Hello and welcome to another installment of Laughing Place’s regular weekly recap of the Disney XD animated series Star Wars Resistance from Lucasfilm Animation.
This week’s episode “Rendezvous Point” open in medias res with the Ace Pilots going up against some First Order TIE Fighters in a space battle. On the command deck of the Colossus, it becomes clear Captain Doza (voiced by Jason Hightower) is waiting to meet with someone at that location, but he decides to pull out of the conflict and jump to Hyperspace before his side suffers any losses. Just after the station disembarks, a modified Resistance X-Wing starfighter appears at the same spot.
Stuck in the Star Destroyer’s tractor beam, the X-Wing pilot (Tasia Valenza) gets taken into custody by Agent Tierney (Sumalee Montano) of the First Order. Watching from afar, Tam (Suzie McGrath) comments to Rucklin (Elijah Wood) that the pilot looks familiar to her somehow. Back aboard the Colossus, the Aces argue over who was at fault for losing the battle, and Kazuda (Christopher Sean) learns from Neeku (Josh Brener) that Doza and his daughter Torra (Myrna Velasco) have left the station on this same day for the past six years– ever since General Organa established the Resistance.
Confronting the Dozas, Kaz discovers that the captive pilot is indeed Torra’s mother Venisa. Yeager (Scott Lawrence) takes Kaz aside and explains the complicated Doza family history and how he personally knew Venisa dating back to the time when they were both pilots with the Rebel Alliance. On the Star Destroyer, Tam approaches Venisa in her cell to find out who she is, but Venisa turns the tables on her, pressing her to explain why she joined the First Order and attempting to turn her back toward the good guys.
In the Star Destroyer hangar, Venisa’s droid “Torch” is playing dead, and some stormtroopers decide to toss him in a dumpster. Once they have their backs turned, the droid makes his way toward the detention area, zaps Tam as she’s in mid-conversation, and frees Venisa from her prison. She takes Tam hostage and begins making her way back to her ship. Suddenly Rucklin comes around a corner, pointing a blaster, but Torch thinks quickly and interfaces with a data port, closing a blast door between the humans.
On the Colossus, Torra tries to sneak away to go and rescue her mother, but when Kaz sees her and attempts to join the mission, she admits Venisa probably doesn’t even need her help; she really just wants to see her. Then Torra reveals today is her birthday, and that’s why she and her father would rendezvous with her mother this time each year. On the Star Destroyer, Venisa has a hallway showdown with stormtroopers as she approaches the hangar, but Torch runs a diversion by placing remote bombs on a few TIE Fighters, then taking off in one himself. Realizing that Tam isn’t ready to rejoin her former friends, Venisa stuns her and leaves her behind, escaping in her X-Wing.
Design of Venisa's modified X-Wing starfighter.
Questioned by Tierney, Tam lies and says she did not find out the identity of the Resistance pilot, but the agent says she’ll be subject to further interrogation about the incident. Finally, aboard the Colossus, the Aces surprise Torra with a birthday gelatin mold containing a still-living Gorg, which quickly breaks free and wreaks comical havoc among the group. In his office, Captain Doza watches a hologram of when Venisa left the family to join the Resistance, and the audience learns that she wanted Torra to be trained as a pilot in preparation for any future conflict. Torra enters, and the two have a moment as they concede that sometimes the galaxy needs Venisa even more than they do.
Next week: “The Voxx Vortex 5000”