Star War Rebels is back and so are some old faces. Star Wars Rebels 2nd season premiered on Wednesday and once again the crew finds themselves in danger.
Recap
The Rebel Alliance is still less of an alliance and more of a rag tag band of renegades in desperate need of more boots to fill ranks. Ahsoka suggests that the crew of the Ghost seek out an old friend of hers who could provide leadership and strategy skills valuable to the cause. The only problem is Ahsoka isn’t sure he will be interested in joining.
Ahsoka sends the crew to the Seelos system where her friend was last seen. She provides Sabine with the head of an old tactical droid as their only clue. Before sending them on their way she impresses on Kanan the fact that he needs to trust her friend.
Upon jumping into Hypersapce and arriving in the Seelos system the ship is quickly damaged, thus Hera and Chopper have to stay with the ship in an attempt to repair. Sabine managed to repair the tactical droid head and they plug it into the landing transport where it begins repeating a sequence of numbers, “7-5-6-7.” The crew are instantly unnerved.
On the surface of the planet the crew spot an AT-TE and decided to land near it. On the surface of the planet, three old and battered men emerge from the old and battered walker. Kanan instantly recognizes them as Clone Troopers and draws his light saber in response. The equally surprised former clone Trooper Wolffe pops off a few shots of his rifle but Rex breaks up the fighting before anyone is hurt.
Ezra reminds Kanan that Ahsoka said to trust the troopers and Kanan withdraws his weapon.
Within the walker Ezra tries to petition the three old Troopers to join the rebellion. Rex is less than interested in the proposition. Ezra then suggestions the three simply provides them with a list of potential bases.
Gregor suggests to the Ghost crew that they pay for the intelligence by hunting for joopas as Zeb looks like the perfect “Joopa hunter.” Ezra is onboard but Kanan is still resistant. Confused, by Kanan’s mistrust Kanan explains the execution of Order 66 and how the clone trooper army turned on his master Depa Billaba and himself. Rex is listening in on the conversation and confirms that he was not apart of the event as he, Wolffe, and Gregor had removed their brain chips.
Meanwhile out in space Agent Kallus has received a coded transmission from a Clone in Seelo and has decided to investigate the lead sending a probe droid.
While hunting the elusive Joopa it is discovered that Gregor may have oversold Zeb as a Joopa hunter, turns out he was really just interested in using him as bait. The crew begrudgingly helps the troopers take down the Joopa saving Zeb in the process. Kanan demands the information they had originally requested so they can leave but Rex convinces the crew to stay for dinner.
Sabine wanders into the communications room and discovers that a clone has contacted the Empire. Everyone, except Kanan, is shocked to learn this. Rex confronts Wolffe who ashamedly admits that he contacted the Empire in an attempts to save his friends from retribution for helping Jedi.
Kanan demands that Hera scan for Imperial ships and she finds the Imperial Droid that is sabotaging the Phanton, it destroys the ships engines leaving the crew and the Troopers stranded with no way of escaping the Empire which is surely on its way. The probe droid is destroyed but everyone knows they sitting ducks and the Empire is on its way.
To Be Continued.
My Two Cents
Say hello to a solid episode of Rebels. Although I argue that this episode doesn’t really qualify as the season premiere, that title being owed to Star Wars Rebels: The Siege of Lothal, but Disney does not agree with me. The Lost Commanders was a solid start to the season.
The big news of the day is the return of Clone Trooper Rex also known as CT-7567. We get to see an older wiser Rex and he is still loyal to his friend Ahsoka Tano.
The episode itself doesn’t really do anything to set up the season really beyond putting our crew in danger of being discovered by the Empire. The plot really doesn’t do anything new, relying on well-worn tropes like the “the ally who betrays you to the enemy and regrets it” and yet The Lost Commander is a nice adventure back into the Rebels universe.
I am a little disappointed in the lack of Hera in this episode. Sure, logic dictates that someone has to stay behind and fix the ship and yet, one could argue that in a fantasy world like Star Wars Chopper could have had that thing up and running without her help, but I digress.
Our characters are growing (Kanan’s journey continues to be interesting), Clone Wars is firmly woven into our mythology, all and all The Lost Commander is a great but safe start to the new season.
