Ahsoka: Baylan Skoll’s Mission, Explained

The final episode of Ahsoka, Season 1 ended with Baylan Skoll making a shocking discovery. Throughout the Star Wars series, the fallen Jedi Baylan Skoll, played by the late Ray Stevenson, has been on a quest for a mysterious higher power. For Baylan, the search for Grand Admiral Thrawn was nothing but a means to an end and Episode 7 confirmed he had no intention of taking a place in Thrawn’s resurgent Empire. Fan speculation had proposed characters and creations from all corners of Star Wars lore as the potential objects of Baylan’s quest and the finale’s ultimate reveal lived up to the highest of fan expectations.

While Baylan’s storyline ended in a major reveal on the Ahsoka finale, the episode primarily focused on the heroes’ doomed efforts to prevent Grand Admiral Thrawn leaving Peridea. Consequently, Baylan did not feature in the main body of the episode, but was only glimpsed in a silent cameo as part of a concluding montage that established who was still trapped on Peridea and who had returned to the main Star Wars galaxy. However, while Baylan’s role in the finale was fleeting, it revealed a tantalizing glimpse of the object of his personal quest, setting up a continuation of one of Star Wars‘ strangest and most intriguing storylines.

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Baylan Skoll Discovers Statues of the Mortis Gods

The Ahsoka finale’s single sequence featuring Baylan Skoll saw him standing atop the outstretched hand of a statue of the Father — one of the Ones of Mortis. The colossal statue appears to be one of three, depicting each of the Ones, though only the Father and the Son remain intact; the headless remains of the Daughter’s statue can be seen beside the Father. The statues’ presence suggests that whatever Baylan has been searching for is closely tied to Star Wars‘ Force gods. The statue of the Father is pointing towards a distant light, resembling the light that has previously been seen atop the Father’s monastery within the realm of Mortis.

The Ones, also sometimes called the Mortis Gods, were first introduced in a three-episode story on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The Mortis trilogy saw Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka Tano sent to investigate an ancient Jedi distress signal. Upon arriving, they discovered a mysterious pyramidal structure that transported them to the strange world of Mortis, where the seasons and time of day changed rapidly and unpredictably. Mortis was revealed to be a conduit, through which the entirety of the Force flowed. This mysterious world, outside regular time and space was also home to three all-powerful Force wielders.

The Father, the Daughter and the Son embodied three different aspects of the Force. The Daughter was drawn to the light and the Son was drawn to the dark side. The Father embodied balance within the Force and had to mediate between his two conflicting children, reflecting Anakin Skywalker’s role as the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy. Although there was no record of any other Jedi encountering the Ones, these three figures had made their way into legend and various Force-based religions. On Star Wars Rebels, a mural depicting the Mortis Gods was seen on the Lothal Jedi Temple, marking the entrance to the World Between Worlds.

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Baylan Skoll Could be Seeking the Power of Mortis

From the beginning of Ahsoka, Baylan made it clear that he was on a quest for power and had joined Morgan Elsbeth in her endeavor to bring Thrawn back to the galaxy in order to obtain that power. As the series went on, however, it became clear that Baylan Skoll was not hoping to merely claim an important position in Thrawn’s new Empire, nor was he like other dark-side wielders introduced in Star Wars canon. This former Jedi had his sights set on a specific, mysterious goal — something he believed would eclipse the power of Thrawn, the Nightsisters and the Jedi.

On Episode 6 of Ahsoka, “Far, Far Away,” Baylan told Shin of the realization he had come to as he grew older — that the cycle of light and dark, of the Jedi and the Empire each rising and falling over and over, has repeated endlessly through time. Baylan seems weary of the inevitability of this pattern and tells Shin that taking power over the galaxy through the Empire is only a temporary form of power. He tells her that what he seeks on Peridea is “the beginning” and that he plans to forever break this cycle.

Little is known of Mortis, but what was revealed on The Clone Wars may hint at what “beginning” Baylan is seeking. Events on Mortis were shown to shape events in the wider galaxy. When the Daughter was killed by the Son, the Father revealed this act of darkness slaying light would have dire consequences for the galaxy. Balance had to be achieved on Mortis in order for balance to be achieved in the Force at large. Baylan may be seeking access to Mortis itself, or at least some aspect of its power, as he views this ethereal domain as the driving force behind the ebb and flow of dark and light. This would make Mortis “the beginning” of the galaxy’s endless turmoil and the key to breaking the cycle.

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The Daughter’s Absence Hints at Baylan’s Fall to the Dark Side

While the statue of the Father on which Baylan was standing was the most striking of the three figures, perhaps the most intriguing was the statue of the Daughter — or rather, the lack of it. While the remains of a statue of the Daughter could be seen alongside those of the Father and the Son, it had mostly crumbled away, with the head completely missing. It’s not clear whether this was the result of natural erosion, a deliberate act of vandalism by Peridea’s native dark-side-wielding Dathomiri, or the statues’ own response to imbalance in the Force. In any case, whether in-universe or simply metaphorically, the destruction of the Daughter’s image is surely an ominous sign.

The absence of the Daughter, who embodied the light side of the Force, may suggest that the path before Baylan will only bring him closer to the dark side. The true significance of these statues and where they lead are not yet clear, but it may be the case that Peridea’s connection to the Ones of Mortis is more heavily tied to the Son, who embodied the dark side. It’s also possible that the Ahsoka finale’s single image of Baylan, standing atop the Father’s outstretched hand while the Son looms beside him, implies Baylan believes he is following in the footsteps of the Father, the being who controlled the balance of the Force, whereas he is actually straying closer to the Son’s dark-side tendencies.

Another possibility is that the statue of the Daughter is now gone because Ahsoka has taken the Daughter’s place. During her trip to Mortis on The Clone Wars, Ahsoka was killed by the Son and then resurrected by Anakin, who channeled the last of the dying Daughter’s life force into her. Morai, the convor closely associated with the Daughter, appeared to Ahsoka once again in the finale’s closing moments. Perhaps Baylan is trying to bring the Mortis Gods back into being, but the destruction of the Daughter’s statue reflects the fact that she is already alive and active once more, via Ahsoka Tano.

All episodes of Ahsoka, Season 1 are now available on Disney+.