– Spoiler Review –
Paradise found…and paradise lost? The Colossus finds a potential new home, but the inhabitants and the First Order might have something else to say about that! Join me as I review the latest two episodes of Star Wars Resistance, “The New World” and “No Place Safe!”
The Colossus finds a new home, but Tam Ryvora and Kaz Xiono must decide whether or not they are where they are supposed to be. As the show approaches its last couple of episodes, it seems like it’s ready to start firing on all cylinders. As the Colossus seems to be close to finding a place to hide out for the rest of the war, Kaz starts to wonder if he should join the Resistance again. And, honestly, it’s a good question. The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary dates this episode to around the same time as the bulk of the Journey to The Rise of Skywalker material, when the Resistance is most desperately in need of more fighters, which Norath alluded to a few episodes ago. Now that Kaz’s spy mission is complete (and I’m not entirely sure that he was too concerned about it after the first few episodes, anyway, except for the recognition of his spy skills that he hasn’t earned or received yet), he thinks it’s time to join the larger war again. This thought process provides the framework for this two-parter.
At the beginning of this two-part episode, the Colossus starts to descend to a planet known as Aeos Prime. Captain Doza thinks that the planet is the perfect place for the Colossus to finally dock: it is off regular hyperspace routes, it doesn’t seem to offer much to the galaxy, and it doesn’t seem to have inhabited life. Unfortunately, Doza doesn’t know the whole story: a sentient race already lives there and they have already faced the Empire long ago, with disastrous results! These two conflicts make up the two episodes in this two-part story, aired together on Disney XD.
The first half of the story arc shows how the crew tries to make peace with the Aeosians, the ocean-faring people who already live on Aeos Prime. As the Colossus hovers over the oceans that make up most of the surface of the planet, Doza sends the Aces out to scout the small islands doting the surface of the planet. It is pretty clear that someone has lived there in the past, so the Aces might be trying to either establish contact at best, or, at worst, see if the established communities would reject them or not! Griff and Kaz are paired together to check out one of the sectors, leading to a strange conversation between the two: Kaz speaks with Griff about Griff’s thought process in leaving the Empire, and Griff says that it was Doza who convinced him to leave, which let him ride out the rest of the war. Griff points out that even though he didn’t fight against the Empire, it ended up falling anyway, so he wasn’t really too bothered about his lack of action. I really appreciated that this episode asked the question about Kaz’s role in the war, and using Griff as a foil was an excellent choice. As Kaz struggles with his role in the war against the First Order, he is starting to think that he has been too passive, letting the First Order rise as he does nothing. He struggles to think whether his time on the Colossus has been helpful or not, but Griff doesn’t seem to think there’s a problem. As long as he’s alive, Griff thinks he’s successful. This spurs more thought on Kaz’s part: sure, he would be alive, but is being alive with the First Order reigns worth it?
As the two explore, they find out that the planet has been visited by Imperial forces before when they find the wreckage of a TIE pilot’s armor. More than that: as they are captured by the native Aeosians, they are brought into the remains of a former Rebellion staging area. As Kaz and Griff are tried and sentenced to death by the Matriarch of the Aeosians, they realize that the Galactic Civil War took a huge toll on their people. Even now, decades after the war, the Aeosians are struggling to recover from illnesses and wounds, and they are in desperate need of medicine. Kaz offers to heal the wounded by offering the Colossus‘ medicine to their warriors, which earns their respect.
The rest of the episode plays out almost exactly as you might expect: because of Kaz and the Colossus‘ supplies, the Aeosians welcome them with open arms, letting them stay on Aeos Prime. If you have seen Poccahantes or Avatar, you’re already pretty familiar with the tropes that make up the backbone of this episode. The “savage natives” (I use this name referring to the trope, not the Aeosians) stand against our heroes until the heroes provide the medicine and supplies that the established community needs, before the established community relents and let our heroes stay in their land. I don’t necessarily mind if a Star Wars TV show uses a familiar story (many episodes of The Clone Wars were pretty blatant about it, and even The Mandalorian did its own riff on the Seven Samurai), but I wish that it would use the opportunity to take a familiar backbone and expand it into something a little bit greater, or at least change it up a bit and make it less predictable. I want to note that issues of colonialization, relationships with established communities in new lands, and harmful tropes have been discussed in detail by people in better positions than I, so I can only note disappointment that Resistance would fall into the same type of story without further commentary.
