Rebels Recap Midseason Review: Star Wars Rebels the Final Season

Welcome back rebels to the final season of Star Wars Rebels.  I’m sure you’ve noticed some changes this season one being that each week there are two episodes released. Each episode contains two parts which are great, but I want to savor the last season as much as possible. Don’t just throw the episodes at me slow down a little. This season will have 16 episodes, and we are already more than halfway done. 

But before the end, there are few things or events that must happen before that final episode.  The first being the romances. It must happen, and no unrequited love will not be acceptable. This season should have Hera and Kanan at least acknowledge their feeling and seal the deal with a kiss. The same for Sabine and Ezra give this young love a great beginning to their love story.

The second event I must see, or should I say a person is, Ahsoka Tano. Is she still alive and if so what is she doing and what is her new purpose?  The final thing that concerns me is what becomes of Phoenix Squadron do they all survive and are they continuing to fight for the rebellion during the original trilogy.  Let’s see where this season is taking us and wherein the galaxy far far away does our beloved characters end up. For the remainder of this review, SPOILERS are ahead.

 Rebels Recap: Heroes of Mandalore Part 1 & 2

 

The first two episodes pick up in a place that is a direct result of last season’s finale. When Sabine came to help the rebellion against Thrawn, she asked for help in return. The rebels travel to Mandalore to rescue her father from being executed from the Empire. Just for a second, I want to focus on Sabine.  She still is resistant and unwilling to claim the dark saber as her own. Instead, she tries to hand it off to anyone who is willing to take on that responsibility. Sabine wants nothing more than to help her people not lead her people.

 

 

So, a few of our rebels including Kanan, Ezra, and Chopper lend Sabine and her fellow Mandalorians a hand in this prison break.  Everything goes as well as it usually does until they realize that her father is not here, it’s a trap! 

 

Sabine receive some help from a familiar face, Bo-Katan. As soon as Sabine hears she’s a legendary Mandalorian she immediately tries to hand her the dark saber. Bo-Katan refuses she doesn’t believe she is the leader Mandalore needs but believes that Sabine could be.

It turns out the Sabine's father is being transported to the capital for a public execution. So there only chance to save him would be before they reach the capital.  Once again Sabine takes the lead, and Ezra ultimately is the one to save him with the assistance from the jetpack. Which isn’t his favorite tool but it’s interesting seeing him struggle with it. The Jedi usually pick up things fast, but Ezra is a slow learner when it comes to that Jetpack.  We finally meet Sabine’s father, Alrich Wren, who also has a passion for art.  At first, Sabine was worried her Dad wouldn’t be happy to see her because of her involvement with that weapon. A weapon that we have yet to see but moments later is put into action against several members of her clan including her mother and brother.

 

 

 

Bo-Katan was furious with Sabine for creating such weapon that attacks the armor that Mandalorians hold so dear.  Sabine explained how sorry she was for this and was willing to go on Saxon’s Star Destroyer to destroy the weapon for good.  Once our rebels reach the Star Destroyer, they break off into teams while one team is the distraction, the other two go to wipe any record of the weapon and destroy the prototype.  Sabine and Bo-Katan run into some trouble when Governor Saxon turns the weapon on them but lowers the power, so it only has them lying on the ground in agony. 

 

 

Governor Saxon ends up falling for the oldest trick in the book when Sabine agrees to fix the weapon. She then turns the weapon on them. The weapon now is now affecting the Stormtrooper armor. And the weapon is no longer turned down, so Sabine is about to straight murder an entire fleet. But thankfully Bo-Katan knocks some sense into her, and she destroys the weapon.   The episode ends with Sabine giving Bo-Katan the dark saber and this time she accepts it. The only good thing about Sabine not having the dark saber anymore is that she gets to return to the ghost crew.

 Rebels Recap: In the Name of the Rebellion Part 1 & 2   

Which leads us to our next two-part episode where Sabine, Ezra, Kanan, and Chopper return to Yavin 4 Base one and are welcomed back by Zeb. And witness Hera returning from a mission with her crew nearly crashing landing. A mission that could have been successful if a certain powerful communication relay didn’t allow the Empire to responded quickly to the rebel’s attack. Apparently, there was information divulged to them about a very powerful communication relay, but the source was one they did not trust. That source was non-other than Saw Gerrera.

