– Spoiler Review –
The end is here for Star Wars Resistance‘s first season with the second part of the season one finale, “No Escape,” which is a thrilling finale that ends on a wonderful tease for what’s to come in the show’s second season.
The moment the Colossus was revealed as having a hyperdrive, the strongest hope was they’d use it because the potential of the second season being focused on Kaz, Team Fireball, and Team Aces using the Colossus as a mobile base to strike out at the First Order/save planets from their tyranny/and potentially add to the Resistance’s fleet is far to good for the show to be stuck back on Castilon anymore. The season one finale follows through on that hope, to an extent, as the Colossus makes the jump to hyperspace with everyone (almost…more on that in a moment) aboard, even the pirates. But instead of heading to D’Qar like Kaz orders Neeku to take them, the overly excited Kadas’sa’Nikto doesn’t quite enter them correctly and thus they are heading to parts unknown, which might be for the best as D’Qar won’t be friendly for much longer as we know from The Last Jedi. I wished we could’ve received a little hint at where they’d be showing up, but it’s a cliffhanger which inspires a strong desire to see where the crew takes Resistance in its second season, though we probably won’t have to wait long for a trailer for season two due to the show having a panel at Celebration Chicago 2019 next month! For now, it’s an intriguing place to end, with plenty of potential I’m not worried about the showing taking advantage of, unlike how I felt about the show in the beginning. To get the Colossus into hyperspace, Neeku has the fun plan of literally flushing out the stormtroopers, with Kaz and Torra as distractions, and after those funny/fun shenanigans, there’s a solid chunk of excellent, thrilling in-atmo dogfighting action! Yeager gets to show off his skills, the Aces return to the skies to defend the place, Aunt Z and Hype return in their stolen craft, and even the pirates, led by Synara, make a difference in the final battle. As thrilling as it all was, how little we’ve actually spent time with the Aces beyond Hype made their return to the skies little more than a flashy, cool moment, while Kaz’s defeat of Major Vonreg, despite some nifty, impressive flying, comes up as a minor, minor victory because even Agent Tierny, who has only been in three episodes, has had more impactful screentime than Vonreg, who felt like a disposable trooper rather an important villain to overcome. Those nitpicks aside, the final half of the episode really is a series of thrilling moments with an ending full of potential, hope, and wonder that makes me eager to watch the show when it returns (hopefully) later this year.
I actually really enjoyed how things ended with Tamara Ryvora: she makes the choice to join the First Order rather than stay with Yeager and Kaz. Far too often characters forgive and forget so easily, any slight against them by other characters feels like it disappears in an instant, but how Yeager and Kaz misled Tam in an attempt to shield her, and Agent Tierny used their actions to turn her against them, was far too much for the show to let a few last minute heroics simply wash it all away. Instead of getting into a firefight with Kaz, Yeager, Torra, and CB-23 as they come to free Tam, Tierny allows Tam the chance to speak her mind, the mind Tierny twisted her into having. Nothing Yeager or Kaz say can change it now, though I wish they had mentioned what happened to the Hosnian System, and their inability to convince her reveals the stupidity of their actions, as Tam has always been more than capable of making her own choice on which side she wants to get involved with had Kaz’s secrets been revealed early, and keeping her in the dark too long was always going to bite them in the butt, but I never imagined it would be this hard of a bite. Tam’s decision recalls Ciena Ree from Lost Stars, another character who, despite knowing what the Empire did, continued to support and fight for them due to an intense code of honor, and I love how far the book took Ciena down that path, so I’ll be curious to see how far Resistance will take Tam’s change of heart, and when/if anything Kaz, Yeager, or even Neeku can do to turn her back.
CB-23 is the true hero of the show, and I’m damn glad BB-8 was replaced by her! How great of a droid she is, being just as helpful and inventful in that help as BB-8, is a stark reminder of how silly the decision to have BB-8 around for so long felt. Having her take out two stormies and save Torra from certain death was an absolute delight, a scene as exciting as some of the dogfighting if you ask me. If CB-23 could do all this stuff as well as BB-8, and even better in some regards, why didn’t she start the show off with Kaz instead? It’s a minor gripe here at the end, but at least season two won’t have that problem as CB will be the starting droid and long may she reign! Another gripe, though a little more glaring, is Synara San suddenly being in charge of the pirates and saving the day. Unless I missed something, the last time we saw her in “Descent,” Kragan was still in charge, so how/when did she manage to overthrow him AND rally the pirates to her cause? I wish this wasn’t something that seemingly happened off-screen, as Synara was an excellent character who deserved to have her moment of triumph, and bringing the pirates to the good guy’s side, seen by everyone. Synara was treated very well, even for a time more so than Kaz it felt, but this ultimately felt like a disservice to her, though it’s still nice to have her around and joining our heroes for the season ahead.
Here are a few other things:
- Seems my theory about the rokkna water monsters coming into play for the finale didn’t come true, but the cool glowing sharks got to munch on some stormtroopers, culminating in an image of one of the sharks swimming by the screen with a helmet in its mouth! I guess the rokkna will get to have Castilon to themselves, at least.
- Scott Lawrence, who voices Jarek Yeager, made an appearance on the Star Wars Show (skip to the 5:15ish mark), as well as answered a few fun questions for the official site’s blog. Here’s hoping we get an appearance from Suzie McGrath to talk Tam after her big decision in the finale!
- Art Director Amy Beth Christenson revealed how some of the designs for Resistance, like how Flix and Orka were inspired by Ewok sketches, came to life.
- Star Wars Resistance‘s Celebration Chicago panel will be on Monday, April 15, the only day I’ll get a chance to go this year, but I’ll be updating the site as news comes in!
The much more focused second half of Star Wars Resistance culminated in a rather joyous finale, with “No Escape” – Part Two bringing big thrills and big cliffhangers, even if it highlighted a few of the show’s shortcomings, and sets up for an expansive second season.
+ Promising ending with plenty of potential for a second season
+ Tam’s choice
+ Everyone coming together to defend the Colossus
– Highlights lack of development for some characters
– Synara takes over the pirates when?
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
STAR WARS RESISTANCE REVIEWS:
Season One – 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