Alas, the second episode picks up the pace for a more exciting episode. As it opens, Kaz decides that it is his time to leave, and with Yeager’s blessing, takes the Fireball after saying his good-byes to
everyone on the station. Unfortunately, right after leaving Aeos Prime, he’s intercepted by a First Order Probe Droid, who effectively shoots him down after getting word to the First Order that the Colossus is staying on a planet filled with Rebel sympathizers. This ties in nicely with ideas introduced in The Rise of Skywalker, which notes that one of the First Order’s primary objectives was to punish planets that helped the Rebel Alliance decades prior. There’s an interesting note to consider here, inasmuch as helping the Rebellion in the past still has consequences years later, even if the Rebellion won the Civil War.
Finding the Colossus on Aeos Prime is (somewhat, mostly) good news for Tam Ryvora, whom we finally have a chance to revisit after a few episodes of her absence. She is itching to fly, getting cabin fever as she waits for any action. But when the time comes to fly, it’s to capture the Colossus, which gives her pause. This was a little confusing in the episode, as it seems odd that she is surprised that they are chasing the Colossus. It’s Pyre and Tierny’s, and really the entire Star Destroyer’s, only mission. Her hesitation to fly against her friends, which has been built up over the course of the season, is presented with a little too much ambiguity here.
As the Aces fly against the First Order, trying to give the Colossus a chance to escape, Tam chases down Kaz, who is flying Yeager’s ship. As she lines Kaz up in her sights, she, like Kylo Ren firing on the Raddus before her, hesitates, letting Kaz shoot a missile straight at the bridge of the Star Destroyer, potentially giving him the chance to take out Agent Tierny and Commander Pyre. Tam intercepts the missile, but only because she was too slow to fire on Kaz when she got the chance. I love Tam’s trajectory in this season, but considering the parallels with The Last Jedi, this moment was a little too derivative for me. That being said, children who may have only seen this show might be shocked to see her hesitation, and how she saves the First Order. She may be willing to save the lives of her First Order compatriots, but her loyalty to the cause has clearly been cracked a little.
One thing that I don’t want to go unremarked in this episode are all of the gorgeous designs! The Aeosians aren’t the most creatively designed warriors, but I thought it was a nice treat to see a new 
alien species put front and center. And they were introduced with such future-proof storytelling. At some point, we have the chance to see a story about their time with the Rebellion, whether in a new show, or in a comic series, or maybe a novel? Either way, they also had great flying-fish mounts, similar to Kamino’s aiwhas, which served as a proxy for starfighters. Seeing these animals in action was a treat as well.
As Tam has to figure out her loyalty to the First Order, Kaz makes a decision to stay in the Colossus rather than joining the Resistance as a whole. I loved that this story arc framed its stories within the framework of our main characters questioning their loyalty, but I wish the episodes themselves weren’t too generic. And, unfortunately, with Kaz returning to the Colossus rather than joining the Resistance, and the Colossus on the run again, it doesn’t seem like these episodes will make too much of a change in the direction of the plot going forward.
+ Kaz and Tam’s storyline is explored, leaving them in new headspaces, even if they’re physically in the same place.
+ “No Place Safe” connects to the larger narrative of the show, giving us an idea of where the finale is heading.
+ Great designs for both a new alien species and their world.
– “The New World” retreads a well known story with no additional commentary or twists on the trope.
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” | Ep. 2.8: “Rendezvous Point” | Ep. 2.9: “The Voxx Vortex 5000” | Ep. 2.10: “Kaz’s Curse” | Ep. 2.11: “Station to Station” | Ep. 2.12: “The Missing Agent”| Ep. 2.13: “Breakout” | Ep. 2.14: “The Mutiny”
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