Ricky Church reviews the eighth episode of Star Wars Resistance – ‘Synara’s Score’…
Star Wars Resistance offered a pretty entertaining and action-packed episode with ‘Synara’s Score’ as she her pirate gang led an attack on the Colossus. It brought many of the characters together and even gave some who have been sitting on the sidelines lately, namely Yeager and Tam, fairly vital roles in the story’s outcome. There was a lot to like about the episode, but its most successful aspects was how it dealt with its characters and set up where the story can go next.
It was a little surprising to see Synara making a play against the station with her band of pirates so soon given that she was just introduced in the previous episode, but ‘Synara’s Score’ dealt with this pretty well. The story showed just how smart and resourceful the pirate spy can be as she deduced the station’s weaknesses. It was also nice to see that it wasn’t a friendship with Kaz that was the focus, but on a friendship with Tam. Not only did it give Tam something more to do as she raced to save Synara from the attacks, but it showed a softer side to her personality and let us get to know her a bit more. As with ‘The High Tower’, the spotlight on Tam was a great swerve from focusing on Kaz and his bumbling cover as a mechanic and dream of spying for the Resistance.
While Kaz and his development weren’t quite as significant as Tam’s, he still got a fair bit to do as he and Yeager worked to bring the station anti-aircraft guns back online. This offered a chance for us to see Yeager in action after he’s spent so much time either on the sidelines or disapproving of Kaz’s behaviour and, judging from Yeager’s skills here, he is quite the fighter. It was a pretty entertaining and compelling speeder chase as they dodged shots and even fought on top of their speeder while Kaz tried to align the defense’s mainframe. It showed just how dynamic the animation is as well as Yeager’s skill at piloting and fighting. Hopefully future episodes will see him take on a more active role in Kaz’s mission and the defense of the station along with some backstory on what he did for the Rebellion during the war. For now, though, it was a good example of how capable Yeager is and Kaz’s growing skills.
After the lightness of ‘Signal from Sector Six’, the tone again found a nice balance between the light elements and serious moments of the story. Neeku’s reduced role was a welcome one, but it was also humourous how the show managed to have him not speak as he again took something Yeager said a bit too literally. The story was fast-paced with some kinetic action and successfully made the stakes for the characters and station feel earned. The animation for everything, from the speeder chases, explosions and smoke, was very well done with some vibrant colours and well choreographed fights. It even tied to the main plot by possibly revealing why the First Order was outsourcing work to the pirates and the brief return of Commander Pyre. Star Wars Resistance continues to build off its potential and reveal new interesting facets to these characters.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church
