Star Wars Rebels with its eighth episode for the third
season saw the return of Hondo and Azmorigan who wanted help from the crew of
the Ghost. The pirates attacked an Imperial cargo ship and it was caught in
atmosphere of a plant. They can’t get to the ship on their own and need the
Rebels to help retrieve the cargo. The crew, in return for their help, get to
take the proton bombs on the Imperial ship. There is a small bit of a through
line in this episode since the crew have been looking for proton bombs. This
isn’t much of a connective thread for the season and there could be more to
help drive a main story and theme for the show overall.
The Wynkahthu Job isn’t a horrible episode, but to have yet
another episode which doesn’t deliver any movement on a major theme or story
for the show is disappointing. None of the episodes since the first with Maul
have been bad, but they haven’t delivered on any main overall arch. There hasn’t
been one single episode which hasn’t been enjoyable to watch for one reason or
another, but the show doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Many of these episodes
have introduced new characters, but then are quickly forgotten in the next
episode. Take the supply droid we met at the end of last season. He popped up
in this episode to help with information about the Imperial ship. However, why
is this the first we have seen of him since the episode he was introduced? He
just happened to tag along on this mission? He should have been integrated with
the crew of the Ghost since his introduction, so his reappearance doesn’t seem
so random.
There should be more of a through line with all of the
characters introduced. I had thought we might get a story arch involving the
Mandalorians and how the Rebels could help gain their support. Instead the
episode was another one off and it didn’t carry on after Fenn Rau agreed to
join the Rebellion. The show will probably go back to his character, but carrying
his story forward after the episode involving him would have increased the
shows momentum. There is no movement for the show because of its lack of
overall focus. Having a few more stories to tie everything together would help
drive the show forward. This has a point of mine through the last two or three episodes,
but each individual episode on their own have been enjoyable to watch.
Maybe the expectation should be the show isn’t going to have
a connected story and each episode is going to be a minor adventure with
characters popping in and out. I could get behind this, if they wouldn’t have
characters like Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Maul lurking in the background
as major threats with major story implications. They have peppered in Thrawn,
but not enough to showcase what his overall plan will be to engage the Rebels. With
each episode being fun to watch, but not delivering in overall story the season
has been a slight disappointment.
This episode delivered on showcasing fun characters in Hondo
and Azmorigan. There humor was a little childish for my taste, but the show is
aimed at children so that isn’t a knock on the episode overall. The callback
joke with Ezra cutting the hole in the door was well done and plausible for the
mission they were on. It was nice to see Zeb get more screen time in the episode
since he has been a minor character for most of the season to date. He would be
a candidate for one of the first to be killed off. Maybe they will up the
stakes for the season at the break by having one of the crew members meet an
untimely end. Overall this episode was fun to watch, but lacked the substance
many fans are starting to expect from the show.
What did you think of the episode overall? Should we lower
our expectations for the show and just realize there is never going to be an
overall story thread? Comment and let me know.
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