The last two episodes of Rebels have gone away from the multi-part stories that are more commonplace. This is a good thing that allowed two character centric episodes that helped to give more depth to these band of Rebels. First it was Ezra and the weight of choices that faced him, and last week we got a look at Hera and what drove her to become a pilot. Hopefully, Rebels will keep up this trend while at the same time developing the larger story arc. Now get ready for hyperspace and watch out for asteroids (spoilers), it’s show time.
Blast from the Past
This week on Rebels, Hera assigns Sabine an important task with only Chopper and Ezra as backup. We get a bit of humor to start off as we watch Ezra and Sabine fail at finding their courier while harassing nearly everyone getting of the recently arrive shipped. It is as Ezra takes a seat that they find out that their courier is actually a droid. Enter Ketsu Onyo, an apparent old friend of Sabine’s. Things quickly escalate from there when a bunch of storm troopers arrive to clear out the dock only for a fire fight to break out. Sabine makes a run for it with Chopper when her old friend catches up with her and disables her ship, unfortunately sending Chopper into space when the ship is breached.
Teaming Up
Ketsu Onyo is a dangerous bounty hunter that works for Black Sun and something we learn is that Sabine at one point wanted to be a part of the organization before she realized what type of people the really were. While Ketsu gives Sabine an ultimatum of turn over the courier or die, Chopper shows us he has a few tricks up his sleeve and disables some weapons on Ketsu’s ship from the outside. It looks like Sabine is going to make it away but just before Chopper reaches the ship he is dragged back to Ketsu’s, getting caught in her tractor beam leading Sabine to allowing herself to be docked. It looks like Sabine has run out of options when the Empire decides to show up forcing the two old friends to team up once again.
Blood Sisters
A bit of sleight of hand by Sabine fools the Imperials into thinking both their ships are malfunctioning while Sabine plans a nice little explosion for the Star Destroyer allowing her and Ketsu to make their escape. We find out that Sabine’s love of blowing things up apparently came from Ketsu, and while she works for a group like the Black Sun she still cares for her old friend as she saves Sabine before her ship manages to escape from the Star Destroyer. Running into her old friend appears to waken some old feelings in Ketsu as Sabine is allowed to take the courier to the rendezvous point where we see an old friend in R2-D2. Ketsu and Sabine share one last moment before she departs back for Black Sun. Sabine throws out the offer to join the Rebels and leaves the invitation open ended before they part ways.
A bit of a slow episode that started off with a bang. An exciting shootout where the storm troopers showed that their bad aim was even true at the beginning of the Rebellion. This episode was about highlighting more of Sabine’s past, which is foreshadowed by Ezra commenting on how much she does stuff off on her own. What we learned about Sabine this week is that at one point both her and Ketsu were in the Imperial Academy together before they both became bounty hunters. Ketsu, it seems, left Sabine for dead and if it wasn’t for her joining the Rebels then who knows the direction her life could have taken. Another character centric episode that gives us a glimpse into a character’s past without revealing too much. It is only one aspect of Sabine’s past, but does explain her habit of spending a lot of her time on her own. Not a great episode, but enlightening, and it will be interesting to see what role Ketsu Onyo and the Black Sun has to play.