It certainly looked as though Slave 1 blew up, but that can't be, since it's still around in TESB. Kind of an odd outcome. But then, we didn't see a "body," either for the ship or Aurra, so by the laws of action storytelling, they can't be presumed dead.
Man, I had no idea the artificial shell around Coruscant went that deep. Maybe that part goes clear to the ocean bed or something. Though I'm not sure such a vast mass of artificial structure could support its own weight. Any open spaces that deep down should be crushed flat.
An interesting design detail: the hover taxi used by Plo and Ahsoka to descend below had animated ads on the sides. What's odd, though, is that they faced outward and couldn't be read by the passengers. That seems counterproductive.
I liked the focus on Ahsoka, whom we haven't seen enough of lately. It's good to see Mace not falling for the action-movie cliche of revenge, or of making "justice" personal, but instead embracing a more detached, Jedi attitude to the matter. It shouldn't be personal, it shouldn't be about him, so it's logical to send someone other than Mace, both because Mace is injured and because his presence would inflame the situation and make it harder to reason with Boba. It is so refreshing to see a story where such a decision is made logically and professionally instead of going the cliched route of having the injured hero go after the villain personally despite all the reasons not to. Not only does it show that Mace is wise enough to set personal agendas aside for the good of the mission, but it shows that he trusts his fellow Jedi. In all those shows where the hero is told "You have to stay out of it and let us handle it" and the hero ignores that and goes after the bad guy anyway because of a need to be personally responsible for bringing them down, it never occurs to the hero to trust his teammates or partners, to recognize that they're all in it together and will look out for his interests just as reliably as he would. And that always annoys me. If you trust your team, if you believe in them, then it shouldn't matter to you which member of your team catches the bad guy. To insist on doing it personally is sheer egocentrism. Nice to see at least one fictional hero recognizing that.
And we got to see Ahsoka gaining some maturity and judgment here too, taking Plo's advice to be subtle and listen. I wonder, was her enhanced hearing ability here meant to be a Jedi talent, or an aspect of the Togruta species' echolocation abilities? Or maybe a mix of both, either her Jedi training letting her enhance her innate abilities or, conversely, her particular Togruta traits affecting how her Force sensitivity manifests?
When Plo caught Boba here, it answered a question I've had. In a lot of reviews of past episodes, posters here have asked why the Jedi don't just use Force telekinesis on their opponents, and I recall speculating that maybe it only worked on inanimate objects because of some kind of neural interference from a living being. But here, Plo captured the fleeing Boba through TK. So I guess that's out. Unless Plo is unusually talented or strong in his use of the Force.
I was surprised at how sympathetically Boba was portrayed here -- reluctant to kill and see people suffer, misguided, potentially redeemable. That doesn't seem consistent with his adult reputation as this ruthless, hardcore bad guy (which always seemed disproportionate -- how did this character get so popular based on a tiny, almost non-speaking appearance in the original trilogy plus a cartoon short in the infamous Holiday Special?). What's the throughline from this Boba to that one?
