Tales Of The Empire Episode Guide

Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for Tales of the Empire episodes 1-6

Summary

• Tales of the Empire is a new
  Star Wars
  show on Disney+. Released in celebration of Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) all 6 episodes are available to stream.
• The series explores the tragic origins of Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth and the fate of the rogue Jedi Barriss Offee.
• Episodes delve into dark paths, Imperial alliances, and Inquisitor recruitment, revealing major character fates and exciting new conflicts.

Star Wars has released the new Tales of the Empire show on Disney+. Celebrating Star Wars Day 2024 in epic fashion, all six episodes of the new animated series were released at once by Lucasfilm, allowing fans of the galaxy far, far away to binge the entire series as part of their May the Fourth festivities. As a result, Screen Rant has created a comprehensive episode guide for the new Tales of the Empire series.

Much like 2022’s Tales of the Jedi, the new Tales of the Empire features six episodes split between two iconic Star Wars characters. To that end, the first three cover the tragically dark origins of the Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), while the latter half finally reveal the fate of the rogue Jedi Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger) following her attack on the Jedi Temple in The Clone Wars season 5. To that end, here’s a comprehensive for everything Star Wars fans need to know about Tales of the Empire, including recaps, galleries, cast and character info, trivia, and more.

Tales of the Empire Episode 1

Path of Fear

Tales of the Empire episode 1 takes place during the massacre of the Nightsisters of Datomir, originally seen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 4, episode 19. One of the only survivors, Morgan Elsbeth is saved by the neighboring tribe known as the Mountain Clan. Morgan persuades some Mountain Clan sisters to join her in gathering weapons, leaving tragic consequences and the beginning of Morgan’s dark side path as she gives into fear.

Trivia & Lore

• The Mountain Clan is from Star Wars Legends, having first appeared in Dave Wolverton’s The Courtship of Princess Leia.
• The Nightsisters first appeared in The Courtship of Princess Leia as well
• General Grievous quotes Darth Sidious from The Phantom Menace while commanding his droids: “Wipe Them Out…All Of Them”.
• Morgan Elsbeth wasn’t the only Dathomiri Nightsister left alive following Greivous’ massacre. Other survivors include Asajj Ventress, Merrin, and the spirit of Mother Talzin.

Tales of the Empire Episode 2

Path of Anger

With Morgan already the magistrate of Corvus as she was introduced in The Mandalorian season 2, Tales of the Empire episode 2 takes place long before Din Djarin and Grogu’s arrival (and Ahsoka Tano’s). Having pitched her ideas to an Imperial committee, the Empire has little interest in her expensive TIE Defender designs that would better protect its pilots compared to the current models. In danger of a rebellion from her own people following the Empire’s rejection, an angered Morgan Elsbeth finds dark hope with the surprising arrival of Admiral Thrawn who’s quite interested in her ambition and desire for “Imperial favor”.

Trivia & Lore

• Tales of the Empire retcons Morgan into Star Wars Rebels with the reveal that Thrawn got the TIE Defender designs from Elsbeth.
• Rukh is voiced by Warwick Davis. Having voiced Rukh in Rebels, Davis’ first Star Wars role was the Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi. He’s also made secret cameos in multiple Star Wars projects as a variety of different characters.
• Thrawn’s right-hand man, Gilad Pellaeon hails from Legends and was recently introduced in live-action, leading the Imperial Shadow Council in The Mandalorian season 3.
• Thrawn is introduced only as an Admiral in Tales of the Empire as he’s yet to be promoted to the unique rank of “Grand Admiral” at this point in the Star Wars timeline.

Tales of the Empire Episode 3

Path of Hate

Tales of the Empire episode 3 reveals a far more desolate Corvus due to years of Imperial factory work, looking far more like the planet does in The Mandalorian season 2, “The Jedi”. Continuing to work her people as slaves despite the Empire’s fall, Morgan rejects the New Republic’s offer to make Corvus a member planet and demands that she give up her station. Having already received her vision of the future and how to bring Thrawn back to the galaxy, Morgan and her assassin droids kill the New Republic’s emissaries, with Elsbeth fully giving in to her hate.

Trivia & Lore

• Tales of the Empire episode 3 confirms Morgan’s role on Corvus was in service to Thrawn with the TIE Defender program.
• The mention of “mercenaries coming and going” is likely a reference to Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati, and/or Captain Lang from The Mandalorian season 2 (played by The Terminator’s Michael Biehn).
• Wing is voiced by Wing T. Chao who played the live-action character in The Mandalorian season 2.
• The voice heard on the other end of the New Republic’s emergency transmission is Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze, setting up the future events of The Mandalorian season 2 where Ahsoka and Din Djarin join forces to defeat Elsbeth.

