Rebels: "Zero Hour: Part One" (Ep. 3.21)

-- "You talk too much."

As revealed in a previous episode, Thrawn discovered the identity of Fulcrum. He's able to use that knowledge in this episode to entrap our group of rebels and their fleet at Chopper Base, or whatever it's being called at this point. It's too bad; I had actually grown to like Agent Kallus. Not that we know his fate, yet, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be a good one.

As a season finale, this is a good beginning. Great big space battle. The Bendu makes an appearance. Probably his last. Or, at least, I imagine we won't see it again after part two of this, if he's even in part two.

That's about all I have to say. 

Space battle.

And some deaths.

"May the Force be with me."

Rebels: "Warhead" (Ep. 3.14)

-- "Like I said, bored... to... death!"

Mmm... What a classic opening for this episode. Right out of Empire. Infiltrators rather than probots, and, boy, are they tough! Sort of a cross between IG-88 and Grievous' bodyguard droids. Not something you want to meet in an alley, dark or not.

Our Rebel group has taken off for some kind of training thing and left Zeb in charge of the base. To be fair, they left Chopper with him to keep him company. If you can call it that, because they left him with... um... that other droid that Chopper befriended in that one episode. The Imperial droid that switched sides and now works as an organization and efficiency expert... and drives Zeb crazy. [All of the quotes below are from him, most of them directed at Zeb.]

That's the backdrop to the base being infiltrated... because Zeb brought the Infiltrator right into the base. Shenanigans ensue.
It's a very entertaining episode.
And it possibly contains an important plot point toward the end involving Thrawn. I guess we'll see how that plays out.

Mostly, the episode was one of those character study kind of things. Or relationship studies. It was about Zeb, but it was also about AP-5 (that other droid; I looked it up). Chopper was the third wheel, so to speak, but he played his own part. Not an essential episode (maybe?) but a fun one.

"Did they seriously leave you in charge of this entire facility?"

"Is that because you never learned to count? I can teach you."

"No, no, no. This is all wrong. Rations in the munitions section."

"That gives me an idea."
"Really? You can have those?"

Rebels: "An Inside Man" (Ep. 3.10)

-- "I'm thinking fast thoughts; nothing's happening!"

Remember Fulcrum? Fulcrum was Ahsoka. But Fulcrum is also like 007, just a code name that gets passed around. So there's been a new Fulcrum since Ahsoka's... let's just call it a disappearance. We never did see the body, after all.

Generally speaking, Fulcrum is just a name that gets tossed out upon occasion as a reason for a particular mission. At least, that's how it's been since Ahsoka. But, this episode, our heroes come face to face with Fulcrum and, let's just say, it's a big surprise.

But I'm not going to tell you who it is.

Let's just say that this episode is a good example of tying in past events.

The only problem? Thrawn may already be onto Fulcrum. But we'll just have to see how that plays out.

Boy, that Thrawn just shows up at the most inconvenient of times!

"Do you have any manufacturing experience?"

"Not really."

"Then you'll fit right in."

"Your droid trusts me."

"Yeah, that's not a good thing."

Rebels: "Fire Across the Galaxy" (Ep. 1.14)

"Yep, you definitely missed me."


The rescue attempt continues, and I'm just going to say, right now, that this is going to be full of spoilers, because I'm not going to hold anything back.

This is the episode where everything takes off and the title of the show really means something. Which means that we find out that there are, indeed, other rebel groups working in a coordinated manner with each other spread across the galaxy and, actually, our rebel group is one of those groups. We get the confirmation that Bail Organa is a part of it, which, come on, who didn't know that? So not really a spoiler.

But we also get the reveal on who Fulcrum is, something I had figured out or, at least, hoped I had figured out, so it was great to find that I was correct. A very welcome confirmation, and I was going to reveal that, but I've changed my mind, You should just watch the series. It was quite gratifying to see the reaction of my kids to who Fulcrum is, which is why, I guess, I'm not telling you. You should watch.

The big deal in the episode is the final duel between Kanan and the Inquisitor. And, when I say "final," I do mean final. Ezra is also involved in the duel, but it comes down to, as it should, Kanan and the Inquisitor. It's a fight, if you watch the series, you'll find you'll be longing for by the time it gets to it. Because, really, someone needs to shut the mouth of the Inquisitor.

We also get a reflected moment from A New Hope as Tarkin is given word that he needs to evacuate his star destroyer because, as it turns out, lightsabers are not good for hyperdrive engine cores. Tarkin doesn't argue in this circumstance and lives to fight another day.

However, he's not happy and brings in an old friend to help deal with the fallout of the loss of the Jedi prisoner, the death of the Inquisitor, and the first coordinated effort of multiple rebel cells. Oh, come on, you don't really need me to tell you who the old friend is, do you? I'll give you a hint: I recently reviewed their first meeting during season three of Clone Wars. You can find that review here.

This was a great final episode for season one and had everything you could reasonably want as season finale. No cliffhanger, which is also good, unless you count the revelation of whom Fulcrum is and the arrival of Tarkin's pal as cliffhangers. You could make an argument for that, I suppose, though there's nothing in the specific plot that you could call a cliffhanger ending.

I'm bought in, now, and am looking forward to getting started on season two. Whenever I get around to that.

That said, I'm not going to do a season one recap. To put it simply, it got off to rather a rough start but got better as it went on, working up to several really great episodes here at the end of the season. Still, I'm not ready to say that Rebels is as good as Clone Wars. Rebels still hasn't delved into the same kinds of philosophical struggles that Clone Wars was willing to take on, which was one of the things that made Clone Wars such a strong series. Rebels is well worth watching, though.

Rebels: "Rebel Resolve" (Ep. 1.13)

"I want a full sweep. Those rebels must be found."


As you can tell from the picture, Kanan has been captured. That's a backwards spoiler to the last episode. It's not my fault if you haven't watched it yet. Tarkin wants to know if Kanan really is a Jedi, because he hasn't bought into the hype and, just as in A New Hope, he's skeptical. He also wants to know how the rebel cell on Lothal is connected to other groups. Basically, he wants to know it all.

Of course, our merry band of rebels is hot to rescue Kanan and are trying to figure out where he's being held. The only problem is that, due to them, the Imperial communications network is down, so they're having difficulties accessing the information. Which delays their pursuit just long enough for them to get word from the mysterious Fulcrum to abandon Kanan for the greater good.

Wait, what?

We don't really know anything about Fulcrum other than that it's some person Hera is sporadically in contact with and from whom they occasionally receive orders. That Fulcrum is a powerful enough character to tell Hera they need to sacrifice Kanan, the last known Jedi, for the greater good is a sudden boggle to the imagination.

And Ezra's just not going for it.

So begins our first prison break episode from Rebels. At least, that's what I'm assuming. We don't really get to that in this episode, but I think that's the direction we're headed.

It's a good episode. Very good, actually. They worked a lot of information into the 22 minute running time. It seems this series is finally geared to really take off.


"The Jedi is no good to me dead."