Tales of the Empire episode 4 recap: The birth of an Inquisitor

The first Barriss Offee episode in Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is episode 4, “Devoted.” It’s the story of how she became an Imperial Inquisitor. Let’s recap everything you missed in the episode.

A friendly reminder in case you didn’t watch The Clone Wars, Barriss Offee is in jail because she bombed the Jedi Temple during the Clone Wars and tried to frame Ahsoka Tano for the crime. She was discovered by Anakin Skywalker as the true culprit. Onto the episode.

We open on the night of Order 66. The deaths and screams of Jedi through the Force awaken Barriss from sleep in her jail cell. She looks out of the small window and sees the Jedi Temple on fire in the distance. She asks her clone guards what’s happening. They tell her to be glad she’s not a Jedi anymore because the Order won’t exist tomorrow. She’s left alone in her cell, where she continues to watch the Jedi Temple burn.

Later, a woman named Lyn Rakish comes to her cell. She tells Barriss she doesn’t go by the name of “Lyn” anymore (she’s the Fourth Sister in the show Obi-Wan Kenobi) and wants to offer Barriss an opportunity. Two clone guards stand ominously in the doorway, blasters readied. The once Lyn explains that the Jedi have betrayed the Republic and have fallen. She offers Barriss a choice. With the clones cocking their blasters, it’s not much of a choice and Barriss accepts.

Sometime later, Barriss arrives with the Fourth Sister on the planet of Nur, where a new base is being built (which will one day become Fortress Inquisitorius). They go inside, where other Force users, including two named Dante and Ahmar, have gathered. The three of them are greeted by the Grand Inquisitor from Star Wars Rebels. He says they are there to build a new group to serve the Empire. Barriss, having been in prison, didn’t even know the Republic had fallen.

The Grand Inquisitor says they must protect the now Emperor Palpatine’s vision at all costs. The three young Force users must prove themselves. He sends them off to their quarters to contact later.

Ahmar doesn’t like any of this. He doesn’t think this new organization is any better than the Jedi Order and wants to leave. Barriss tries to warn him, but Ahmar ignores it. He leaves while she and Dante stay behind.

Later that night, the Fourth Sister gets Barriss and Dante, bringing them to the Grand Inquisitor. The Grand Inquisitor lies, saying Ahmar had such a bad accident, but oh well, they have to continue without him. The Fourth sister takes Dante with her, leaving Bariss alone with the leader.

The two head deeper into the Fortress Inquisitorius to a room filled with lightsabers. The Grand Inquisitor will help Barriss overcome the weaknesses she learned from the Jedi, but she doesn’t understand what he’s getting at. He flat-out tells her to attack him.

She hesitates, as he’s not armed. He scoffs, “I don’t need to be,” encouraging her to continue.

Barriss springs into the battle, but she’s too predictable, falling back on her Jedi training. She’s holding back. Again and again, she tries, getting better—until the Grand Inquisitor punches her in the face! Barriss gets MAD and lands a lightsaber strike on his armor. This is the moment the Inquisitor has been waiting for as her attacks get more brutal. He throws her against the ceiling, telling her that mercy breeds defeat.

Picking herself up off the ground, she throws him with the Force into the wall.

The Grand Inquisitor wipes the blood from his face and smiles.

Later, Barriss is brought to a different room with a deep pit where Dante is waiting. The Grand Inquisitor and the Fourth Sister are impressed with the recruits. However, there is only room for one in their ranks. He tosses down a single lightsaber between them and closes them in a shield that will shock them if touched to fight to the death.

Barriss thinks it’s a show and that the Inquisitors won’t hurt them. Dante knows these people killed Ahmar, snagging the lightsaber. They battle, with Barriss using the Force to defend herself. She gets thrown into the wall and stunned. Just as Dante is about to strike her down, she uses the Force to choke him to death. Dante's body falls down into the pit.

She has passed the test, and is now an Inquisitor.

After she has suited up, she is joined by other Inquisitors, including the one Ahsoka Tano killed in the last episode of Tales of the Jedi, "Resolve," and Marrok from Ahsoka. They kneel for it’s time to meet their new master. The doors slide open…

And in walks Darth Vader looming over them all.

Which is where Tales of the Empire episode 4, “Devoted,” ends.