Ezra is undercover in this week’s episode of Star Wars Rebels but the real treat for the week is a spectacular guest voice cast.
Recap:
In this weeks episode of Star Wars Rebels Ezra tries his hand at infiltration when he goes undercover at the Imperial Academy in hopes of stealing an encoder containing the location of the Kyber crystal. Which happens to be a major target for the rebels, and more specifically the crew of the Ghost. It doesn’t take Ezra long to quickly rise to the top of the ranks at the Academy (thanks to an unfair force based advantage) and quickly befriend fellow cadets Zare Leonis and Jai Kell.
Yet, Ezra’s cover is nearly blown when Leonis catches him attempting to lift the encoder but Zare shares that he has his own reasons for joining the Academy and none of which are patriotism. He is instead searching for his missing sister and agrees to help Ezra.
Their plans become more complicated when the duo learn that Ezra and Jai Kell have caught the attention of the Academy higher ups who plan on turning the “stellar” cadets over to The Inquisitor for “special training.” Even though he manages to get his hands on the encoder and has an exit Ezra refuses to leave his new compatriots behind and instead stays behind to help them escape the grasp of the Empire while Kanan and Hera work to take out the Kyber crystal under heavy fire
After commandeering a walker, Ezra and Jai manage to escape with help from the crew of the Ghost leaving behind Zare Leonis who instead chooses to remain and continue the search for his sister.
My Two Cents
First and foremost, DANTE BASCO! That’s right, if you thought the throaty tones of Imperial trainee Jai Kell sounded familiar it is due Kell’s voice being provided by Prince Zuko himself. If Rufio isn’t enough of a grownup throw back for you, then you may also be happy to know that fellow trainee Zare Leonis is voiced by Bryton James also know as little Ritchie Crawford from Family Matters (Too young for Family Matters but older than the general SWR audience? Crawford also played a hottie witch in the second season of the Vampire Diaries).
If the amazing voice cast isn’t enough of a hard sell (did I mention THE AMAZING VOICE CAST), this episode does a great job playing off the momentum of last weeks dynamic episode and the story structure shares the same strength in its simplicity relying more on strong characters then convoluted plots to fill the timeslot.
It was also nice to see strong characters around Ezra’s own age, which really allow his character to shine. Within the crew of the Ghost Ezra is at a youthful disadvantage but with in his own age group we quickly see his natural leadership capabilities. Plus with Jai escaping onto the ghost with the crew we can only hope that this means we will be seeing a lot more of the character which would be a great benefit to the show overall.
What I am really left to wonder though is if we could be seeing a traitor in the future of Rebels, with Jai’s admitted loyalty to the Empire and desire to rise through the ranks and Zare about to get awful chummy with the Inquisitor, I see Ezra’s relationship with either boy possibly getting complicated in the future. Which sounds like some great tv to me!
