Ricky Church reviews the thirteenth episode of Star Wars Resistance…
The latest episode of Star Wars Resistance, ‘Dangerous Business’, offered another light story, but one with a good balance of humour, story and character development to go with the lightness. It was one of the better comedic episodes thanks to this balance, but the major thing to note is how Kaz was mostly on his own throughout the episode and we got to see the growth of his skills on display. It did a lot to show how far he’s come as a Resistance member, utilizing various tricks he’s learnt in order to survive and save the day.
Kaz made some fairly good strides in the episode. The opening showed how far his skills have come as he completed a lot of work on the Fireball by himself and only messed up one part of it. Not only that, but he took the initiative himself to strike up a bargain with Flix and Orka for the parts. He’s becoming less of the bumbling pilot trying to fit in and a more competent spy and friend to Yeager’s crew. While he still kept his awkward clumsiness as Flix and Orka’s clerk, it was interesting to see him step out of his comfort zone even further and open some new doors as the Resistance’s spy on Colossus. He wasn’t even that bad as the clerk and mostly knew how to follow the pair’s instructions while they were gone. If this had been around the start of the season, Kaz might’ve even succumbed to his curiosity on the weapons they kept in the backroom. Now, however, he kept his mind on the task at hand, though he was still too trusting of Teroj.
Kaz’s initiative didn’t just extend to fixing the ship or running the shop, though. Once he was locked up by Teroj, the focus was entirely on Kaz relying on himself. Whether it was his escape or preventing Teroj from stealing the device, Kaz didn’t have anyone coming for his rescue or to help him out. It was a nice change of pace to see him solving the problem on his own and further exemplified how much he’s grown over the season. Between this and his actions in the previous episode, Kaz is really starting to come into his own. His development was nicely balanced with the comedic aspects as well. Whereas ‘Signal From Sector Six’, another episode which featured Kaz and some hostile animals, leaned a little too heavily on the slapstick elements, ‘Dangerous Business’ knew just how much was enough. Even with the comedy, the focus still laid on Kaz while Bitey, Flix and Orka’s pet who has a penchant for fingers, was in just enough not to overshadow Kaz or provide moments of forced levity.
There was also the surprise that ‘Dangerous Business’ tied in with the season’s storyline. It pulled a bit of a bait-and-switch by appearing as a standalone filler episode, but the reveal midway through that Teroj was working with the First Order and trying to acquire phase connector for them, most likely for their mining purposes for Starkiller Base, was a good touch. It wasn’t too shocking the First Order would be involved, but tying it back to them instead of making Teroj a simple thief elevated the stakes. That said, the story was still pretty basic. If it weren’t for the focus on Kaz and his own skills to save the day, it might not have been as good of an episode. And if you don’t think the episode didn’t just plant a Checkov’s Gun for down the line with Flix and Orka’s backroom, you may be mistaken.
While ‘Dangerous Business’ still leaned on the series’ form of juvenile humour, it at least had a good balance of Kaz’s strengths and Bitey’s antics. The story was simple, but the focus on Kaz and the inclusion of the First Order, however minor the latter was, helped raise it from what might have been a fairly forgettable episode to something better. It was another good instalment of the series, but now that we’ve had two relatively comedic episodes in a row, we can get back to the main plot with the First Order soon.
Rating: 7/10
Ricky Church
