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 12: “The Missing Agent”
Plot Summary
A Duros and his BB-unit are running through the streets of a spaceport at night. They flee into a house, where the Duros tells the droid they must send a distress signal to the Resistance. He transmits a message on a datapad, before hiding it in a secret compartment on the bottom of his desk. The door to the house is forced open by an Iktotchi bounty hunter, Ax Tagrin, who shoots the BB-unit. The Duros claims that he has transmitted a distress signal so the place will soon be swarming with Resistance fighters, which Ax sees as just a chance to make more money.
“I wanna check this out, Captain.”
On the command bridge of the Colossus, Kaz picks up a distress call on a Resistance frequency, which is coming from the nearby Varkana system. Though Doza is hesitant, Kaz, CB-23 and Yeager all volunteer to check it out and Doza agrees to give them 1 rotation.
The trio take a shuttle down to Varkana, along with Synara. Having traced the signal to Vargo spaceport, they land just outside the spaceport and make their way into town. While tracking the signal, they are approached by a Gran named Lechee who offers to sell them goods, but they turn him down. As soon as they are gone, he contacts someone to tell them to look out for 3 figures and a BB-unit. The group track the signal to the house and Kaz manages to find the secret compartment with the datapad and a data rod. Kaz gives CB-23 the data rod to decrypt the information on there while he looks at the datapad. He finds that the signal is from a Resistance spy named Norath Kev, who has been tracing the First Order’s involvement in the black market and identifying contacts – including Lechee.
“Yeager, I was a spy. I’m a master at keeping a low profile.”
Ax arrives at the house and corners the group. They manage to fight him off and escape, but the datapad is destroyed and both Kaz and Synara are injured. Unsure if Norath is still alive and needing a lead, they return to Lechee and convince him to give them information. He is unsure about Norath, but he is able to direct them to the docking bay hangar that Ax is using.
While Synara keeps watch, Kaz, Yeager and CB-23 infiltrate Ax’s ship. They find Norath alive onboard and free him from his cell, but realise that they have walked into a trap as the ramp closes. with them still onboard. As Ax takes off, he contacts Pyre to say that he has captured more Resistance agents, who he will give over at his usual rates. He gives Pyre a set of coordinates from which to pick up the prisoners. Hearing that one of the prisoners is named Kaz, Pyre agrees to meet him at the rendezvous point.
“The First Order thanks you for your service to our cause.”
As Ax flies to the rendezvous point (chased by Synara on a speeder bike), Kaz and CB-23 work to bring down the ship. They manage to do so, but CB-23 is badly damaged and Norath injured and unable to walk without Kaz’s aid. Ax emerges from the ship and Yeager tries to hold him off. Kaz flanks him and manages to knock his blaster away, but is easily beaten in hand to hand combat. Yeager fights Ax hand to and but the bounty hunter gets the upper hand until Synara arrives. As Synara and Kaz hold off Ax, Kaz and Norath escape on the speeder bike, but CB-23 is too badly damaged to get away. Ax gets his vibro-ax back and charges, but his vibro-ax hits the ground and appears to cause an explosion.
Seeing the explosion, Kaz contacts Yeager but gets no response. He contacts Doza for an evac, but Doza informs him that the First Order has arrived as he watches several fighters and transport leave Pyre’s Star Destroyer and make their way down to the planet.
Review
So, people who regularly read my reviews of Resistance will know that I have had issues with this season. Add in a week of feeling a little down about Star Wars following my first viewing of The Rise of Skywalker and a busy time of year, and I found myself putting off this episode for a couple of days – hence the late review! Once I watched the episode though, I was absolutely thrilled. This is what I think we should have been getting all season!
“We need to get out of here, fast!”
Having season 1 finish in such a dramatic way, I expected this season to be much more related to the struggle between the First Order and the Colossus/Resistance and have a slightly darker tone. We got all of that in this episode and, even more importantly, I actually felt like there were stakes in this episode! From the moment Kaz took a blaster shot to the arm, suddenly I had the feeling that anything could happen to our heroes in this episode, which instantly put me on edge during the fights. Even the fights felt like a massive step forward in this episode. As Synara even says in the episode, “You always have me come along when the mission involves bodily harm” yet we have rarely seen her in the season, which shows just how safe the season has been. With Kaz, Synara, Norath and CB-23 all hurt in this episode and Yeager also struggling against Ax, I really felt like something serious could happen and with the story not being resolved in this episode, there is every chance that something could. I can’t wait for episode 13 now and haven’t been this excited for the season since it kicked off.
I loved the locale for this episode. Though Vargo spaceport is a new location, it felt very much a part of the universe, to the point that I could look at the episode and imagine an animated version of The Mandalorian strolling through the scene. Add in the visuals for the action scenes (especially the one at the end, with the storm in the background) and this was visually one of my favourite episodes to not heavily feature flying.
“If it is someone from the Resistance, we need to go and help. We’d want the same if it were us.”
I noted in the last episode how Kaz was starting to appear more adept and less goofy. This continued wonderfully in this episode with him being the one to find the hidden compartment in the desk and also doing a great job flanking Ax and disarming him. While he still had a couple of goofier moments, they did not really take away from the character and undermine his heroic moments. We are finally seeing growth from Kaz and that helps the growth of the show. Similarly, I also liked the way that Norath was also adept but a little goofy, and it is a nice reminder that the Resistance are having to make do with spies whose good hearts make up for their limited skills.
The one thing I will say on this episode is that it felt a bit odd seeing how easily Kaz and Synara managed to get over their injuries from the first fight with Ax. However, I do understand that this is a show designed for kids, so they were not going to be able to give these injuries as much of an impact as in shows for older viewers.
“I don’t want to put the Colossus in danger.”
“Believe me, you already are.”
A few other thoughts from the episode:
- There were certainly some similarities at the start of the episode to “The Engineer” in terms of getting a distress signal, so I like how Doza was hesitant to help, with the crew agreeing to help due to the fact the Resistance codes are so secure
- CB-23 intimidating Lechee was something funny that I never thought I would see in the show, but in a strange way it actually felt like it fit in the episode rather than throwing me out of it
- The music really stood out to me this episode. It felt like it had more of a Resistance-focused theme to it a times, while also really helping increase the tension
Moments in Canon
“Believe me, if there’s one thing Kaz can do, it’s bring down this ship… or any ship for that matter.”
“Thanks… I think.”
- Yeager refers back to Kaz’s ability to bring down ships. While arguably a nod to his questionable engineering work, it is also not the first time Kaz has crashed a ship he is trapped on to escape
- Resistance codes are difficult to duplicate
What did you think about the episode?
Thanks for reading. May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 