Kanan and Ezra travel to a Jedi temple on Lothal where Ezra can test his readiness to be trained as a Jedi. While Ezra makes his way through the temple alone and confronts his fear of abandonment, Kanan must also confront his own fears of inadequacy as a teacher.
Tropes in this episode:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Yoda gives a series of these to Kanan and Ezra, chipping away at their facades until they admit what their true motives are.
- Bellisario's Maxim: In-Universe. When Kanan asks how Yoda can be talking to him, Yoda tells him that's not important.
- Call-Back:
- Call-Forward: Yoda trains a potential Jedi who has no idea who he's talking to. It won't be the last time.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: Kanan tells Ezra that the Padawan has to go in alone, only to show up when Ezra tries to use "Eeny-Meeny-Miney-Moe" to pick a direction. When Ezra questions him Kanan gives a "changed my mind" response. Ezra later figures out that it's an illusion.
- Continuity Nod:
- Kanan briefly discusses Ezra's tapping into the Dark Side in "Gathering Forces" with both Ezra and Hera.
- When Ezra wakes up in the illusory Ghost, his first sight is the mural Sabine painted in Ezra and Zeb's room in "Fighter Flight".
- There are a few subtle ones to A New Dawn. The Inquisitor comments "So that's what he called himself" when Ezra calls out to Kanan, and Yoda enunciates "Kanan" in a way that makes it clear he finds the name surprising, both alluding to the fact that "Kanan" is not his original name. Kanan also mentions having "lost his way" for a long time in his life, which we saw in the book.
- Declaration of Protection: When Yoda questions Ezra on why he wants to be a Jedi, Ezra eventually says he wants to protect himself and his friends, then admits he wants to protect everyone.
- Dutch Angle: Used several times with the visions. To make it more jarring, the characters and the backgrounds don't always align.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Trapped behind a door, and unsure whether Kanan's death was an illusion or not, Ezra begins to give in to his despair:
Ezra: [
sinking to his knees] I'm alone, abandoned. Again.
[Beat] ..."again"! I've survived on my own before. [
picks himself back up again] I can survive this!
- Face Your Fears: The underlying theme of the episode. For example, Ezra is forced to face his abandonment issues courtesy of visions of the Inquisitor killing the crew.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: The illusion of the Inquisitor killing Kanan by stabbing him in the chest. Since it's with a lightsaber, the wounds are handily and instantly cauterized.
- Fate Worse than Death: Ezra sees being abandoned and alone again as this. He gets over it eventually once he realized he survived it before, giving him his Heroic Second Wind.
- Foreshadowing: After the vision!inquisitor kills vision!Kanan, and Ezra calls out his name, the vision!Inquisitor says, "So, he was calling himself Kanan, now? Well, hardly matters."
- Good Feels Good: When Yoda questions Ezra, he admits that being with the Ghost crew and helping people makes him feel alive.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The Inquisitor killing the rest of the Ghost crew is this, with Hera's shadow falling and Sabine screaming.
- Hidden Purpose Test: Beyond a vague statement about facing his fears, Ezra doesn't know what he's being tested for, or what the results will be if he passes.
- I'm Not Afraid of You: Ezra overcomes the Inquisitor hallucination by declaring this and allowing himself to be struck down. The blade goes through without causing any damage and the hallucinations cease.
- I've Heard of That — What Is It?: Ezra at the end when he shows Kanan his kyber crystal.
Kanan: Ezra, that's a kyber crystal.
Ezra: [excitedly] Wow!
[Beat] What's a kyber crystal?
- Just a Kid: The illusion of Sabine says that Ezra's just a scared and abandoned kid, and she pities him.
- Leitmotif: Yoda's theme plays when he starts speaking to Ezra.
- Mix-and-Match Weapon: Ezra's lightsaber has a blaster embedded in the hilt.
- Musical Spoiler: Kanan's sudden appearance in the tunnels is accompanied by the Force cue, signifying that he's an illusion.
- Mythology Gag:
- Kanan has a star map in the holocron.
- When Ezra receives the kyber crystal, the room fades away into a starfield. In Leigh Brackett's original draft of The Empire Strikes Back, there was a scene where Luke is fighting Vader and the area around them fades into the stars.
- Out-of-Character Alert: When Ezra supposedly wakes up in the Ghost, he realizes that it's an illusion because no one is acting like they normally would.
- Power Crystal: Ezra's reward for passing Yoda's tests of intent is a kyber crystal, which goes into his very own lightsaber by episode's end.
- Psychological Torment Zone: The cave shows Ezra visions of his friends violently dying.
- Redemption Quest: Kanan admits that he wants to train Ezra as a Jedi because he lost his way before, and sees this as his second chance to make up for his mistake.
- Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere: Masters whose Padawans failed the test remain trapped in the hall of the Lothal Temple forever, as the temple will only open for both Master and Padawan in either direction.
- Secret Test of Character: Kanan instructs Ezra to use the Force to find a Jedi temple. After Ezra locates the temple on Lothal, Kanan reveals that he already knew its location from the Holocron. The actual purpose of Ezra's test was to make sure he was meant to go there.
- Ship Tease: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it one at the beginning of the episode. It's apparently early morning, and Kanan can't find Ezra anywhere on the Ghost. Next shot we see Ezra running through the grass, heading for the ship. Once he arrives, he explains that he's late because he was with Sabine. It's revealed in "Fire Across the Galaxy" that he took her to the stolen TIE fighter that he and Zeb lied about destroying (instead hiding it) and let her paint it as a small gift.
- Stunned Silence: Ezra falls silent in awe when he sees the flock of lights, and then later when he gets the kyber crystal.
- Time Skip: The last scene, where Ezra shows off his finished lightsaber, takes place several weeks after the rest of the episode.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Yoda chides Ezra on wanting revenge against the Empire, asking if that's what he was taught was the Jedi way. Ezra also talks about wanting power, wanting to make the Empire suffer... All Dark Side thoughts. Remote Voice Yoda is quick to tactfully admonish him over thinking like this, though.
