Considering that I actually thought there wouldn’t be any more Vader this season on Star Wars Rebels, I was surprised to see several clips with him in a lot of the promos for season 2. So, maybe the residuals from The Lion King aren’t really doing it for James Earl Jones anymore? I don’t know, but it’s nice to know that they won’t let up on the voice talent (shit, they’ve already got Steve Blum all over the place).
The rebellion needs bases, especially since their flagship went kablooie during the big bad Vader encounter. They really need somewhere to hide and from which they can launch attacks. Ahsoka suggests an old friend of hers, a great commander with knowledge of a number of excellent planets for just such a base. He just doesn’t seem to like answering his voicemail, because she hasn’t been able to get in touch with him. So she sends the crew of the Ghost off to find him with the head of a tactical droid and the advice to just trust “him”.
The whole trust thing is very important, you see, because the man she sent them to find is Captain Rex. A very old Captain Rex, which is important as this show does relate a bit to canon. A lot of people were under the impression that the stormtroopers in the original trilogy were clones after Episode II: Attack of the Clones came out. Which is partially why a whole lot of nerds were flipping their shit when they saw David Oyelowo in a stormtrooper uniform in the trailers for Episode VII. This episode pretty much explains the misconception away; the majority of the clone troopers were discharged, having fulfilled their purpose, and they aged faster due to the fact that their growth was deliberately accelerated for the war effort. So the nerds can rest easy; the Empire discriminates based on height, not skin color.
Kanan, however, doesn’t trust Rex, Wolffe, or Gregor. Why would he, after Order 66? And Wolffe shooting at them. Things between them remain fairly tense throughout the episode, until Rex flat out tells Kanan that the three of them actually removed their own chips so that they wouldn’t betray the Jedi the were assigned to. As a matter of fact, Woffe is still paranoid that the Jedi want revenge for what the clone troopers did, even though it generally happened against their will, and Jedi aren’t exactly known for seeking revenge.
A large part of the episode is spent on Gregor’s little ploy to use Zeb as bait to catch a juppa (?), which as it turns out is just Jhen Mohran’s alien cousin. He doesn’t tell Zeb that he’s going to get swallowed by the damn thing, though. Also, Gregor is literally playing out every crazy old man bit you can imagine; time will tell if things actually stay that way.
Wolffe sells them out, though. He sent in a call to the Empire out of fear that Kanan was just going kill them in revenge, and helping a Jedi would bring the Empire’s attention down on them. Agent Kallus finds out about it, and decides to send a probe droid to check things out, since Wolffe seems to send in false Jedi sightings all the time. By the time they deal with the droid, it’s already screwed up the engines on the Phantom, and sent more than enough data back to the Empire.
Final Thoughts:
- Dee Bradley Baker continues to give the clone troopers distinct personalities despite the fact that they all basically have the same voice. It’s always interesting to listen to.
- Ezra’s helmet obsession grows deeper.
- Honestly, the clone trooper stories were some of the best episodes of The Clone Wars that I saw. It’s no surprise they brought Rex back.
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