 

In response to them not listening Saw sends a droid that allows him to talk  with Mon Mothma. This conversation is made in front of everyone, so they can see how two people fighting for the same thing can have two completely different approaches.  When it comes to Saw Gerrera character, it’s all about how far your willing to go in war.

 

 

Our rebels are given a mission to tap into the commination relay which would allow them to listen in on the Empire. Not the response Ezra or Hera was looking forward to hearing. They wanted nothing more but to destroy it. But orders are orders, so the rebels proceed, but you already know the plan is going to go wrong some way before its resolved.  Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper drop down onto the dish and are in the process of bugging the rely when another ship arrives, and the dish starts to move.  Once again Ezra is put up to speaking with the Empire. He messes it up again by claiming to be the guy he was speaking too.  While Kanan, Zeb, and Hera are fighting in the air, the others are fighting on a moving communication dish.

 

 

And in the nick of time Saw Gerrera shows up with explosives and offers them a ride.  The communication relay is destroyed, and Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper are forced onto a mission with Saw. What could go wrong?

 

 

This mission has to do with the top-secret project that we all know is the death star, and they have yet to uncover. But they’ve come close a couple of times on this show to unlocking the truth.  They board a civilian cargo ship that has lots of imperial officers aboard which is very suspicious. 

 

 

They first find civilian prisoners who are all researchers and mechanics. The second thing they see is a massive and unstable Kyber crystal.  A Kyber crystal powers a Jedi lightsaber. Saw turns on them and Stuns Sabine and Ezra and makes the Kyber crystal unstable. That abruptly stops that partnership has Saw leaves our rebels behind.

 

 

They escape and help the civilians as the Kyber crystal engulfs the cargo ship and a Star Destroyer.  Those civilians then deiced to fight the rebellion against the empire. Another win for the rebels.

 Rebels Recap: The Occupation & Flight of the Defender

Our next set of episodes brings us back to Lothal and it’s no longer the home Ezra remembers.  The circumstances that bring our rebels back to Lothal having nothing to do with freeing them from Empire occupation but rather intelligence gathering.  During a mission briefing, it was revealed that the Empire is developing yet another new TIE Defender.  So, they want to send in a team to investigate and gather any information they can on this new TIE Defender. Even knowing that this team will probably never make it back, they still greenlight the mission.

 

Of course, Ezra jumps at the chance to go back home. It’s been his only wish for the rebellion to help is home be freed from the Empire, but it was made clear that is home is not the only one. There hundreds of planets under Empire Occupation and the Rebellion must be smarter than the Empire when deciding to make any moves.  Or they will lose, and the fighting will have all been for nothing. So, our rebels all prepare for departure to Lothal.  I haven’t mentioned this yet, but Kallus is looking good, the rebellion suits him well.  Our rebels are smuggled into Lothal with the help from Cikatro Vizago.  Once our rebels are reach Lothal Ezra notices immediately the effect the Empire had on his home. “It looks like its dying—burnt away by the Empire,” said Ezra. 

 

The Empire scan the ship and detect other life signs so once the ship lands on Lothal the Empire is waiting there for inspection. Our rebels escape, but Vizago is captured.  Our rebels split up and search the city for transportation and any sign of familiar faces.

 

 

Leading us to a moment between Kanan and Hera. When Kanan wishes he could see Hera. She replies, “You could always see me.”  And they lean in for the kiss and nope. The Empire crashes the party, and our Rebels run to Old Jho’s. The Empire now control a place that was a haven away from the Empire. Old Jho was killed by the Empire and is another loss felt by Ezra. Our rebels receive some help from Jai Kell who shows them old smuggling tunnels to escape from the Empire. After a few close calls, the rebels reach the end where they find Ryder who pulls them all to safety.

The first thing Ryder ask is when the rest of the rebellion is coming to help, and unfortunately, as of now, that won’t happen. So, the rebels inform him of their current plan to investigate the Empire’s new fighter.  Which they hope will lead the Rebellion to reconsidered helping Lothal fight against the Empire.

 

The rebel investigate the new TIE defender and are amazed by how fast it is and of course the rebels don’t stick to the plan. And by rebels, I mean Sabine and Ezra. Sabine decides that the flight data recorder would be much better intel to delivery to the rebellion. But the catch is it's inside the ship, so she sneaks into the ship while Ezra stands guard. And of course, things go wrong, and Ezra is to blame. He is distracted by the Loth-wolf when a Stormtrooper spots him and starts to shoot at him. Capturing the attention of non-other than Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra waves at him. He then jumps into the ship with Sabine. They decide to take the ship and start to shoot all the other ships and the start shooting at Thrawn.  And he just stands there and shoots back like a total badass.

