Hello there!
Welcome to my latest review for Star Wars Resistance. It took me a few weeks to get into the show, but by the end of “The High Tower” I knew that I was in for the long haul and have decided to start writing about it. This post will be focusing on the season finale and episode 21: “No Escape: Part 2”
Plot Summary
Following on directly from the end of the previous episode, Kaz is distraught at the destruction of Hosnian Prime and the death of his family and friends. Resolving to stop the First Order, he continues on to the detention block with Torra and CB-23, where they release Yeager and Doza, taking out a pair of troopers who return to find the cell open. Torra explains the group’s plan to get the Colossus back in the air and escape.
Knowing that the Colossus needs to get rid of the water it took on in order to get the Colossus in the air, Neeku develops a plan that will do this and also get rid of a number of the stormtroopers. Kaz and Torra allow themselves to be chased into certain corridors, where they seal themselves behind a blast door before flooding the corridor where the troopers are and de-valving the ship to vent out the water and troopers.
“Kaz, was that…”
“Hosnian Prime! My home planet. My parents, my friends… the entire Galactic Senate… it’s gone.”
Knowing that they are losing control of the station, Pyre and Tierny plan to take Tam off-world back to their base while arranging a more aggressive solution to the resistance they are facing. Doza and Yeager sneak into the office once the First Order have left in an attempt to get the Colossus operational, but Yeager follows after Tam in an attempt to save her, contacting Kaz to inform him what is happening.
A shuttle approaches Doza Tower and as Tam and the First Order officers are about to board, Torra and Kaz both make themselves known from their position higher up the tower. Tam asks how Kaz could have lied to her about anything and he says that he only wanted to help the galaxy. Yeager emerges from the corridor saying that Kaz is telling the truth. Tam is unhappy with the way Kaz and Yeager have treated her, while the two of them try to convince her that the First Order are the ones lying to her. A number of stormtroopers surround Kaz and Torra, with a couple making their way to Yeager. Pyre orders them to drop their weapons but Kaz contacts Neeku, giving him the signal to continue with their plan.
“Neeku, you know what to do.”
Neeku fires up the hyperdrive and the station begins to rise, causing some of the troopers to lose their footing, while CB-23 uses her oil and grappling hooks to clear the stormtroopers away from Kaz and Torra. Kaz and Yeager open fire against the First Order, who are retreating onto the shuttle. Tierny tells Tam to come with them and, despite Yeager’s please, she follows Tierny onto the shuttle. As the shuttle moves away, TIE fighters begin to strafe the rising Colossus, so the trio head to the hangar where their ships are. Doza frees the other Aces from the detention bay and they also make their way to their ships.
CB-23 deactivates the magnetic locks grounding the fighters. Kaz, Yeager and Torra unlock the hangar doors only to find 2 TIEs outside. The TIEs are destroyed by a First Order Troop Transport being piloted by Hype Fazon and Aunt Z, who had picked up Kaz’s distress call. Yeager, Kaz and all the Aces – minus Hype who remains in the troop transport – jump into their ships and fly out together to take on the TIEs, while Doza activates the station’s anti-aircraft canons.
“Let’s blast some bucketheads!”
During the dogfight, Vonreg arrives and manages to land a shot on Griff, but Kaz takes out the TIE chasing him down. Vonreg and 2 TIEs chase after Kaz, who sees Kragan’s sail barge emerging from the clouds ahead. As he pulls away, the pirates fire on the TIEs. A Star Destroyer arrives and begins firing at the Colossus. Kaz orders everyone back to the Colossus so that they can jump to hyperspace, sending Neeku the coordinates to D’Qar. Vonreg is pursuing Yeager, who can’t get away, but Kaz uses some clever flying to pilot the Fireball through the station, catching Vonreg in a crossfire and taking him out.
Everyone retreats onto the Colossus, which jumps to lightspeed. As everyone celebrates together, Neeku arrives and informs Kaz that he did not have time to put in all the coordinates, so they will either be very close to D’Qar or light years away. While the group look out at the hyperspace tunnel, Kaz reassures them that wherever they are going, most of them are going together.
