Today we continue our rewatch of Star Wars Rebels with episodes 61 through 65 of the popular Lucasfilm animated series.
Star Wars Rebels stars the vocal talents of Taylor Gray as Ezra Bridger, Vanessa Marshall as Hera Syndulla, Freddie Prinze Jr. as Kanan Jarrus, Steven Blum as Zeb Orrelios, Tiya Sircar as Sabine Wren, and series co-creator Dave Filoni as Chopper.
Episode 61: “Heroes of Mandalore (Part 2)” – Sabine comes to grips with the idea that the weapon she designed, which uses pulse energy to cook Mandaorians inside their Beskar armor, is being used by the Empire against her own people. Bo-Katan Kryze (guest star Katee Sackhoff) isn’t too thrilled about this revelation, but she and Sabine vow to infiltrate the Imperial headquarters on Mandalore and destroy the devastating weapon. After being captured by Tiber Saxon (Tobias Menzies), Sabine manages to reconfigure the device to target Imperial Stormtrooper armor instead of Beskar, facilitating the rebels’ escape before they destroy Saxon’s Star Destroyer. Then Bo-Katan accepts the Darksaber from Sabine, becoming the new ruler of Mandalore.
Episode 62: “In the Name of the Rebellion (Part 1)” – Our heroes travel to the new Rebel Alliance base on Yavin IV, where Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) receives a hologram message from Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). Gerrera wants Mothma to set aside politics and commit to destroying the Empire at all costs. Instead, Mothma sends the Ghost on a mission to block an Imperial relay transmission. But when Ezra and Sabine are nearly captured by the Empire, Saw dramatically swoops in at the last moment and takes them aboard his ship, destroying the relay’s radar dish in the process.
Episode 63: “In the Name of the Rebellion (Part 2)” – In exchange for saving their lives, Saw Gerrera asks Sabine and Ezra to help him find a secret weapon the Empire is supposedly transporting aboard a cargo shuttle. When they board the shuttle disguised as civilians, they discover a group of Imperial prisoners being transported, but no weapon. After these prisoners reveal that they are engineers traveling to the planet Jedha (first seen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Gerrera becomes even more determined to discover what the Empire is up to. Eventually Saw, Ezra, and Sabine are able to locate a giant Kyber crystal aboard the craft, which Gerrera determines is being weaponized by the Empire. Unable to get it off the ship in time, Saw shoots the crystal’s mechanized casing, causing it to overload and destroy the shuttle, but not before the rebels and the prisoners escape just in time.
Episode 64: “The Occupation” – Mon Mothma finally assigns the Ghost crew to return to Ezra’s home planet of Lothal after the Rebel Alliance receives a message from Ryder Azadi (Clancy Brown) informing them of a new, superior version of the TIE Defender being developed by the Empire on the planet. Ezra enlists the pirate Vizago (Keith Szarabajka) to smuggle them onto Lothal, where they find that the planet has been completely overrun by Imperial forces. Ezra and Sabine spend some time in Old Jho’s Pit Stop, which is now being operated by TIE fighter pilot Baron Valen Rudor (Greg Ellis). After Ezra’s friend Jai Kell (Dante Basco) helps them escape detection, they travel through the sewers and reunite with Azadi.
Episode 65: “Flight of the Defender” – Following up on Ryder’s request, our heroes seek to take out the Imperial facility where the TIE Defender is being tested. Sabine covertly sneaks aboard the starfighter to steal valuable data, but Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) suddenly arrives on the site and interrupts the plan. Together, Ezra and Sabine manage to steal the TIE Defender and use it to escape the airfield, though Thrawn manages to disable the ship remotely. Having crashed, the rebels remove the ship’s hyperdrive and hide it in a nearby cave. Then Ezra’s visions of a Lothwolf become a reality, as the creature approaches the two friends, puts Sabine to sleep, and transports the pair back to safety with the other rebels. During their mysterious encounter, the Lothwolf whispers a single cryptic word to Ezra: “Dume.”
Star Wars Rebels is available to stream in its entirety on Disney+.