It’s time, folks. The season one finale of Star Wars: Resistance is upon us. This week, we look at the first half of said finale as things begin to wrap up and Kaz’s resistance begins to fight back against the occupation of the First Order. Read on below to find out what I thought of Resistance‘s penultimate episode.
1. Doza’s Arrest
So… the Colossus is underwater thanks to Kaz, who is now operating as the head of a Resistance cell, who sunk it in order to get a communication to General Organa last week. Organa’s troops are currently searching the galaxy for Rey and Finn and BB-8, so have no ships to spare to help such a remote system. Now, Kaz has to find a way off the platform and get to Hosnian Prime to petition his dad, a New Republic senator, to send reinforcements to drive the First Order off of the station. All caught up? Good, because it’s been a wild few episodes.
This episode opens with the First Order finally cementing their hold on the platform by arresting Doza, who actually puts up a decent fight. The opening with Doza, Pyre and 4D was exciting and surprising (who knew a personal assistant like 4D was packing that much heat) and by the end of it, had cemented the stakes of the episode: the First Order controls the platform, this is Kaz’s last and only chance to take back the Colossus.
2. Underwater Antics
And how does Kaz take back the Colossus? Well, this episode has a lot of cross-talked and chopped-and-changed plans that largely involved Kaz swimming outside the Colossus to get back in at a different level in order to, I think, go find Yeager. That plan gets so twisted around by complications like scubatroopers, an evil ball droid and meeting up with Torra that by the time the episode ends, I’m kind of wondering exactly what was accomplished.
Obviously, this is an episode that is designed entirely to be set up for what will be paid off in the next episode, the actual finale, but this also has to stand out on its own. Sure, the underwater fight with the scubatroopers was a highlight of the episode, but everything after that is kind of a mishmash with no clear goal until the bombshell at the end of the episode.
Maybe if there was a clear goal with something of a time limit like rescuing Yaeger before something bad happens, this episode would have felt more focused, but as it stands it really feels like Kaz running around the Colossus hoping something magical fixes his problem.
3. A Hyperdrive?!
Well, who’da thunk that the Colossus was also a starship? I don’t really know how that’s going to play into the finale, but I have a feeling it’s going to mean something spectacular. At least, that’s the sincere hope. Otherwise, why bring it up, right? If I were a betting woman, I would assume it’s going to be used to either blow up or relocate the Colossus with a potential relocation off of Castillon. Both of those things could mean serious changes for season two so I’m excited to see how that plays out.
4. Oy Gevalt, This Tam Thing
I am extremely glad that this is the second last time I’ll have to write about this force forsaken character arc because every new episode tries my patience more and more. Remember when I said that having Kaz and Yeager lie for Tam’s “protection” a few episodes ago would come back to bite us all in the ass because there’s no way she wouldn’t end up feeling incredibly betrayed by that.
So of course now she’s on a course to either accept that the First Order are actually evil because they, y’know, arrested her and all of her friends while also being incredibly mad at Kaz and Yaeger for, y’know, repeatedly lying to her about being spies or she ends up so incredibly hurt that she joins the First Order and betrays her friends.
Either way, I am so incredibly tired of this whole thing.
5. The Last Day Of The Republic
And so, we have caught up with the events of The Force Awakens. Out there, in the galaxy, Rey, Finn and BB-8 are currently on Takodana as Finn witnesses the hyperspace beam scorch the sky and Rey discovers a lightsaber in the basement of Maz’s castle. And in our tiny corner of the galaxy, Kaz watches his entire childhood life be destroyed before his very eyes. It’s a sobering note to end the episode on and a very dark note to open the finale on.
More than anything, I’m interested to see not just how the finale resolves the problem of the First Order occupation, but where things are left off for a second season. Who knows where this show goes from here.
