Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) has really lost her way. Even Ahsoka’s (Rosario Dawson) snarky droid Huyang (David Tennant) knows this, although he’s not exactly swift like the Jedi. That doesn’t stop him from informing Sabine that she’s “the worst candidate to be a Jedi out of all the Jedi he’s ever known.” Ouch.
Still, Ahsoka can’t give up on Sabine. The pair have spent the first two episodes bickering over finding Grand Admiral Thrawn and their old pal Ezra Bridgers, but by Episode 3, “Time to Fly,” the pair have agreed to look past their differences and fight together as a fierce duo. Too bad Sabine has been out of Jedi training for quite some time. Ahsoka has a lot of work on her hands.
Tale is old as time with this one, when it comes to the Star Wars franchise. A Padawan seeks out guidance from a Jedi mentor. The youngster wants to learn—fast, as soon as possible. But the force doesn’t come with the snap of a finger. The trainee grows restless, but as Ahsoka puts it, “Anger and frustration are quick to give power.” Today, Sabine doesn’t realize her true powers. Leave it for next week, or even the week after—we’ve still got five episodes left for her to fully come of age.
Meanwhile, General Hera (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) meets with Chancellor Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) to ask for assistance in the fight against Thrawn. Unfortunately, the Senate Committee seems to think Hera is more involved with finding Ezra than she is protecting the New Republic. Hera pleads her case—if he’s alive, Thrawn is super dangerous—but Mon Mothma argues that the fragile New Republic would be better off using their resources elsewhere.
Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang jet off to find Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), who they fear is setting up some sort of bridge to find Thrawn. They’re right: Morgan has built a massive donut-shaped starship in the Denab system, where communication lines are blocked. The dead zone makes it impossible for Sabine and Ahsoka to call for help. They’ll have to battle Shin (Ivanna Sakhno) and her Imperial droids on their own.
An epic space battle commences, with Sabine and Huyang trying to escape the Imperial area while Ahsoka stands in a spacesuit atop their ship. Using her lightsaber, Ahsoka blocks incoming blasts from enemy ships. Ahsoka is, for lack of a better descriptor, a complete badass. It’s marvelous to see that Ahsoka is highlighting this fact.
Shin fails to stop the trio from escaping her clutches, which proves that an apprentice needs full, proper training before they can take the lead on their own. Where is Baylan (Ray Stevenson), her master? Morgan is infuriated with Shin. Ahsoka is smarter than to leave Sabine to defend herself when her training is incomplete.
As Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang escape, they come face-to-face with a flock of star whales. These are called purrgil, and they made a brief (albeit telling) appearance in the most recent season of The Mandalorian. Fans of Star Wars: Rebels may recall that Ezra can communicate well with these creatures. In fact, he used them to take down Thrawn in a battle.
Could Ezra be sending these whales as a signal to show that he’s still around? Or, purrhaps these creatures will be used later in another battle against Thrawn. Huyang explains to Ahsoka and Sabine that the purrgil travel in between galaxies, creating paths followed by galaxy jumpers.
One of those galaxy jumpers happens to be Morgan and her Imperial powers, Huyang finds, as she’s building a hyperspace ring that could, hypothetically, travel to neighboring galaxies. The enemy vessel is not complete, though. Sabine, Ahsoka, and the others have time to stop Morgan before she makes the journey to save Thrawn.
The good guys end this episode with a lead—they’ve got the purrgils and they know they need to stop Morgan in her tracks. First, though, they need to escape this desolate planet before Baylan’s army locate them in the thick red leaves of a forest.
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