I forgot to post last week for part 3, but that episode was essentially setup for this one. Part four was my favorite episode by far. Everything came together in terms of story, character development, and incredible action.

First - I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that Marrok was just Marrok, and that we didn’t have to wait long to find that out. The fandom on YouTube, Reddit, Star Wars FB groups, etc. was going wild with all the theories of him being Ezra, Cal Kestis, Starkiller, etc. and none of those theories made any sense. I’m sick of mystery box storytelling leading to crazy theories, eventually leading to everyone looking for mystery boxes where there aren’t any. It was perfect that Marrok was just a nightsister magic-controlled being using Inquisitor armor.

The fights in this episode were all great. Everything was really well thought out. All of the stances used, the chess match of the Ahsoka/Balkan fight, the differences in style, the accurate power levels, Sabine learning a bit to be herself while still using her Jedi training, the dialog in between strikes, the stakes felt by each individual, this was all REALLY well done. Credit to Peter Ramsey who directed this.

This episode had some good foreshadowing in it too. You had Ahsoka setting up that at some point Sabine would need to make a choice to either save Ezra or stop Thrawn. I didn’t think that would come until down the road so I was surprised to see it happen in this same episode. Which brings me to …..

A TERRIBLE decision by Sabine. Actually multiple bad decisions. Because the other for shadowing was Huyang telling both of them to stay together before they left to go after the map. And Sabine told Ahsoka to leave while she was fighting Shin - likely because of pride - wanting to get Shin back from their first fight, and wanting to prove herself to Ahsoka. Then Sabine makes the terrible choice of not destroying the map when Ahsoka tells her. Then even after she sees Baylan potentially kill Ahsoka (of course she isn’t dead) Sabine STILL doesn’t destroy the map, and falls for his persuasion in giving it to him and going with them to the other galaxy.

All those decisions are especially bad because the entire reason Ezra is gone is because he chose to sacrifice himself to take Thrawn out of the picture. And now she’s potentially bringing Thrawn back to save him. Ezra would not want this at ALL.

That being said, Sabine’s bad decision(s) are perfect from a story perspective. Ahsoka wakes up in the World Between Worlds. When we were introduced to the WBW in Rebels it was essentially a place where anyone there would be tempted to make bad decisions just like Sabine. Undoing something that would end up having larger consequences. Ahsoka had to stop Ezra from doing this when he tried to go back into the past and save Kanan from dying. He reminded him that Kanan sacrificed himself to save the entire Ghost crew, and if Ezra reversed that then they’d all be dead. Ezra also saved Ahsoka from Vader when he first got there, but we don’t know what the consequences of that was. We don’t know what happened to Ahsoka afterwards, why she wasn’t in the original trilogy helping the Rebellion, why she left Sabine (possibly leading to Sabines family dying in the purge of Mandalore), etc. I’m guessing we’ll start to get SOME answers to that in the next episode with the cliffhanger of Anakin being in the WBW.

Off the rip I’ll tell you though - I don’t think things are what they seem in the WBW. You had the Imperial March start to play at the end. I’ll also have to rewatch (or check out a YouTube breakdown once those come out) but I’m pretty sure that Anakin had Darth Vader’s black lightsaber and not the Anakin saber at his side. He also said something like “didn’t expect to see you so soon”…I’m wondering if she was in the WBW that entire time since Ezra saved her. I also definitely think Ahsoka will be tempted in some way to use the WBW to “save” Anakin from turning to the dark side. Or maybe that’s something they already happened while she was stuck there.

Anyways - back to Sabine’s decision, from a story perspective I think it was perfect to have her make a bad good of the few/many choice that would be seen in the WBW, while being in the real world.

I definitely think Ahsoka will use the WBW to get to the other galaxy. In an earlier episode Morgan mention that they would need to travel across time and space to get to Thrawn. My guess is that because of the distance to another galaxy, there is a difference in how time passes. Like maybe for Ezra and Thrawn they’ve only been gone a year, while it’s been 9-10 years from the main galaxy’s perspective. The WBW could also be used to travel across space and time. Also when Ahsoka grabbed the map and burned herself, she may have gotten the information from the map through the force.

Baylan is absolutely my favorite character of this show so far. Ray’s acting is great, and this fight choreography is just perfect - he fights like a strong gladiator or ancient knight. His moves are so well thought out. The shot when he was precisely blocking Sabine’s blaster shots was incredibly. Also his character has just the right amount of mystery with us getting a little more information/context bit by bit. We know he was a Jedi. The episode title “Fallen Jedi” refers to both him AND Ahsoka. He was reluctant to even fight her (building on earlier when he said it would be a shame to have to kill a Jedi.) He’s teaching Shin as a padawan (with her padawan braid and his whole style of interacting with her being more Jedi master/padawan like vs. Sith/apprentice.) He seduced Sabine to get her to hand over the map, but I actually believe him on his word of her not being harmed (as long as she isn’t fighting them.) But at the same time, we saw him slauter those New Republic soldiers in the first episode. And he’s definitely using some dark side force traits. It is very interesting that he knows Anakin became Vader. How? Was he in the temple like Reva during Order 66? I think that’s the most plausible thing, or maybe he came back to the temple and saw the same security tapes that Yoda and Kenobi saw of Anakin killing younglings. What is Baylan’s motivation? Where was HE during the OT?

I’m really enjoying this show, but I’m also constantly wondering what people think who haven’t watched The Clone Wars and Rebels. Elements like the Purrgil and the WBW have got to be a bit confusing, not to mention all of the character elements from the past that then are impacting their decisions here. For example in Rebels both Ahsoka and Sabine were separately told by Ezra to promise that they’d come get him. Ahsoka when they were both in the WBW, and Sabine at the end before he made his sacrifice. Also the entire feel of these episodes is 100% like Rebels. Definitely felt that in episode 3 and 4 with Hera and Sabine/Ahsoka fighting on separate fronts, just like the Ghost crew in Rebels. I’m glad they aren’t dumbing this stuff down at all (beyond the first episode which HAD to set a few things up through dialog/exposition) but I know some folks gotta be confused. I know some of the fandom complaining about Rosario being to “stoic” where comparing her to young Ahsoka from TCW, and not grown Ahsoka from Rebels who had been through some serious trauma.

Edit: dang I wrote A LOT. Sorry for the long post.