A chance meeting with an exiled senator could change the direction of their misssion.
What They Say:
Vision Of Hope – While attending a gathering for those who would oppose the Empire, the crew finds out something unexpected.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With two episodes that could be considered a little bit gimmicky behind us as we got a bit of Yoda and some sometimes awkward fun with Lando Calrissian, Star Wars Rebels is touching upon some of the larger and more iconic aspects of the franchise and feels like it’s getting ready to start really figuring out what it wants to be. Which is unfortunate, because with a sixteen episode first season, it really needed to hit things out of the gate harder with a larger story to work with and something that feels more meaningful overall, as opposed to a lot of smaller jobs that gives us a look at the cast without really making it feel like it’s worth the investment. There’s a fair number of moving parts in this show, but there’s nothing that makes it a must-watch show, which it really needed to be from the get go.
The cold open here has Ezra working to manage his lightsaber skills more as we get him deflecting laser blasts from the others while trying to figure out how to direct them afterwards. It keeps him on his toes, but he’s more distracted by other things going on as there’s a Senator that may oppose the Empire that he wants to hear, and he has a powerful vision in seeing how the crew would rescue him. What makes him all the more intent is that this exiled Senator is named Gall Trayvis, and he knew Ezra’s parents, so the potential for information is strong there for him. While visions aren’t always clear, learning that Trayvis is coming to Lothal and has praise for those fighting there like Ezra and the others, that gets Ezra quite excited as they start piecing together that Trayvis is setting up a meeting for those that oppose the Empire. With him pirating the Empire’s channels to get all this out, it adds all the right trappings, but most of the crew is being as wary as they can be without setting Ezra off too much.
Ezra’s contact within the Empire outpost here from his time in the cadet academy gets them the information they need revealing that while Trayvis is setting up for a meeting, the Empire is aware of it as well and is ready to move in. Setting the trap is pretty standard fare here, but the team is intent on making sure Trayvis doesn’t get captured, but it requires leaning on Ezra’s skills and knowledge of the city to pull it off. The expected approach of sneaking in through the sewers gets them in and we get the familiar trick of distracting droids in order to get where Trayvis is. And, surprise surprise, he’s the only one there as it seemed like almost nobody got his message. Just Kanan and his crew. And Kallus, who brings in his troops as well. Since they knew it was a trap, there’s enough of a way out, and it’s decent executed in order to protect the Senator.
What’s unfortunate is that they make it clear as time goes on that the Senator is not what he seems as he provides far too many tells, particularly for Hera. With the Senator being a spy himself to draw out rebels and gain information about them in order to shut them down. He becomes even more blunt about it during parts of the escape and shows that he really doesn’t know how to survive in this way. Hera realizes it the most and sets her own trap with the Senator to prove it. It’s a decent bit of treachery that goes back to Ezra’s past, at least as viewed by the Senator, but it all just feels like deception on top of deception, since they don’t want to commit to anything at this point.
In Summary:
The further into Star Wars Rebels I get, the more disappointed I become. Part of it is having had several very good seasons overall of Clone Wars and its polish, but this series just feels ill defined at this point. There’s a loft of things they can do within it and with this group, but with it largely sticking to Lothal and not connecting with anything larger, well, it’s stuck in a rut. The training aspect that Kanan and Ezra are involved in works and can be explored in a lot of ways while on the run focusing on all sorts of missions, but instead it’s just too… bland. I like the cast well enough and aspects of what we’ve seen, but unless the show pulls it together in the remaining episodes of the season, it doesn’t exactly excite you for the second season. Star Wars Rebels really needs to go big, and now.
Grade: C
