I usually start these things with a “We’re back!”, but that’s especially true this week. The last handful of episodes have been pretty rough, milling about with side stories in order to teach Ezra the same lessons he learned in previous seasons. As much as I try to be positive about these episodes, this episode really put into perspective how disappointing they’ve been.
Without any further ado, let’s dive into why Star Wars: Rebels‘ “An Inside Man” finally feels like this show is back to where it should be.
1. Back To Lothal
I loved the fact that this episode brought us back to Lothal. While I was initially unhappy with the first season’s focus on such a, for lack of a better word, insignificant planet as the birthplace of rebellion, I have a better sense of why the show was constructed that way in hindsight. Start small and build to something more complex. Bringing Kanan and Ezra back to Lothal after so much time away allows us to see just how much the Empire has changed in those few years.
When the show began, the Empire was still under the pretence of being a harsh, but fair society for all. It clearly wasn’t true, of course, but it was pretending it was. Now, all pretences have been dropped and we what Imperial occupation of a planet is really like. Our first glimpse of the planet is of Imperial propaganda before we see walkers and speeder bikes patrolling the streets with stormtrooper-manned blockades around the city. It feels like a military occupation because we finally see the Empire transition into it’s true form of a war machine that controls through the inciting of fear.
Seeing this is a reminder of what the Ghost crew are fighting against.
2. A Cog In The Imperial Machine
Not only did we get a look of what a real Imperial occupation looks like, but we also got a look at a different side of the Empire in this episode. We really got to look inside the Imperial war machine and how it uses the people of the worlds it occupies. Farmers conscripted to work in factories to build the tools that oppress them. This is a dark episode with a lot of sinister implications in how the Empire operates and after the last couple of episodes, I really appreciate the guts it takes to show Thrawn straight up murdering factory workers for their insubordination.
I feel like this episode was about getting the Rebels back on track and reframing their fight against the Empire after a couple of episodes of them milling about and not really making much progress in anything. By having Kanan and Ezra infiltrate the Imperial factories, it reinvigorates the characters and the audience to see the Empire dismantled after seeing what it does to people. Hopefully, this can bring season three back on course.
3. Thrawn Comes Into View
Thrawn has been on the tail of the Rebels throughout this entire season with some close calls here and there, but I think this is the point where we see him gearing up for a full scale confrontation. He’s been clearly thinking ahead, analysing the crew of the Ghost in particular through their art, but I’m glad we’re getting to the point where he’s stopped hanging back and taking the fight to the Rebels.
Thrawn is a very reactive antagonist, allowing the Ghost crew a handful of victories in order to analyse their movements and patterns and thinking, before becoming proactive and I hope we’re getting to see the latter soon. I have to wonder if some of my complaints about the last couple of episodes feeling aimless have been done to not having a drive sense of antagonism. I hope this episode is the turning point for the series where Thrawn becomes the deadly hunter we’ve been promised.
4. Fulcrum Revealed
Oh boy, did I call this one. I mean, like I said in that write up, this wasn’t exactly a well hidden twist. If it was supposed to be, they didn’t do a great job, but judging from the reactions of Henry Gilroy and Pablo Hidalgo, it wasn’t something that was supposed to perplex the fans.
Continued belowInstead, this more a look at the natural of Kallus as a character. He began as a ruthless interrogator in the ISB, hunting down the Ghost crew and eradicating any sign of rebellion with a vengeance. Now, we see Kallus has pretty much been swayed against the Empire. He sees how the Imperial structure treats the beings it was said to protect as, well, cogs in the machine and sympathises with the Rebel cause. As Thrawn steps up to take his place as the hound on the Rebels’ trail, Kallus becomes their inside man.
It’s an interesting subversion of the character as we were introduced to him and I can’t wait to see where they take this.
5. Feeling Like Star Wars Again
As I said, this episode felt like a reframing of the conflict of this episode and all the better for it. It brought back Thrawn and put him in the spotlight, showcasing his meticulous and methodical ways and puts him in a very actively antagonistic position against the rebels. This allowed a new ally in Kallus to be revealed and, in the end, allows us to look a head at the fight to come against a Thrawn who is looking to take the fight to the Ghost crew.
Not only that, but this episode in and of itself was more tense, more exciting and more engaging than we’ve seen in a number of weeks with a building tension that mounted during the episode to a final battle that was action-packed and inventive and showcased familiar Star Wars elements in new and surprising ways.
This is what I expect from Star Wars: Rebels and I’m glad this show is, hopefully, getting back on track.
Bonus Thought: Holy Shit, The TIE Defender Is Canon
Holy shit, I can’t believe this. I was complaining on twitter just the other week about the fact that the TIE Defender is the pinnacle of needlessly ugly TIE variations. Every TIE iteration past the Interceptor has tried to reinvent the wheel of having a series of flat panels attached to a sphere and the Defender might be the one I hate most. And now it’s canon. Not only is it canon, but it’s a major plot point in Rebels. Star Wars, who do you do this to me?
