It’s hard to believe, but there’s only one more week left of Star Wars Resistance! This upcoming Sunday the two-part series finale will air, but this past weekend we got another episode that was tremendous and quite significant.
Let’s dive in to our review of “Rebuilding the Resistance”!
SUMMARY:
A group of Resistance X-Wings arrives on the Colossus, where Yeager greets Venisa Doza and her crew – which includes Norath Kev (the Resistance spy Kaz and the others helped earlier this season) and Hugh Sion (a pilot who Kaz flew with in the New Republic navy in the first episode of the series). Venisa reunites with Torra, her daughter, and Captain Doza, her husband, who are both happy to see her. Captain Doza explains that they’re going to be helping the Resistance on a mission, and Venisa asks him if they can use the Colossus as a staging ground temporarily for the Resistance recruits they need to extract. He agrees, and sends three Aces to accompany the X-Wings: Kaz, Torra, and Hype Fazon.
They travel to Dantooine, where they meet up with the three shuttles filled with the Resistance recruits. They encounter a First Order TIE patrol and easily dispatch them – but not before a transmission is sent to Commander Pyre, who orders his Star Destroyer to head to Dantooine. While en route, Agent Tierny talks with Tam Ryvora about her devotion to the First Order, explaining that she was skeptical at first but was sold when Tam turned over her comlink and betrayed her friends.
The First Order arrives at the planet before the Resistance can escape, and Venisa, Kaz, and Hugh go on the offensive while the others protect the transports. Tam’s TIE is disabled, leaving her struggling to repair her ship and watching the battle from afar. First Order Lietenant Galak is killed in combat, leaving Tam in charge (and not wanting innocent shuttles shot down), and Rucklin manages to destroy one of the shuttles before the rest of the Resistance ships escape into hyperspace.
In the aftermath of the battle, Tam is promoted to squadron leader, much to the disgust of Rucklin, who feels that he should get the promotion since he was the one who destroyed the shuttle. On the Colossus, the Aces mourn the loss of the shuttle and feel responsible, including Hype, who blames his own cockiness for the deaths of the recruits. Venisa, Yeager, and Doza encourage them with the knowledge that two transports did survive and that there are more recruits for the Resistance who they need to welcome. Venisa and Immanuel share a moment, and Immanuel says that the recruits and the X-Wing squadron can stay on the Colossus permanently. He can’t force others on the station to join, but it’s his station, and he’s done running from the fight; he’s joining the Resistance. The Doza family is finally together again.
REVIEW:
This was one of my favorite episodes of Resistance yet and one of the strongest entries in the two season run. It had stakes, thrilling action, meaningful moments, and nice payoff from this season of Resistance.
All season long, the Colossus has been on the run from the First Order and looking for refuge on a new world. They thought that they found it in Aeos Prime recently, but the First Order managed to even track them down there – proving that there was really nowhere the Colossus could hide in the galaxy. Kaz learned this and was ready to join the larger Resistance, but Captain Doza felt a loyalty to the station and its residents to protect them. But he has come to realize that the can’t stay out of the fight forever, and it was such a satisfying moment at the end of this episode to see him finally join the Resistance. He’s been sympathetic to them and helping them at times because of Kaz, but now he’s finally aligned himself with them and joined the fight. This is such a significant moment, and while I kinda wish we had more than a two-part finale to explore the dynamics of this, it was still really cool.
And, of course, it means that the Doza family is all together once more. We learned earlier this season that Venisa and Immanuel disagreed on whether to get involved in this conflict, which is why they weren’t together, but now that they’re both aligned with the Resistance, their family is complete. They walk hand-in-hand at the end of the episode toward the other Resistance members, and it was a pure thrill to see Torra and Venisa fly together earlier in the episode, showing off their tremendous chemistry. In the Star Wars universe, we haven’t exactly gotten to see many intact and happy families, so it’s really welcomed to see the Dozas – and I hope that doesn’t change in the finale next week.
Speaking of family, there’s another family – though not biologically – that has been separated this season, as Yeager and Tam have been on different sides. Both Yeager and Kaz still clearly care for Tam, and Tam likewise still clearly feels for them. This episode had some significant moments for both of them. Venisa pulls Yeager aside and tells him that she saw Tam when she was imprisoned on the Star Destroyer and that the girl is conflicted. Then in the battle, Tam doesn’t want to see the innocent people on the shuttles killed – and it seems that she has increasingly come to understand that she’s on the wrong side. This all leads up to next week’s episode, and I’m confident Tam will defect from the First Order and help Kaz, Yeager, and the others. But I’m a bit worried about Yeager’s fate, because father figures in Star Wars don’t always have a happy ending, and I wonder if Yeager will be in harm’s way trying to help Tam.
But we’ll find that out next week. As for this week’s episode, I continue to maintain that this show is at its best when dealing with flying, and that certainly was the case here. The dogfighting between the X-Wings and Aces against the First Order was absolutely fantastic, and we got two different battles. The first was thrilling to see them pair up to face off against TIEs, which was highlighted by Venisa and Tam working together. And then the second was a larger-scale fight to protect the shuttles, and Venisa once again got to show off her skills. She’s a fantastic character. The combat in this episode was as good as we’ve ever seen from this show, and part of that was probably intentional, as the X-Wing pilots were much more skilled at combat than the Aces – which is how it should be. It seemed to raise the stakes considerably, and that was pretty awesome.
And in the fight, Lietenant Galak was killed, leaving Tam in charge. That led to an interesting discussion in the aftermath of the battle, as Tam was obviously discouraged about the shuttle being destroyed, but was promoted to squadron leader. Rucklin, however, was furious because he thought he deserved the promotion. There wasn’t any remorse over the lives lost, only over his ‘lost’ promotion. But that’s contrasted with what we see on the Colossus, which is true sadness and dejection over the deaths of the recruits. Heck, even Hype Fazon, who has been overconfident and cocky all throughout the show, took the blame by saying he was too cocky and should have simply kept his eye on the shuttle. This sets up the contrast between the Resistance and the First Order, as the Resistance actually cares about people whereas the First Order only cares about themselves and their goals. The fact that Tam’s response seems much closer to that of those with the Resistance is, I think, quite telling.
In all, this might have been my favorite episode of the series, and the ending of season two has been very strong. I can’t wait for what figures to be a thrilling finale next week!
My grade: 10/10
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