Star Wars Rebels Season 2 episodes 5-6 review: Wings of the Master/Blood Sisters

Wings of the Master

I have mixed feelings with Star Wars Rebels season 2 thus far, aside from the excellent ‘Always 2 there are’ the problem is how many times you can see the same people and the same threat. Once again, they’re up against Agent ‘how the heck am I still alive after so many failures’ Kallus as they try and deliver supplies to a planet being starved by the empire for having rebel sympathisers

So, finally, we get an episode focused on Hera as she shows her determined but somewhat reckless side as she tries to get past the blockade on the first run. My issue there is her determination doesn’t have consequences. They lost the supplies and the Phoenix squad leader and it’s brushed off like it’s nothing at all.

For development to happen properly actions need to have consequences and characters need to acknowledge their flaws. Something Star Wars Rebels of all things should understand all too well. But at the very least it leads to a segment that explores her character. One step at a time. But back to my point we find that Hera’s flying was sort of an obsession, again something that could’ve been explored but maybe I’m rushing in, there are still more episodes and this season is going to be longer than season 1 (22 episodes or 20 if the Siege of Lothal counted as the first 2) so maybe they will.

But to the credit of the episode, it’s a good story. The rebels need a new ship but the owner would only give it away if their best pilot, Hera, came to collect it. Hera reveals that she was inspired by the republic ships back in the Clone Wars and chose to leave her family to fly. Maybe this is setting stuff up for later, I hope it is because there’s a lot of potential in this.

Hera’s piloting skills and a few tweaks meant they could transport the ship, capable of a multi-input laser blast into the battlefield and it instantly became useful. I’ll at least say that Kallus was able to block them the first time.

If your noticing some similar beats to Cat and Mouse from the Clone Wars you’re not alone. Both episodes involved using a prototype ship to make a supply drop to a starving nation, in both the prototype ship was used offensively instead. That’s pretty much where the similarities stop though.

Hera’s promotion to Phoenix leader at the end felt odd to me, she was ordering the Phoenix leader during the blockade run, not sure if it’s a downgrade for her or not. But it means we might be seeing more Phoenix squadron in the weeks to come, so… good.

Rating 7/10

Blood Sisters

In an interesting twist of fate, last week I watched a play in a local theatre, Blood Brothers. In the play they define being ‘Blood Brothers’ more or less as a pact between 2 best friends, here they’re talking a little more literally (although those ‘Blood Brothers’ were actual brothers, neither of them knew it, hijinks to follow)

So, another episode that doesn’t do much in terms of plot development overall but I’m beginning to realise that maybe I’m a little too used to serialised shows with a running narrative. The Clone Wars did have past moments come into play in later episodes and it had many multi-part episodes these do not equate to a running narrative. So maybe I’ve been a bit harsh on that front.

Having said that, this is drastically better than Wings of the Master in terms of character development. Admittedly it did suffer from another ‘show, don’t tell’ moment with Ezra commenting on how she always seems to want to be alone but this was not the focal point of the story so it’s more forgiveable.

So to the plot. Sabine is tasked with recovering a droid with essential intel and bringing it to a rendezvous. As well as combating the empire, she has to deal with Ketsu, her sister and a Black Sun bounty hunter intent on taking the droid for herself.

The interactions between the two sisters made for some genuinely interesting moments. Much like I praised Doctor Who’s Inversion of the Zygons for something similar, I do like that Sabine chose to forgive Ketsu, making her a potential ally in a future episode

And it may just be me but I found that pilot droid quite funny, in fact the humour was quite nice this week. I think it also helped that the cast was significantly reduced for this episode. Kanan, Zeb and Rex don’t appear at all. Hera only has a brief appearance and Ezra is dropped off fairly early on as well.

My only real complaint is about the Empire, who once again come across a bunch of weaklings. We really need to see those inquisitors again.

Rating 7.5/10

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Images used in this review are from Star Wars Rebels and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.