REBELS REWATCH: Season 1, Episode 13:  Call to Action

The episode opens to the sweet sounds of the Imperial March. A shuttle arrives bearing Gov. Tarkin (whether or not his foul stench is also with him is never mentioned). He is greeted by MInister Tua, Kallus, and the Inquisitor. Gov. Pryce is mentioned, but remains as yet unseen in the series. Tarkin then proceeds to rip them all a new one. I mean, he rolls his eyes so much I’m surprised they didn’t fall out of his head.



Tarkin basically acts as an audience surrogate as he castigates the Imperials for being so incompetent and unable to catch a few troublemakers; he even points out that these rebels aren’t even that violent compared to other insurgents. By the looks of it, there are way more Imperials on Lothal than regular people, but they still can’t get the job done. To drive this point home, we cut to Kanan, Ezra and Sabine on speeder bikes being chased by Imperials led by Commandant Aresko and Taskmaster Grint; everybody seems to forget that they are equipped with blasters right up until they get into town, then they start shooting.



Sure enough, the rebels manage to escape. Tarkin, who again I feel is being used as the audience’s wish fulfillment tool, has Inquisitor execute Aresko and Grint. Kallus is visibly shocked, and this could be one of the things that pushes him away from the Empire, but not yet.



Meanwhile, the Rebels have a plan to hijack an Imperial communications tower to broadcast a message of hope to Lothal and the surrounding area. It’s a good idea. Assaulting Imperials with fruit is fun but it will only get you so far. You’ve got to sell yourself, get some marketing going, engage in PR. Plus, this is all in the aftermath of that jerk Trayviss revealing himself to be a traitor and then publicly turning back to the Empire. Of course, Tarkin knows what’s going on. He’s Tarkin. The Rebels assault the tower; and, as if they had actually heard Tarkin’s earlier criticism, kill quite a few people. Kanan buys the others time by fighting the Inquisitor.



Hera picks Sabine, Zeb, Ezra, and Chopper up at the top of the tower in the Phantom; and then makes the visibly painful decision to leave Kanan behind as he is taken prisoner and handed over to Tarkin. Wilhuff has the tower destroyed, but not before Ezra sends out a message of hope.



Rewatch worth it? I have to say yes. You’ve got Tarkin. You’ve got a good fight between Kanan and GI; and again, the show is not afraid to...show...that Kanan can be beaten by him. I don’t want to say that this episode tries to be a course correction, because it’s not; but it really does feel like a conscious effort to make things a little more serious and the (implied) grisly execution of Aresko and Grint feels like the show saying: “alright, enough of these idiots, we need to make the Empire a real threat”.

All four season of Rebels are currently streaming on the Disney+ service.

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