I just flew in from a weekend at a con and boy my arms are tired!
I know, I know, sorry about that — all this Star Wars: Resistance watching has me thinking in dad jokes, which are never in short order when Kaz is around (aka every episode). What else was that goofball up to this week? Read on to find out and beware of spoilers.
1. The Colossus needs to stop taking on so many passengers
Here we are again, short on supplies and needing to send Kaz and [insert this week’s supporting characters] out into the galaxy to replenish them. This week it’s Freya and Torra, who’s been getting a lot of play these past few episodes, joining our debatably fearless Kaz. Doza briefs them and then hands over credits like a dad sending his daughter and her friends off to the mall, which, I mean… sort of. I love that the responsibility of taking care of the entire ship falls on these kids every week. I understand it as a plot point, obviously, but the realist in me thinks it’s absurd. Is there literally no other solution to any of these supply problems? Are we still just floating aimlessly in space while depleting resource after resource with no end in sight? Flash forward to the end of the episode, where they literally take on another passenger; it’s only one more mouth to feed, but haven’t they all learned their lesson that people add up? Space is vast, and eventually these guys are going to force themselves to resort to cannibalism if they don’t get themselves in order. Sheesh.
2. Everyone is annoying in this episode
Literally everyone, except maybe Freya and Torra, but they have limited on-screen time and are mostly the foil to Kaz’s unruliness. Twins Kel and Eila play a leading role in the episode after convincing impressionable Kaz to let them stowaway on the trip to the surface, pretty much by batting their eyelashes and, I guess, overpowering his will with their strength in numbers. He tells them to keep quiet and not cause any trouble, which of course they do, and of course Kaz does as well. What proceeds is a comedy of errors that was almost a bit too predictable and a bit too much. Every time someone was told not to do something, they did it, including but especially Kaz, who can be blamed for every bad thing that occurs in the next 20 minutes. Kaz the klutz is what I’d like to refer to him as from now on. You know when you tell a kid not to touch the stove because it’s hot and he’ll burn himself, but he does it anyway? That’s Kaz this entire episode. Kel and Eila are better behaved than he is, though just barely. I found myself really relating to Mika Grey, the newly introduced relic hunter who’s plans are waylaid by this rag tag group of thorns in her side.
3. Wonder twin powers, activate!
Kel and Eila are plopped down into this episode to move the story along. They play two very pivotal roles. One, their non-adherence to Kaz’s instructions to stay put and out of trouble leads to the discovery of a Sith temple hidden below the planet’s Jedi temple. They don’t realize that’s what it is at first (though how the black and red color scheme and warnings of “evil” don’t give it away, I’ll never know), but remark on its similarity to their Jedi temple back home. The symbols are different, but whatever, let’s go explore! Chasing the twins around the corridors is how Kaz eventually runs into Mika Grey and we learn that it’s a Sith temple.
The second role they play is to save Kaz and Mika Grey from a carnival ride-like death trap that Kaz the klutz activates (his role this episode literally is to just press every button on the planet that activates a booby-trap). Mika instructs them to press a Sith symbol that will stop it, but it ends up they actually need to press two, which are on opposite ends of the room from one another. Good thing Kaz brought twins!
4. Indiana Kaz and the Temple of Doom
Continued belowLucasfilm apparently didn’t have to look too far for the inspiration for this episode; the entire thing had a very Raiders of the Lost Ark feel to me. Maybe it was the temple, or the multiple booby-traps, or the relic on a pedestal at the center of the room that controls a booby-trap with its weight, or the multiple relic hunting groups with competing interests… the list goes on. I mean, it might not have been intentional, but then again, how could it not be?
I mean, for crying out loud, the episode is called “The Relic Raiders.”
5. A new class of stormtrooper
Introducing: the First Order Raiders! I think it’s so funny how one of the marks of a new Star Wars property now is to develop another unique, specialized form of stormtrooper. I guess that’s sort of how militaries do work, but it keeps making me think of like… the Alolan, etc. forms of Pokemon. It’s dugtrio, but with a wig! Anyway, these guys supposedly hunt down Sith relics for the First Order, but that’s about all we know. I’m curious to see if they ever come into play again, or if this is just a one-off. It’d be interesting to have them tied into Episode IX, since presumably the person in the First Order with the most interest in Sith relics at this point is our dear Kylo Ren.
Either way, I’m sure we’ll get action figures of them.
