The Ahsoka finale, unsurprisingly, is a disappointment. But instead of my usual complaining, I want to use this opportunity to highlight one of the show’s greatest strengths. A character whose near-total absence in this lackluster and incomplete finale is felt tremendously, because his very presence just inherently makes everything around him better. One of this show’s biggest flaws is how low-energy it is, but not when it comes to this character.

Whenever we find out an actor with a long career’s last role ends up being some one-off villain part in a big franchise, there’s a degree of sadness, as these roles rarely offer a chance to showcase that actor’s talents. I may not have had much experience with Ray Stevenson, but I dreaded the same phenomenon with his character in this show. I am so happy to have been dead wrong.

Baylan Skoll carries every scene he’s in, and it’s entirely thanks to Ray Stevenson’s performance. There’s a lot of mystery in how Baylan is written, all we really know is that he’s a fallen Jedi master who, rather than becoming an outright Sith, has chosen to pursue his own ends. But the way this character is performed tells a different story.

Baylan is old, and I don’t just mean physically. This is a man who’s seen a lot, lived through a lot, and has had the time to think about how the world got to be the way it is. And where it should go next. And so, with what time he has left, he will play his role in engineering that change. There’s such a deep vulnerability within that, which all comes through in Stevenson’s performance. Again, he’s lived through a lot. Outlived a lot. We know little about what exactly he lost after the Jedi Order fell, but it’s clear he harbors great sadness over what occured, even after he denounces said Order as a failure.

What this means is that you get moments like a scene in episode 4, where he offers Sabine everything she wants in a scene that should seem like a trick, but solely through his performance, you can tell he means every word as he says it. It’s not a shock when he proves himself true to his word. He’s not here to make enemies. He’s not here to continue the tragedy that befell the Jedi Order. He has his mission, and Sabine has hers, and as far as he’s concerned, there’s no inherent reason for these things to come into conflict. If they can help each other, why not?

But make no mistake, although he is vulnerable, Baylan is no less threatening for it. Stevenson adds such weight and gravitas to every word his character says. And just the way he carries himself adds a tremendous sense of presence, even when he isn’t saying a word. This man is trustworthy and honorable, but nonetheless intimidating.

What we get from all of this is a vague character, one cloaked in an air of mystery, yet one who I feel like I know everything I need to know about. As far as Star Wars goes, he works for the same reason Stellan Skarsgard’s Luthen Rael is effective in Andor. That’s right, my first episode review for this show was lamenting how it could never be as good as Andor, and now my last one is talking about one element that somehow manages to be on almost the same level. Ray Stevenson’s performance as Baylan Skoll needs to be remembered as one of the most iconic performances in this franchise. R.I.P. to this absolute legend of an actor.