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Rebels Season 4 Star Wars

A Fool’s Hope

Star Wars: RebelsGovernor Pryce receives a call from deposed Governor Ryder Azadi, apparently ready to sell out the rebel cell on Lothal. Hoping that the capture of Ezra Bridger and the others will provide enough of a victory to avoid her impending execution by Thrawn, Pryce commits a significant Imperial force to taking the rebel base, only to be routed by the Ghost, returning to Lothal with Hera, Kallus, Ketsu, Hondo, and a complement of battle-hardened ex-clone troopers. But perhaps even more critical to the rebels’ victory is Ezra’s growing connection with the Force and the Loth-wolves. At the end of the day, the rebels have not only survived, but have taken the Governor of Lothal as their prisoner.

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Henry Gilroy & Steven Melching
directed by Dave Filoni & Saul Ruiz
music by Kevin Kiner
additional music by David Russell, Sean Kiner, and Dean Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Vanessa Marshall (Hera Syndulla), Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Imperial Captain / Rebel Officer), Keith Szarabajka (Cikatro Vizago / Imperial Officer #1), Dee Bradley Baker (Rex / Clone Troopers / Melch), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Governor Pryce), Jim Cummings (Hondo Ohnaka / Imperial Officer #2), David Oyelowo (Kallus), Gina Torres (Ketsu Onyo), Warwick Davis (Rukh), Clancy Brown (Ryder Azadi)

Notes: Hera’s maneuver – flipping the Ghost over to knock an Imperial transport out of the sky – anticipates a nearly-identical maneuver that a young Han Solo would use to eliminate a TIE Fighter chasing the Millennium Falcon (back when it was Lando’s ship) during the escape from Kessel in Solo (2018). Not so much a self-contained story as a half-hour all-star fight scene, A Fool’s Hope sets the stage for the series finale.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Rebels Season 4 Star Wars

Family Reunion – And Farewell

Star Wars: RebelsWith Governor Pryce captured by the Rebels, Ezra’s plan to rid Lothal of any Imperial presence permanently is now in motion: the Rebels will, using the captured Imperial transports, infiltrate the Empire’s base on Lothal, where Pryce will – at the point of a blaster – recall all Imperial forces to the base for an evacuation. When Grand Admiral Thrawn returns to Lothal ahead of schedule and begins bombarding the planet’s civilian population from orbit in response, Ezra relents and hands himself over to Thrawn, over the protests of Hera and the others. Thrawn has orders to deliver Ezra to the Emperor, but even before then, Palpatine communicates with Ezra via hologram, offering to return his parents to him, alive and well, in exchange for revealing the secret of the gateway into time and space that was accessible from the ruins of Lothal’s Jedi temple. Ezra refuses, aware that his friends have already set his backup plan into motion, buying time for some old allies to attack the Imperial fleet hovering over Lothal. But will the price of thwarting the Emperor’s plans be the loss of another of the last few remaining Jedi?

Order the DVDsDownload this episode via Amazonwritten by Dave Filoni, Henry Gilroy, Kiri Hart, Simon Kinberg & Steven Melching
directed by Dave Filoni, Bosco Ng and Sergio Paez
music by Kevin Kiner
additional music by David Russell, Sean Kiner, and Dean Kiner
based on original themes and music by John Williams

RebelsCast: Taylor Gray (Ezra Bridger), Vanessa Marshall (Hera Syndulla), Freddie Prinze Jr. (Kanan Jarrus), Tiya Sircar (Sabine Wren), Steve Blum (Zeb Orrelios / Imperial Officer / Imperial Tech / Stormtrooper #1), Dave Filoni (Chopper / Imperial Pilot / Stormtrooper #2), Keith Szarabajka (Cikatro Vizago / Imperial Officer), Dee Bradley Baker (Captain Rex / Clone Troopers / Ephraim Bridger / Melch), Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Governor Pryce), Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn), Jim Cummings (Hondo Ohnaka / Pellaeon / Imperial Commander / Stormtrooper #3), Matthew Wood (Imperial Technician #1), David Acord (Imperial Technician #2), David Oyelowo (Kallus), Gina Torres (Ketsu Onyo), Zachary Gordon (Mart Mattin), Kath Soucie (Mira Bridger), Warwick Davis (Rukh), RebelsClancy Brown (Ryder Azadi)

Notes: The episode-ending coda reveals that Hera and Captain Rex fought in the battle of Endor, and Rogue One had already revealed the Ghost‘s presence at both Yavin IV and the battle of Scarif. Some time after the liberation of Lothal, Hera has a son, Jacen Syndulla, and Sabine’s narration in the coda indicates that Jacen’s father was Kanan. Ezra’s fate is left unresolved, with the tantalizing hint that Sabine and Ahsoka Tano begin a quest to find him after the fall of the Empire, perhaps to be chronicled elsewhere.

LogBook entry by Earl Green

Categories
Discovery Season 1 Short Treks Star Trek

Welcome To Section 31 (Untitled Epilogue Scene)

Star Trek: DiscoveryStardate not given: Following the armistice between the Kllingon Empire and the Federation, former Emperor Phillipa Georgiou remains on the Klingon homeworld, biding her time in a shady bar frequented by off-worlders. One off-worlder, who seems to be a Trill, takes a special interest in Georgiou, though she makes it very clear that the interest isn’t mutual…until he reveals that he is a recruiter for a top-secret security organization which defends the Federation by any means necessary. Section 31 has plans for Georgiou, especially since she operates entirely outside of the Federation’s code of morality…but will she fit in with an organization that’s part of the Federation?

See it on YouTubeteleplay by Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts
story by Akiva Goldsman & Gretchen J. Berg & Aaron Harberts
directed by Akiva Goldsman
music by Jeff Russo

Cast: Michelle Yeoh (Philippa Georgiou), Alan Van Sprang (Leland)

Star Trek DiscoveryNotes: The title given to this short scene is speculative, as CBS has not given it a title other than “Michelle Yeoh And Alan Van Sprang’s Section 31 Bonus Scene From Star Trek Discovery”. Released directly to YouTube after the end of the first season on CBS All Access, this is a rather odd place to drop a major story development, especially considering the announcement, nearly a year later, of a Section 31 spinoff starring Michelle Yeoh. Leland uses holographic technology to disguise himself as a Trill, the same symbiotic species seen more frequently in 24th century Star Trek, including Jadzia Dax (DS9), Odan (TNG), and Ezri Dax (DS9). The entire cast of Star Trek: Discovery, including Jason Isaacs, is credited in the end credits, though only Yeoh and Alan Van Sprang have dialogue in the scene.

Star Trek DiscoverySection 31 was first introduced in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the 1998 episode Inquisition, and would be featured several more times in that series (primarily in the person of Section 31 agent Sloan), though its presence extends at least as far back as the era of Captain Jonathan Archer’s Enterprise (in a few episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise‘s fourth season), and exists during James T. Kirk’s command heyday in both an alternate timeline (Star Trek: Into Darkness, 2013) and in possibly apocryphal events in the prime timeline (Star Trek Continues: To Boldly Go, Part I, 2017). Though not officially designated a “Short Trek”, this short scene (of its 4+ minute run time, not even two and a half minutes of story are followed by nearly two minutes of credits) can easily be seen as a trial balloon for the series of stand-alone shorts to follow.

LogBook entry by Earl Green