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

Rebels Recap: Star Wars Rebels “Zero Hour Part One & Two”

Welcome back Rebels fans to the last recap for season 3 of Star Wars Rebels “Zero Hour Part One & Two” in a finale that was truly epic. The entire time I was watching it I was on the edge of my seat because I wasn’t sure our rebels would make out of this one. The odds were stacked against them as always, and their opponent seemed unstoppable but some way they prevailed.  In this season finale, there were victories and sacrifices on both sides and plenty of unanswered questions.  Which means there will be a season 4 of Star Wars Rebels. I was worried that the gap that they were filling was complete, but I’m relieved that there are more stories to be explored with our rebels.  So, without further a due let’s relieve this finale together and from this point on an SPOLIERT ALERT is in effect.

The episode begins with Grand Admiral Thrawn landing on Lothal to deliver some confidential news. In this opening scene, we see our first glimpse of the Imperial Death Troopers on Star Wars Rebels but who were first seen in Rouge One: A Star Wars Story.  We also see Agent Kallus lurking in the corners using a droid to gather information from this secret meeting. In the meeting, only Grand Admiral Thrawn, Governor Pryce, Konstantine, and Grand Moff Tarkin are in attendance.  They discuss the impending rebel attack on Lothal and create a plan to catch the Rebels off guard and plan to capture them and make an example out those who defy the Empire.

 

 

The time to liberate Lothal is coming to fruition with the rebels welcoming General Dodonna. He will help in the fight for Lothal along with his fighters.  The next scene shows Agent Kallus sending a warning out to the rebels but he is stopped by Grand Admiral Thrawn who we know knew that Kallus was Fulcrum. So, they fight in a cool hand to hand combat all the while Kallus managing to get the message to the rebels. Unfortunately, he is captured by Grand Admiral Thrawn, and he calls Kallus a rebel which he takes as a compliment. Grand Admiral Thrawn has now  discovered the location of the rebel base though the signal Kallus sent to warn them and the trail left by General Dodonna.

 

 

The rebels receive part of that message but can deduce that Grand Admiral Thrawn is on his way to Atollon aka Chopper Base.  This allows our rebels little time to prepare before Grand Admiral Thrawn shows up full force equipped with the Imperial Interdictor which can block ships from jumping to hyperspace. So, for rebels, there is no escape or least, not one that is easily obtained.  Grand Admiral Thrawn asks for the rebels to surrender and of course, they decline which leads to a space battle. Hera believes that if we can get one fighter through then, they can call reinforcements to help everyone else escape.

 

 

 

The successful pilot that was chosen was Ezra, and the plan is to create an opening for him to escape to get help. Kanan, on the other hand, thinks it’s a good idea to call on the Bendu for help against the Empire.  It’s no surprise that he refuses to fight and is furious that they brought war to the planet. The Bendu is like Switzerland he wants to remain neutral. But when Kanan makes a mistake by calling him a coward he then becomes a storm of rage, and Kanan quickly leaves for the base. Not knowing what he unleashed but he will very soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next scene was heart-wrenching because the only way to break the blockade was for Commander Sato to sacrifice himself and his ship.  Before the fight started Grand Admiral Thrawn ordered Konstantine, who is aboard the Imperial Interdictor to hold his position. But when Commander Sato along with two other crew members started heading for an opening Konstantine moved to intercept and was rammed by Commander Sato’s ship and destroyed.  This allowed Ezra to escape into hyperspace and make a call to Mon Mothma for help against the Empire.  Unfortunately, she believes this will put the rebel alliance at risk to reveal itself to the Empire.  So, Ezra then decides to go to Sabine for help and reinforcements.

 

Meanwhile Hera is forced to ground all fighters and uses Sabine’s shield generator which is pushed to the limit when the Empire starts to release rapid fire down on it.  Grand Admiral Thrawn leaves Governor Pyrce in charge of the fleet while he takes ground forces down to the planet.  Ezra reaches Krownest and asks Sabine for help, and they can’t spare many fighters because they too are at war with the Empire. But she will accompany Ezra, and a few other members of her clan came as well to help her rebel family.

 

 

 

The new plan now is to take down the last Imperial Interdictor so that the rest of the rebels can escape. But down on Chopper base, they are preparing for the upcoming ground assault. The shield is still active, but it does stop people or vehicles from walking right though, something that Zeb makes a point to say needs improvement.  Grand Admiral Thrawn has the rebels surrounded and once again calling for them to surrender, or he will shoot them starting with Kanan.  But before the threat can be completed a mystical storm interrupts them and the Bendu yells though to leave his planet now.

The Bendu starts to destroy everything and not just the Empire but the Rebels also. Grand Admiral Thrawn is taken back just long enough for our rebels to run to their ships.  Meanwhile, Ezra and Sabine arrive to take out the Imperial Interdictor by using a ground assault approach in space and succeed in taking down the ship. Governor Pyrce, on the other hand, seeming little overwhelmed orders Kallus be thrown out the airlock. Which wasn’t the smartest call because he easily takes down the two Stormtroopers and escapes into escape pod and signals a pick up from the Ghost crew.

 

 

The rebels that have survived this encounter can now escape, but Sabine must return to Krownest to continue helping her people against the Empire. Back on Chopper Base Grand Admiral Thrawn shoots down the Bendu and they surrounded him. The Bendu probably says one of my favorite lines this episode because he predicts Thrawn’s defeat which startled him. The Bendu says, “I see your defeat. Like many arms surrounding you in a cold embrace.” Grand Admiral Thrawn immediately goes to shoot Bendu in the head but he disappears and his laughter his heard echoing through planet.

 

 

The episode ends with Kanan and Ezra talking about the future for the rebellion.  We hear in the background that they are heading to Yavin which we know is where Rebel Alliances are in New Hope. Kanan says, “There’s a future for us, one where we’re all free. But it’s up to us to make it happen.” There are more questions to be answered through these characters driven stories that will be shared for the next season.  The thing I most excited to see next season is the fight going on at Mandalore and Sabine’s journey to becoming or finding the true leader.  Until next season rebel fans and may the force be with you always.

 

 

Photo Credit: Star Wars.com, tumblr.com, blogspot.com, purefandom.com, Disney, Lucasfilm

Created by: Jasmine Yard