Ahsoka Episode 7: Dreams and Madness Review – Doesn’t Feel Like a Penultimate Episode

After the excitement of Ahsoka Episode 6: Far, Far Away, I went into Episode 7: Dreams and Madness with high expectations. Maybe too high, because although the episode serves the show well and sets up a final confrontation between all of our heroes and the infamous Grand Admiral Thrawn, I felt flat for most of it. That’s not to say that the episode was boring or that the writing was bad, but there’s a distinct lack of build, I’m not as excited for the finale as I should be. Let’s break this down and I’ll show you what I mean.

If you haven’t already, you can watch all seven episodes of Ahsoka on Disney+ right now. You can also check out my previous reviews on the show if you want to read my thoughts on those.

• Episode 1: Master and Apprentice
• Episode 2: Toil and Trouble
• Episode 3: Time To Fly
• Episode 4: Fallen Jedi
• Episode 5: Shadow Warrior
• Episode 6: Far, Far Away

Spoiler alert for those who have not watched Ahsoka Episode 7: Dreams and Madness.

Story – Setting Up the Finale

The episode begins on Coruscant, Hera is being put on trial for her acts in Episode 5: Shadow Warrior. Senator Xiono makes a strong case for her to be court-martialed when C-3PO makes a sudden cameo. He says that Leia Organa sent him with a transcript showing that Hera’s mission was authorized by her, allowing Hera to escape any punishment. This was a quick scene and is mostly here for some quick memberberries. We do get some references to The Mandalorian and some possible foreshadowing from Hera, but you could effectively skip this part and have the same viewing experience. 

We then get the wonderful opening stinger and join Ahsoka as she trains on her ship that is still in the Purrgil’s mouth. As she practices her motions, we see a hologram of Anakin Skywalker, he mentions the various enemies they had during the Clone Wars and expresses his confidence in her. This is a nice short reminder of the effect Anakin had on Ahsoka’s upbringing and how much he meant to Ahsoka, even after his tragic fall to the Dark Side. Huyang walks in and informs Ahsoka that the Purrgil are arriving to Peridea.

C-3PO and Hera in Coruscant

As the Purrgil exit hyperspace, Ahsoka detects that there is something wrong. They see bright flashes of orange through the Purrgill’s mouth and as they exit they find the enemy has surrounded the planet with mines. The Purrgil, obviously distressed by the mines, flee into hyperspace leaving Ahsoka and Huyang to navigate the minefield without cover. They eventually clear the minefield, only to have enemy fighters begin pursuing them. Ahsoka decides to fly into the rings made of Purrgil bones to escape the enemy. Some fun spaceship action before we cut back to Thrawn on Peridea

Thrawn’s Captain, Enoch, reports on Ahsoka’s arrival, confirming she is alive. Morgan hands Thrawn data on Ahsoka from the Inquisitorial database and Thrawn is particularly interested in the fact that Anakin Skywalker was her Master. If you’re aware of Thrawn’s backstory, you’ll know that he was one of the few in the Empire to deduce Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker. With this revelation, Thrawn orders the fighters to withdraw. Morgan questions this decision, and Thrawn explains that he wants to control all variables, especially considering who her Master was. This shows Thrawn’s tendency to treat combat like chess and wants to put himself in the best position possible for victory.

A holovid of Clone Wars-era Anakin Skywalker

The show transitions to the surface of Peridea, where we see Ezra, Sabine, and the Noti in their migrating homes. Ezra is recapping all the things Sabine told him he missed, such as the defeat of the Empire and what their friends have been up to. Meanwhile, Huyang cannot find Sabine through scanning, so Ahsoka decides to try and detect her location through Force connection. This is important because it’s the first true sign of Sabine using the Force. After they connect, the Nightsisters use their Dark Magick to find Ahsoka’s location in the Graveyards and Thrawn commands to open fire.

Ahsoka escapes the Graveyards, while Ezra and Sabine encounter Shin and her group of bandits. Baylan tells her to go it alone because his path diverges from hers which is driven by her ambition. She seems upset by that comment, showing a true connection with her Master, but she obeys and engages the heroes. This leads to a fun scene where the bandits chase our heroes’ pods as they try to defend themselves. Eventually, one pod goes down and Ezra commands the Noti to form a defensive circle.

Baylan ignites his lightsaber to battle Ahsoka

Ahsoka needs to get on the ground to help, but she’s being chased by fighters. So, she uses the hanger door of her ship as a slide and somersaults to the ground as Huyang draws away the fighters. She starts to move to help Ezra and Sabine, but Baylan stands in her way. They briefly exchange words before drawing their lightsabers and engaging in a duel. At the same time, Shin and the bandits draw closer to Ezra and Sabine. At this point, the episode starts to pick up steam, however, it’s 30 minutes into a 45 minute episode. The resulting action is good but it also leaves a lot in the air with only one episode left to tie all the knots.

