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Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Episode Guide:
3.01 Steps Into Shadow Part 1 - Review
3.02 Steps Into Shadow Part 2 - Review
3.03 The Holocrons of Fate - Review
3.04 The Antilles Extraction - Review
3.05 Hera's Heroes - Review
3.06 The Last Battle - Review
3.07 Imperial Supercommandos - Review
3.08 Iron Squadron - Review
3.09 The Wynkahthu Job - Review
3.10 An Inside Man - Review
3.11 Visions and Voices - Review
3.12 Ghosts of Geonosis - Part 1 - Review
3.13 Ghosts of Geonosis - Part 2 - Review
3.14 Warhead - Review
3.15 Trials of the Darksaber - Review
3.16 Legacy of Mandalore - Review
3.17 Through Imperial Eyes - Review
3.18 Secret Cargo - Review
3.19 Double Agent Droid - Airs March 11
3.20 Twin Suns - Airs March 18
3.21 Zero Hour Part 1 - Airs March 25
3.22 Zero Hour Part 2 - Airs March 25
Star Wars Rebels 3.18 - Secret Cargo - Review:
Directed by Bosco Ng & Written by Matt Michnovetz
What I love about this show is that it's essentially Firefly in the Star Wars universe, and Secret Cargo reminded me a lot of the pilot of Firefly, or at least at the beginning, where The Ghost is hiding from an Imperial Probe Droid whilst the Rebels are waiting for refuelling with a larger ship. The ship quickly appears not long after the Rebels take out the Droid, but in the process, it manages to send out its signal in time as Ezra is not quick enough to destroy it. This was an effective way to introduce us to Gold Squadron, who crop up time and time again in the movies as one of the leading bunch of X-Wing pilots. It also serves as a fantastic way to introduce another original movies character, Mon Mothma, who lead the Rebellion to victory against the Two Death Stars, but for now is on the run having just spoken out against the Emperor in the Senate, defying his wishes. It's a brave move for Mon Mothma to make but she realises that something must be done to stop his Imperial rule, and now she's being persecuted for it.
It was also interesting to note that despite the heroic actions of the Ghost in taking down Star Destroyers, they're not exactly popular with every member of the Rebellion. They believe that the Ghost getting too big for its own good brought attention that they could do without, and as a result it initially creates a friction amongst the two respective bands of Rebels. Another reminder that although the Rebels may be fighting for one goal, their methods and how they go about this varies.
The Imperials arrive not long after the Rebels meet with Mon Mothma, and now they have bigger problems on their hands. Ezra joins Gold Squadron to take the fight to the incoming TIEs, whilst Mothma and her crew evacuate onto The Ghost in the process. However the Rebels are outnumbered with two Imperial cruisers countering them, and although the Rebels are able to escape one of the cruisers, their location is still known to Thrawn and given how smart he is, he's quickly able to deduce which route the Rebels will take going forward so decides to send two Imperial Star Destroyers as well as a prototype TIE defender to wait for them when they exit the Archeon Nebula that they were heading towards. It turns out Thrawn as usual is right, and Hera is indeed trying to lose the Imperials in the nebula, but it's a dangerous mission because they could burn The Ghost up themselves in the process, killing everyone in board. The TIE defender is pretty effective when it comes to taking out most of Gold Squadron, leaving just Ezra and Gold Leader to protect The Ghost, which has just been caught in the tractor beam of Governor Pryce's Star Destroyer.
Eventually Ezra and Gold Leader are able to take down the TIE defender with ion cannons, and then use the Nebula to their advantage, firing proton torpedoes into the Nebula to create an blast that causes massive damage on the respective Star Destroyers, leaving Governor Pryce frustrated and the Rebels able to escape in the process. All the scenes in the Nebula were, it's worth mentioning, handled incredibly well by the animation team. Everything looked amazing and the show gave us some really impressive visuals in this episode and helped make this episode feel all the more epic.
It turned out though that the Rebels were able to bring Mon Mothma to their destination without further interference in the end, visiting Dantooine which is a planet where Princess Leia lied to Vader about the location of the Rebel base in A New Hope whilst she was being held captive. Of course there was a Rebel base on Dantooine but just one that hadn't been used in a while, so it will be interesting to see if the planet shows up again in future episodes. But for now the completion of their mission, and in the process seeing The Ghost earn the recognition from from of Mon Mothma's surviving crew that Ezra's flying was among the best that they'd ever seen (something that didn't seem entirely convincing, given that this is Gold Squadron after all, but let's roll with it for now), was a great way end to the episode. This show also managed to boast an incredibly awesome speech by Mon Mothma at the end too, as she encouraged all Rebellion ships to join her. She claimed "This, my friends, this is our rebellion", to an awed crew of The Ghost as they emerged out of hyperspace in unison. It was a certainly a powerful image to say the least, all those ships appearing at the same time above Dantooine.
I love the sense of urgency that Rebels has managed to develop over the course of its previous episodes pretty much ever since it came back from the winter break. There's a sense of direction that this show really needs to see this season finish on a high and I'm hoping that this good form continues in the next few episodes. We are of course, almost at the end, with only four episodes including a two parter left. It'll be very interesting indeed to see the endgame, and where the show goes from here.
What Did You Think of Secret Cargo? Let me know in the comments section below and check out the next episode of Star Wars Rebels this Saturday on Disney XD at 8:30pm.
