Television 

Five Thoughts on Star Wars: Resistance‘s “Rendezvous Point”

By | November 26th, 2019
Posted in Television | % Comments

This week, we’ve got a mysterious Resistance fighter with connections to the Colossus. Who is she? Read on to find out — and I think it goes without saying, but beware of spoilers.

1. The First Order is back, baby!

We’ve spent a few episodes now floating out in space while the Colossus slowly starves to death, so it’s nice to see some First Order action again if not for the storyline variety, but also because we haven’t gotten an update on how Tam is doing lately.

Speaking of which, the episode begins in the heat of a firefight between the Colossus and First Order while the former waits for an unspecified “her,” which I initially assumed referred to Tam (reader, I was wrong). I guess it would be a little too much to have her suddenly defecting back from the First Order after no build up or resolution between her and Kaz, but… I don’t know, it’s a kids show? I guess I have low expectations for that sort of thing when I really shouldn’t. Shame on me. The “her” ends up being a Resistance fighter who shows up literally a second after the Colossus has decided they can’t wait any longer, or they risk whatever the Disney XD equivalent of death is. It’s a predictable bummer, but then we still don’t know who this woman is or why she’s important. Mystery!

2. Anonymous Resistance fighter, thy name is badass

Whoever the woman is, she isn’t phased by just randomly getting plopped down in the middle of a ton of TIE Fighters and Star Destroyers, which is admirable, if not perplexing. Instead of trying to get away as far as possible, she instead pilots straight into the fray, looking to cause some trouble. There’s a lot of confidence behind that decision, spoken and unspoken; of course she’s rewarded for it by being captured by one of their tractor beams, but again, her and her droid don’t seem too phased by this. This brash show of confidence, which continues through the entire episode, is a quick and easy way to establish a character we know nothing about. She’s Poe in The Force Awakens, but with more experience.

Kudos to Filoni and the team for making this Resistance fighter someone you care about before you’re told definitively why you should care about her (more on that in a moment). Sure, she’s stereotypically Rebellion/Resistance, but that makes her familiar, which makes the mystery of her identity seem less important until it is.

3. Torra has some baggage

The first indication that there’s something more going on with this Resistance fighter is Torra’s somewhat out of character outburst after the Aces criticize her father. Leave it to Neeku to connect the dots: he reveals to Kaz that Torra and her father always act weird on this day, starting with a trip they took six years ago, coincidentally the same day the Resistance was formed. Kaz of course storms the bridge over eagerly offering to help contact the Resistance for Doza, which leads to the episode’s big reveal: the anonymous Resistance pilot is actually Torra’s mom, Venisa Doza! Seems she joined back up when it appeared the First Order was following in the Empire’s steps (again, classic rebel), but allows herself to meet up with her family every year on this day, because… drum roll please…. It’s also Torra’s birthday. What a bummer this day is turning out to be for her, huh?

I like the character development, though.You don’t always get too deep into anything on shows geared towards kids, so it’s a nice change of pace for a character who isn’t Kaz or Tam. Plus, I’ve been wondering where Torra’s mom is. At least she’s not, you know… dead.

Kaz, Neeku, and the Aces manage to turn things around for her at the end of the episode by surprising her with a gorg cake. It’s a really cute moment and leads into a nice exchange between Torra and Doza about the importance of having each other. There’s also clearly a message about the family you choose baked into that gorg cake, which is a nice subtext to the family togetherness.

4. Is this the turning point for Tam?

Continued below

The bulk of the episode is spent watching Venisa escape the First Order with Tam, who she’s taken hostage. Tam gets herself into this mess in the first place by going to visit Venisa in prison, because she feels like she recognizes her (maybe it’s the family resemblance?). Venisa throws her for a loop by knowing exactly who Tam is, and there’s a lot of back and forth while they sneak through the Destroyer about Tam needing to return to the Colossus. She doesn’t, of course — that would be too easy — but there are a few moments when it seems like she’s considering it (even when she almost swipes Venisa’s gun).

For me, there are two big developments that come out of this. The first happens when Tam, who had previously refused to return to the Colossus, suddenly yells out for Venisa to wait as she pilots herself out of the hanger. Venisa doesn’t hear her, so we never find out what exactly Tam wanted her to wait for; was she worried about her getting killed, or trying to stop her, or trying to escape along with her after having a change of heart about the First Order? It’s the first real definitive moment we’ve seen Tam seemingly rethinking her decision to join, and it makes the next thing that happens all the more weighty.

The second development, and arguably the most weighty moment in the entire episode, is when Tierney asks Tam if the Resistance pilot had revealed her identity to her and Tam lies. It’s a big deal, because up until this moment, Tam seemed pretty determined to sell out her former friends any chance she got. Is her anger relenting? I think so. Will there be consequences to this lie? Definitely; Tierney leaves her with a subtle threat that the First Order has eyes everywhere. The truth will come out.

Duhn duhn duhn…

5. Droids are the best

Another thing that’s classic Rebellion/Resistance about Venisa is her relationship with her droid, Torch. Like R2-D2 and many droids before him, Torch has a snappy attitude and is a valuable partner to his pilot. Literally, I don’t think she would have been able to escape the First Order if it wasn’t for him. In fact I know she wouldn’t have been able to; Torch is the one who rescues her from her jail cell and creates not one, but two diversions by blowing up a bunch of TIEs and stealing one that he pilots around the hanger while Venisa escapes in her X-wing. Honestly, whoever made the decision long ago that astromechs should be semi-invincible, snarky psychopaths was a genius.


//TAGS | Star Wars: Resistance

Kerry Erlanger

Kerry Erlanger is a writer from New York whose accolades include being named Time Person of the Year 2006. She can be found on Twitter at @hellokerry.

EMAIL | ARTICLES



  • -->