Star Wars Rebels: Testing The Rebel Resolve

After Kanan’s capture, Ezra, Zeb, Sabine, and Chopper try their hardest to find out about his whereabouts. Meanwhile, Fulcrum orders Hera and the crew to stop their rescue efforts.  Spoilers abound beyond this point.

This episode, being sandwiched between the previous one and the season finale, serves as somewhat of a breather, mainly setting up the events for the season finale, and possibly season two.  Most of the episode is spent on learning Kanan’s location, while the Jedi suffers from the Empire’s torture attempts to extract information about other rebel cells. These sequences, though, brief, do vindicate Hera’s decision to reveal no details about Fulcrum back in “Out of Darkness”, since Kanan, through both this and his own resolve, does not reveal anything crucial to the Empire.

This installment, if anything, focuses more on character development, or rather, the progression of Ezra’s selflessness as a rebel fighter. His determination to rescue Kanan versus Hera’s restraint to do so is a clever reverse of their conflict in “Spark of Rebellion”. Sabine and Zeb also join him behind Hera’s back, showing both their loyalty to Kanan and their trust on Ezra.

Chopper, however, is the MVP of the episode, playing a key role in retrieving the information for Kanan’s rescue. He also has a rather touching moment when he displays sadness over Kanan’s disappearance and is the first one to join Ezra’s rescue mission. His casual homicidal tendencies are the highlight of the episode.

There are two major plot developments. The first, Ezra makes an almost literal deal with the devil when he asks Cikatro Vizago for information. The Devaronian crime lord helps Ezra, but now the boy owes him a big favor, which will possibly play a role in the second season. The second development reveal Kanan’s location in the Mustafar System. This leads to the episode’s weakest part, a rather underwhelming cliffhanger where we only go with Hera’s brief word to worry about the rebel Jedi’s well-being.

“Rebel Resolve” is a mostly character-focused episode that sets up the season finale. Though light with plot, it does show how far the characters have gone since the beginning. The only factor that puts this episode below the previous one is the weak cliffhanger.

Any thoughts on this episode? Will the crew manage to rescue Kanan on time?

Share your thoughts below!

Have A Question? Ask Jessica!

Share this post on: