2x16 Shroud of Darkness

9.3/10. So much great, big time stuff in this one. As I've said in the past, there's something about these sort of operatic, mythology-heavy episodes that I really connect with. In a number of ways Star Wars has always been a franchise about big myths and spirituality made tangible. Leaning into that feels true to the core of the series. And it's hard not to be excited by things like prophecies and dire warnings and visits from old friends.

That starts with Kanan, who faces his own trials a la Luke on Dagobah to become a Jedi Knight. Admittedly, it's a bit of a cheat, but seeing The Grand Inquisitor (and learning that he used to be a Jedi) is a nice way to give impact and authority to the moment beyond the change in rank. I appreciated that, like Ezra, his trial had to do with accepting difficult truths, that no matter how hard he tried to protect and encourage Ezra, things could still go wrong; his pupil could still be tempted by the dark side, and he might perish in the effort. It's been Kanan's greatest insecurity for a while now -- that he's not a good enough teacher. But Kanan accepts that all he can do is train and guide Ezra as best he can and the rest is up to him. It's a nice form of acceptance and the key to his ascending to becoming a full Jedi, earning a bit of redemption from his wild and wooly days in the process.

It's also nice to see Yoda again. (I mean that figuratively -- literally his model looks off from both his Clone Wars model and the version of him from the films. It would be jarring if it weren't for Frank Oz's voice.) He follows up on his lesson with Ezra from last time, saying that one need not be without fear, but rather that even he, the wise and admired Jedi Master among masters, had to fight not to give into fear throughout his life. I loved Ahsoka's description of Yoda, as someone she spoke with but never really felt like she knew, that she wasn't sure if anyone knew. The way she speaks of him as carrying a certain sadness, of knowing what having been drawn into the fighting of the Clone Wars did to him and how he foresaw the end of one age and the start of another fits (albeit a little haphazardly) with what we saw from him in The Clone Wars series.

That ties into Ezra's conversation with him about whether to fight or not. The idea of finding Malachor works as a good story engine for the future, but more than anything, it's nice to see this philosophical side of Star Wars represented, with Yoda and Ezra debating the morality of this spiritual masters using their abilities to commit violence, even if they believe their cause is just. Sure, a lot of it is fairly rudimentary, but it's still surprisingly complex for a kids' show.

We even get some cool moments with The Inquisitors that hints at some greater depth for them too. The conversation between Kanan and the Seventh Sister suggests some kind of history. (That said, she's weirdly flirty with almost everyone, and I may be projecting based on the fact that the voice actors are married in real life.) The cold open with the two-on-two battle between Kanan and Ezra and The Inquisitors was nicely done. I appreciate how the Seventh Sister is portrayed as clever and unorthodox, with details like her using her droid in battle or being able to sniff out the rebels in the Jedi temple. There's a sense that she's a formidable opponent in a way that the Fifth Brother isn't, and it takes the ingenuity of Ezra connecting mentally with bat creatures (animal telepathy apparently becoming his specialty) to escape her.

They also have their own mystical experience inside the temple. The fact that they face the Inquisitor is interesting, though I'm not sure it really means anything short of a cool moment and an excuse for why our heroes escape. They also, of course, alert Vader to the existence of the temple, which leads to his first presence since the mini-film that opened the season. Hearing James Earl Jones in the role is still powerful, and makes the character's presence as chilling as ever.

But the absolute highlight for me, in an episode that had plenty of them, was Ahsoka’s part of it. “Shroud of Darkness” shows Ahsoka grappling with regret and self-questioning over leaving the order. The fact that she doesn’t want to participate in the ritual to open the door to the temple on Lothal, because since she’s not a Jedi it wouldn’t be right, hints at that from the show’s early going. At the same time, the fact that she’s watching a holocron of Anakin demonstrating forms and reminiscing about him hints at how her old master is still on her mind.

These little hints culminate in the most powerful moment in the episode, and possibly the series thus far. It hit me like a ton of bricks when a vision of Anakin appeared to chastise Ahsoka. In the Star Wars franchise, these temples have been about facing your greatest fears, the things that eat away at your soul and spirit in the hopes that you can overcome them. So hearing Anakin call Ahsoka selfish for leaving the order reveals her deepest insecurities – the question of whether leaving the Jedi was right.

That question is given greater power if you’ve seen the episodes of The Clone Wars where Ahsoka leaves the order, and you understand the circumstances under which she made that decision. It’s also given power by the show bringing back Matt Lanter to voice Anakin, giving his words more weight. And it’s especially affecting if you’ve watched the whole of The Clone Wars, and seen the connection between Ahsoka and Anakin grow and develop over the course of dozens of adventures and years of stories.

That’s why the most devastating moment comes when the vision of Anakin reprimands Ahsoka for leaving and asks if she knows what happened to him after she left, if she knows what he became. The ghostly image of Anakin is powerful on its own, but the camera focuses on Ahsoka’s eyes for a moment, showing the emotion of the moment for her, and then cuts back. In place of Anakin there is Vader, and the heartbreaking realization emerges – Ahsoka blames herself for Anakin’s descent.

After she made that connection with Vader, she hasn’t just been mourning what amounts to the loss of her friend or being in shock at the realization that the man she looked up to and learned from has become this monster. She’s been tearing herself up with the idea that she could have prevented this, that if she had stayed, been there to help and support Anakin during the events of Revenge of the Sith, that she could have saved him, prevented him from becoming this twisted creature, maybe prevented all of the Empire’s horrors from coming to pass.

That is a terrible weight to carry on one’s shoulders. Unlike with Ezra and Kanan, we don’t see Ahsoka overcoming this fear or accepting that she can’t control what will happen next. The closest we get is a brief reunion between her and the vision of Yoda, a gentle wave that suggests he’s looking out for her, and perhaps there is an answer
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Guilt is one of those emotions that can be hard to reckon with. It is resistant to logic, more a feeling that cannot be escaped when a terrible thing happens, even if there’s nothing that could have been done to prevent it. The very fact that a terrible thing happens, especially to someone close to us, elicits that feeling within us. We lament the result and thus anoint ourself the causer of it, to our own misery and sometimes even ruin.

There’s a great pathos in Ahsoka blaming herself for her master’s turn to the dark side. When we see Kanan fight against the visions of the temple guards, we see his fears manifested – that he’s creating the next Vader, the next powerful being who will use the connection to the force to terrorize the galaxy and kill.

But in Ahsoka, we see that fear realized. She has to confront the idea that someone she cared for, someone she believed in, someone she loved as a parent and a brother, became something she doesn’t recognize, that horrifies her, and she cannot help but wonder if she might have been able to stop it. Ahsoka herself was betrayed by the Jedi, and managed, as far as we know, to stay good, to fight for the ideals she was taught even without the guidance of her former master.

Maybe, however, Anakin needed her more than she needed him, as a friend beyond Obi Wan to help keep him sane and steady. Neither she nor we can know if she might have helped. Instead, she is haunted by who Anakin was, who Darth Vader is, and the thought that perhaps, if she had made a different choice, she might have saved him.