Hello there!
I’m back with another episode review for Star Wars Resistance. This is the second and final season of the third animated show in canon, focusing on Kazuda Xiono and his friends on the Colossus as they attempt to get away from the First Order and find the Resistance. These will take a very similar format to previously: an overview of the plot (so it goes without saying, there will be spoilers!), my thoughts on the episode and a few Moments in Canon – things I picked up on that linked to other stories or the larger galaxy as a whole. Today, I will be looking at episode 5: “The Engineer”
Plot Summary
Kaz and Neeku are trying to fix the broken systems on the Colossus, but are struggling with the sheer number of systems that require work. After managing to fix the long-range scanner, the crew pick up a transmission from an unknown female, who is claiming that the First Order attacked her ship and that her oxygen supplies are running low, while also supplying coordinates to her location. Kaz and Neeku want to help her; Yeager and Captain Doza are cautious, but allow Kaz to go once he volunteers.
Kaz goes with Synara and CB-23 in a shuttle and finds the ship. As they docs with the ship, CB-23 reports that there is only one life form aboard. Once the airlock opens, the female is revealed to be a Nikto computer engineer called Nena, who tells them that the First Order are spreading out across the galaxy. Nena’s ship has a fried engine, so Kaz suggests she comes to help them fix the Colossus’ systems in return for them fixing her ship.
Back aboard the Colossus, Nena quickly begins to make a difference, helping Neeku to finally fix a number of systems aboard, developing a close friendship with Neeku while they work. Snarl brings them to the pirates’ hanger as they are having trouble routing power to their ship. Nena does a scan on her datapad, and shows the results that suggest the pirates are draining power from the Colossus. This leads to an argument with Kragan, who argues that they aren’t getting their fair share of the power as it is.
“Let’s just hope this is an actual rescue and not a trap.”
After Nena shares her findings with Doza and Yeager, Doza wants the pirates off his ship, but Yeager points out that the pirates will not go without a fight. Kaz volunteers to investigate further, sneaking into the hangar while the pirates sleep, but is caught by Synara. The pair argue about the pirates stealing power, but Synara responds that she knows they aren’t stealing power as she is the one who installed the power couplings. Synara is suspicious of Nena and asks Kaz why such a good engineer couldn’t fix her own ship. The pair sneak onto Nena’s ship, where Synara finds that all of the flight data has been encrypted. Breaking through the encryption, they find that Nena has been tracking them for days on behalf of the First Order. Synara stays with the ship to stop Nena escaping, while Kaz goes to warn everyone.
Kaz finds Neeku and Nena in the engine room. When Kaz takes Neeku to one side and reveals that Nena is working for the First Order, Neeku thinks that Kaz is lying as he doesn’t want Nena replacing him as Neeku’s best friend. They find that Nena has disappeared and are forced to chase her through the corridors while she transmits her coordinates to the First Order. As Kaz confronts Nena, she shoots at him and her words upset Neeku, who realises that she has lied to him. Nena tries to get Neeku to go with her, but he refuses to leave his friends.
“You’re not pirates, are you?”
“Pirates? No! No we’re not pirates… Well, uh, technically she’s a pirate.”
Nena continues her escape and fights past Synara, managing to get away in her ship as Pyre’s Star Destroyer arrives and scrambles TIEs. Pyre contacts Nena to confirm that her account has been credited and thanks her for her work, before she jumps into hyperspace. Doza contacts Kaz as nothing is working and they are unable to escape or defend themselves, and they realise that Nena’s “fixing” has been sabotaging the ship. Kaz and Neeku manage to fix Nena’s sabotage, while Kaz convinces the pirates to unplug from their power source so that the Colossus has enough power to escape into hyperspace.
Watching on from their Star Destroyer bridge, Pyre and Tierny agree that Nena will be executed for her failure as an asset is only useful as long as they are effective. In the Colossus marketplace, Neeku regrets his trusting nature, but Kaz reassures him that this is what makes him the best. In return, Neeku calls Kaz his “bestest friend” and they walk away discussing some of Neeku’s other closest friends.
Review
If you regularly read my episode reviews, you can probably already guess some of the thoughts I had on this episode. On the whole, I liked this episode, but there were certainly some things that disappointed me a little or left me with questions. Let’s start with my big bugbear from the episode: Neeku. His character is lovely but I feel that his trusting nature is used as a story beat too often without and impact on him. By this point, everything that the First Order has done to prove they are evil, you would imagine that if Kaz told him that Nena was working for them, he would at least have second thoughts about her, but he just laughs off the accusations even when she runs away. He is clearly a character designed for viewers other than me, but at some point I feel that he needs to develop. I did like that he mentioned his trusting nature at the end, but I worry that Kaz’s reassurance means that we will get more of the same.
“Be quick about it. We need you back here right away.”
“And do yourself a favour and take someone who can use a blaster.”
“Other than me?”
“…”
“What?! I’ve been practising!”
“…”
“Alright, alright. Fine.”
Other than that, though, I really liked everyone’s character in the episode. After the pirates’ shenanigans last week, it makes sense that evidence of them stealing power would lead to Doza wanting them off the station, while it felt totally right that he and Yeager would be cautious about the message at the start of the episode being a trap. Kaz is trusting given the information he has (to be honest, I believed that Nena was being honest until she clearly hinted to Neeku that she had ulterior motives) but is not willing to jump to conclusions even about the pirates and is willing to listen to reason – a clever call by the writers to have Synara be the one to install the power couplings as she is the one that would be most trustworthy – and believe the evidence he finds. I also really liked Synara having a larger role in this episode and I liked how she remained suspicious of Nena throughout the episode considering the similarities between this and Synara’s own introduction to the Colossus in “Signal from Sector Six”.
I really enjoyed the story on the whole as the way the story progressed did a good job of making us think that the pirates were guilty of stealing power and that Nena was just trying to help, while the hints about Nena’s intentions were there for us to pick up on before the official reveal that she was working for the First Order. I did however think that Kaz and Synara made the wrong moves after discovering the truth. Why Kaz went straight to Neeku and Nena without warning Doza and Yeager about the First Order is beyond me, while I also think that Synara would have been smarter to ambush Nena on her ship rather than in the hangar, as it made it easy for Nena to escape.
Moving forward, I don’t think that this is the last we have seen of Nena. It looked like Neeku’s friendship did have a positive effect on her character, while Tierny and Pyre’s agreement to execute Nena next time they come across her will likely push her towards the Colossus and the Resistance.
“Wait, is this a rescue? Lots of weapons for a rescue…”
A few other thoughts from the episode:
- I have become far too invested in Opeepit and his floor scrubber, so to see them reunited in this episode and his happiness was brilliant
- I wish we’d seen a moment with Tam as one of the pilots flying against the Colossus as it feels like she has disappeared in recent weeks since her training mission
- Similarly, I don’t understand why the Aces were not scrambled while the Colossus was defenceless considering they have now been trained to be more effective combat pilots
- Considering how many episodes we have had since they escaped D’Qar, we must surely be getting close to the point of receiving Leia’s call for help. It is hard to imagine that the Colossus residents could go through much more in the short period of time that The Last Jedi is set in
Moments in Canon
- CB-23 knows about Neeku believing Kaz’s boast of being the “best pilot in the galaxy”
- Pyre does not appear fully trusting of Tierny. Both the Empire and the First Order appear to have a record of infighting
- Nena mentions that the First Order are spreading across the galaxy as entire planets are giving up
- Neeku thinks back to Bibo when mentioning his closest friends
What did you think about the episode?
Thanks for reading. May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 