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Star Wars Rebels Are Rising Episode 2: Droids In Distress

By Jeremy Konrad

The series proper premiere of Star Wars Rebels was this past Monday, and with it came our first look at what to expect on a week to week basis from the show. After a very successful feature length premiere with Spark of Rebellion, the show picked right back up and threw us into an adventure with the newest heroes of the Star Wars universe, and a few familiar faces came along for the ride. To the recap!

[*Warning! Spoilers for Star Wars Rebels episode #2 below!]

The episode opened with our rebels on the Ghost, trying to figure out how to get credits and keep them flying. Kanan suggests doing a job for the Lothal crime lord, Cikatro Vizago, who we met in Spark of Rebellion. Zeb has reservations, while Ezra just wants to get everything out of the way and start his Jedi training. Since Kanan already knows the details of the job, they head to a space port to steal unspecified weapons for Vizago. As they board a train to get the info they need from Imperial Minister Maketh Tua, she motions for her translators, C-3PO and R2-D2 to join her in the front of the tram. While riding, Ezra and Chopper get into a fake argument so that all the droids have to move to the back of the tram. Growing frustrated at her inability to understand her contact's dialect, Tua listens to a translating Sabine, who feeds her a false location for the weapons cargo.

Knowing the true location, the rebels crew lands the Ghost in the correct hangar to steal the weapons. It is revealed that the weapons in question are T7 Ion disrupters, which were used to massacre Zeb's race, the Lasat. After a firefight stealing the T7's, the crew flies back to Lothal to sell the weapons to Vizago, only to be ambushed by Agent Kallus and a wave of Storm Troopers and AT-DP's (alerted to their location by C-3PO). It is revealed during a fierce battle between Zeb and Kallus that it was Kallus himself that gave the orders to use the T7's on his homeworld. Just when it looks like Zeb is defeated, Ezra lashes out with the Force and knocks Kallus out. Having also destroyed the weapons shipment, they flee on the Ghost and return R2-D2 and C-3PO to their owner Bail Organa. The episode ends with Organa asking R2-D2 to show him more info on these "Rebels".

Already it is easy to see that this show will continue to move at a pretty fast pace. From the opening scene of the Ghost trying to outrun a Star Destroyer, to the final battle scene, the action runs fast and smooth throughout. There is very little wasted time in this episode, everything that takes place happens for a reason and serves a purpose. There is a surprising amount of emotional weight to some of the scenes as well, and this is a good thing, because it gives most of our crew their moment to shine.

We get quite a bit of character development this week. The only rebel who didn't get his shining moment was Kanan, who really didn't have much to do this episode aside from give orders and take part in the battles. There will be plenty of time for his story though. This week is all about two characters, if you ask me. Zeb gets a fair bit of his backstory told this week, and it is a heartbreaker. Being the muscle of the group, it would be easy to just see him as the strong guy, but the look on his face when he sees the weapons that destroyed his people—or how frustrating it is for him to profit off the sale of weapons that destroyed his people—packs a pretty strong emotional wallop. The fight between Agent Kallus and Zeb was fantastic, with Kallus getting the better of him because he could not keep his anger in check. I also really enjoyed his interactions with Sabine on the train. They have a nice rapport with each other. It was really nice to see Sabine show what kind of asset she is to the team as well, not just as a demolition expert, but as a sort of grifter as well, and a savvy one at that.

The big moments in the episode belong to Ezra though. He reached into the Force in contradicting ways here if you ask me, which is understandable; he is just finding his way with these new abilities. The first, he trusted in himself and the Force when leaping across rooftops to reach the hangar storing the weapons. The more interesting use was when Kallus had Zeb beaten, and Ezra yelled out and force-pushed Kallus away. He struck out in mostly fear and a little bit of rage, and everyone reacted accordingly. A look of concern sprung across Kanan's face when it happened, and he realized that he better get training Ezra as a Jedi stat, or else they may have a bit of a problem….

As far as Vizago is concerned, he is clearly the Hondo Ohnaka of this time period. This excites me, as Hondo was one of my favorite characters on The Clone Wars. I am a sucker for an outlaw/pirate character with a moral gray area, and it seems we are going to get that with Vizago. He will provide you with whatever you need for the right price, but it seems that if you cross him there will be a heavy price to pay, which almost happened in this episode. His indifference to what happened to our heroes after the Imperial invasion was very amusing. Here's hoping we see more of him soon.

It was enjoyable to see some familiar faces as well. C-3PO and R2-D2 are the through line of Star Wars; we knew they would be there at some point. It was a little surprising to see them this soon, but it served the plot well. And the interactions with Chopper were hilarious! Seeing Chopper and R2-D2 banging into each other and arguing was hilarious. The droid scenes were very well done, I especially enjoyed the bits with 3PO trying to get "rescued."  The nice surprise at the end of the episode was the introduction of Bail Organa into the series. Obviously a huge part of the rebellion, it was a great way to introduce the beginnings of the rebellion into the show. Using familiar characters and music (did you catch those nods to Episode 4?) is a nice way to meld the old and new eras together.

Imperial forces were also out in full force this week, with the AT-DP's making an appearance. These guys are rapidly climbing my list of favorite vehicles; I just love the design on these bad boys. Agent Kallus also showed us a bit of his devilish side, taking pride in the fact that he played such an integral role in destroying the Lasat. They established a lot of animosity between Kallus and Zeb this week; I'm sure we will be revisiting that further down the road. I love that Kallus was not portrayed as weak here, he needed to be established as a formidable threat—and he was and then some.

Overall, it was a very strong episode that kicked off the series proper in style. It paid homage to the past, presented some exciting ideas for the future, and gave us the great character moments we have come to expect from Dave Filoni and crew.

See you next week and as always:

May the Force be with you.

Star Wars Rebels airs Mondays at 9 PM on Disney XD and is available to watch on iTunes, Amazon, and DisneyXD.com.

Jeremy Konrad is the Senior Star Wars correspondent for Bleeding Cool. Rebels is but one of his interests when it comes to a galaxy far, far away. He loves collecting and discussing all aspects of Star Wars, and invites you to discuss it with him on Twitter @jeremyohio

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