Chris Cooper reviews the fifteenth episode of Star Wars Rebels season 2…
Well well well. Who would have thought that since coming back after Christmas, the strongest and most interesting episodes of Rebels would both centre on Zeb, who up to this point has really only been muscle and occasional comic relief. ‘The Honorable Ones’, further serves to flesh out his character, and make me care more about him.
Perhaps more importantly though, is how the episode portrays Agent Kallus, who for a long time now has had a seemingly personal grudge against the Lasat. In the space of 20 minutes my changed my opinion of him several times; quite a feat! Trapped with Zeb, and relying on each other to survive (drink in the frankly gorgeous McQuarrie-esque planet scape), would he live up to his name, or would he show us something we rarely see in Imperials…compassion? I’ve always wondered what David Oyelowo was doing portraying a relatively straightforward villain, but here he shines alongside Steve Blum’s Zeb. The massacre of the Lasat has long haunted Zeb, so to be stranded with a man who claims to have been pivotal opens the story up emotionally.
There is a lot to take away from this story, with some fascinating links to the larger Star Wars story, but perhaps it will be Kallus’s experience with his enemy, and how he could change, that will be the biggest thing to ruminate on. We rarely get to see things from an Imperial perspective, and even then it rarely contains much emotion. This is good opportunity handled extremely well.
Away from the main story, what we do see of the other Rebels is pretty cool. The swooping shots of TIEs lining up on the Ghost remind me of A New Hope, and the shots from the Ghost as it takes shots back, had me swooning. Whatever concerns there may about budget, they aren’t evident this week.
No complaints this week. In fact, if the quality of Zeb stories remains this high, bring on more of them!
Chris Cooper is a Flickering Myth Staff Writer, and owner of the blog Super Duper Stuff. Follow him on Twitter @SDCCooper or visit the blog’s Facebook page.
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Originally published February 25, 2016. Updated November 8, 2019.
