-Spoiler Review-
The Aces and the Colossus risk detection by the First Order to meet a pilot in deep space…who is she, and why does the Colossus want to meet with her so badly? Join me as I review the latest episode of Resistance, “Rendezvous Point”!
Captain Doza is a man on a mission: he has revealed the location of the Colossus to a pilot, and has flown the Aces to the middle of deep space to find her. Unfortunately, the First Order has tracked them down (a point left mostly unmentioned in the episode, save that the FO pilots almost hand the Aces their butts!), so time is short to meet this unfortunate pilot. When she fails to show, the Colossus has to make the jump to hyperspace without her. This episode starts in media res, one of the most exciting openings to an episode of Resistance ever. As it starts, it also leaves the excellent previous episode behind, re-centering the Resistance in the plot rather than the ancient conflict between the Jedi and the Sith. Thankfully, it does so with a lot of fervor, reminding us of the stakes of this war.
Once this pilot arrives on the scene, just moments after the Colossus has jumped to hyperspace, she is captured. (She does, according to Bucket’s List, make a fun comment about a Manor-favorite villain from the Poe Dameron comic series!) From here on out, the episode is mainly about three of the cast members: the captured pilot, Tam Ryvora, and Torra Doza. Kaz has some stuff to do in the episode, as do the Aces, but these three really have their chance to shine here. The rest of the review will look at these characters and how they changed over the course of the episode.
First, the captured pilot. She and her astromech droid, Torch, are disabled and brought into the First Order ship that has been pursuing them, under the command of Agent Tierny. (This also means that Rucklin and Tam are stationed aboard this ship, but we’ll return to them in a moment.) She has the typical spunk and sass of the brash pilots we’ve come to love in the franchise, and she gives nothing away to the First Order captors. It’s not until she recognizes Tam under her TIE pilot helmet that she reveals her name: Venisa Doza. That’s right: she is the wife of Captain Doza and mother to Torra Doza. As she speaks with Tam, she reveals a bit of Doza family history in an effort to try and get Tam to come back to her home on the Colossus. She then takes Tam hostage, trying to take her from the ship, or at least trying to escape herself. Venisa is brave, resourceful, and pretty funny compared to the traditional slapstick humor of the show. And, best yet? She didn’t die in the episode, either! That’s right, friends of the Manor: we meet a mother in a Star Wars show that doesn’t bite the bullet the moment that we meet her. A real point in the show’s direction, huh?
Second, a focus on Torra Doza. At the beginning of the episode, she refuses to leave the rendezvous point in an effort to meet this pilot. She storms out of the Aces’ conversations when they begin to doubt Captain Doza’s plan, which she interprets as them wondering if he’s really worth following. We learn later that Venisa has been with the Resistance since Leia founded it (probably just off-page when it was founded in Bloodline), so the Doza family has already suffered and sacrificed a lot for the Resistance. This episode draws heavily on the theme of family again, asking what the familial cost of war looks like and asks who has to pay it. Even though the Dozas do not reunite in this episode, we get the sense that they will, and I am looking forward to that day. When Tam left for the First Order, I was tempted to despair that we lost one of our leading ladies from the series. Thankfully, Torra has filled the gap wonderfully, giving us another woman to look to for guidance and leadership on the Colossus.
And, finally, I want to look briefly at Tam’s storyline. When she and Rucklin first see Venisa as a captive, Tam wonders if she already knows Venisa and goes to her cell to interrogate her. In the first episode of the season, we saw her don her helmet as a symbol that she is committed to the First Order. As the season has gone on, we have seen her without her helmet, a symbol of vulnerability, that her First Order visage is cracking. In this episode, she is largely unhelmeted. Venisa’s reminders about her home on the Colossus and her apology for the way that Yeager trusted her and thought of her as a daughter strike her to the core. Unfortunately, Tam does not get the chance to defect, but we see that she’s already regretting her decisions. I was super happy to see this: I love Tam’s storyline in the series and I was thankful to return to it in this episode. It has been too long.
“Rendezvous Point” brings high-flying, high-octane action back to the series, but brings the theme of family powerfully to the center again. While this season won’t go down in history, for me, as particularly amazing, I am thankful for a series aimed at younger audiences that remind us of the importance of family and love.
You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor!
STAR WARS RESISTANCE REVIEWS:
Season Two (by Chris) – Ep. 2.1: “Into the Unknown” | Ep. 2.2: “A Quick Salvage Run” | Ep. 2.3: “Live Fire” | Ep. 2.4: “Hunt on Celsor 3” | Ep. 2.5: “The Engineer” | Ep. 2.6: “From Beneath” | Ep. 2.7: “The Relic Raiders”
Season One (by Ryan) – Ep. 1.1/1.2: “The Recruit” | Ep. 1.3: “The Triple Dark” | Ep. 1.4 “Fuel for the Fire” | Ep. 1.5: “The High Tower” | Ep. 1.6: “The Children From Tehar” | Ep. 1.7: “Signal From Sector Six” | Ep. 1.8: “Synara’s Score” | Ep. 1.9: “The Platform Classic” | Ep. 1.10: “Secrets and Holograms” | Ep. 1.11: “Station Theta-Black” | Ep. 1.12: “Bibo” | Ep. 1.13 “Dangerous Business” | Ep. 1.14: “The Doza Dilemma” | Ep. 1.15: “The First Order Occupation” | Ep. 1.16: “The New Trooper” | Ep. 1.17: “The Core Problem” | Ep. 1.18: “The Disappeared” | Ep. 1.19: “Descent” | Ep. 1.20: “No Escape” – Part One | Ep. 1,21: “No Escape” – Part Two