Episode 4: Devoted
With Morgan’s episodes concluded, we come to the most dreaded part of TotE: Barriss’s story, finally continued over a decade later. What’s become of her since her arrest for her crimes against the Jedi?
Devoted opens with Barriss Offee imprisoned, watching Order 66 happen from the bars of her cell. Upon asking her guards what’s happening, they only tell her she’s fortunate not to be a Jedi anymore. While I expected TotE to include Order 66, I was let down by how Barriss experienced it. I thought she would sense it herself, feeling all of her (former) fellow Jedi being killed across the galaxy, showcasing that she hasn’t cut herself off from the Force. Having her observe it physically, without any feelings, gives her a disappointing distance.
After an unknown passage of time, Barriss is visited by an Inquisitor – Fourth Sister, whom Barriss addresses as Lyn. She tells Barriss the Empire’s version of Order 66 and says that since Barriss was right about the Jedi being corrupted, her crime is technically forgiven. I liked this loose interpretation of the law, and Barriss going with Lyn makes more sense than simply a desire to escape – Barriss having a personal connection to her, however vague, is a nice touch.
Lyn isn’t the only familiar face Barriss encounters. She meets two other former Jedi, Dante and Ahmar, whom she knows by name. The Grand Inquisitor makes his appearance, promising a worthy future to them, and later takes Barriss aside to train her. The parallel here, with Barriss being scouted by the Inquisitors the same way Morgan was scouted by Thrawn, worked very well.
In Barriss’s training with the Grand Inquisitor, he forces her to fight with anger and lose her Jedi predictability. I was curious, at this point, where Barriss’s loyalties lay – if she had any left. She had followed Lyn out of prison, but did that mean she felt a particular calling to the dark side? Did Barriss consider herself a Jedi, or someone with any connection left to the Force?
In all fairness, these kinds of details would’ve been hard to deliver without explicit dialogue. They were better left to Barriss’s actions – which seemed to push her significantly in one direction.
Very unsubtly, the Grand Inquisitor tells Barriss and Dante that Ahmar died in an “accident” when he tried to escape. The final test posed to the two remaining captors is a “winner takes all”-type deal, with only one of them slated to rise in the ranks of the Inquisitors. Barriss is initially reluctant to fight, but Dante refuses to back down. They fight, and Barriss ultimately wins the upper hand by Force-choking Dante – a very dark side-coded ability – and passes the Grand Inquisitor’s test.
I wish we’d seen more of a bond between these three Padawans. They all recognize and acknowledge each other upon their first meeting, but there’s no friendship or relief. Everyone acts solely for their own survival, as if the others are strangers. Just a clip of Dante embracing Barriss when they reunited would’ve made the final fight hit so much harder.
When Barriss joins the other Inquisitors, we see some familiar faces. Marrok from Ahsoka is one, which is interesting – it confirms his origins, at least. But he was such a nothingburger of a character in that show. And then there’s the unnamed Inquisitor from TotJ who lasted a little longer against Ahsoka. Seriously, when did we stop giving the Inquisitors numbers?
I was genuinely nervous that, when Barriss was given her helmet, they’d christen her as “Seventh Sister” and confirm my worst fears. But they didn’t give her any name, so that’s a little disappointing. There was this fantheory I used to see online here and there, far before this show debuted, that Barriss’s Inquisitor title was “First Sister.” I found this concept cool, and I liked the subtle implication that Barriss wasn’t just an Inquisitor, she was the Inquisitor. Somehow, she was at the beginning of them all. Honestly, I do prefer this take to what we got, with the Inquisitors already being strongly established by the time they pick up Barriss, but I’m not complaining. This episode set Barriss off on a dark, dangerous path.
The one element, though, that I will complain about, is Vader. Vader greeting the Inquisitors? Sure, makes sense. But him having no reaction to Barriss? Come on!
In Anakin’s eyes, Barriss was the one who sent Ahsoka away. She was the one who tried to kill Ahsoka, frame her, and have her executed. Anakin should hate Barriss, and that hate certainly shouldn’t disappear because he became Vader. It should flourish.
I guess this kills my main TotE theory – that Barriss would start to fall to the dark side, deny it, reclaim the light, and then be killed by Vader anyway. Even if we’re not getting that – and I’m glad, don’t get me wrong, I want Barriss alive! – something would’ve been nice. Just something like Vader’s gaze falling on Barriss and Barriss flinching away, hit by his wave of hatred, would’ve been great. The concept that Vader doesn’t care about her anymore, this soon after Order 66, feels like a missed opportunity.
Episode 5: Realization
In a vague time jump, we are brought back to Barriss and Lyn, this time as Inquisitors working together on a mission. They are told not to question their orders – which is exactly the logic that once drove Barriss away from the Jedi. Their task is to hunt down a rebel target hiding on the planet.
