It’s time for the penultimate pre-finale episode of the first season of Star Wars: Resistance. Things are getting pretty wild on the Colossus and the grip of the First Order continues its stranglehold on the platform. What will happen to Kaz and the gang? Read on to find out…
1. Things Get Real
Last episode ended with the gang being arrested by the First Order after Pyre came to realise that the Fireball was the ship investigating the cored out planets in “The Core Problem” and this episode deals with the fallout of that moment. It’s interesting to see how this episode puts all of the characters’s opinions of the First Order into action: Kaz and Yeager are Resistance-tied and so they immediately attempt an escape to call for help and Neeku is dragged along because, well, he follows strong personalities, but Tam is the one who just wants to sort things out. She thinks it’s all a misunderstanding.
Now, I’ve had problems with Tam’s arc in recent episodes and I don’t want to continue to ride my high horse about this, but there’s a level of naïveté that this episode hits with regards to Tam’s behaviour that really undercuts a lot of the good of this episode.
2. Tam On The Turn
After the gang are split by the escape attempt, Tam is kept in custody by Pyre before she is handed over to First Order Security Officer Tierny and it’s here that I finally appreciate some of the dominoes that Resistance has set up. Tierny exists to play on Tam’s naïveté and blind trust of the First Order, much as I dislike those traits in her. Tierny plays the good cop, bringing Tam to a comforting setting and plying her with hospitality before trying to extract the information she needs.
It’s an interesting ploy and shows the cunning of someone like Tierny who is designed to extract information and clearly knows torture doesn’t work. However, this storyline suffers from a similar problem to previous episodes: once Kaz’s idea to sink the Colossus takes the fore, Tam isn’t seen from again. The scene with Tierny happens almost directly in the middle of the episode and Tam just disappears after that. I get that space is at a premium in short episodes like this, but Tam’s entire character continues to feel subservient to whatever Kaz is doing in the episode and I really hope the finale sorts that out.
3. Sinking The Colossus & Yeager’s Sacrifice
Every so often, both Clone Wars and Rebels would manage to create a scenario or a visual that we’d never truly seen in Star Wars before. This episode managed that for maybe the first time in Resistance, but, boy, did they do it with style. Sinking the Colossus to make it to the tope of the spire by swimming is the kind of ingenious use of setting that I absolutely adore. It was a great action setpiece that didn’t rely on blasters or ships, but instead relied on a smart character using their surroundings in a unique way. More of this please.
And, also, I have to admit that I half expected Yeager to go down in this episode. I saw his sacrifice coming, cornered by the First Order and knowing it’s more important for Kaz to escape, but I’m surprised he was captured and not killed. There hasn’t been a major death in this show so far (I think this is the first time we’ve even seen a stormtrooper die on screen?) so I was naturally expecting one leading in to the finale. I’m pleasantly surprised that, for now, Resistance is avoiding that.
4. You’re The Resistance Now, Dawg
It’s only taken 18 episodes, give or take, but Kaz’s crew is officially the Colossus Resistance, fighting back against the First Order to free their friends and take back the Colossus. While I may have criticised the winding road we took to get here, I enjoyed how this episode finally galvanised Kaz to out himself as the Resistance spy and gather his allies before the battle to take back the Colossus.
While, yes, I still bemoan the lack of focus on the Aces of the platform and Tam’s arc these past few episodes, this series seems to have found some sure footing going into the finale that, hopefully, they can keep up with going into the finale of this first season.
Continued below5. Begun, The Battle To Take Back The Colossus Has
So, here we are. On the cusp of the season one finale of Star Wars: Resistance. The First Order openly occupy the Colossus refueling platform, they have taken Tam Rivora and Jarek Yeager prisoner. Kaz, Neeku, the weans and the shell people are the only hope the platform has to escape the clutches of the First Order… and there are pirates on the horizon. And somewhere, out in the galaxy, the force has awakened.
The finale will play out over the next two weeks and we will see how this first season closes out. See you there, folks.