Review
What a great finale. In an action-heavy episode, there was still time for suspense emotion and levity. While the humour has been up and own for me this season, it gets a thumbs up in this episode, largely as the amount of action allowed for less goofiness and more situational comedy. The truly emotional moments were really good too, most notably the scene at the top of the tower as the heroes tried to convince Tam to join them, while the First Order did the same. My only criticism of that scene is that it felt odd nobody thought to tell Tam that the First Order had just destroyed the Hosnian system – something that Tierny had cleverly stopped her from seeing – as that combined with Kel and Eila’s story in “The New Trooper” could have potentially convinced her to abandon the First Order.
The show has done a great job of using episodes throughout the season to help set up moments or ideas in the final couple of episodes and this was used again to great effect with the return of Aunt Z and Hype in the First Order Transport from “The Disappeared” (likely the only reason they could get close), Yeager’s race with his brother in “The Platform Classic” setting up his ability as an elite pilot and the anti-aircraft canons from “Synara’s Score” being used against the First Order TIEs.
“Kaz. What is it?”
“They destroyed my world, Yeager. The First Order destroyed Hosnian Prime. They’re gone… They’re all gone.”
As someone who was really excited by the promotional work featuring the Aces, I have been disappointed by how little they have been used this season, but it was great to finally get them all flying together in the climactic dogfight, which combined with the TIE fighter’s, Vonreg’s red interceptor, Kragan’s sail barge, the Star Destroyer and the Colossus led to some stunning visuals. I really hope that now they are all working as a team and going up against the First Order, we get much more of the Aces as a group in season 2. The final shot of everyone in the hangar looking out at the hyperspace tunnel also looked amazing and was very reminiscent of the way episodes of The Clone Wars used to end.
In terms of the overall story for the episode, the opening scene felt like a good way to remind everyone what stage we were at with the story picking up immediately after Part 1 but is being aired a week later, however I feel that it may not follow as well for someone who is binge-watching the episodes at a later point as it appears to be an alternate take of the final moments of the last episode. Other than what I have already mentioned, I loved the two sides trying to convince Tam to side with them and while part of me was surprised she chose to join the First Order, I love this decision as this will allow us to see the First Order from a different perspective (some of my favourite stories in canon have included Imperials as protagonists) and likely give us an antagonist that we are emotionally invested in next season. I’m also really excited to see where the story goes moving forwards as the way this episode ends leaves a number of great possibilities.
“We are giving her protection and a higher purpose. You on the other hand are a danger to everyone around you.”
The things that disappointed me about this episode’s story were relatively minor. I mentioned last week how the scene with Flix and Orka seemed out of place and it unfortunately got no payoff in this episode. Also due to the amount of action in this episode, it felt like Kaz had to get over the destruction of his home very quickly, with the opening scene and one moment just after freeing Yeager the only times he was really able to show any emotion in this episode.
And now, to Vonreg. I have been quite vocal in how disappointed I have been with the First Order’s star pilot so I am so glad to see him killed off in this finale, especially as it was a great moment for Kaz to show off his ability as a pilot. Unfortunately, I feel that this could have had a greater impact had Vonreg felt like a more dangerous opponent. He had failed to shoot down anyone in his fighter this season and, while he managed to hit both Griff and Kaz in this episode, he failed to do any serious damage to either of them and was killed relatively tamely. While I would have been disappointed to lose Griff after so little development, I really feel that he should have been killed in the moment that Vonreg shot him as this would have made his pursuit of Yeager more suspenseful in a similar way that Rogue One did when it started slowly killing off all the main characters.
“Aces, we have a station to defend.”
The best bit about Vonreg’s death is that the First Order now have the ideal replacement: Tam. The show has already set her up as a good pilot who was having to make do as a mechanic due to poor fortune. Now that she has sided with Tierny and Pyre, I imagine they will bring the best out of her and we will see her take on Vonreg’s role as the First Order’s ace pilot as season 2 goes on.
Moments in Canon
- Kaz gives the coordinates to D’Qar, the planet hiding the Resistance base from which they launch the attack on Starkiller Base
- The Colossus is said to have not flown for 20 years, which would be just over a decade after the Battle of Jakku and the end of the Galactic Civil War
What did you think about the episode and the season as a whole? Thanks for reading and May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 