Star Wars Rebels season 3 episodes 9-11 review - The Wynkathu Job/An Inside Man/Visions and Voices

We've entered hiatus period now, we'll down to one review/editorial a week until January. So let's start off with tying some loose ends and reviewing the episodes of Star Wars Rebels I'm yet to review.

The Wynkathu Job

“We have something in common that the empire does not for we are desperate.”

OK, so you know how last week they shoved a load of pre-rebels Ezras in our face, this week the real Ezra is quite enough. How can I put this…? He’s an insufferable little sh*t in this one.

So, Hondo’s in this episode, and he’s teamed up with that guy from season 1 whose name I can’t be assed to remember. There’s an abandoned imperial vessel containing the proton bombs they failed to get back in the Last Battle, but it’s caught in a storm and only with the great planning skills of AT-5 (yeah… he’s still here) can they retrieve them, but (oh my god) can Ezra cope when Zeb is put in charge? (Oh the drama! Oh the drama)

Ezra’s character has been wildly inconsistent lately to the point where I think they want us to believe he’s still falling to the Dark Side but they’re not doing a good job of it, not least because the first 3 episodes were dedicated to people trying to protect him from that fate and at least kinda succeeding. I expected it to return but not like this, this is too childish.

I realise why Ezra is there, for the same reason Ahsoka was in the Clone Wars, to be a newcomer the kids can connect with, that’s why he’s prominent in more episodes than any member of the Ghost. The thing with Ahsoka, she was irritating because she asked a lot of questions and was a bit raw but over time she learned and became less annoying and more importantly I wouldn’t class her as childish in the same way I would for Ezra. Because even when she disobeyed, she did it with good intentions and that’s where this fails. Ezra being demoted for trusting Hondo too much is understandable (and no, Kanan, he does not need to work it out on his own, people’s lives are at stake) and his being irritated over this decision is understandable, but taking it out on Zeb is where the line is drawn, that was childish, not particularly in character and beyond annoying.

If there’s one highlight to this episode, it’s the humour. Hondo always makes a hilarious addition to the group dynamic because he’s the nice guy who’s selfish. His antics through the episode as he keeps to his character are the saving grace of what would otherwise be a not very good episode.

The addition of Hondo is the reason this episode ranks higher than last week but the quality of the series is dipping and I hope they bring it back soon.

Rating 7/10

An inside man

So… Thrawn stepped up his game in this episode, and it’s most welcome

So, the Rebels have gained intel from Fulcrum that trouble is brewing in Lothal’s imperial factories. Kanan and Ezra are sent to investigate and find out how grave the situation is and whether a strike on the factory would be in order. Unfortunately, Thrawn has arrived to investigate vehicle sabotage by local rebels including a few familiar faces whose names I can’t remember and things come to a head

OK, so I theorised this a while back but the whistle’s blown on Fulcrum being Agent Kallus in this episode, well, I suspect Thrawn suspects him anyway and now the rebels know and they sort of kind of have to adjust to that.

So this episode raised the tension a bit by having Thrawn kill someone who was sabotaging the speeders. It was chilling, the guy was in an episode, Fighter Flight I believe so yeah, not a very good episode but an episode none the less. They really needed to have Thrawn do something after several episodes where he just sorta watches things unfold.

Beyond that, however, I have very little to say about this episode, it’s not heavily character focused, although I wouldn’t say that’s a massive point against it after the last two episodes. The action is great, Kanan and Ezra have decent chemistry, I’m glad we the got Kallus as Fulcrum reveal. It’s nice that Thrawn is working on some new ships.

It’s intimidating and it’s good to see the empire stepping up their game. That is all

Rating 8/10

Visions and voices

I can’t afford to give you either visions or voices, enjoy this cute kitten

So, we’re at the mid-season finale of Star Wars Rebels, where they’re taking a break of less than a month… So, yeah, it’s gonna be a few weeks before you see a review, I kinda had it planned for a later return than that, and with a 2-parter no less

But, to the episode itself. My biggest issue, and yes I’m starting with the biggest issue rather than a positive, though there are a few to give, is the sense of urgency. This takes place as they plan to launch an assault on the factories on Lothal, which is fine but they’re delaying that by saying they have to have a team getting up-to-date intel. Meanwhile the Maul subplot gives new information which likely puts Maul 2 steps ahead, it’ll probably be a while before they follow up on this.

So, Ezra’s having visions of Maul, leading him to attack some random guy we’ve never heard of, so they visit the Bendu for another cameo and Maul shows up. Turns out that back when they severed their connections with the Holocrons, it got a bit of information crosswired so Maul knows about the rebel’s secret base and a little bit of the secret to destroying the sith and Ezra has a bit of the information Maul wants to know.

The only hope they have is on the planet Dathomir, when ancient spells abound, Darth Maul has his extremely creepy shrine to Dutchess Satine and an old Darksaber. Kanan and Sabine set off to help and end up being caught in a Nightsister plot to resurrect themselves.

So, last year the mid-season finale had impactful opening but was a quieter episode used to close off the arc of Ezra’s parents established fairly on. This year goes if anything in the opposite direction. The opening, whilst it hints at big things to come, is a fairly quiet scene used to explore Ezra’s character, namely his force-connection with Maul, which leads him to near insanity and forces him to seek the advice of the Bendu. The return of Tom Baker is welcome and his final line gets a pretty big chuckle out of me.

But the return of Maul promises big adventure and some great action, which is delivers in its stride. But again, it starts off relatively quietly. It’s good that Maul used his deception to ensure Ezra would be at his side and his attempts to woo Ezra over were at least interesting, but Ezra isn’t buying any of it.

The dark-saber was a nice addition and something to hint at Sabine later on, as she managed to take it from Maul’s little shrine to Mandalore

It’s a decent finale with some interesting promises but I just hope they don’t delay in delivering them.

Rating 8/10

Images/clips 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