Since the six-episode limited series was effectively two stories, we separated the reviews into two posts. The latter three episodes focused on the fate of Barris Offee, who we haven’t seen since the end of The Clone Wars.
SPOILER WARNING! The following contains spoilers for the last three episodes of Tales of the Empire! Do not proceed if you wish to avoid spoilers!
MAJOR POINTS
- Barriss Offee joined the Inquisitors but returned to the light side
- The Fourth Sister knew Barriss from The Clone Wars
Barris sees the destruction of the Jedi Temple from her cell. Her old friend Lyn meets her and takes her to the uncompleted Inquisitor base. There she earns a spot as one of the sisters by killing one of her colleagues from the Jedi Temple.
Lyn, now known as The Fourth Sister, and Barris search for renegade Jedi on an outer rim planet. Lyn tries the hard approach while Barriss takes the soft route. The townspeople reject Lyn until Barriss convinces a child to admit Jedi are hiding in the mountains. To Barriss’s horror, Fourth Sister slaughters everybody in the building except the child.
The two climb the mountains in search of the Jedi. By the time Barriss makes it to the top, the Jedi is already fighting Lyn. She steps in to talk the Jedi down, only for Lyn to strike from behind. Finally fed up, Barris pushes Lyn off the mountain’s cliff, officially rejecting the Dark Side path, and promises not to let the Jedi die.
Years later, while searching for a Force-sensitive baby, Fourth Sister finds Barriss in a snowy mountain. Barriss’s daughter takes the family and runs off to leave the planet. The two clash again, only this time Barriss uses defensive dodging to toy with her. Barriss warns her not to follow the family into the caverns because she will not know the way out. Fourth of course rushes in to kill the family but gets lost.
Once the family flies off to safety, Barriss tries to guide Fourth out of the cave. But in her rage, Fourth accidentally kills Barriss with her lightsaber. In her dying words, Barriss forgives Fourth and tells her she can find the way out. The episode ends with Fourth/Lyn emerging from the cave.
MAJOR QUESTIONS
- How long after “Episode 5″Realization” did “The Way Out” take place?
- Was this the same planet we saw in “Realization?”
FINAL GRADE: B
This show’s format differs from last year’s Tales of the Jedi. That show had several mini-stories culminating in a final episode that brought everything together. This series was simply two three-part stories. And while the first story was about corruption through revenge, the second was about redemption. Morgan embraced evil while Barriss rejected it. This means one story gave us an origin story while the other gave us a story of fate.