Star Wars Resistance – “Breakout”

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 13: “Breakout”

Plot Summary

Pyre and Tierny arrive at Vargo Spaceport in his shuttle, along with a couple of TIE fighters and Atmospheric Assault Landers. Ax Tagrin meets him and hands over his prisoners: Yeager, Synara and CB-23. This is spied on by Kaz and Norath. Norath regrets putting out his distress call as he didn’t expect things to escalate so quickly, but Kaz guesses that Ax wanted Norath to put out the distress call in order to lure more Resistance agents into the trap.

At the prisoner handover, Ax demands payment, but Pyre refuses as he is just being offered a pirate and a collaborator rather than the 3 Resistance agents he was promised. Ax intends to go and catch Kaz and Norath, to which Pyre agrees he will make payment, unless Pyre’s stormtroopers catch them first.

“Now instead of rescuing my friends from a bounty hunter, we’ve gotta rescue them from the First Order!”

Kaz receives a transmission from Doza (who has hidden the Colossus inside a red gas giant, which is providing electrical interference to hide them from the First Order) asking for an update. Kaz tells him that Yeager, Synara and CB-23 have been captured but that he has a plan to rescue them. Doza tells Kaz to hurry, as they will have to jump away if the First Order finds them. Torra, Hype and Freya were with Doza during his transmission and Torra begs her father not to jump away as Kaz and Yeager would not be able to find them, but Doza refuses to rule it out as he may need to jump away to save the Colossus and its inhabitants. Norath asks Kaz what his plan is, but it is clear that Kaz does not yet have one.

Lieutenant Galek contacts Pyre from the Star Destroyer to inform him that they have found no sign of the Colossus, but he orders her to continue the search. Pyre is overseeing a technician trying to hack into CB-23’s memory core to get as much information on the Resistance as possible, while Tierny tortures Yeager and Synara for the locations of the Colossus and the Resistance.

Kaz makes a plan to infiltrate the hangar as a pair of stormtroopers. He and Norath are chased by a pair of stormtroopers into a house, where they ambush the troopers and steal their armour. They blend in with the rest of the troopers and make it into the hangar. While interrogating Yeager, Tierny is called away to where CB-23 is being tortured.

“I can’t tell you something I don’t know!”

“Lies!”

Ax finds the group’s shuttle from the Colossus and breaks in, contacting the Colossus from the shuttle. Thinking that it is Kaz, Torra responds, but when there is no reply, Doza cuts the transmission, correctly guessing that it was bait to establish a connection trace. While Torra, Hype and Freya try convincing Doza to let them stay behind to help Kaz, Ax passes on the Colossus‘ coordinates to Pyre, who relays them to Galek. The Star Destroyer begins to converge on the Colossus‘ position, but the Colossus jumps away before they can get close enough.

While sneaking around the hangar, Kaz and Norath run into Pyre and stun him. The trooper breaking into CB informs Tierny that they have accessed the droid’s main databanks. Tierny orders them to drain every bit of information and leaves. Once she’s gone, CB-23 (who is being electrocuted) manages to attach to the trooper with her grappling cable, knocking the trooper out with the electrical charge. CB-23 breaks free and fries the computers, before knocking out Tierny, who had returned after hearing the commotion. Kaz and Norath free Yeager and Synara and are joined by CB-23.

“Hang on, Kaz. We’ve got your back.”

The group head back to their shuttle , where Ax is waiting for them, however they manage to draw him off of the shuttle and CB-23 controls the shuttle, using it to ram Ax. The group get onto the shuttle and fly away before Ax can recover or Pyre and his troopers intervene. Pyre orders Galek to have her TIEs target the shuttle. 3 TIEs attack the shuttle, but Torra and the other Aces arrive to protect them. Breaking out of the planet’s atmosphere, they find the Star Destroyer above them, which launches 3 more TIE squadrons. Torra contacts Doza to say they are ready and the Colossus jumps in between the TIEs and the Aces. A number of TIEs crash into the Colossus and the station’s shields intercept any turbolaser fire from the Star Destroyer. The shuttle and the Aces land in the hangar and the Colossus jumps away.

In the hangar, Norath thanks Doza for the rescue and says that the Resistance owes him a debt, to which Doza says that he didn’t do it for the Resistance, but came back for his people. Norath invites Kaz to come with him back to the Resistance, but Kaz says that he is unable to leave his friends on the Colossus yet.

Review

While I still think this was one of the better episodes of the season, I didn’t think that this lived up to the first part of this story. While last episode made it feel like there were serious stakes and that our heroes were in trouble, it felt like everything was resolved far too easily in this episode, with CB-23 able to save herself and it being far too easy for Kaz and Norath to rescue their friends. Even Ax went from being a real danger last week to someone relatively easy to take out. It felt like the show may finally be upping the stakes and getting more serious, but now I’m not so sure.

“I’m sorry I put out that distress call. I had no idea things would escalate this quickly.”

It still felt like a darker episode than much of Resistance has been, with a lot of torturing during this episode, but it didn’t feel like there was much effect on the heroes beyond the initial pain, much like how Synara and Kaz appeared to be barely affected by their injuries last week. I did like however that Norath was clearly limping after injuring his leg. Similarly, it felt a bit odd that Kaz would have his blaster on stun when trying to sneak into a First Order-controlled hangar to rescue his friends, which left me feeling a little conflicted when he stunned Pyre. Similar to a few weeks back, it feels like Pyre is being underplayed this season and is not getting the chance to be as menacing as he should be.

Probably my favourite parts of the episode came from Doza and the Aces, as we see Doza trying to make sure his people are kept safe but also wanting to get Kaz and Yeager back. I loved seeing the Aces come to help, especially as it was suggested by Torra that they do so, but without getting the confirmation, so we weren’t sure if they stayed when the Colossus jumped away. And then to see the Colossus quickly jump in to rescue everyone was a great way to finish and really hints towards everyone starting to work together.

The one thing that this episode really proved for me is that the group are not trying to actively find the Resistance, which was the feeling that I have had in many episodes but makes no sense to me. For a show called Resistance, the Resistance itself hasn’t been a big part of the season and it has had more Battlestar Galactica vibes of a group on the run form the bad guys, trying to survive, as opposed to a group fighting against the First Order. I really hope that this changes towards the end of the series, but given the Colossus did not appear to be with the Resistance during The Rise of Skywalker, I very much doubt it will.

“Of course!”

“What?”

“Stormtroopers!”

“Where?”

“No, that’s the plan!”

“What is?”

“Stormtroopers!”

“…”

“…”

“You messing with my head or what?”

A few final thoughts from the episode:

Though he was less impressive this episode, I would love for Ax to return at some point as he really did feel like an intimidating character
For the amount of time we are spending with the First Order, it feels like we have too many characters there. We never even got to see Tam or Rucklin in this episode (why are they never in TIEs during these skirmishes?!) yet we still have 3 leadership figures in Pyre, Tierny and Galek, whose roles all appear to overlap in a way that things didn’t with Pyre and Vonreg

Moments in Canon

Kaz tells Norath that he’s impersonated a stormtrooper before, referring back to the series 1 episode “The New Trooper”
Ax’s trick to establish a communication trace to the Colossus is reminiscent of how the Trade Federation and Darth Maul traced the escapees from Naboo to Tatooine in The Phantom Menace