The Ninth Jedi, Episode 6: Light of the Force

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SSW271: Kara starts this episode exhausted, captured, and sure she has failed. She ends it with a silver lightsaber and a bounty hunter for a servant.

Episode 6 of Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi is “Light of the Force.” Thomas Salerno, Jeff Haecker, and Kathryn Laffrey call it one of the strongest episodes of the series so far, with Mandalorian energy to spare.

It opens mid-chase. The villagers who sheltered Kara now hunt her through the forest, because the Jedi hunters Eht and Bee-Toh are holding young Eesha hostage. When she learns why, she drops to her knees and gives up.

Locked in a ray shield cell, she gets a visit from the Force ghost of Juro. Was she awake or dreaming? Thomas is glad the episode won’t say, and Kathryn noticed the shield change color while they talked. Juro won’t tell her what to do next, only to trust the Force. Thomas hears an echo of vocational discernment and Proverbs 16:9, “The human heart plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.” Kathryn and Thomas weigh Juro’s take on anger against Yoda’s, and find something close to an examination of conscience: feeling angry is one thing, and letting it rule you is another.

Then she breaks out, using the Force to ignite her own saber inside its box. Eht fills the air with mist and wears her down while Bee-Toh calls the fight like a color commentator. When Kara finally stops fighting her own emotions, she starts deflecting bolts instead of dodging them, and her blade turns from red to silver. Kathryn points to a smaller detail: Kara’s hair comes down, and for a moment she looks like her father.

What does silver mean? Thomas sees balance, the calm of Chirrut Îmwe in Rogue One. Jeff sees an embrace of nothingness, the same middle path Nawaam walks, and wonders whether it can hold. The panel brings in virtue as the mean between extremes, and the Eastern and Japanese thought behind the series.

Meanwhile Zhima takes one of Nawaam’s outposts without killing a single soldier, and Thomas finds that telling for a man who went into exile after killing his own master.

And Bee-Toh? Spared, he swears to serve Kara, buries his partner, and ignites a blue blade. Jeff loves a villain who comes around, Thomas thinks of Vegeta and Lando, and Kathryn’s daughter asks the question of the hour: can anyone be a Jedi now?

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