Recap: STAR WARS REBELS – Still Waiting for the Connection to ROGUE ONE
Episode 310 “An Inside Man”
Written by Nicole Dubuc
Directed by Steward Lee
[photos: Lucasfilm]
This week: Fulcrum sends information to the Rebellion about a new top secret weapon being developed and built on Lothal, the Planet Where Everything Happens, and then we get some really anticlimactic reveals about both Fulcrum and the new weapon.
Ezra (Taylor Gray) and Kanan (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) head back to Lothal to meet Ryder Azadi (Clancy Brown), who heads up the local rebellion cell along with Morad Sumar (Liam O’Brien), who’s been press-ganged into working at the Imperial factory where this super-secret weapon is being developed in section A-2.
The local resistance movement is quietly sabotaging the speeder bikes and walker units built there, which draws the attention of Governor Pryce (Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), who somehow figures out Sumar is involved and has him run a test on the latest speeder bike to come off the line — and it promptly explodes, killing Sumar and exposing the breach in security.
Agent Kallus (David Oyelowo) is put in charge of searching for the Rebels who have undoubtedly infiltrated the factory, which is now on lockdown. And when he finds Ezra and Kanan, he doesn’t turn them in. Instead, he reveals that he’s the new Fulcrum.
Wait. What?
OK. Hold the bus. 1) How does he even know the name Fulcrum? 2) How has he been vetted by Rebel leadership in so short a time? 3) Why would Zeb figure he “accidentally” recruited Kallus by saving his life? It makes no sense other than to have a surprise that Fulcrum is now an Imperial agent on the inside. But it’s a wasted reveal. And it doesn’t feel earned at all.
Plus: after all the buildup over this “secret weapon” that Thrawn is supervising, it turns out to be… a TIE Interceptor with shields? Really?! You have a major motion picture coming out in two weeks and you can’t at least pretend this show is connected to it in some way? Rogue One is box office gold, and piggybacking Rebels to that story makes absolutely perfect sense. Except the show isn’t doing that, and it stinks.
My only guess is that for some reason, the Disney/Lucasfilm Story Group has decided that — like the Marvel TV & Cinematic Universes — for now, at least, the two remain separate entities.
Which is stupid.
And let’s not get started on how the brilliant master strategist Grand Admiral Thrawn is being wasted as a character. I had such high hopes of getting the Thrawn we discovered in Heir to the Empire (read Allison’s retro review here). Alas, we get a poor copy that speaks like he’s on a three-day bender. I’ve said before, and I’ll reiterate now with emphasis: I don’t like Lars Mikkelsen’s performance as Thrawn.
The absence of Ahsoka Tano is really looming large over this season, which really feels like almost any season of Arrow at this point: so much wasted potential. It’s been nothing but one-off episodes that don’t feel connected, except maybe by a pencil-thin thread in some places.
Dare I hope that the December 17th episode might have at least an Easter egg or two related to Rogue One?
I shan’t dare.
Star Wars Rebels airs Saturday nights at 8:30/7:30c on Disney XD.
