This article contains spoilers for the Ahsoka season one finale
Ahsoka season one is over, though the story is by no means complete. As noted by fans, the story so far has felt more like a way to resolve dangling loose ends from Star Wars Rebels. Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn are back in action, Ahsoka is beginning to train Sabine Wren, and the New Republic is once again facing down an Imperial threat.
One factor that’s sure to come into play when the story resumes is the mysterious boxes that Thrawn loaded onto his ship before leaving Peridea and jumping back to the regular Star Wars galaxy.
So, as Brad Pitt once memorably said, “What’s in the box?!”
But seriously, what is in those boxes?
The closing moments of the episode showed Thrawn and the Nightsisters looking out over their haul with triumph. Here we presumably see all their (suspiciously casket-shaped) boxes stacked up, letting us estimate there are about 1000 of them aboard the ship.
Whatever they are must be critically important to Thrawn’s mission, as he delayed his escape from Peridea to ensure every last one was transported on board.
Our take is that these boxes are key to Thrawn’s partnership with the red-robed Nightsisters. Both groups are trapped on Peridea and Thrawn needs the Nightsisters to send a message across the universe to Morgan Elsbeth in order to arrange a rescue. So, what do the Nightsisters get out of this deal?
In Star Wars canon the majority of the Dathomir Nightsisters were exterminated during the Clone Wars by General Grievous on the orders of Count Dooku, with only a few survivors left. Those on Peridea were isolated from the events of the Clone Wars, so we suspect that each box contains a Nightsister.
The mention that they’re being brought up from “the catacombs” may lead you to suspect the casket-like boxes contain Nightsister bodies, particularly as we’ve seen re-animated corpses many times on the show already. However, in the wide shot, the red lights on each one may indicate that those inside are in stasis rather than dead.
We suspect the Nightsisters on Peridea made a deal with Thrawn. They will summon help from across the galaxy so long as he agrees to transport the caskets of their brethren on his ship. The final shots of the Eye of Sion and Thrawn’s Star Destroyer see it arriving at a red-tinged planet, which is almost certainly the Nightsister homeworld of Dathomir.
A Nightsister comeback?
Whether Thrawn’s team-up with the Nightsisters will last beyond this is anyone’s guess. Thrawn has historically shown very little inclination to get himself involved in mystical or spiritual matters, preferring the cold logic of military maneuvering. That said, his time on Peridea with the Nightsisters may have seen his opinion on their efficacy evolve. At any rate, he seems happy to let them work their magic on re-animating dead Stormtroopers and respects their religious ceremonies.
We doubt a pragmatic villain like Thrawn would be able to turn down being allied with a thousand-strong Nightsister army, especially as he’s returning to a galaxy in which the once-mighty Empire has been reduced to scattered remnants.
Other possibilities?
I’m confident that Nightsisters are indeed inside those caskets, but are there any other options? The only one we can see is that there’s evidence that the ancient Zeffo once inhabited Peridea. As seen in the Star Wars Jedi series, the Zeffo had many powerful relics and artifacts important to both the Jedi and Sith. It’s possible that these caskets contain these powerful objects, which have been stuck on this isolated planet for millennia.
But that’s the only other option we can think of, and it feels like a stretch. Let’s face it, when you’re dragging up thousands of coffin-shaped boxes from “the catacombs” there’s got to be bodies in there. Peridea was the center of the Witch Kingdom of the Dathomiri, so who else could they be other than Nightsisters?
Sadly, answers may be a way off yet. Ahsoka ended without any word of a second season, so we may not see those boxes opened until Dave Filoni’s “Mandoverse” crossover movie. But if that’s going to see Din Djarin, Grogu, Ahsoka Tano, Ezra, Sabine, Hera and Boba Fett teaming up to take on Thrawn and a Nightsister army, we’re in for a wild ride.