Courtney reviews this instant Star Wars classic.
James Earl Jones and Billy Dee Williams. Vader and Lando Clarissian. Famous names normally only said together in a sentence associated with the original Star Wars trilogy. But no longer; both men reprised their stellar roles for the Star Wars: Rebels movie “The Siege of Lothal.” What an amazing way to start out season two of this acclaimed series.
The Siege of Lothal begins right in the midst of a raid on Imperial ships. We meet our rebel band, as well as new leaders of the rebellion. Things seem to be going pretty well for them: the raid was successful and they escaped with minimal damage.
Things are not going so well, however, for Minister Tua on Lothal. The Empire is breathing down her neck to locate the rebels after they caused the destruction of Tarkin’s Star Destroyer. Darth Vader has been called in to handle the situation, and from the moment he speaks you know this is a special episode.
That deep, commanding voice…James Earl Jones IS Darth Vader.
An exasperated Minister Tua reaches out to the rebels to defect, fearing for her life. She promises to put them in contact with other rebel sympathizers on Lothal and the surrounding system. Also, Tua suggests there is much more to the Imperial presence on Lothal, a “true reason they came to Lothal”, something ordered by the Emperor himself. This is very intriguing; what could this true reason be? Why are the Imperials really on Lothal? What does Lothal have to offer the Imperials? Lothal has limited resources, no specializations.* It does, however, have vast amounts of open land and fields. Could the Empire be hiding something secret on Lothal? Or, was someone on Lothal the Emperor’s focus? (I’m leaning toward Ezra; perhaps his Force abilities harbor something important to the Emperor). Since we don’t know what the Empire is actually doing on Lothal, this sets up many paths for future episodes.
Just after Minister Tua’s call to the Rebels, Hera and Kanan have a tense, personal discussion about their involvement with the Rebel Alliance. Hera wants to be part of the larger fight, but Kanan doesn’t want to fight alongside soldiers and get drawn into a war. Hera said she understands this, but this seems to point to a conflict that could challenge their relationship this season.
The group decides to rescue Minister Tua from Lothal and make their way down to the surface. Unbeknownst to the minister, Agent Kallus has had her followed by an Imperial spy droid. As she goes to board the shuttle to take her to her meeting with Tarkin, the shuttle explodes, killing Tua. This shocking development shadows a darker, grittier tone to the new season of Star Wars Rebels. As the shuttle is destroyed, Kallus has the spy droid recording the incident and blames Tua’s death on the Rebels. This was Vader’s plan all along; he’s going to turn public sentiment on Lothal against the rebels.
An interesting note is that both Ezra and Kanan felt a ‘cold’ presence in the Force when the arrived on Lothal, a feeling associated with the dark side going all the way back to The Empire Strikes Back. This will not be the last time they have this feeling.
The group decides to steal a shuttle to secretly land on Lothal, and stumble upon some needed shield generators along the way. They each take a generator and race toward an available shuttle, but while escaping, Kanan and Ezra slow down and stop with quizzical looks on their faces. One of the best sequences in the entire series is about to begin.
Ezra: “Do you feel that?”
Kanan: “The cold.”
Ezra and Kanan both turn around, the shuttle bay door slowly lifts. Smoke swirls. Queue the Imperial March. Vader appears, red lightsaber lit. Kanan raises his lightsaber and advances on Vader. Ezra joins the fight. Vader tosses Ezra with a Force blast like a little rag doll. He towers over Kanan. Vader is an imposing figure now; huge, fierce, dark, cold. Chilling.
Vader is easily able to bat aside any lightsaber strikes from not only Ezra, but from Kanan as well. Kanan gets thrown by a Force blast, knocked almost unconscious. Ezra takes on Vader by himself (at this point who in the audience wasn’t shaking their head, saying “No!”). Vader posts Ezra against the wall, and uses Ezra’s own lightsaber as a weapon. Vader uses the Force to push Ezra’s blade to his throat.
Cut to commercial. Agh, no! Commercial!?
Thankfully the break wasn’t too long, and we’re back in the middle of the lightsaber fight. Kanan is able to distract Vader enough for Ezra to escape the blade at his throat. Kanan takes a hit to his shoulder armor (a similar strike as one between Vader and Luke in the ESB), but he’s okay. Kanan and Ezra team up and unite for one large Force push, which knocks Vader back under an AT-DT walker that is falling thanks to Sabine’s thrown detonators. The AT-DT falls directly on Vader.
Ezra and Kanan run toward the shuttle where the others are waiting. Then, they hear a sound. The remains of the AT-DT slowly rising, flames all around. Vader effortlessly standing, no harm done to him.
This scene is by far the best, most jaw-dropping scene in any episode yet. (Even my husband, who doesn’t watch the show, saw this and said “Wow.”)
Sabine attempts a few shots at Vader as the shuttle and crew are departing. Vader easily bats away the bolts, and Sabine takes a reflected shot to the helmet. Luckily she’s alright. The group is able to escape Vader, but this was really his plan all along. Throughout the entire episode, Vader is always one step ahead of the rebels. He proves again and again that he’s still a natural strategist, and a now as a Sith he’s also a master of plotting revenge.