The settings are beautifully done here, as they are in every episode, but this one stood out to me. Lyn and Barriss interrogate the villagers about harboring the fugitive, but they take very different approaches. Whereas Barriss is comforting and gentle, Lyn is harsh and volatile. Barriss finds their answer, but Lyn reacts violently to the villagers who lied to them. When she is told “People are judged by their actions,” she responds with “Well, then…” before massacring the crowd. It’s a stone-cold line.
Barriss watches in horror, shielding a young boy – the only survivor – from the carnage. (Does he have any family left?) This reaction felt contradictory to me, especially when paired with Barriss’s earlier statements in this episode about how she wants to spread order through the galaxy. She’s already seen two of her friends die at the hands of the Inquisitors, and she was forced to kill one of them herself! How much death will it take for her to see the light?
Well, about one more. Barriss and Lyn find the Jedi hiding in the mountains, who is revealed to be no one we’ve previously met. I’d hoped this Jedi would be Luminara Unduli, but we can discuss that later. The two of them fight with the Jedi, but Barriss doesn’t want to kill them. She tries to reach out, telling them they don’t have to keep running. Before she can take them in peacefully, however, Lyn attacks.
Lyn walks away, refusing to save the still-breathing Jedi, despite Barriss’s protests. When Lyn claims that all Jedi must be killed, Barriss responds with “Then you have one Jedi left to deal with,” throwing Lyn off the cliff along with her own Inquisitor helmet. She returns to the injured Jedi and promises to save them, reassuring them they aren’t alone.
I was surprised by Barriss wholeheartedly reclaiming the title of Jedi, as that seemed to be a label she discarded long before the trial. I can’t say it wasn’t satisfying to see her turn away from the dark side and slip back into the role of savior – this is what I’ve wanted for a while! But I’d expected a longer, angstier path for Barriss in her struggle back to the light. At least, in TotE, she didn’t suffer before finding her way again. I can appreciate that.
Episode 6: The Way Out
In this final episode, there’s another vague passage of time, but Barriss appears to be much older. She is referred to as “the healer” by those seeking her assistance, and she is working to protect Force-sensitive children from the Empire. However, Lyn has been searching for her all this time, and she and Barriss will be forced to face each other for the last time.
It was hard to gauge when this episode took place. Barriss seemed to have aged significantly, but I like the theory that this is because she used so much Force energy to heal others. Given that Lyn is still an Inquisitor, this episode must take place after the Kenobi show, since Lyn was in it, and before RotJ, since the Empire is still around. So that puts us anywhere from 10-23 years after Order 66, not accounting for the unknown period of time between Barriss being picked up by the Inquisitors and her walking away.
Barriss tells the couple with the Force-sensitive baby about her master, but she doesn’t refer to Luminara by name. It’s frustrating; did she never learn what happened to her? Even a throwaway line about her mourning Luminara’s death would’ve been good. Very interestingly, however, when Barriss sends the couple away she tells them that an “old friend” will protect them. Given that she refers to this friend as “she,” it’s very likely that she’s sending these people to Ahsoka. Does this mean Barriss and Ahsoka have already reunited, or is Barriss trusting that Ahsoka will automatically protect those who need it? If the implication is that the two of them simply reignited their friendship at some unseen point, that’d be disappointing. It’d be the equivalent of Ahsoka and Luke casually interacting in The Book of Boba Fett without showing how they met.
Nevertheless, this is a great episode. Lyn tries to fight Barriss, but Barriss stays on the defensive, not using a lightsaber. She easily avoids Lyn’s attacks, mirroring the Grand Inquisitor’s actions when he first taught Barriss how to use her anger. She also refers to her as Lyn, never Fourth Sister, to Lyn’s fury.
As Lyn chases the couple into a frozen cave, Barriss warns Lyn against it, as she will never find her way out. Lyn ignores this, charging forward blindly. The cavern is reflective and beautiful, and part of me genuinely thought this episode would end with Lyn being trapped forever. But no, of course this isn’t how Barriss treats her former enemy. Her line to Lyn in the cave: “It seems fear is not your ally, but your master” – was fantastic, as well as all the symbolism with Lyn failing to find “the way out.”
When Lyn accidentally stabbed Barriss, I gasped and let myself fully believe that Barriss would die and become one with the Force. But in her injury, in her confidence of redemption for her friend, she reaches Lyn. Lyn realizes that Barriss is right – that she can escape both her physical and mental prisons – and carries Barriss out into the light.
(One of my notes was just “These cats are like the rich man’s crystal critters” and I stand by that.)
So – what exactly happened? I don’t know if it’s a great sign when the first thing someone Googles after watching your show is “is Barriss dead?”
I couldn’t find a definitive answer to this, and that buoyed me. If Barriss had truly died in this episode, it would’ve been more solid – she would’ve let out her last breath, she would’ve become one with the Force, or we’d have seen her body after Lyn carried her out from the cave. Seeing none of the above makes me confident that Barriss is still alive.
I wish Lyn had told Barriss “You’re not alone” at the end of the episode. It would’ve paralleled with what Barriss said to the Jedi from the last episode, and the subtle implication, since that Jedi lived, would be that Barriss lives as well.
