This week on Ahsoka, many battles were fought, and all of them ended in stalemate. Ahsoka Tano herself finally showed up on Peridea, while Thrawn tried to keep her occupied long enough for his Imperial forces to bail and strand her in this other galaxy. But nothing was resolved this week, and we didn't learn much about, for example, whatever Baylan Skoll is up to. Next week's finale is going to have a lot of ground to cover.
Warning: This article is all spoilers from here.
As is the case weirdly often with both Star Wars and Marvel TV shows, the next-to-last episode of Ahsoka felt like the first half of the finale--I'd argue, frankly, that pretty much all of these shows would be improved with fewer episodes that run longer. Sure, they can theoretically keep subscribers longer if they draw out each season, but Ahsoka's rhythm is damaged by the frequent starting and stopping.
This episode, for example, felt like somebody tore the middle part out of a movie--last week was the first act, next week will be the third, and here we have the orphaned, action-heavy middle section.
In "Dreams and Madness," we have four core story threads: Sabine and Ezra, reunited at last and under siege by Imperials; Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati, going their separate ways as Baylan realizes Shin simply doesn't get whatever he's trying to do; Ahsoka trying, and succeeding, at keeping up with all of them; and Thrawn, back at base, weaving one of the tactical webs that he's known for.
By the end of the episode, nothing is resolved. But all the good guys are finally back together, and just in time--Thrawn is about to pull his forces out, which would leave our heroes stranded. And the space whales won't be able to save them this time, as we'll discuss momentarily.
Before we take a look at the episode's collection of Easter eggs and references, don't forget to check out our previous Easter egg guides to Ahsoka if you missed them.
1. Whale bones
Last week, we learned that Peridea's ring is a graveyard for those space whales, and this week we got a very up-close-and-personal look at it when Ahsoka flew into the field of whale bones to try to escape Imperial pursuers. I'm bringing this up here because it's incredibly important context that the series has not explained outright: the whales come to Peridea to die, and so there aren't any return trips in their bellies. Once Thrawn leaves with his big hyperspace ring, everybody left behind is staying behind.
2. Asajj Ventress
While Ahsoka waits for the whales to get to Peridea, she does some lightsaber exercises and listens to a training tape that Anakin made decades earlier. "In this war, you will face more than just droids," Anakin says, before name-dropping several notable characters that they fought during the Clone Wars: General Grievous, Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku. Ventress, a Nightsister who died in the Clone Wars, is an interesting name to bring up here. Because unlike Grievous and Dooku, she wasn't purely an enemy and ended up dying to save the Jedi Master Quinlan Vos. Something to think about as we approach the end of Baylan Skoll's story.
3. Asteroid field chase: Bones edition
A hero trying to lose pursuers in a field of space debris has been a tried-and-true Star Wars trope since Han Solo did it in The Empire Strikes Back, and Ahsoka's chase through the field of bones is a pretty good new version of that idea.
4. "The emperor died?" "That's what people say."
This exchange, which came when Sabine was telling Ezra about everything that happened in their home galaxy while he's been gone, might have been an interesting piece of world-building about the immense scale of galactic society and how unwieldy the flow of information in a situation like that. But it's more likely a joke about Palpatine coming back to life in The Rise of Skywalker.
5. Zeb is training recruits
One other thing Sabine told Ezra is that Zeb, who ran with them on Star Wars Rebels, is "training recruits." While Zeb hasn't appeared on Ahsoka, he did have a brief cameo in season 3 of The Mandalorian that backs up that idea.
6. Those turtles fight like Ewoks
The local turtle/hermit crab aliens on Peridea, the Noti, get the chance to show off their fighting prowess this week when the bad guys come after Sabine and Ezra, and they make use of whatever they've got on hand, like pots and pans. One of them even uses a slingshot, which is straight out of the Ewok playbook.
7. Raiders circle the turtles like bandits in the old west
When Shin Hati and the local raiders attack the Noti convoy, the raiders--riding animal mounts--surround the Noti vehicles and run in circles around them like Old West bandits menacing a wagon train.
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