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 - Airs December 10
3.12 Ghosts of Geonosis - Airs January 7
"Star Wars Rebels: An Inside Man - Review:"
Directed by Steward Lee & Written by Nicole Dubuc
An Inside Man is possibly one of the most significant plot advancement episodes that we've had in a while which shows you just how much of the momentum this season has lost when the fact that the only real significant revelation was that Fulcrum is Kallus. It was certainly cool and provided a good reasoning behind why his character has made certain choices in the past, but the revelation could not have come at a worse time for Kallus because the Empire, and Thrawn, know that something's up and it won't be long before things go south. This episode united both Steward Lee and Nicole Dubac on the creative team with Lee having directed several episodes of both Rebels and The Clone Wars before, including Imperial Supercommandos and The Holocrons of Fate - of which I definitely preferred the latter to the former, whilst Dubuc also gave us Hera's Heroes and multiple episodes of Young Justice, so it's good to see that the quality is mostly kept up here with a solid episode that saw the action return to Lothall, which means Ezra is back home for the first time since Shroud of Darkness, the eighteenth episode of Season 2.
However it's a very different Ezra that's returning to Lothall this time round, as Azadi (who helped them in both Legacy and A Princess on Lothall in Season 2), and is now a part of the Rebel Alliance, was able to set Ezra and Kanan up with a way to infiltrate an Imperial facility disguised as Imperial soldiers in order to help the resistance movement. However, Thrawn is inside, making their task all the more difficult when he locks down the facility upon suspecting of Rebels involvement in the sabotaging of vehicles in the building, which of course is something that Ezra and Kanan are there to do, along with Chopper. They manage to avoid guards only to run into Kallus, who reveals to them in an elevator that he is Fulcrum, the high-ranking Imperial who has defected to the Rebels. Kallus' revelation was welcoming particularly given how involved he's been in things lately, but I don't think things are going to be looking too good for him now especially given that Thrawn, by the end of the episode at least, suspects that something is up.
He's smart enough to work out that the Rebels couldn't have stolen the data on the new Imperial TIE Defenders, which unlike other TIE fighters boasts shields, but he decides to again play the long game, which is something that appears to be Thrawn's specialty. He believes that the spy will eventually do something that reveals himself, and that's why I'm so worried about Kallus right now. I don't see him making it out alive of Season 3, or as long as Thrawn is around at least. But for now there's plenty of interesting material to be done with him, after hall, how many more times will he be able to help the Rebels without Thrawn noticing? Thrawn is clearly smarter than your average Imperial commander as well, so Kallus' involvement is going to have to be careful and limited. An Early prediction here is that Kallus is going to be drawn into a situation where he has to expose himself to save the Rebels, and will be taken care of for it. However for now only time will tell.
The show itself also gave Ezra and Kanan a cool way to escape from the Imperials by planting themselves inside an enemy walker. However, that plan soon went sideways when they found themselves pitted against bigger AT-ATs, who quickly turned on them. It was cool seeing them use the closeness of the two vehicles to their advantage as they were able to steal the bigger walker, with that scene where the drivers turned around to find the two Jedi waiting for them was pretty awesome, allowing themselves to escape. This also presents a bigger problem though in Thrawn's involvement, and one of the main issues that I've had with the series so far. How often are the Rebels going to be able to escape from Thrawn like this? Because I get that he's playing the Long Game, but the Empire hasn't always exactly been the most patient organization ever so it'll be interesting to see if there is pressure put on Thrawn to achieve results.
Either way though, based on the episode titles alone, we could be could be in for some real interesting stuff over the next few episodes. I mean "The Ghosts of Geonosis?" It sure as hell is going to be interesting when we return to the series in January after tomorrow's "Visions and Voices".
What did you think of An Inside Man? Let me know in the comments below and check out the next episode of Star Wars Rebels on Disney XD this Saturday.
Overall Episode Verdict: B-
Positives:
+Kanan and Ezra using Walkers to escape from the facility.
+Kallus being Fulcrum.
+Return to Lothall.
Negatives:
-How many times can Thrawn play the Long Game?
