Thoughts on the Rebels Series Finale

SPOILERS AHEAD - LAST WARNING!

Episode 14: A Fool's Hope
Episode 15: Family Reunion — and Farewell

These are the final episodes of the series, and viewers have been waiting to find out the fate of the Spectres and their allies. Here's a quick recap of the hour and half finale, followed by some thoughts:

The episode is about the Spectres going rogue (see what I did there?) from the Alliance, and striking out on their own mission, in support of Ezra, to liberate Lothal from the Empire. Hera gathers the team's various allies, including The Clones, Kallus, Honda, Vizago, Ryder, Ketsu, and others, to execute Ezra's plan, which, in true Star Wars fashion, goes horribly wrong at almost every turn, despite the appearance of some successes. This forces the team to improvise throughout the entire operation.

First, with some trickery from Ryder, the Rebels draw Governor Pryce and her forces into a trap of sorts at the hideout. The plan has Hera coming to the rescue in the Ghost, but she's running late. During the wait, Pryce's forces, with help from Thrawn's pawn, Ruhk, actually destroy the hideout and subdue the heroes. Just before it's too late, Hera, with Hondo's help, arrives and does save the day, for the moment at least. The team is still in trouble, and it takes the surprise arrival of the Loth-Wolves to clinch the plan's first goal - the capture of Pryce.



The next step is to have Pryce give the proper codes in order for the team to infiltrate the Imperial Dome in the center of Capital City. They succeed in doing so, and manage to break into the control room. From there, Kallus and Ryder announce the implementation of Protocol 13, which recalls all Imperial Forces to the Dome for immediate evacuation. We find out that the Dome can actually launch, and the plan is to ship out the entire garrison, thereby liberating the planet. However, the plan goes very wrong, when Rukh, who survived the battle at the Rebel stronghold, overhears the plan from a team Ezra left behind comprised of Wolff, Vizago, and Mart (yes, I had to look that up). He escapes and contacts Thrawn, who orders him to deactivate the power to the dome, and with it, the engines and the planetary shields. The team hops into The Ghost, where Mart executes a last ditch part of the plan on previous orders from Ezra.



Just as Ezra's plan is about to succeed, The Chimaera arrives over the dome, preventing the launch of the Dome (which would otherwise collide with the star destroyer and then wipe out the city below). Thrawn flips the tables on a cocky Ezra, and demands his immediate surrender in order to save Lothal. He orders a short bombardment of the city to demonstrate his power. Ezra is convinced to stay by Hera, but he escapes his friends anyway, and turns himself in to Thrawn, who then leads him to a chamber where he converses with a rather pleasant holographic version of Palpatine, as indicated by his white gown and younger visage. Palpatine introduces Ezra to a part of the Temple that he ordered saved and rebuilt aboard the Chimaera, specifically to entice Ezra to give in to his poor judgment, and submit to what would appear to be a Force vision of a life with his parents. Ezra, recalling the lessons taught to him by Ahsoka and Kanan, chooses his present life and mission, and skips the opportunity offered by Palpatine. An angry Palpatine realizes he has failed, and orders his special guards to kill Ezra. Ezra uses the Force to subdue the red guards.



The Rebels make their way to the power core, and after a drawn out shootout, wrest control of the station from the Imperials and restore power. The firefight claims the life of Gregor, the wacky clone who had been through so much since the Clone Wars, but he tells Rex that they fought the good fight of their choice just before he dies. With power restored, Hera orders the restoration of the planetary shields, mere seconds before Thrawn unleashed another bombardment intended to destroy the city. Momentarily stunned by the turn of events, Thawn is then cornered by Ezra's arrival to the bridge. Thrawn is confident he will overcome these temporary obstacles. At that moment, The Ghost arrives, accompanied by a pod of space whales. The whales not only annihilated the fleet in orbit, but do the same to the destroyers and fighters that accompanied Chimaera. The whales gravely damage Thrawn's flagship, and he calmly declares that what happens to him will happen to Ezra, who also apparently has no escape planned. The whales then grab The Chimaera, and with Ezra holding the bridge together with the Force, the whole shebang jumps to hyperspace.

The team activates the Dome launch and it lifts away from the city and over the ocean. Just as the control room of the dome is about to be overrun by Imperial troops, the good guys escape aboard The Ghost. The Dome is then detonated by Sabine, and we see the entire garrison, including Pryce, go down in flames. As the Ghost passes over Capital City, the entire population is out in the streets celebrating. The Ghost crew finds a message from Ezra, telling them he did what he had to do.



EPILOGUE:

Fast forward some years, and Sabine gives a recap of the events. They expected the Empire to return to Lothal with a vengeance, but it never happened. The Empire was dealt a series of blows, and began to fracture, with the final defeat occurring at the Battle of Endor. We learn that Zeb took his friend Kallus to his hidden homeworld of Lira San, where Kallus finally learned that the Imperial mission to wipe out the Lasat species had failed. Hera and Rex fought at Endor, and we learned that Hera has a son named Jacen, presumably with Kanan. Sabine is met by Ahsoka Tano, and together, they board a ship with the intent of finding Ezra.

THOUGHTS:

1. Apparently Ezra survived. Out In deep space, or something. We don't see what happened to Thrawn, he may also have survived, or been spared by Ezra for some reason. So Filoni figured out a way to remove Ezra from the events of the Galactic Civil War without actually having to kill him off. We'll see how fans react to that, but I don't mind it.

2. We finally see how the Rebels liberated Lothal, and it makes sense that the Empire never bothered returning to subjugate it (or wipe it out) because the effort triggered the full on Rebellion which very shortly thereafter precipitated the Galactic Civil War and the destruction of the First Death Star.

3. I wonder if Filoni's next project will have something to do with Ahsoka and Sabine's search for Ezra.

4. I felt Ezra's farewell hologram to crew missed out on saying something to Chopper. Looks like poor Chop got the same treatment that Leia gave to Chewie at the end of The Force Awakens. Eh, he was a jerk anyway.

5. Easter eggs:
-Hera uses the same move Han used to hide by attaching to a large ship.
-Hera uses the maneuver we see Han use in the Falcon in the Solo trailer, where he rolls the ship sideways to knock a fighter into an obstacle and destroy it.
-Palpatine calls upon Crimson Empire-styled red guards to kill Ezra.
-Thrawn contacts Paelleon, thereby resurrecting another character previously lost to the old EU.
-The end credits are in the movie style, and reveal that Filoni was the "voice" behind Chopper.

6. Oh yeah...did I mention Rex was with Hera on Endor?

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