The following contains spoilers for Ahsoka Episode 4, "Part Four: Fallen Jedi," streaming now on Disney+.
Even in Ahsoka, Ahsoka Tano can't outrun Anakin Skywalker's shadow. It is, in many ways, as Baylan Skoll puts it before his and Ahsoka's "Part Four: Fallen Jedi" lightsaber duel, "inevitable." Ahsoka was introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars as Anakin's secret apprentice. Her growth and departure from the Jedi Order spurred his path to the Sith, leading to Ahsoka's fateful battle against Darth Vader years later. Even from a real-world perspective, Anakin and Ahsoka's fates are intertwined. Long before either joined the Star Wars galaxy, Rosario Dawson and Hayden Christensen were classmates at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute together.
This makes Christensen's much-hyped return on Ahsoka, however inevitable, quite thrilling -- a sentiment that could also apply to the plot of "Fallen Jedi." Its story beats are fairly predictable if only to explain why Ahsoka still needs four more episodes to complete its story rather than thwart Morgan Elsbeth's plan to find Grand Admiral Thrawn before it even begins. But the sensational lightsaber action, character drama, and oodles of Clone Wars/Star Wars Rebels fan service balance this out, subtly framing Ahsoka as a grayer version of Jedi conflict than Star Wars viewers are used to seeing.
After last week's "Time to Fly" limited itself to Ahsoka and Sabine Wren merely getting to planet Seatos, "Fallen Jedi" gives the duo much more to do. As Huyang reminds them before they head off to locate Elsbeth, staying together is often where they "always did better." If the episode's first tag team setpiece -- fending off Elsbeth's robotic army with lightsabers, blasters, and wrist-mounted fibercord whips, even giving Huyang a chance to show off his droid boxing skills -- was any indicator, this observation is well-founded.
Of course, they're split up pretty quickly. Unwilling to let Ahsoka slow down her mission, Elsbeth tasks Baylan with guarding the star map while Shin Hati and Marrok gin up for a rematch with the ex-Jedi and her Padawan. Once again, the action cinematography in this series proves top-notch, and director Peter Ramsey (of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse fame) manages to keep each fight simple but kinetic. He even manages to sprinkle in a few moments of genre versatility in between, ranging from darkly comedic to body horror, but with a Kurosawa-inspired coat of visual paint.
Kurasowa's influence is felt most during Ahsoka and Baylan's duel. Light on dialogue and heavy on music and brutal swordsmanship, it's a clash of two aged warriors with no intent of holding anything back. Neither ex-Jedi possesses entirely black-and-white morals. He might seek Thrawn's return, but Baylan seems genuinely saddened to fight Ahsoka, while Ahsoka briefly goes full Dark Side on Shin after believing that she killed Sabine on her watch.
If there's a caveat, it's that Ahsoka Episode 4's twists are predictable. And perhaps a bit counter to what fans expect of Ahsoka Tano, who repeatedly emphasizes she's "no Jedi" when it comes to following the Order's dated code. "Sometimes we have to do what's right regardless of our personal feelings," she warns Sabine, but as Sabine points out, Ahsoka doesn't quite believe that. If anything, her investment in the mission and defeating Thrawn is Ahsoka struggling to clean up Anakin's mess all these decades later, which Baylan utilizes to lure Sabine into surrendering the map when he hints at their estrangement stemming from how she lost her family on Mandalore. For Rebels fans who initially learned about Sabine's past through her attempt to thaw relationships with her estranged clan, this is quite the "out of left field" twist. One Ahsoka should probably address before its finale rather than reduce to a mere throwaway line.
Audiences might see a few more Rebels callbacks before Ahsoka ends. Hera's B-plot, however limited, is very much in line with her Rebels characterization: Defying orders and leading backup to Seatos to assist her friends, even bringing Chopper and Jacen for the ride. That one pilot happens to be a returning Carson Teva (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) is an added bonus since he was last seen conversing with Rebels' Zeb Orrelios in The Mandalorian. Their mission goes through some hiccups trying to stop Elsebeth's hyperdrive ring, but it does lay the groundwork for a massive Rebels reunion down the line.
This brings Ahsoka back to its most enticing reveal-- not just the return of Anakin -- noticeably de-aged, but still Christensen -- but Ahsoka's return to a familiar location after seemingly falling off a cliffside. This, for uninitiated Rebels fans, is the World Between Worlds, a mysterious space-time dimension that links the past, present, and future through the Force. It's not exactly time travel, but it's as close as modern Star Wars has ever gotten to addressing the idea in canon.
How Ahsoka got here and whether this Anakin is a friend or foe remains unknown. But like the high points of "Fallen Jedi" and most of Ahsoka, it feels rewarding for longtime Star Wars fans. Audiences have seen Ahsoka Tano and Anakin Skywalker go through so much together over the past fifteen years. But a live-action conversation? That's very new. And it continues to make Ahsoka, regardless of its dramatic flaws, a gratifying ride.
New Ahsoka episodes air on Tuesdays at 9 pm EST/6 pm PST on Disney+.