Star Wars Rebels has been hit and miss this season, jumping from character expanding episodes, to episodes that tell a loosely-related story from the previous. While Rebels has had its moments and looks to have a promising future if the mid-season trailer is anything to go by, it is taking its time getting there. Now strap in and punch it, Star Wars Rebels returns with Homecoming.
Familiar Faces
There’s nothing like a space battle to open up a show. Phoenix squadron plays a supporting role, leading a ship out of the Empire’s grasp and make a run for it themselves. Hera is forced to contact her home planet of Ryloth and arranges a meeting with her father. Cham Syndulla is well-known for helping free Ryloth during the Clone Wars and a great thorn in the side to the Empire. Interesting to see the effect her father has on Hera. There is a sense of bitterness that Hera has do her father being constantly involved in the conflicts that his planet faces. Cham doesn’t understand Hera’s point of view concerning her involvement with the Alliance, and it’s amazing that despite the divide between them, how similar they are. Kanan seems beyond happy to have met Cham Syndulla and they even share a few stories from the Clone Wars. It’s nice to hear Mace Windu mentioned even years after his death. The interaction between all three of them is amusing to watch and it will be interesting if it affects Hera and Kanan’s relationship.
Double Cross
The ruse works, but things take a turn for our Ghost crew when Cham and his men stun everyone and cuff Hera to her seat. Apparently, his distrust of galaxy wide organizations just goes to show that he only truly cared for Ryloth. The chase is in when Zeb and Sabine try to catch up to Cham’s soldiers, only for stormtroopers show up. Ezra and Kanan play force leap frog in a awesome scene to see as they take out all the stormtroopers in their way. Once on the bridge, Kanan allows Ezra to practice his Jedi mind trick making the Captain announce to his crew to abandon ship. Zeb and Sabine catch up to Syndulla’s men, taking them down, but the crew quickly finds out they won’t be taking the ship. Syndulla is committed to destroying the star destroyer as a symbol to his people, rather than use it to fight back against the Empire. Syndulla’ hatred of the Empire has blinded him and Hera tries to reach out to him, making him understand the impact he had on her. She makes a convincing argument and they quickly start firing in the incoming tie fighters. One of the tie bombers scores a lucky hit, but father and daughter working together save the ship. Ezra has a plan that seems him, Sabine and Syndulla to send a rigged tie bomber at the approaching star destroyer. A timely shot from Cham Syndulla and it is taken down.
Cham Syndulla had played a key role in the secondary canon of Star Wars. His arrival in Star Wars Rebels was nice to see, and it helps flesh out Hera’s character even more. An interesting side note is that Chopper is a droid Hera found during the Clone Wars. Nice to see the snarky droid get a bigger past. One other fun fact, but I believe we saw a young Numa on the Ryloth arc in the Clone Wars cartoon. Fun episode and a nice addition to the Star Wars lore.