Our band of rebellious heroes’ fight gainst the Empire have brought them into conflict with the Mandalorians as they search for a new Hyperspace Lane to travel by. With the pressure mounting, can our heroes convince the Protector of Concord Dawn to allow them safe passage? Read on for our Five Thoughts on the episode to find out!
Obviously, there will be spoilers for the episode below, but you should have watched it before reading this anyway.
1. This Show Gets Darker And Darker
I’ll admit, one of the things I held against this show when it began was it’s focus on a comparatively lighter and more kid-friendly tone after The Clone Wars that got more and more mature in its storytelling as the series went on. Sure, Star Wars is ostensibly for kids, but I admired the balance The Clone Wars was able to strike between levity and mature storytelling that felt like it had faith in a younger audience to accept that a war can be a dark thing.
This is why Rebels‘ lighter feel at first felt strange to me: the fight against the Empire, to me, felt like a darker time than the Clone Wars ever did and yet the tone of the show didn’t quite reflect. As this series has gone on, that tone has crept in as the Rebels get more and more desperate. The stark, music-less space battle between the Phoenix Squadron and the Protector fighters felt emblematic of that and having the very real consequences of that ripple throughout the episode with Hera’s injury and Sabine’s quest to avenge. I appreciate the efforts to show that the Rebels aren’t just coasting through the fight against the Empire and that this Galactic Civil War has consequences.
2. When I Said I Wanted More Hera, This Isn’t What I Meant
Speaking of Hera getting injured… yikes. The shot of her broken, busted and flaming A-Wing coming out of hyperspace is maybe one of my favourite shots of the series so far, especially the moment of Sabine looking around her cockpit to find her. I don’t what it was, but it just felt like such a real moment for the show and a really sobering opening to the episode that really crystallised the desperation the Rebels are beginning to feel.
While I’m glad that the clip of next week’s episode shows Hera back on her feet, I really hope this injury isn’t swept under the rug. As this show goes on, I’m hoping for more and more of a “war is hell” feeling, especially with the “Star Wars x Band Of Brothers” styled Rogue One on the horizon, and this is the kind of thing that gives me hope for that.
3. The Klingons Of Star Wars
Wanna know something that’s gonna make an swathes of Star Wars fans hate me? I don’t care for Mandalorians. I mean, sure, Boba Fett’s armour was cool when I first saw it in The Empire Strikes Back, but there’s something about the fact that there’s an entire culture of Boba Fetts that just kind of… bores me, usually.
At least, that was until I saw the Mandalore-set episodes of The Clone Wars. For the first time, seeing Mandalorian culture as this Game Of Thrones-style myriad of political powers that are all vying for recapture the former glory of a warrior culture through honor and justice. This episode, we see the Mandalorians broken down even more thanks to the Empire’s occupation of Mandalore with the Protectors of Concord Dawn taking orders from Imperials.
There’s something about an honorable warrior culture become the broken down lapdogs of the Empire that finally made me interested in them.
4. Clan Wren, House Vizsla
We already got an episode earlier in the season that focused on Sabine and her time as a bounty hunter after leaving the Imperial Academy, but this episode really looked at her Madalorian roots and it’s a side to her that we haven’t seen before. Driven by her need for payback against the Protectors for shooting down Hera, we saw a more brash Sabine who challenges the Protectors. It was interesting to see this side to her, driven by her relationship with Hera, and was especially interesting to see it juxtaposed against Kanan.
Continued belowBoth Kanan and and Sabine are clearly out to get their own back against the Protectors for shooting down Hera, but while Kanan takes a very Jedi-like approach, we see Sabine almost fall back into her warrior culture roots as a Mandalorian. It was an interesting dynamic for the episode and I hope we get to see those two on missions more down the line.
5. A Reluctant Recruit
Last episode, I noted that it was interesting to see the Rebels recruit Azadi to their cause and seeing them grow the resistance movement against this episode. This episode, I think the show does one better as Kanan and Sabine straight up kidnap Fenn Rau with the show of superior force being what causes him to allow them safe passage through Concord Dawn.
This was another thing that softened me up to the Mandalorians this episode as it showed that, yeah, Sabine’s initial idea of using overwhelming force against the Protectors would get them what they want, but it Kanan was ultimately able to do that without killing anyone and keeping the Empire away from Concord Dawn. With comparisons between the Jedi and Mandalorian ways being rife throughout this episode, it was a nice touch that a combination of both won out in the end.
