‘Ahsoka’ Episode 5 Recap: Chasing the Ghosts of Better Stories

Rather than answering her questions, Anakin informs Ahsoka that he has come to her to finish her training — which doesn’t make much sense. Ahsoka famously left the Jedi Order and is no longer a Jedi and Anakin… well, we all know what Anakin did. Furthermore, Star Wars has been stuck in a rut with the idea that so many of its female characters need to train or to be shown training, while Luke Skywalker is left to build a new Jedi Order. We also know how that went. Worse yet, Ahsoka’s “training” stands in the place of actual storytelling. By driving Ahsoka and Anakin straight into a duel, we’re robbed of dialogue and character moments that could heighten the story that Filoni is attempting to tell.

Filoni mistakenly believes that what audiences have been longing for is another poorly lit lightsaber duel — only this time between Anakin and Ahsoka — but that isn’t what anyone has been pining for. Especially not casual fans who know who Anakin is, but have no concept of why this duel with Ahsoka should matter to them. Even fans of The Clone Wars haven’t been looking forward to this, regardless of whether they’ve wanted Ahsoka and Anakin to reunite. We don’t want them to fight; we want them to talk, though, that’s a wish far too steep to be granted by Star Wars.

Anakin cuts through the platform they’re standing on, sending Ahsoka careening downward like the opening credits of Kingdom Hearts, though it’s not quite simple or clean. She is thrown backward into a flashback of the Clone Wars, with Ahsoka once again inhabiting her younger self (Ariana Greenblatt) — though the foggy, poorly lit sequence offers a mere facsimile of the emotional tension and writing that the animated series once offered. Star Wars used to be vibrant and alive, but these flashbacks depict none of that by trading practical sets and unique locations for the murkiness of a fog-filled soundstage.

Back on the planet, Hera and Carson begin their search for Ahsoka and Sabine, but Jacen (Evan Whitten) is already a few steps ahead of them. Drawn to the edge of the cliff, Jacen listens and hears the whispers of the duel taking place in the World Between Worlds. Each clash of sabers is swept up in the crash of the waves, like a ghost flittering through the air. At first, Hera can’t hear — but once she stands beside her son and focuses on the ebb and flow, she hears it too. This discovery drives Hera to send Carson and his X-Wing pilots to search the ocean anew, now that there’s a chance that Ahsoka might be somewhere beneath the waves.

While Carson’s presence is a welcomed one, it is odd that Filoni opted not to reunite the Ghost crew with the New Republic pilot who briefly appeared in The Mandalorian last season. Zeb belongs in Ahsoka — where the built-in fanbase for the beloved Ghost crew is. But perhaps their budget was spent bringing the Clone Wars into live-action to push Ahsoka to a realization that she already, essentially, had in the animated series. Hopefully, Filoni is reserving Zeb and Kallus for an eventual reunion with Ezra Bridger, now that the story is headed in his direction.

Once again, Ahsoka and Anakin are driven into another duel in the World Between Worlds — the plot device that has been used to propel every episode so far. Star Wars is more than just lightsaber duels and resurrecting the Skywalkers for drama. It’s about the connections forged between the characters who are thrown into situations, cast against the backdrop of a galaxy at war, both seen and unseen. Those connections feel hollow when left to molder in the shadow of nostalgia. Filoni seems beholden to recycled motifs from past projects as if he’s not yet ready to venture out into his own world, which is bewildering when he’s even recycling his own ideas.