building since that series, it’s been building throughout the Disney+ Star Wars cycle, which have been dropping hints of Thrawn’s (Lars Mikkelsen) return for awhile. This episode finally got to pay that off. Thrawn might be one of the most menacing characters in all of Star Wars. First, fans could only gather his presence through pages of novels. His appearance on Rebels changed that and solidified him as a canon villain. And while it was certainly nice to see him in live action, it unfortunately fell just a tad bit short of the hype, largely due to make up and the physical appearance of the actor portraying him.
After arriving on Perida — a planet in a galaxy far, far away — Morgan (Diana Lee Inosanto) reunited with Thrawn on his star destroyer, which has a whole platoon of hardened Stormtroopers. In the nine years since the Battle of Lothal, he has allied with the Great Mothers of the Dathomiri who called that distant planet home. Baylan (Ray Stevenson), meanwhile, honors the promise he made to Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and allows her to go out in search of Ezra (Eman Esfandi). After running into a series of hiccups, she eventually finds him. The two are reunited. Unfortunately, Baylan is hot on her trail and plans to exterminate her and Ezra once they are located.
Mikkelsen voiced Thrawn on Rebels, so he absolutely nails the character’s speech patterns. And even a photo of the actor can reflect a lot of Thrawn features. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in shape, so Thrawn doesn’t have the foreboding physical presence described in the novels. His makeup also fell flat compared to what Star Wars has been able to do in the past. All that aside though, Ashoka still illustrates why it’s top-tier Star Wars television. Between all of the Rebels characters showing up in the beginning, Anakin’s (Hayden Christensen) reappearance, Thrawn’s return, and Ezra being reunited with Sabine, it’s a shame there are only two episodes left.
Ahsoka streams Tuesdays on Disney+.
