After Ahsoka's Season 1 Finale Already Dropped Clues For The Cliffhangers, I'm Finally Hyped About All Star Wars Again
Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS are ahead for the Season 1 finale of Ahsoka, called "The Jedi, The Witch, And The Warlord."
The first season of Ahsoka has come to an end on Disney+ after eight episodes that quite literally spanned galaxies, and the finale ended on enough cliffhangers that I'm ready to start crossing my fingers that a Season 2 renewal is announced soon. While the heroes accumulated their fair share of losses in "The Jedi, The Witch, And The Warlord," I would say that certain cliffhanger clues about what comes next make the ending pretty hopeful. In fact, as somebody whose love had faded for the Star Wars saga as a whole and tended to just revisit my favorites from that galaxy far, far away, this episode has me hyped for the franchise again. Well played, Dave Filoni!
Of course, it's much too soon to say with any certainty what is going to happen next if Ahsoka gets a second season, but I think that the hints from across Season 1 (as well as The Mandalorian, Clone Wars, and Star Wars Rebels) are enough to make some very educated guesses. So, let's dig into the biggest of the cliffhangers!
Ahsoka, Sabine, And Huyang Are Stranded
The cliffhanger: Thrawn and Co. (with Ezra in tow) escaped the Peridea galaxy before Ahsoka, Sabine, and Huyang could join them. They seemed more or less resigned to building a life with the Noti on the planet after being stranded, presumably not knowing that Shin Hati is up to something and Baylan Skoll has plans of his own. At least Hayden Christensen appearing as Force ghost Anakin Skywalker (rather than Force ghost Kanan Jarrus making an appearance) proves that Ahsoka's master still hasn't left her! For now, Ahsoka and Sabine seem out of commission for the Thrawn conflict.
The clue for the cliffhanger resolution: Well, the whole reason that Ezra, Thrawn, and all the troopers ended up on Peridea in the first place is because of Ezra's connection with the purrgil at the end of Star Wars Rebels. Even if Ahsoka didn't fill him in on all the finer points of how they found him, Hera knew the plan to use the purrgil for the jump between galaxies. In theory, this cliffhanger could be fairly simply resolved with Ezra following what Ahsoka had done and going to Peridea to find them again. Getting back would just be the tricky bit, but what can't a space whale do when the story demands it?
Thrawn And Co. Arrived At Dathomir
The cliffhanger: Unfortunately for the New Republic, Thrawn, the Great Mothers, Enoch, and all of the surviving troopers (and the mysterious containers from the catacombs on Peridea) returned to the normal Star Wars galaxy and traveled to – where else? – Dathomir. The planet doesn't exactly get a lot of traffic, and would presumably be an ideal place for Thrawn to build up his forces again, perhaps with the help of the Great Mothers' magick to resurrect some soldiers with no New Republic forces ready for battle.
The clue: Well, unfortunately for Thrawn, Ezra escaped Peridea and survived the journey back. Even if Ezra doesn't have all the details about Thrawn's forces after staying away from the fortress for years and not sticking with them to Dathomir, he has already reunited with Hera. He can raise the alarm about Thrawn for the New Republic, including that the dead can be resurrected via magick. Also, am I the only one who finds it kind of hilarious that Thrawn's elaborate and best-laid plans keep being foiled by a Jedi who is more or less winging it? Welcome back, Ezra.
Shin Hati The Warlord?
The cliffhanger: "The Jedi" from the title of the episode could refer to any one of the three heroes on Peridea, and "The Witch" has to be the late and not particularly lamented Morgan Elsbeth. Shin Hati has been set up as "The Warlord" from "The Jedi, The Witch, And The Warlord" after arriving at the camp of some nomad warriors and igniting her red lightsaber. The implication is that she could cause some serious trouble for Ahsoka and Sabine now that they're all stranded.
