The latest episode of Star Wars Rebels, Secret Cargo, brought in some familiar faces, and
showed us the true birth of the Rebel Alliance as a united fight against the Empire.
The Ghost Crew is asked to rendezvous with and refuel a shuttle, but they’re left in
the dark as to why.
When the shuttle falls under attack, they learn that fugitive senator Mon Mothma is
on board, and they take it upon themselves to deliver her safely to Dantooine.
By the time of Rogue One, Mon Mothma is in hiding.
This episode tells us why.
She delivers a speech demonizing the Emperor for what he truly is.
She is immediately charged with treason, forcing her to flee.
Her goal is to gather any Rebel cells that will join her at Dantooine.
Escorting her is Gold Squadron, led already by Gold Leader from A New Hope, Dutch Vander.
Gold and Phoenix Squadrons butt heads upon meeting, arguing about their methods, despite
being on the same side.
It shows us that despite having a common goal, the individual cells still have a lot of division.
We already saw that in Ghosts of Geonosis and Saw Gerrera.
Everyone thinks they know how to best deal with the Empire, and having a clear leader
in Mon Mothma is exactly what they need to start truly working together.
But first she needs to safely arrive at Dantooine, and that’s what most of the plot is about.
Hera chooses to avoid the Empire by flying through a nebula, but Thrawn anticipates this
and sends a TIE Defender after them, piloted by Vult Skerris, who was introduced in The
Antilles Extraction.
It’s totally awesome seeing the Defender in action.
It’s fast, well-shielded, and is loaded with firepower.
It feels as intimidating as it should, and it’s able to take down most of Gold Squadron.
The flight through the nebula was cool.
The Rebels weapons choices were limited, for fear of igniting whatever gases were floating
around, so they made Hera have to get creative in taking down the enemy fighters.
So she basically cooks them alive.
Which is messed up, but it worked.
I had guessed earlier that would be the execution of Base Delta Zero in the finale, but I was
wrong.
On the other side of the nebula, the Empire waited.
I was actually somewhat impressed with the Imperials this episode.
They were more effective than normal, and of course they didn’t capture or kill anyone
important, but they got closer than usual.
Progress is progress.
They were at least competent enough to make some of the Y-wing pilots sacrifice themselves
to save Mon.
The star destroyers were stopped by igniting those gases in the nebula, which showed more
creativity on Hera’s part.
That’s gotta be a good first impression for her new boss, and it makes sense why she
will eventually become a general.
Also the explosion looked amazing.
With Mon safely delivered to Dantooine, she gives another speech and we see Rebel cells
throughout the galaxy watching and reacting, including our first appearance of General
Dodonna.
Then ships start answering the call.
Most of them we’ve seen before, but there’s definitely a Mon Calamari cruiser in the mix.
It was a great moment, and having Genevieve O’Reilly return to voice Mothma was a nice
touch.
I think the episode was overall pretty solid.
I wasn’t blown away by it, but it was enjoyable.
I like that we’re now getting into the more official start of the Rebel Alliance as opposed
to seeing these individual cells that occasionally work together.
This was kind of a short review, but it was a pretty straightforward episode.
We’re getting a lot of origins for things we’ve already seen or at least know will
happen down the line.
What did you guys think of the episode?
Let me know in the comments!
If you want to see my other Rebels reviews, you can check out this playlist here.
But until next week, make sure to like this video, subscribe to keep up with daily Star
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As always, thanks for watching and may the Force be with you!