Hello loyal Star Wars Rebels fans we are back for another installation of Rebels and it looks like our faithful crew is headed for an Imperial trap.
Recap:
Ezra has a flash of the future while honing his Jedi powers, pity no one believes him. Still, Ezra is jazzed at the vision of exiled Imperial senator and rebel pirate broadcaster Gall Trayvis may soon be fighting side by side with the crew. Even better, Trayvis may have some information on Ezra’s missing parents.
When Trayvis’s latest broadcast bids the crew to a secret meet up on Lothal, Kanan is hesitant attend to say the least. Yet, Ezra’s, staid by his vision, has an unshakeable belief that the crew should meet with Trayvis.
Upon reaching Lothal Ezra adopts his alter ego “Dev Morgan” to confer with former Academy cadet Zare Leonis who has been promoted to level 3 clearance which offers better intel for Ezra and the crew to use, with the downside of him being moved off-world to an officer’s academy. Leonis tells Ezra that Agent Kallus is using the meet to trap the senator and Ezra’s compatriots.
Barely escaping from Storm Troopers Ezra hurries to the abandoned Senate building worried that his foreboding vision is coming true. Quickly after meeting up with the Senator the crew is swarmed by Agent Kallus’s forces. During the escape from the crew is split up and Hera and Ezra find themselves cut off from the rest of the crew with Gall Trayvis who quickly turns on them proving himself loyal to the Empire. Trayvis proves himself mostly inept and is quickly disarmed by Hera but not before rubbing it in to Ezra that his parents are gone and should have done the right thing and betrayed the Rebel Alliance for the Empire.
With Trayvis down Kanan meets up with Hera and Ezra and the three make their escape back to the Ghost and the rest of the waiting team. Ezra is upset about so blindly trusting Trayvis and that even with his training in the force he couldn’t sense the Seantor’s impending betrayal. Kanan reminds him that visions are difficult and almost impossible to interpret and Hera reminds him that they have hope that things can be better.
My Two Cents:
Things are getting dark for our favorite rebels with traps traps, the Empire hot on their trail, and wolves in sheep’s clothing it feels like the crew of the Ghost are running out of space and allies fast.
Vision of Hope is a decent episode although it lacks the polish and humor of superior episodes like Empire Day the story is be pushed forward fast and it is apparent that the writer’s have a big end game coming up and are moving the puzzle pieces into place.
Still, the script was a little clunky and on the nose trying to fit in too much information too fast. It only took them seven minutes for Ezra to have a vision, learn about the meet up with Trayvis, make it back to Lothal, talk to Dev, and get away. I am aware there is only 22 minutes of actual screen time but rushing so much exposition is at the expense of the dialog leaving the opening to come off stilted and simple a bit like a badly written fan fic.
Also, is this just me or is Chopper still coming off as super shady? His comfort with enacting violence and mayhem leaves me worried about his loyalties. For a droid he really doesn’t seem to have the compassion balances out R2’s spunk. The way he fried that black droid and pushed him in a hole was stone cold. I would keep my eyes open on that little punk. He’s dangerous.
The backstabbing of Gall Trayvis didn’t exactly come out of left field in fact; to be honest it felt like bad guy 101. Only because the enemy in plain sight trope is one of the most commonly used. Of course, this being a children’s show it is easily forgiven, as there are only so many types of villains that can drive the plot, still be bad, without being too frightening to the intended audience. Using the media to send out false hope and misinformation to the Rebels seems like a very battle tactic on the Empire’s part and although Trayvis didn’t succeed in capturing the crew the overall plan did in fact succeed.
It is still a little unclear where this is all going. I think it is safe to say that we will be seeing more of Zare Leonis in a double agent capacity- let’s just hope that he isn’t actually a triple agent. Yet, the total end game remains elusive. So, I guess we will just have to tune into the next episode to see how it all continues to unfold.
