Originally published on Set The Tape
The third episode of Star Wars: Rebels final season finally reunites the crew of the Ghost on the Rebel base on Yavin 4. After an opening two parter that only showed Hera (Vanessa Marshall) in holographic form, and didn’t show Zeb (Steven Blum) at all, it felt slightly jarring to suddenly have the band back together, though it was welcome. After the wait between seasons (and then two extra weeks) it was good to see the family reunited, even with the newer additions like Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) and Kallus (David Oyelowo) in the mix.
Unfortunately, the episode seems to be all geared towards a point where it would split the group up yet again to go into the second part of the story. Hopefully this will be something that the season will refrain from doing too much. Whilst it is always good to have an episode or two spotlighting a particular character, with so little time left with the crew of the Ghost I want to see as much of them together as a family as possible.
As well as bringing back all of the regular cast, this episode also brought in two of the big leaders for the Rebellion, Senator Organa (Phil Lamar) and Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly). With the series looking set to spend a lot of time on Yavin 4 now that they’ve lost Chopper Base, hopefully we’ll be seeing more of the inner working of the Rebellion, especially at this pre-Rogue One point, where they are less inclined to take direct action against the Empire.
‘In The Name of The Rebellion’ not only looks at the rebels, but expands upon their relationship with Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) that was hinted at in Rogue One, and goes a long way to explain why he and the rebel leaders don’t get along. Despite being on the same side of the conflict, there’s a very different clash of viewpoints as far as how to take action goes.
Saw is a freedom fighter that has lost too much and been fighting too long, sliding further and further away from the man he started as and becoming so close to a terrorist. Whilst it’s only hinted at in the episode that Saw doesn’t care about civilian casualties, in some of the Expanded Universe lore Saw is more than happy to kill hundreds of people at a party just because it will hurt the Empire. He’s not a pleasant person, and we’re beginning to see that more here as he argues with Mon Mothma.
It’s sad that Ezra (Taylor Gray) appears to be buying into Saw’s idea of taking more outward action against the Empire. Perhaps it’s because he’s still a young man, or maybe because he doesn’t know that kind of person that Saw really is, but it feels like something of a step backwards for the character.
The action is fairly light this episode, and whilst the scenes at the Imperial relay station do get quite creative with the characters on the moving satellite dish, it does feel like it lacks some of the spark that previous episodes have given us. However, if episodes are willing to give more time over to character development and universe building the way this one has, I’m willing to lose a little action for that.
The episode ends with Ezra and Sabine (Tiya Sircar) having to flee their mission with Saw and Ediro Two Tubes (nice Rogue One callback). How this will play out is anyone’s guess, though I am hoping that by the end of the second part Ezra will have come to realise that perhaps Saw’s way isn’t the best after all, reaffirming his commitment to doing things the way the Rebellion wants.
Whilst not a particularly strong episode in itself, hopefully it will go on to work well as part of the larger story that is being told once the second part of the story airs.
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