As the group gets away, they need some help getting off planet. Hera suggests they smuggle themselves out, with the help of one Lando Calrissian. Lando agrees to assist in exchange for some of the stolen shield generators. While Lando isn’t on Lothal, he does give them transmitters to be able to fool the orbiting Star Destroyers to escape Lothal. As Sabine, Zeb, and Hera assemble the transmitters and get the shuttle ready, Ezra sees a burning town far away. Vader had ordered Tarkin Town burned, and the population taken prisoner. As Ezra and Kanan go to investigate, they stand together in a field, watching the remains of the town smolder. Kanan attempts to teach Ezra that sometimes there isn’t anything they can do to fight, that it’s better to wait to fact their enemies. Ezra, not for the first time, says he’s not afraid, basically that he’s willing to face whatever is necessary to win the fight against the Empire. Ezra’s no-fear attitude reminds one of a young Anakin Skywalker. There are many parallels between Ezra and Anakin (parental issues, attitude, eagerness to learn). Is this parallel a foreshadowing of where Ezra’s path may lie? Maybe the Emperor can feel the similarities between Ezra and a young Anakin Skywalker; maybe that’s the secret reason the Empire is really on Lothal…the Emperor wants a new apprentice. That may be a long shot, but one thing is for sure, Rebels is good at throwing the audience curve balls…
The rebels are able to escape Lothal and meet up with the fleet. Again, Hera and Kanan butt heads on whether or not to officially join the rebellion. They take it to the group for a vote. Hera and Zeb want to join the rebellion and fight with a larger group of people. Kanan and Sabine like the flexibility of being on their own as a group, doing their own part in the Ghost. Ezra is the tie breaker, and he votes to join the rebellion. As the show progresses, this difference of opinions may prove to be a dividing factor between Hera and Kanan. If one of the group gets hurt, or worse, during an assignment from rebel command, would Kanan be able to forgive himself, and Hera, for teaming up with the rebellion?
(P.S. As the shuttle comes up to the rebel fleet to join them, they have to transmit a clearance code. Hera gives 121815. Get it??)
As the Rebel fleet is grouping, warning sirens go off. Incoming Imperial fighter; the shuttle was tracked thanks to Vader’s hidden transmitter Again, he’s always one step ahead. Hera, Zeb, Sabine, Kanan, Ezra and Ahsoka go out to battle in the Ghost. While fighting Ezra and Kanan feel that cold presence again in the Imperial fighter pilot, they feel the fear and hate coming from it. Ashoka and Kanan use the Force in concert to feel out that presence and find out who it is. Ezra realizes it is the Sith lord who they faced on Lothal. As Ahsoka and Kanan are immersed in the Force, Ahsoka screams and then faints. We see a close up of Vader in his TIE fighter. He states, “The apprentice lives.”
She knows who it is, and she’s afraid and shocked.
Here it is! The first, albeit brief, meeting of Vader and Ahsoka. Former master and apprentice. While Ahsoka recovers in the Ghost, Vader continues tearing apart the rebel fighters and command ship. He is causing destruction and havoc all by himself. Vader destroys multiple fighters, and eventually creates such damage to the rebel command ship that is has to be evacuated and abandoned. Once Ahsoka recovers, Kanan and Hera ask her if she knew the pilot who they were facing. She says no, and that she hasn’t felt a prescence like that since the Clone Wars. As she turns away from them, we can see she’s clearly distraught about whose presence she felt. She knows who it is, and she’s afraid and shocked. Why else would she have screamed and fainted? This one scene alone shows us how intense the ultimate confrontation between Ahsoka and Vader will be. And why does she lie to Kanan and Hera about what she felt? She has to know it’s Skywalker, she was his apprentice, she was around him for years. Is she ashamed that it’s her former master? Or is she scared of his power and what it could mean for herself and the rebellion?
The rebel fleet is able to escape Vader and the Star Destroyers that attempted to trap them. As the fleet is reforming, Chopper is outside of the Ghost making repairs. A pretty cool visual here, on the outside of the Ghost we see just how much of an ace pilot Hera is. There are multiple TIE kill symbols on the outside of the Ghost! Pretty nice shout-out to Hera’s piloting skills. The group decides to join with the rebellion for sure, will stay with the fleet, and there will be no returning to Lothal.
As Vader rejoins the Imperial fleet, he orders everyone off the command deck. He places a call to his master, Emperor Palpatine. He informs the Emperor that Skywalker’s apprentice is alive. The Emperor plans to use this information as an opportunity, he wants to use Ahsoka to lead them to other surviving Jedi. Vader makes a point to suggest perhaps they’ll find Obi-Wan Kenobi, if he survived Order 66.
This would be an excellent addition to the series, not only would be see the meeting of Ahsoka and Vader, but perhaps Vader and Kenobi. Vader certainly has several reasons to want to hunt Kenobi, and this could be an amazing storyline. The Emperor tells Vader to dispatch another Inquisitor to find the rebel group for now. So we’ll be seeing a new Inquisitor this fall, and hopefully more of Vader as well. It seems we’ll see some great showdowns, Ahsoka vs. Vader, possibly Vader vs. Kenobi. And clearly, this season is turning out to be quite darker than the previous one.
Season Two regular episodes of Star Wars: Rebels begin this fall.
*Could there be vast amounts of Kyber crystals on Lothal? –Ed.
Courtney Martin is a graduate of Indiana University and works in publishing. She’s an avid Star Wars fan and wrote the recipe blog Courtney Cooks Star Wars on suvudu.com. When not enveloped a science fiction or fantasy novel, she is watching television with her husband and son, doing crossword puzzles, or playing with her Shih Tzu, Burt.