As the bandits close in, Sabine tries to give Ezra his lightsaber and he declines saying the Force is all he needs. A bandit lunges for Sabine and Ezra pulls her away while also countering the bandit. The choreography is good in this scene, but I’m afraid I can’t overlook how much plot armor Sabine wears. In past episodes it was there, but not to the degree of this scene where Sabine is taking hits all to the body when they should be aiming for her exposed head. Especially, since she was caught off-guard when she was having her humorous spat with Ezra about his lightsaber.

Thrawn explains his decisions to a confused Morgan

The show briefly cuts to Ahsoka and Baylan having an evenly matched duel, then cuts back to Ezra nearly being decapitated by Shin’s lightsaber. Luckily, she only got a bit of his hair and Eman Esfandi shows some of that classic Ezra Bridger charm as he says that she was close. Shin continues to attack and Ezra does something pretty cool when she swings her saber around and he stops it with the Force. Sabine comes in and Shin is on the backpedal, but reinforcements are approaching and Shin Force pushes Ezra to momentarily take him out of the equation. 

As Ahsoka and Baylan duel, Huyang does a fly by and drops some bombs, allowing her to escape Baylan. Baylan could give chase, but he decides not to in favor of searching for the power he believes lies in this planet. The reinforcements arrive and it looks dire for Ezra and Sabine. Shin commands them to fire, but Ezra distracts them, asking if they are sure they don’t want to take them as prisoners. Shin again commands to open fire, when Ahsoka arrives and takes out several Night Troopers. They work together with each other and use the pods for cover as they dispatch the enemy.

Sabine watches as Ezra distracts the Night Troopers to buy time

Thrawn calls for a retreat and claims the losses were unfortunate but lead to an acceptable outcome. Morgan sees only the enemy reunited, and Thrawn shows why he is who he is. He wasn’t trying to defeat the enemy, he wasn’t even trying to capture our heroes. He was buying time, and time was the one thing Ahsoka couldn’t afford to lose. I love this because it shows you exactly how Thrawn thinks. While one might be see victory as a total defeat if the enemy, Thrawn looks for the path to victory that the enemy won’t be aware of, such as the loss of time for our heroes and their desertion once Thrawn leaves the planet. 

With Thrawn believing they have achieved what they needed for victory, he orders a retreat. Shin looks around confused, almost in disbelieve. Ahsoka asks her to surrender and offers her help, but Shin runs and our heroes allow her to escape. A feel good moment follows as Ahsoka embraces Ezra. The music swells and Ezra says he has a good feeling that he might be going home after all. Or will he? With the Purrgil gone, and Thrawn preparing to depart the planet, the options for escape are slim for Ahsoka and friends.

Ahsoka and Ezra embrace as they reunite

Characters and Performances – Needed to Kick Things Into Overdrive 

There’s been great character development in this show. Ahsoka has had wonderful moments and Sabine has really come into her own as a character through these seven episodes. However, there’s still a lot of questionable decisions that we only have one more episode to resolve. Why is Baylan obsessed with the power of Peridea? So much so that he abandons his mercenary duties and allows his protege to go on without him. What does Shin really want as a character? Is she just looking to solidify herself in a superior role when Thrawn starts another war? They did give Ezra more screen time and he made the most of it, but Baylan and Shin’s motivations are still murky going into the finale.

Ahsoka prepares to battle Baylan

Cinematography and Sound – Nice Use of Bright Flashes

Besides the opening scene which was very vibrant, most of this episode had the grayish tones of Peridea over everything. You can really tell the difference when you see them side by side, but on Peridea the show did a good job of flashing bright colors to give you a nice contrast against the grayish background. Whether it was lightsabers, blasters, explosions, they all stood out because of the dull gray. Some might not look at it that way, but that’s what I take from it. Kevin Kiner did another good job with the score, although there were moments where it seemed they were jumping from one distinct sound to another, mostly when they had the parallel fight scenes.

Will Thrawn meet his demise in the Ahsoka finale?

Editing and Pacing – Dropped the Ball

As I said earlier, this didn’t feel like a penultimate episode. It had some fun action scenes and Ahsoka has finally reunited with Ezra, but there’s still a lot of threads that could be expanded upon and the build for the finale felt weak. At this point, unless there are plans for Ahsoka season 2, it seems everything is going to need to be wrapped in the next 40-45 minute episode. That also makes the finale more predictable, which kills any suspense they’ll try to build in the finale. The editing was also subpar compared to previous episodes. Fights were cut at a more frequent rate and simple Force pushes had to be chopped to give them more effect.