Ahsoka finale review: Episode 8 poses more questions than answers

WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for Ahsoka Season 1, Episode 8.

There is nothing wrong with a Star Wars show using its final episode to set up future events that will be covered in subsequent shows. Ahsoka is not the first Star Wars TV show that has done this, and its finale has left viewers curious about what’s coming next.

Which would be fine — if Ahsoka had told a complete story with an ending that both satisfied its narrative as an individual piece of media and hinted at more events to come in future projects. The show as a whole accomplished one of those things, but not the other. But we’ll focus on this episode as its own separate event, and in that case, it was an absolute delight to watch.

I teared up at the mention of Kanan in the presence of Ezra — that was a touching addition that showed him finally moving on and living through his master’s legacy. A truly beautiful moment even if you hadn’t seen Rebels. I personally wish the episode had many more moments like this that hit me emotionally exactly as they were supposed to.

I love that Thrawn won, or at the very least, he got away — there’s more of him to come, and that’s exciting. Morgan’s duel with Ahsoka was captivating, and even though I understand why she didn’t survive it from a larger scope, I never felt like we got to know her, her story, or her true motivations as well as we could have. At the moment, fresh off the episode, I wish she had been more than a useful tool for Thrawn to throw away, but story-wise, it makes sense why that’s all she was to him. That’s Thrawn. That makes sense.

Ezra getting to go home also makes sense, and his reunion with Chopper and Hera also gave me a warm feeling as it was supposed to — both of these actors did their homework and went above and beyond the assignment. 10/10 there, no notes.

It’s supposed to feel unsatisfying that Sabine and Ahsoka were left behind. That uneasiness is supposed to tempt us to watch whatever piece of this story comes next, and in that regard, it worked. But the last few minutes of the episode say very loudly “There is more to come!:” without really teasing what’s next … at all. Everyone is just standing around staring off into the distance, and for what? We needed a little context there. We needed some kind of cliffhanger, one that would spawn fan theories and give us predictions to ride on for months, and instead we just got beautiful visuals and the sad reality that this may have been the last we’ll see of Ray Stevenson’s character (which is not anyone’s fault, and not at all a flaw).

I am still processing this episode and will share more thoughts in an overarching review of the show as a whole soon. This was not a bad episode and the episode is not part of a bad show. There are just too many outstanding questions, and a lot of confusion, and even though we’re supposed to be feeling like this is an incomplete story, it swings a little too far in the wrong direction for me. I wanted to finish the episode feeling okay, but instead, I’m left with a feeling I can’t yet describe.

Something about this season didn’t hit quite right with me, and though I enjoyed it, genuinely, perhaps I was expecting something we didn’t get. And if that’s the case, I’ll work through that on my own. Just because I have mixed feelings doesn’t mean the story wasn’t good. At the moment, I think it could have been so much better. But I’ll unpack that in another post.

All episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka are available to stream exclusively on Disney+.

Make sure to check Dork Side of the Force after Ahsoka season 1 episode 7 releases for updates and news about the series!