Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
The Star Wars Rebels: Season 3 finally had a pretty high bar to reach following Season 2’s finale. Of course, to be fair, that was a situation that was impossible to replicate – the fight between Ahsoka and Vader was a nearly decade long build up for fans with an entire other show’s emotional build up powering it. On top of that, just last week, with the Obi-Wan/Maul final confrontation, Rebels had given us another huge encounter that would be hard to match for drama in “Zero Hour.”
All of which is to say… it was a good episode! But one that felt a bit lacking in regards to Thrawn and his accomplishments.
Thrawn’s been built up so much this season with a slow burn approach where he studies and analyzes his opponents, purposely holding off any large scale attack. And we saw that it did pay off to a point – his plan was working, he correctly predicted that the Rebels were going to try something unexpected, and if it weren’t for Konstantine disobeying orders, he may very well have wiped out the Rebel forces before anyone could escape to get help.
It just felt like Thrawn needed to successfully do something truly huge at this point – something that impacted the Ghost crew in a permanent, emotional way. Would that be by killing one of the core cast? Well, it certainly would have been one effective way, but not the only one. Ultimately, while yes, he did have a victory of sorts and forced the Rebels to flee their base, it still didn’t feel quite like it was a big enough moment for the show, given most of them escaped – especially since the namedrop of Yavin at the end only reminds us we know that in the grand scheme, the Rebels will be okay here. So it felt even more like the Ghost crew needed to take a big hit during this escape that didn’t really happen.
That’s not to say “Zero Hour” didn’t have plenty of strong elements as well – with perhaps the most notable and satisfying plot point being the Ghost crew rescuing Kallus (who, it should be noted, got beat down hard by Thrawn first) after his identity as Fulcrum was deduced. Kallus’ arc has been a terrific part of this show the past two seasons and there was true weight to Kanan putting his hand on his shoulder and thanking him for all he’d done when they finally got him to safety. Suffice to say, I am very curious to see what’s next for him.
Another other cool part of this episode was the inclusion of Bendu. With Ezra already headed to Sabine and the Mandalorians for help, when it became clear what Kanan’s plan was I feared a bit of a deus ex machine scenario. However, the way it played out was very clever, as Kanan did indeed goad Bendu into helping, sure, but in an apocalyptic “everyone get the hell off my lawn!” manner, as Bendu pretty much lashed out at everything around him – best represented by the striking visuals of the weather suddenly turning appropriately dark and stormy.
When Thrawn “killed” Bendu, it was clear he wasn’t truly dead in the traditional sense (he pulled an Obi-Wan), but perhaps at least temporarily off the board – which seems necessary given he’s another very powerful Force user we heard nothing about during the original trilogy.
I also have to praise how well done the sequence was where Commando Sato sacrificed himself to cause the diversion Ezra needed to escape. Neither Sato or Konstantine were deeply developed characters, but they had been ongoing presences on the show and there was a commendable amount of weight to them dying in this manner, as Sato’s ship slammed into Konstantine’s, killing them both.
Sabine’s return almost felt too soon after her decision to leave, and perhaps the episode where she decided to stay with the Mandalorians should have aired earlier in the season. But it was exciting l to see the Mandalorians join the fray, and the frantic spacewalk alongside Ezra that followed (there was a ton of strong space battle imagery throughout this hour). Next season though, will Sabine be back on the Ghost or still with her people? She still hasn’t found their new leader after all…
Some bullet points:
-Kanan telling Ezra he didn't feel he had anything left to teach him and the kind words between them had me wondering if Kanan was going to die by the end of the hour. If any of the Ghost crew had perished here, he would have been the one that made the most sense, dramatically.
-It was cool to see General Dodonna (and his forces) join in the battle and even cooler that he was voiced by Michael Bell, whose performance as Duke in the 1980s GI Joe animated series is ingrained in the minds of most kids from that era.
-A great action beat was Kanan slicing through the legs of that walker, which then came tumbling down to the ground right on top of a couple Stormtroopers
-Death Troopers! While we’d never seen this faction of Stormtrooper until Rogue One, using them for select purposes -- such as serving as Thrawn’s personal guard here -- made sense, given their similar role with Krennic.
-Thrawn had a lot of great lines here (and Lars Mikkelsen is wonderful in the role) but my favorite had to be “What Jedi devilry is this!?” which I may need to start saying as a new exclamation when things go wrong.
The Verdict
The Star Wars Rebels season finale delivered a lot of exciting space action and a satisfying and emotional escape for Agent Kallus, whose days with the Empire are now over. On the other hand, Thrawn’s inability to successfully deliver a crippling blow to the Ghost crew – even as we saw how intelligent and strategic he is – does weaken his status a bit given the season-long build up. We’ll see if that changes next season though, given he still very much looks to be in play as an active villain on this show.
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