Ricky Church reviews the fifteenth episode of Star Wars Resistance…
At long last the First Order has arrived in force at the Colossus, beginning what Kaz called an occupation of the station. Despite this and the title even named after his claim, ‘The First Order Occupation’ is less about their arrival and more about Kaz helping Synara off the station. There were a few moments where we got to see some of the impact of the First Order’s presence, but mostly it was more of Resistance‘s slapstick comedy as Kaz and Synara tried avoiding Stormtroopers. It made for a somewhat uneven story that was helped along through the interactions between Kaz and Synara than the race off the Colossus.
One of the first things to notice was how cool everyone was with the First Order conducting security checks and ‘protecting’ the station. From random Colossus citizens to Neeku and even Tam, nearly everyone viewed their presence as a good thing. It was a stark reminder of how, at this point, the First Order aren’t viewed as an evil force by the galaxy at large despite their obvious connection to the old Empire. Tam’s lack of concern was a bit surprising, but she’s lived on the station for so long that the pirates are her main concern. It will be interesting to see how someone like her views the First Order a few episodes down the road or if she’ll end up agreeing with their beliefs. Even Captain Doza is beginning to regret letting them onto the station which is a telling sign from an ex-Imperial.
The rest of the episode didn’t quite focus on the First Order and despite it being called an occupation, it really seemed more like a relatively small security force. Instead, the story followed Kaz along in his attempts to help Synara off the station before the Stormtroopers caught up to her and tied up that loose end from their business with Kragan. Rather than being a tension-filled chase, though, their escape was mostly filled with slapstick comedy. There was a bit too much of those elements in the story that relied on Kaz being pretty clumsy, what with various objects falling on his head or being incredibly awkward with Synara given his crush.
Some moments with Kaz attempting to play things smoothly worked well, or how his perfectly good farewell to Synara was ruined by the escape pod door crashing on his head, but otherwise many of these moments were just played out too much. One of the worst offenders was Neeku confusing the expression ‘like the back of my hand’ in a joke that went on too long. Given that Neeku is such a literal person and his own obtuseness in giving the Stormtroopers everything they needed to know on where to find Kaz at the beginning of the episode, it did raise the possibility that he is the First Order spy Kaz and Poe are looking for and just hasn’t known he’s been spying the entire time. We’ll have to see in later episodes if this theory pans out.
Aside from the slapstick elements, the interactions between Kaz and Synara were done well. There is a certain chemistry there and Synara has become more than just a one-note pirate spy that the show could have easily written her as. Kaz trying to get her off the station, despite her being a pirate, was in character and built the development between them nicely. Synara’s friendship between Kaz and the others was built up fairly well over the last few episodes, making her conflicted feelings feel believable. It puts her loyalty to Kragan and the pirates in question and hopefully she’ll return before the season ends. It will be interesting to see if Kragan becomes an ally to Kaz and the Resistance since the First Oder double crossed him.
‘The First Order Occupation’ was a little underwhelming since it didn’t entirely focus on the First Order’s presence on the Colossus. It was interesting how most people welcomed the Stromtroopers and would have been nice to see more of that focused, but instead it place too much focus on the comedic elements that undercut the tension of Synara’s escape. While the interactions between Kaz and Synara were good, they weren’t enough to lift the episode up from its heavy slapstick comedy. Hopefully the next few episodes will bounce back as the First Order becomes a bigger threat.
Rating: 6/10
Ricky Church
