Star Wars Rebels: Siege of Lothal Review

On June 20th, 2015 Star Wars Rebels kicked off season two with a bang! The hour-long movie special had many different parts to it. If you’re looking for a quick recap, you’ve come to the right place.

SPOILER ALERT!

The episode starts out with the crew of the Ghost battling Imperial forces alongside Phoenix Squadron in their A-wings. This is a whole lot different than what Kanan and the gang were used to, but we’ll get back to that later. Their main objective in the battle was to steal fuel and shield generators from the Imperials. They managed to accomplish this task with only a few scratches and bruises, but were sadly misinformed about the shield generators being part of the shipment.

Meanwhile, back on Lothal, things are heating up for Minister Tua as she tries to find information on the Rebels but as she puts it, “There’s nothing to be found!” The issue is so bad for the Imperials that Darth Vader himself comes for a visit to try to find them. He also orders the Minister to visit Governor Tarkin the fallowing day. I can imagine what is going through her head. She was probably thinking about what happened to Taskmaster Grint and Cumberlayne Aresko when they were called to a meeting with Tarkin.

Seeing no other alternative, she does the unthinkable; defects from the Empire. While Ezra and the gang are in the middle of their debriefing of their latest mission, Chopper bursts in to the room, carrying an urgent message from Lothal. Kanan tells Chopper to play it without codding it first, but is rebuked and corrected by Hera. Again, more on that later.

The message was from Jho, an Ithorian bartender on Lothal who is sympathetic to the Rebel cause, claiming that someone important needs to talk to them. Knowing that Jho could only hear them through the transmission, they allow the visitor to speak to them. They never expected to see Minister Tua set into view was the last thing they expected to see. She offers secret Imperial information, including the real reason the Empire occupied Lothal, in exchange for safe passage from Lothal.

After she said this, the whole room erupted in to quiet discussion, excluding Tua. It was ultimately Ezra who stepped up to her aid. “We have to help her,” with those three words, he was able to unite the room. The Rebels set up a rendezvous with the Minister.

While they start planning the escape, Hera confronts Kanan about letting Chopper play the message without hiding the transmission. We find out that Kanan prefers Robin-Hood-style fighting compared to fighting with the military. He wanted to rob from the rich and give to the poor, directly affecting their lives. Not fighting in a war that reminds him too much of the Clone Wars. He declares that after the next mission, they were going back to how it was before.

The following morning, Tua sneaks out of her quarters to meet the Rebels, but not without being followed by an Imperial probe droid sent by Agent Kallus. It followed her to the waiting Lambda-class shuttle that the Rebels plan to hijack to get her off-planet.

They go about this in a style reminiscent of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in episode IV; Kanan subdues a Stormtrooper and takes his armor. When Minister Tua arrives, she is accompanied by Agent Kallus, claiming that Lord Vader insisted on him escorting her safely. When they entered the hanger, followed by Kanan, Sabine creates a distraction that allows Kanan to shut and seal the entrance to the hangar.

Kallus fires at Kanan and forces him to take cover behind a nearby crate. They are joined quickly by Ezra and Hera. Ezra tells Tua to get to the shuttle. She races across the hanger with the Rebels close behind, providing cover fire. As soon as she enters the ship, it explodes. With the mission failed, Sabine calls in Zeb and Chopper to pick them up in the public transport they used to get to Lothal.

After picking them up, they are quickly shot down by a waiting AT-ST; a full blow ambush. The Rebels are forced to go to ground to avoid the Empire. . . for about ten minutes. The Imperials quickly find there hide-out. With the Imperial spaceports locked down, they turn to the Imperial complex, their last hope for passage off Lothal.

To get inside, Kanan, still in his stolen armor, and Ezra, with his cadet helmet, push two crates into the Imperial complex. After being stopped by a guard wanting to investigate the contents of the crates, which held the rest of the team, Ezra tried and failed to use a Jedi Mind trick on the guard. Kanan was quickly able to step in with his own Mind trick. Once inside, the Rebels abandon the crates and make their way to the landing platform.

On the way to the ship, Sabine spots military-grade shield generators. They quickly grab four of them and continue to board the ship. After sensing “the cold” Ezra and Kanan stop short of entering the ship. They turn around to see Darth Vader, lightsaber in hand, followed by a squad of Stormtroopers.

Kanan and Ezra engage Vader while the rest of the team fires on the Stormtroopers. Vader toys with the Jedi, easily overpowering them. After a while, Sabine and Zeb attach explosives to the legs of two nearby AT-ST walkers. As they fall, Ezra and Kanan Force-push Vader into their path. Believing him crushed, the team resumes walking toward the ship. But Vader survived, using the Force to cushion the blow and raise the wreckage from on top of him.