• Morgan Elsbeth

  Hailing from the planet Dathomir, Morgan Elsbeth’s people were almost wiped out during the Clone Wars after their leader, Mother Talzin, became a rival to Darth Sidious himself. Morgan swore loyalty to the Empire, and became a close associate of Grand Admiral Thrawn himself. When Thrawn was stranded in a distant galaxy, she spearheaded efforts to retrieve him, prompted by visions cast by the Great Mothers of Peridea. She was sacrificed by Thrawn to buy him time to escape Peridea, with Ahsoka and her allies stranded there.

  Cast

  Diana Lee Inosanto

  Alliance

  Empire/Dathomiri

  Race

  Dathomiri

• Barriss Offee

  The Mirialan apprentice of Luminara Unduli, Barriss Offee became disillusioned with the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars. She ultimately betrayed the Jedi, even launching a terrorist attack on the Jedi Temple itself, and framed Ahsoka for the crime. Exposed, Barriss was imprisoned – but she was recovered by the Empire shortly after Revenge of the Sith, joining the ranks of the Imperial Inquisitors.

  Cast

  Nalini Krishnan , Meredith Salenger , Tatyana Yassukovich

  Alliance

  Jedi/Inquisitors

  Race

  Mirialan

Tales of the Empire Episode 4

Devoted

The final three episodes of Tales of the Empire finally reveal Barriss Offee’s fate. The rogue Jedi who was incarcerated after bombing the Jedi Temple at the end of The Clone Wars season 5, Barriss had become disillusioned by the Jedi Order. As such, Tales of the Empire episode 4 sees Offee feeling the countless Jedi deaths during Order 66 from her cell on Coruscant. The next day, Barris is recruited into the Imperial Inquisitorius, tested and trained by the Grand Inquisitor as she devotes herself to their dark ranks and the service of Darth Vader himself.

Trivia & Lore

• The troopers on the Fortress of Nur are wearing the same armor as the elite unit The Bad Batch’s Crosshair briefly led in the show’s first season.
• Tales of the Empire confirms Palpatine had at least 2 Inquisitors recruited before Order 66- The Grand Inquisitor and Fourth Sister.
• Darth Vader sees Barris without her new helmet. This means he would have recognized her, though he doesn’t seek revenge for her framing the Jedi Temple attack on Anakin’s apprentice Ahsoka Tano. In his mind, Anakin Skywalker is dead.
• The Jedi whom Barriss is forced to fight to the death to become an Inquisitor is named Dante. Voiced by Nicolas Cantu, Cantu is known for recently voicing Leonardo in Seth Rogen’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Tales of the Empire Episode 5

Realization

Having become an official Imperial Inquisitor with new armor and her own revolving double-bladed red lightsaber, Barriss joins the Fourth Sister on a mission to investigate a reported Jedi sighting in Tales of the Empire episode 5. Conflicted by the pain and struggles experienced by citizens of the Empire, Barriss soon realizes what the Empire’s “order” truly looks like. To that end, the eventual discovery of this Jedi survivor results in a critical pivot for Barriss Offee regarding her own dark side path.

Trivia & Lore

• A Jedi uses the Force to defend, never to attack. After Barriss says Lyn has one Jedi left to deal with, she waits, allowing Lyn to attack before she repels her with the Force – proving herself a Jedi.
• The Jedi in this episode is identified by “they/them” pronouns, the first human Jedi to have done so in Star Wars animation.
• Both Fourth Sister and Barriss have traditional Inquisitor lightsabers with spinning blades. These sabers can be canonically used as miniature helicopters. While that particular move hasn’t been seen on-screen since Star WarsRebels, it may explain how Fourth Sister survived her confrontation with Barriss by the episode’s end.
• Fourth Sister is one of the few Inquisitors who do not wear masks on field missions, which generally seems to denote either rank or a level of trust from the Grand Inquisitor/Darth Vader.

Tales of the Empire Episode 6

The Way Out

In Tales of the Empire episode 6, years have passed since Barris Offee left the ranks of the Inquisitorius while still taking place during the Dark Times. Known as a healing woman, Barriss aids two parents fleeing the Empire with their Force-sensitive child. Pursued by the Fourth Sister, Barriss faces the Inquisitor once more, though she makes a point to call her by her real name, Lyn Rakish. Buying the family time to escape using nearby ice caves, Offee also attempts to help Lyn find “the way out” from the dark side just as she did.

Trivia & Lore

• Barriss Offee is intentionally established as neither Jedi nor Sith in Tales of the Empire episode 6, having become something all her own in the Star Wars timeline.
• Steve Blum voices one of Offee’s attendants, though the voice actor is best known in Star Wars for being the voice of Zeb Orrelios.
• The ice cave appears to be a brand-new vergence in the Force, not unlike Dagobah’s Cave of Evil or Ahch-To’s dark side vergence below the first Jedi Temple.
• There’s a strong implication that Offee convinces Fourth Sister to give up the dark side, having left her lightsaber behind in the cave. This would explain her absence in Star Wars Rebels which likely takes place not long after Tales of the Empire episode 6.