The clue: The Noti have clearly survived well enough and long enough despite the threat of nomads, and Shin Hati is just one Force-user against Ahsoka and now Sabine. She could cause trouble for them as a warlord, but they've been in far worse danger. Could being stuck on Peridea lead to some good news for the Sabine/Shin Hati shippers in a second season? And how serious of a cliffhanger really is this?
Baylan Skoll And The Mortis Gods
The cliffhanger: If you didn't watch The Clone Wars or even Rebels, the statues behind Baylan Skoll in his final scene may not seem too significant. They are carved in the images of the gods of the realm known as Mortis, originally introduced into canon in The Clone Wars. The tallest figure represents the Father while the shorter is the Son. There's an empty space on the other side of the Father that could have once held a statue of the Daughter. Sadly, the death of actor Ray Stevenson presumably means that if the storyline is going to play out on screen, either it won't happen with Baylan Skoll or the role will be recast.
The clue: The reveal of the statues in the same episode that showed Ahsoka spotting Morai – a.k.a. her longtime owl friend with a connection to the Daughter – feels like much more than a coincidence, so I would feel confident saying that a storyline with Baylan Skoll, Ahsoka, and the Mortis gods was set for Season 2 if not for Stevenson's death. As it is, the setup in the finale could be explored in a book, comic, or animated series if the role isn't recast.
Ezra Came Home
The cliffhanger: Fellow Rebels fans can rejoice, because Ezra Bridger made it home! His homecoming isn't quite as much of a cliffhanger as Thrawn arriving at Dathomir or Ahsoka and Sabine being stranded in the wrong galaxy, but his presence with the New Republic could be a game-changer. Even with keeping his distance on Peridea, Ezra must have valuable Thrawn information, and his return means that there's still a Jedi in the mix despite Ahsoka's absence and Luke Skywalker likely setting up his Jedi academy off-screen.
I've also speculated throughout Season 1 that the only way Hera would allow Jacen to be trained as a Jedi would be with Ezra, which is now a possibility. Unfortunately, my desperate wish to see Ezra meet (or at least find out about) Kanan and Hera's son on screen didn't happen.
The clue: We already saw that Ezra has stayed true to himself on Peridea, and Hera is bound to trust him, so he could be a very valuable asset to the New Republic. Plus, his very existence as a living, breathing Jedi proves Senator Xiono wrong in all his objections to Hera's plans, and will hopefully enable Hera to get all the resources she needs to prepare for Thrawn without needing a C-3PO intervention.
Why I'm Hyped For All Of Star Wars Again
While anybody at CinemaBlend who has talked with me about Star Wars can undoubtedly vouch for my love of Rebels, I haven't been as invested in the saga as much in recent years compared to days gone by. Part of this is due to how much I try to ignore many events from the sequel trilogy, which casts a bit of a shadow over most projects set after the events of Return of the Jedi. That included The Mandalorian Season 3, when Din Djarin started getting mixed up with Bo-Katan and plots to restore Thrawn instead of his good old solo adventures with Grogu.
But Ahsoka delivered just what I needed by setting up a huge new galactic threat that isn't just going to be Palpatine 3.0 or involve Death Star 4.0. An epic story set outside of the Skywalker saga is coming together, with threads from Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and The Mandalorian. Even Star Wars Resistance is tangentially involved thanks to Senator Xiono as Kaz's dad, and that show barely got off the ground before being cancelled!
And with Dave Filoni set to helm a movie said to tie the events of The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and the upcoming Skeleton Crew together, there will be a film tie-in to what went down in the Rosario Dawson show. Finally, I can be excited about a Star Wars movie again without "Somehow Palpatine returned" echoing through my head!
I was never not a Star Wars fans, but I definitely was invested in just some projects more than others. It's almost embarrassing how long I waited to watch Andor, and I still haven't taken the time for The Bad Batch. Now, I'm back on board for projects across the franchise, which... probably means using my Disney+ subscription to check out whatever I've missed in the saga for the foreseeable future. Skeleton Crew is expected at some point before the end of the 2023 TV schedule, though, as the next of the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.