 

 

Sabine and Ezra then try to fly away, but fortunately, she remembers that the Empire has the power to disassemble a ship which causes them to crash land.  Sabine and Ezra hide the ship's hyperdrive and will use it later to escape and deliver the flight data recorder. Ezra receives some help from the Loth-wolf who knocks out Sabine and carries them to the rest of the ghost crew.

 

 

 Rebels Recap: Kindred & Crawler Commandeers

 The next two episodes and the mission are to get the flight data recorder back to the rebel base.  While our rebels go and recover the hyperdrive, Thrawn sends Governor Pyrce some assistance. Rukh who is Thrawn’s assassin lands on Lothal and jumps into action immediately. He smells out rebels and engages with them in a speeder chase, and before they could throw him off, he places a tracker on the bike. 

 

 

They put the hyperdrive in the ship. Hera is now prepared to leave, but before she does she has another moment with Kanan and this time they finally kiss. It was perfect Hera was on her way out, and she just grabs Kanan and plants one on him.  And then she flies off escaping the blockade and making it to the rebel base. Meanwhile, that tracker leads the Empire right to our rebels who receive help from the Loth-Wolf once again.  The rebels escape into these mountain caverns. The Empire begins to bomb the caverns, and our rebels seem to be trapped, but he Loth-Wolf brings our rebels deeper into the caverns. The walls begin to glow, and our rebels are transported to the other side of the planet. Kanan touches the Loth-Wolf and learns that Lothal and the force are strongly connected. The Empire is up to something more devious and destructive than TIE defenders.  With this message, the Rebels now need a way to communicate with the rest of the rebellion. This dilemma leads us to the next episode.

 

Sabine tries to power up a transmitter, but it’s not powerful enough to reach Yavin. Luckily for them, they pick up a signal of a transmitter powerful enough to each Yavin. The signal is coming from an Ore Crawler, and all they must do is infiltrate and claim the communication array. Meanwhile, Hera is back on Yavin gaining support for an assault on the TIE factory on Lothal. Of course, the rebellion is hesitant at first, but Hera persuades them that this is the best course of action.  Our friends back on Lothal break through and gain access to the Ore Crawler. For some reason they allow Ezra to talk to the Empire again which was a mistake because the Empire sends a team down for another inspection. Our rebels then pretend with the help of Vizago to be running the Ore crawler as usual. Not sure how but our rebels pull it off with a few scrapes and send a message to Hera. She replies that help is on the way.

 

 Rebels Recap: Rebel Assault

 

The Midseason finale episode did not disappoint.  The episode begins with our rebel’s friends taking out a few of the Empire’ s ground defenses. Hera arrives with X-wing squadron, and their first step is to get through the blockade. Grand Admiral Thrawn is there coordinate the defense and Hera take them down one by one. They pass the blockade and enter Lothal’s atmosphere only to run into the second wave of fighters. This completely blindsides X-wing squadron. 

 

 

 

 Leaving Hera to crash down onto Lothal and few other survivors. As soon as Kanan sees the aftermath of the attack he heads off alone to save Hera.  Hera finds Mart Mattin and is unable to communicate with anyone. So, she plans to escape the city.  Chopper helps them locate a tunnel, and on the way, there they run into Rukh. Whose mission is to round up all the survivors and the top priority is Hera.  Rukh escapes to the rooftops seeing as he can’t take all three of them and watches them from the shadows.

 

Meanwhile, Kanan is stopped by the Loth-Wolf who calls out his name again. And Kanan replies, “I understand what must I do.”  Hera, Chopper, and Mart reach the tunnel entrance. Rukh reappears and stops Hera from continuing to the tunnel. She tells Chopper and Mart to go on without her, and they rush down to safety. They reach Kanan on the other side. Unfortunately, Hera is now captured by the Empire and will soon be in Grand Admiral Thrawn’s grasp. But we won’t know any more of what is to become of the ghost crew until next year. Star Wars Rebels will return after the holidays in 2018. So, hang in there and keep those fingers crossed that Hera survives.  Only seven more episodes are remaining this season, and I can’t wait to see how this series wraps up and what’s next for future Star Wars series. 

 

 

Photo Credit: Star Wars.com, YouTube.com, Disney, Lucasfilm

Created by: Jasmine Yard