AHSOKA: Episode 1.1 and 1.2: Part One: “Master and Apprentice” and Part Two: “Toil and Trouble”

In the first two episodes of AHSOKA, Disney and Lucasfilm’s new STAR WARS series on Disney+, Anakin Skywalker’s former apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, reunites with her own former apprentice, Sabine, to begin a search for the last remaining Imperial admiral from the fallen Empire, who escaped justice. The first two episodes of AHSOKA have some rousing moments, are pretty wholesome and continue the basic STAR WARS story of fighting against tyranny, but the episodes include references to the mystical powers of “The Force,” an anti-capitalist subplot and a major villain who’s part of a cult of female witches who use the “Dark Side of the Force.”

The first episode opens a few years after the defeat of the Empire by the Rebel Alliance in the movie RETURN OF THE JEDI. A military spaceship run by the New Republic is transporting the female witch, Morgan Elsbeth, who fought for the Empire, to prison. Ahsoka was the one who had captured Morgan. She also wrenched from her information about the whereabouts of a star map showing the location of Grand Admiral Thrawn, the last of the defeated Empire’s admirals on the loose.

However, the over-confidant captain of the prison ship lets an evil Sith Lord, a practitioner of the Dark Side of the Force named Baylan Skoll, and his young blonde female apprentice, Shin, on

board. Baylan had used an old Jedi code to contact the prison ship, and the captain has a clear disdain for those knights of old because of how easily Emperor Palpatine defeated them years ago before the Rebel Alliance was formed.

Meanwhile, Ahsoka, accompanied by her companion droid Huyung, searches an underground temple on the home planet of the witches. She finds a metal ball but is attacked by five droids, apparently sent by Morgan. When the droids decide to self-destruct, she’s saved just in the nick of time by Huyung, who’s piloting her ship, the Fulcrum.

The map on the metal ball is hidden and requires a key of some kind to unlock it. So, Ahsoka consults her former apprentice, Sabine Wren, who’s adept at art and technology. Against Ahsoka’s orders, Sabine takes the ball to her residence atop a communications tower on the planet Lothal, site of a huge battle between the Rebel Alliance and Admiral Thrawn. She figures out the key to unlocking the map, which leads to a location in a nearby galaxy.

However, three droids and a masked soldier from Morgan attack Sabine and steal the ball with the unlocked map. In the process, Sabine is severely wounded.

In Episode Two, Sabine recuperates from her wounds. Meanwhile, Ahsoka, Huyung and General Hera Syndulla of the New Republic learn that Morgan is stealing ships and materials from the New Republic shipyards on a planet called Corellia. They investigate and try to place a tracker on a ship being hijacked by Morgan’s mercenaries. However, they find that the shipyards have been infiltrated by loyalists to the Galactic Empire. So, they must fight their way to safety.

The first two episodes of AHSOKA feature an engaging story with appealing characters and plenty of exciting action scenes. The two episodes are also pretty wholesome and family friendly.

The story continues the basic STAR WARS plot of freedom fighters opposing tyrannical forces. However, the second episode has an anti-capitalist subplot. For example, a smarmy manager running the shipyards says he has investors who are trying to sell off parts of the Empire’s old fleet to make a profit. This scheme turns out to be a ruse for Empire loyalists like Morgan Elsbeth looking to start undermine the New Republic and start a new war.

Like some other STAR WARS television programs on Disney+, though certainly not all, the first two episodes of AHSOKA have multiple references to the mystical powers of The Force. For instance, Ahsoka uses the Force to find the metal ball containing the star map. She also uses the Force to move objects and people during fight scenes with the bad guys and with evil robots.

AHSOKA also has a new wrinkle in that the main female villain, Morgan Elsbeth, is part of a cult known as “the Witches of Dathomir.” The witches made their debut in Season 3 of the animated STAR WARS series THE CLONE WARS, which ran from 2008 to 2014 on Cartoon Network and Netflix, with a seventh season running on Disney+ in 2020. The Witches of Dathomir use a magical green energy on their planet to manipulate the powers of the Force in unique ways. The first two episodes of AHSOKA don’t refer to this, however, nor do they explain why Morgan is called a witch.

The anti-capitalist, mystical and magical content in AHSOKA warrant caution for older children.