Throughout the first four episodes of Ahsoka the show has drummed into us that the only way to make a hyperspace leap between galaxies is with the aid of the baseball-sized star map. This MacGuffin has changed hands between heroes and villains on a few occasions, though as of episode 4, the coordinates encoded within have been uploaded to Morgan Elsbeth’s Eye of Sion and they’ve made the leap.
To prevent anyone from following them Morgan ordered Baylan to destroy the star map, which he promptly did by skewering it with his lightsaber until it shattered, rendering it useless. So, with no star map and no ship capable of making the leap, are Ahsoka, Hera, Jacen, and Chopper going to have to sit around and twiddle their thumbs until the rest of the characters jump back?
A whale of a time
Fortunately for Ahsoka and pals, there’s an option peacefully swimming around in the Seatos atmosphere. These are Purgill (aka space whales) that usually live in deep space, can travel between star systems, and are able to access hyperspace without technology using “simu-tunnels”. Purgill are so rare that most believe they’re legendary and pilots encountering them consider them dangerous, as colliding with one while in hyperspace would be lethal.
While Purgills are semi-legendary now, they must have been more well-known at some point in galactic history as their natural abilities are said to be the inspiration for hyperspace technology, without which interplanetary travel would be prohibitively time-consuming.
It seems that Seatos marks a key waypoint on their intergalactic migratory route and the star map seems to have charted their path, as indicated by the purgill hieroglyphs that appeared when it was activated. The presence of Purgills in the atmosphere may hint that this pod is preparing to make the leap, so could our heroes tag along for the ride?
Does anyone speak Purgill?
The problem is that simply following the Purgill would likely destroy your craft, so you would need to communicate with them to prevent unfortunate accidents. In Star Wars Rebels, Ezra Bridger is able to establish a connection through the Force with a herd of Purrgil, uniting with them to attack Grand Admiral Thrawn’s fleet during the liberation of Lothal.
Obviously, Ezra isn’t here, though there are two candidates here who might be able to pull off this trick. The first is Ahsoka herself, who has a deep command of the Force and may be able to reach through it to make contact. But we suspect the one to make the bond will be Jacen Syndulla. As the son of Kanan Jarrus he’s very likely to be Force-sensitive and, purely from a writing perspective, he needs to do something to justify his presence.
How this will work remains to be seen. Perhaps Ahsoka could take some inspiration from the Bible and have its characters literally swallowed by one of the whales for safe (but no doubt sticky and pungent) transport inside it? Their immense side may even mean that The Ghost itself could fit inside a Purrgil, as in The Empire Strikes Back see the Millennium Falcon easily land inside the similarly gigantic Exogorth.
The more likely alternative is that the Ghost will fly in the purgill’s slipstream as they did in Rebels, or have them wrap their tentacles around the ship to make the leap, which is how Thrawn’s ship the Chimaera was transported with them. Then again, making this kind of hyperspace trip intentionally is unprecedented, so all bets are off.
What’s beyond the final frontier?
Then there’s the question of what we’ll even find in another galaxy far far away. This will be the first time Star Wars has ventured outside of the known galaxy so what’s beyond is completely unknown. Our hope is that it’s district from any previously seen planetary biome, though as Thrawn and Ezra have managed to survive out there it must be at least vaguely hospitable.
The more boring alternative is that Ahsoka will keep the other galaxy a mystery. Theoretically, we don’t need to actually see what’s at the other end of the hyperspace leap and the Eye of Sion may make an unexpectedly speedy return trip courtesy of some Interstellar-esque temporal shenanigans.
We’ll likely find out for sure next week. Before that Ahsoka has to have a chat with Anakin Skywalker and return from the dead, but she should get that out of the way fast and be ready for the road trip of a lifetime.