Star Wars: Ahsoka Part 6: 'Far, Far Away'

© Lucasfilm

‘Ahsoka’ moves forward to give us a glimpse into a word that’s foreign and familiar.
by Jeremy Fogelman

The most recent episode of Ahsoka is called “Far, Far Away” which doesn’t really sound much like a double meaning so much as a single meaning -- this previous planet we travel to, “Peridea”, is simply just super far away from any place we’ve been to -- the real trick to the title is the title drop itself, coming right after Huyang starts telling a story with “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away”. Honestly it worked, it was a fun moment.

The visual effects of the hyper-hyperspace stuff was pretty good, both with the space whales and the hyper-ring thing, and it continues the “Sabine is so focused on finding Ezra it’s problematic” storyline. Baylan continues to be a cool, mysterious dude, talking about his past, learning stories of this world and his youth as the Jedi order fell -- we even find out later that he was a general when Thrawn identifies him as such.

His relationship with his apprentice is intriguing because although he seems to be honest with her, he isn’t revealing everything -- instead of the power she seems to describe, Baylan claims to desire ending the cycle of Republic/Empire/etc for good. We know that doesn’t happen, but it’s a fascinating, somewhat nihilistic one we haven’t seen in Star Wars before -- but he’s hardly the first fictional character that wanted to end everything because of suffering.

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The appearance of Thrawn was handled pretty well, at least in terms of the ominous music and bizarre gold-faced head of the guards “Enoch”, and I suppose his makeup/costume was okay. His overall feel is very calm, but he has some more subtly threatening moments later that are a bit more effective -- for now he isn’t quite the big threat presence he’s been built up to, at least not yet. In contrast the bizarre otherworldly nature of the witches was pretty cool, and I especially liked their classic double echo voices.

Sabine goes on her own little mini-journey to search for Ezra, befriending her giant doglike “Howler” steed along the way in a cutesy but okay sequence, and coming across some pretty well designed turtle aliens called “Noti” (in the subtitles at least). Ezra appears with a beard (unlike the previous things we’ve seen of him so far), and immediately is all jokey-jokey with Sabine, but she diverts the question about how she got there and naturally is uncomfortable about saying he can’t wait to go home. Whoops!

© Lucasfilm

The ending moment is the witches noting that a Jedi is coming, which means they are prepared for Ahsoka to show up after all, and Thrawn asks for a full background on her from Morgan, which I suppose is a way to show us the kind of highly analytical person he is and how potentially dangerous that could be. Although I’m surprised he doesn’t know her already.

Overall the episode worked well enough as the next phase of the story, but it can’t hit the psychological heights of the last one -- I did like the setup of the new world and the expansions of mysteries, I just really hope the series can manage to pull off an effective reveal of what Baylan is truly up to this whole time or I’ll feel it’s been a bit of a waste of a great performance.

Note: We support the current WGA/SAG strike and emphasize the importance of writers and actors and ensuring they and fellow creatives are compensated and treated fairly for their work. This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn't exist.