We are quickly approaching the end of Star Wars Resistance, which is pretty crazy and sad. But I’m super excited to see how they wrap up the show with these final few episodes, and over the weekend we got two new episodes!
I’m going to review them separately, since the episodes are titled and packaged separately, so today I’ll review “The New World” and then tomorrow I’ll review “No Place Safe.” These episodes work closely together, though, so I’ll reference the other in these reviews.
Anyway, let’s dive in and look at yet another very strong episode!
SUMMARY:
The Colossus arrives at Aeos Prime, a beautiful ocean world that Captain Doza announces is their new home. Before fully putting down their roots, Doza sends out the Aces to scout and make sure everything is ok. Kaz pairs up with Griff Halloran and the two begin exploring; Griff notices something of interest and they land on an island. Kaz finds a First Order helmet and realizes that their enemy had been there, but Griff and his droid disappear. Kaz goes looking for them in a cave, where he finds an old Rebel Alliance base – which, he presumes, is why the First Order had come there, to make sure there were no Resistance members.
Before he can find Griff, however, Kaz is captured by the locals, the Aeosians, who imprison him in the cell right next to Griff. Meanwhile, the other Aces check back in with the Colossus, but there has been no report from Kaz or Griff. So some of the Aces go looking for them, but the Colossus is attacked by Aeosians. The battle droids commissioned to protect the station fight, much to Yeager’s dismay, and the Aeosians easily deal with them, driving Yeager and the others out of the hangar. Back in the caves, Kaz and Griff are taken before the Aeosian queen, who upon seeing Griff’s Imperial helmet concludes that these are the same people who previously attacked them. The Aeosians plan to kill Kaz and Griff, but Kaz manages to convince them otherwise by healing one of the Aeosians wounded from the First Order attack.
The Aeosians take Kaz and Griff back to the Colossus, where they call off the other soldiers from attacking any further. Doza and the Colossus provides medical aid to the Aeosians, who in turn allow the Colossus to stay on the planet. Kaz, however, struggles with this; while the other Aces are thrilled to be able to settle down and race again, Kaz talks with Yeager about how he’s not sure he can stick around and settle down.
REVIEW:
This was a very enjoyable episode, and it was another reminder of just how beautiful this show’s animation is. The oceanic world is stunning, and it’s gorgeous to look at. But story-wise, this was also an important episode. It picked up on the theme of this season so far, of the Colossus trying to find a new home where they can escape the First Order, but it also planted seeds for where things might go in the final few episodes.
For the entirety of this season, the Colossus has been on the run and looking for a new home. After leaving Castilon in the season one finale, Doza, Yeager, and the others on the station are looking for a new place to settle down. This led to some scouting expeditions early in the season, but the First Order was an ever-present threat, repeatedly catching the Colossus – which only narrowly escaped. So all season it has been established that the Colossus is looking for a new home but is having trouble finding a place where they can truly hide from the First Order. In this episode, however, they think they’ve found it. And though Kaz doesn’t like just settling down while the Resistance is out there fighting a war, Doza reminds him that he has to do what is best for the others on the station too. It’s easy to forget that the others on the Colossus haven’t pledged loyalty to the Resistance or anything. Obviously Kaz and CB-23 are loyal to the Resistance, and it seems that Yeager is too. Others are certainly open to the Resistance – like Doza – but their ultimate loyalties lie to their friends on the station. This is a bit hard for Kaz to deal with. And that’s exactly what the next episode picks up on.
I also really appreciated getting to see a bit of a focus on Griff for once, and we learned his backstory. We knew he was a former Imperial pilot, but in this episode we learned that he actually served under Doza! So when Doza defected, he gave Griff a chance to as well, which the pilot took. That explains Griff’s loyalty to Doza, but Kaz also sees it as an opportunity to pick Griff’s mind about all of this, as Kaz seems to be trying to figure out what he should do (though Griff doesn’t give him that helpful of advice). I also think that it was a brilliant move by the writers to have Kaz and Griff on this mission together, because upon seeing Griff’s helmet the Aeosians automatically assume he’s part of the army that attacked them. That’s super logical, and I loved how there was that implication and association because of Griff’s helmet for once.
And, in the end, Yeager was right: they were the ones trespassing on the Aeosians’ planet, so he didn’t want to fight them. The Aeosians rightly think that these strangers are part of the First Order, but Kaz is able to convince them otherwise. It was nice seeing Kaz think of a way in which they could do that – and actually execute the plan competently as well.
This was a very enjoyable episode with stunningly beautiful visuals that was a rewarding payoff for a lot of what happened already this season – and setting up what is to come!
My grade: 9.1/10
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