Warning: This article contains spoilers for Ahsoka episode 5 and Star Wars Rebels.
Ahsoka‘s fifth episode delivers a monumental moment in Star Wars lore, as it features the very first time Ahsoka Tano and Anakin Skywalker have shared the screen in live-action. “Snips” and her Jedi master have a long and storied history in animation — going back to The Clone Wars, which revealed Ahsoka’s existence and importance — but now Rosario Dawson and Hayden Christensen’s characters have crossed paths in a meaningful episode that acts as a coda to the Anakin/Ahsoka relationship.
As teased at the end of “Part Four,” “Part Five” sees Ahsoka on the brink of death as she visits the metaphysical Force realm of the World Between Worlds. There, she encounters (what we’re guessing is) a Force ghost of her former mentor, who guides her through various key battles from her past, as well as alluding to his own turn to the Dark Side as Darth Vader.
But does Ahsoka actually know that Anakin and the infamous Sith Lord are one and the same?
When did Ahsoka find out that Anakin was Darth Vader?
Yes, as is strongly hinted in Ahsoka “Part Five,” Ahsoka does indeed know what became of her mentor. It is suggested that she is reluctant to train her own Padawan, Sabine Wren, as she fears that she is only continuing the dark legacy that Vader began. Reuniting with Anakin in the World Between Worlds appears to alleviate some of this anxiety, however, and Ahsoka returns to the land of the living with renewed purpose and clarity.
So, when did Ahsoka find out the truth about Anakin? For that, we have to revisit Star Wars Rebels, with Ahsoka’s season 2 arc seeing her slowly come to terms with this tragic realization. In the season premiere, “The Siege of Lothal, Part 1,” Vader pursues the Ghost crew in a TIE Fighter. Reaching out with the Force, Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger recognize the pilot as the Sith Lord they previously fought, but Ahsoka discovers a deeper connection, sensing her long-lost master, Anakin.
Much later in the season, in episode 18 “Shroud of Darkness,” Ahsoka’s guilt and terror at what became of Anakin reaches a point where she suffers a vision of Anakin blaming her for abandoning him to his fate — not death, it turns out, but his transformation into Darth Vader. In the season 2 finale, “Twilight of the Apprentice,” the long-awaited confrontation between Ahsoka and Vader finally plays out when Kanan, Ezra, and Ahsoka visit an ancient Sith temple on Malachor to retrieve a valuable Holocron.
When battling Vader to distract him so Kanan and Ezra can get away with the Holocron, Ahsoka manages to make a blow to Vader’s helmet, exposing his scarred, human face beneath. With his voice modulator damaged, Ahsoka hears her master’s voice once more as he says her name. In this moment, Ahsoka’s desire for revenge turns into sympathy and she declares that she will not abandon him again. The season then ends with Ahsoka apparently trapped in the destroyed temple, apparently killed by the man Anakin had become.
Of course, Ahsoka didn’t die, with the Rebels finale revealing that Ezra was able to rescue her thanks to the World Between Worlds. So Ahsoka episode 5 really brings Ahsoka’s story full circle, making this a fitting final meeting between master and apprentice.
