We were promised after the last season that Star Wars Rebels would deal with some of the Mandalorian plots. Which is good, because they’ve been dangling Sabine stories for a while now. I’m just wondering if any of them will teach her not to shoot at a Sith Lord again.
Anyway, remember Fenn Rau? He’s been chilling in his “Guest Suite” for the past 6 months. Occasionally, Sabine will visit for a game of Knifey-Cubey Cubikahd and some standoffish banter. But that all ends when Hera calls them both to ops one day; Concord Dawn has stopped communicating with them. Rau asserts that they would never betray his deal, so Hera sends Sabine and Ezra with him to check it out.
Ezra stops paying attention to Rau for a bit too long, and he gets the drop on both of them. They wake some time later thanks to Chopper, and go to hunt Rau down.
They didn’t have to go far, though; he’s at the side of a cliff, looking down on the ruins of the Protector’s base. He initially blames Sabine for the whole thing, but the truth quickly comes out when they detect and destroy an Imperial probe droid.
Back when Fenn Rau showed up on Star Wars Rebels, there were hints that there was more to Sabine’s backstory. The introduction of Gar Saxon leads into more of that. He’s the current de facto ruler of the Mandalorians, with the Empire’s backing of course. He’s also very aware of Sabine’s mother, since they’re both Clan Vizsla. She’s stuck between both him and Rau for the body of the episode; both of them consider her a traitor.
Saxon captures Ezra, who luckily didn’t have his lightsaber thanks to Rau. He’s certain Ezra’s a Rebel, and he’s not going to fall for any of Ezra’s lies. He also makes the mistake of threatening Chopper for the truth. Ezra eventually resorts to namedropping Rau, which greatly interests Saxon. Ezra, however, winds up revealing that he’s a Jedi by protecting Chopper when Saxon tries to shoot him to get the full truth.
Sabine saves Ezra, while Rau takes the Phantom 2 and gets out of dodge. With a little bit of trickery, they’re able to escape with a tiny jetpack Sabine took from one of the commandos.
The aerial chase is probably one of the nicest scenes since the start of the season; the action flows really well. They eventually get brought down on a plateau, and things look bad. Rau shows up for the save, and Sabine is able to bloody Saxon’s nose (figuratively) before escaping.
Rau’s now willing to join the Rebellion, since he’s left with little else but hatred for the Empire. He also has a bit more respect for Sabine after the events of the episode. And she made off with a sweet (damaged) jetpack, and direction for the season.
Star Wars Rebels is shaping up to have a good third season. Aside from the fact that we know Sabine will get her hands on the darksaber, they’ve set her up for an arc. Considering Maul, it’s a bit overdue that she have one.
Final Thoughts:
- Don’t read too much into the video this time; I just like the way he says “tiny jetpack”.
- I’ll forgive Fenn Rau for doing that chess as a metaphor for life thing that I hate. Good on Sabine for correcting him.
- Chopper is going to murder Gar Saxon in his sleep. The implement is anyone’s guess.
4/5
“Great”
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