The Rebels barely make it out of the conflict alive, Kanan taking a lightsaber wound to the shoulder and Sabine taking two shots from her own weapon reflected back at her from Vader. Only her tough Mandalorian Beskar’gam armor was able to keep her from being fatally wounded.

I believe that Vader could have stopped the Rebels at any moment. He simply chose not to so that they could escape off, planet and lead him to the Rebel fleet with the tracker that was cleverly attached before the confrontation.

While they did escape from the capitol city, the Rebels weren’t out of the woods yet. They still had to escape from the fleet blocking their escape. With no other option, they turn to Lando Calrissian for aid.

Lando agrees to help get them off world in exchange for three of their six stolen shield generators. Lando himself is not on Lothal, but promises his droid will set them up with everything they need. When they arrive, Ezra notices a dark pillar of smoke rising from the direction of Takin Town. When he arrives, he finds the entire place destroyed, its former residents now prisoners of the Empire.

When Kanan arrives behind Ezra, he says, “Things are getting worse just as they did when I was your age but back then, there we ten thousand Jedi Knights protecting the galaxy. Now. . .”

“There’s just you and me,” Ezra finished for him. Vader ordered the destruction of Tarkin Town to spread fear in the Rebels.

Back at Lando’s settlement, the rest of the team is rigging multiple transmitters to relay the same transponder signature of their stolen vessel, planning to release them at random intervals as they flee so the fleet surrounding them will target the fake signals and not the real one. All went according to plan. They managed to escape, but did not detect the hidden tracking beacon still on their ship.

While in hyperspace, the team discuss staying with the rebellion since going back to Lothal isn’t an option. Sabine suggests picking up the Ghost and laying low for a while. Zeb says that he likes fighting with Phoenix Squadron and that it reminds him of the Honor Guard, presumably he home planet defensive fleet, and that they were counting on the team. Ezra says that they cant help Lothal now, but that the Rebellion can help them grow stronger, so that they can go back and help Lothal. They ultimately decide to stay with the Rebel fleet.

As soon as they arrive to the fleet, Chopper alerts the team to the fact that a tracking beacon activated moments ago on their ship. They rush down to warn Commander Sato. Right after they warn him, a member of the crew reports that a single fighter has arrived in the sector. They dispatch Phoenix squadron to deal with it.

The ship, a TIE advanced outfitted with a hyperdrive engine and piloted by Darth Vader himself, avoids the Rebel’s first pass and managed to destroy Phoenix one and two. Vader moves past the fleet and fires directly onto the command ship where the Ghost crew are. Seeing that they are outmatched, Hera and the gang, joined by Ahsoka Tano, head to their ship to take on the one-man-fleet.

As the Ghost moves in to attack the ship, Vader continues his assault on the command ship, taking out first the shield generators, followed by the sublight and hyperdrive engines, leaving it dead in space. Ahsoka senses that the Force is strong in the pilot and calls on Kanan to help her reach out to him. When she does and finds out that it is her former Master piloting the ship, she faints.

Vader felt the connection, and broke off his attack run that would have ended the lives of the crew on the command ship. He comes up behind the Ghost, taking out another member of Phoenix squadron. Meanwhile, three Star Destroyers jump into the system. With Vader’s attention devoted only to the Ghost, Hera leads him toward the Star Destroyers and away from the rest of the Rebel fleet so that they can make the jump to hyperspace. She also orders Chopper to divert all power to the hyperdrive and to strengthen the stern shields.

Hera dives right between two of the Star Destroyers and jumps to hyperspace right before the Imperials activate their tractor beam, catching Darth Vader instead of the Rebels.

After the narrow escape, Ahsoka speaks with Kanan and Ezra, asking them about the Sith Lord they encountered on Lothal. “The fear. The anger. The hate. You felt it.” Kanan said. Ahsoka and Kanan agreed that they had never felt anything like it since the Clone Wars. Ezra asks Ahsoka if she knows who he is, but she lies and says she knows nothing about him.

Back on the Imperial Star Destroyer, Vader orders the bridge to be cleared so that he can speak with his Master. He tells Sidious about the encounter he had with the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker. Sidious replies by saying that she could be a great opportunity for them to find other lost Jedi such as Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. He orders to be patient and dispatch other Inquisitors to deal with the Rebels.

My Thoughts

I thought the Season two premiere was great. Seeing the main characters fighting along side Phoenix squadron in A-wings was really great. Vader’s ability to predict Minister Tua’s actions as well as the Rebel’s was also cool. I’m anxious to see what Dave Filoni and the rest of the team come up with, especially concerning Ahsoka.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave your comments below and check back after the next episode rolls out for another review HERE!

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