Is it that time already? Feels like just last week, I was kicking off a new Five Thoughts article about a new Star Wars series titled Resistance about a young pilot left on a modified refuelling platform to spy on the First Order and here I am, back reviewing the second episode already! Time flies when you’re having fun, huh?
1. The Hero’s Journey
Most core Star Wars work follows Joseph Campbell’s theory of story structure pretty closely. The Hero’s journey from their ordinary life, one where they felt trapped by circumstance, to becoming everything their ever dreamed after learning they were part of something far greater. Sound familiar?
A key part of that journey is that every hero has a core flaw. Something missing from their character makeup, it’s the source of much of their conflict with those around them. For Luke, it’s naïveté. For Rey, it’s her rashness and ferocity.
For Kaz, it’s his self-centredness. If you listened to the latest episode of one Force Ghost: Coast To Coast, you might remember that Brian found Kaz pretty annoying. That was, I think, most intentional, but maybe not to the extent that Brian found it. Certainly this episode furthers just how annoying Kaz can be in the efforts of humbling him, teaching him a lesson on priorities. It’s the same episode structure that Rebels had in the beginning and I probably had the same reaction to Ezra as Brian has had to Kaz. With hindsight, though, it’s easy to keep in mind that the point of these shows is to watch the characters grow, and I’m excited to see where Resistance takes Kaz.
2. Life On The Platform / The Average Person
It’s not exactly a large part of this episode, but I love the little details of this episode that explore what life is like for, as Yaeger calls them, the “average person.” The topic comes up after Kaz mentions who on the platform might not be happy with him after learning he’s a Resistance spy with Yaeger commenting that the average person doesn’t know the Resistance even exists.
It’s an interesting thought to realise that the galaxy-spanning conflict that will soon envelop the entire New Republic is, at this stage, merely a blip on the radar of said Average Person. The person slugging away their life on the Colossus for a few credits a day doesn’t care what Leia Organa has to say about some mystery organisation out in the Unknown Regions of space. That isn’t the here and now. And it’s interesting to see Kaz’s mission juxtaposed against people who only care about the Here and Now.
3. An Attempt At Spying / Making Friends
I’m glad Kaz’s attempt at spying isn’t a large part of the episode mostly because it’s the sequence most made for the younger audience of the show. It’s the point of the episode where the main character makes a dumb, selfish decision that gets him into all sorts of trouble that is only counteracted by the larger plot of the episode which is conveniently solved by something related to the main character’s selfish/dumb actions previously in the episode. Yeah. I’ve done this dance before, more than a few times.
That being said, it’s the heart of the episode and the moments where they inject more than a few moments of slapstick humour or broad jokes to keep kids invested in the episode. I can’t fault them for that, this is, after all, a Disney show and I’m a 24 year old adult. I’m not exactly their target audience, after all. I just hope things get a little bit snappier in the new few episodes.
4. Pilot Vs. Pirate
If last episode was Resistance delivering on the promise of the starfighter races shown in the trailers, this episode was them showcasing that they can do far more with those fighters than just racing. I’m very glad of that, not the least of which because I was worried that before Season One would even be over that they would be resorting to silly gimmick races in order to not run out of the ideas.
No, the episode smartly focuses on Kaz’s attempt to further his mission as a spy for Poe Dameron, has him uncover a plot by pirates to attack the Colossus under the cover of a Triple Dark storm and, while the platform’s aces struggle to keep the pirates at bay, has him come up with a plan to drive them off. It’s a simple, effective climax to the episode that has Kaz use a mistake he made in the past to his advantage in the present and, smartly, keeps him on the ground. Kaz isn’t one of the aces yet. But he’ll get there.
Continued below5. Checking In On The First Order
Seems like, for the time being, Resistance will continue checking in on the First Order at the end of each episode, seeing how things are going and having them react to the happenings on the Colossus platform. It’s very kid’s show plotting, keeping the hero and the villain isolated as the villain uses proxies to effect their will upon the environment of the hero until the villain becomes so exasperated by the hero besting their proxies that they take matters into their own hands.
Again, I’ve done this dance before. Still, it was nice to hear Gwnedoline Christie get as much dialogue here as she did in her two film appearances as well as confirmation that our Red Baron friend is Major Elrik Vonreg. I couldn’t for the life of me make out what he called himself last episode, so it’s good to put a name to the… helmet.
