A Jedi crashlands on a planet…

The ninth episode of Visions is the second episode produced by Science SARU.

The episode follows the Jedi Tsubaki as he approaches and then crash lands onto an unnamed planet. He is rescued and slowly makes his way across a wilderness with two men acting as garrulous guides – a staple trope for these kinds of stories and a welcome sight here.

However, this story puts Tsubaki into a situation of kicking against his own fate. It posits that there’s nothing which stops us from ending up as creatures of destiny. Unlike Luke Skywalker, Tsubaki, when faced with a choice about living according to his beliefs of saving someone he loves by abandoning them, chooses the latter.

All through the episode we are given a sense that he knows his end, has already accepted it and so when it comes to making the decision, Tsubaki really made it long ago – in deciding to ignore his master, in coming to the planet at all, he’d already made his choice.

It’s less a succumbing to destiny than seeing two possible roads and choosing one of them. The other characters in his life only learn this at the end of his journey – because he tells them nothing ahead of that moment but the one person who knows? They’re the same person he’s really come to meet.

It’s a nuanced strike – because we as the viewer are led to believe he’s there to save someone but in reality he’s there to finish travelling the road he’s been walking and everything else is set dressing. It’s not until the end of the episode that you realise his dreams weren’t trauma but premonitions, warnings, perhaps even an invitation.

Yet through it all Tsubaki walks as if it’s not his fault and this is the strangest, most maudlin aspect of the episode, that a man might willingly walk to his doom, a death inside his heart, while still living and breathing, while knowing he will go on to change all around him for the worse. The portrayal of Tsubaki is note perfect – this complex swirl of depression, self pity and inevitability all at play with each step.

Verdict: This is the darkest episode of the anthology and a great way to finish the series.

Rating? 9 false hopes out of 10.

Stewart Hotston