Today we continue our rewatch of Star Wars Rebels with episodes 56 through 60 of the popular Lucasfilm animated series.
Star Wars Rebels stars the vocal talents of Taylor Gray as Ezra Bridger, Vanessa Marshall as Hera Syndulla, Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kanan Jarrus, Steven Blum as Zeb Orrelios, Tiya Sircar as Sabine Wren, and series co-creator Dave Filoni as Chopper.
Episode 56: “Double Agent Droid” – Josh Gad (voice of Olaf in Frozen) guest stars as an Imperial Security Bureau technician known only as the Controller, as Wedge Antilles (Nathan Kress) takes the droids Chopper and AP-5 (Stephen Stanton) on a mission to acquire access codes for the Lothal facility. During the incursion, the Controller claims remote operation of Chopper and plans to use him as a spy onboard the Ghost. AP-5 immediately realizes something is off about the behavior of his fellow droid, but it takes some convincing to bring the rest of the crew to the same conclusion. Then AP-5 proves his worth by daringly venturing outside the ship in order to help regain control of Chopper, and Hera is able to reconfigure the droid to send a destructive signal back to the ISB, destroying the Imperial vessel– and the Controller– in the process.
Episode 57: “Twin Suns” – Maul (Sam Witwer) makes his presence known again via the holocron, so Ezra decides he wants to travel to Tatooine and find out once and for all if Master Obi-Wan Kenobi is still alive. The rest of the crew thinks it’s a trap, but Ezra steals a ship and sneaks off anyway, with Chopper as a stowaway. When Tusken Raiders destroy their A-wing, they wander through the desert until Chopper runs out of power and are then rescued by Obi-Wan (voiced here by Stephen Stanton). Old Ben gives Ezra a cryptic talking-to about why he can’t help the Rebellion out at this time, and then Maul suddenly shows up for a final confrontation with the aging Jedi. After making sure Ezra and Chopper get to safety, Obi-Wan manages to eliminate Maul in a very quick duel, assuring the former Sith that he is indeed watching over the “Chosen One”– referring to Luke Skywalker, of course– on Tatooine.
Episode 58: “Zero Hour (Part 1)” – Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) deliberately leaks valuable information to Agent Kallus (David Oyelowo), who he knows will transmit it to the Rebel Alliance as Fulcrum. When he catches Kallus in the act of sending a warning, Thrawn takes him into custody and uses the trajectory of his signal to find the rebel base on Atollon. When Thrawn fleet arrives at the planet, the rebels find that they are unable to leave due to an Interdictor cruiser with a gravity well being among the Imperial ships. Meanwhile, Kanan attempts to recruit the Bendu (Tom Baker) in the battle against the Empire.
Episode 59: “Zero Hour (Part 2)” – In the third season finale, Ezra visits Sabine’s family in an effort to gain a Mandalorian alliance to help the rebels in their battle, but Ursa (Sharmila Devar) only sends Sabine and Fenn Rau (Kevin McKidd). Thankfully they are still able to destroy the Interdictor cruiser, but Thrawn’s forces still make significant headway on Atollon’s surface. At the last moment, the Bendu mystically intervenes in the battle and the rebels are just barely able to escape. Thrawn attempts to kill the Bendu, but the creature disappears before he has the chance. The rebels wind up settling on the moon of Yavin IV– where we see their base located in the original Star Wars film– and Hera vows to help the Mandalorians as payback for their assistance.
Episode 60: “Heroes of Mandalore (Part 1)” – In the fourth season premiere, the Ghost crew is following up on their promise to the Mandalorians by helping Sabine rescue her father, who is being held hostage by Clan Saxon. Along the way they encounter the heir to Mandalore, Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), who prevents them from falling into a trap set by the Saxons. Bo-Katan refuses to accept the Darksaber from Sabine, but she does help the crew attack the convoy that is transporting Alrich Wren (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), successfully rescuing him from Clan Saxon. But then they discover a horrible truth: the Empire is using a deadly weapon developed by Sabine against the Mandalorians.
Star Wars Rebels is available to stream in its entirety on Disney+.