Star Wars: Rebels - 'Imperial Supercommandos'

Commando Cody and his Rocket Men?

One of the episodes I gave less thought to last season was 'The Protector of Concord Dawn', in which the Rebels captured a Mandalorian commander in order to secure a transport route. This was one of the first looks at Sabine's origins as a Mandalorian, and 'Imperial Supercommandos' follows on from that.

Sabine has been working to win Fenn Rau over to joining the Alliance, but without success. When the Protectors cease to make an appearance during transits through Concord Dawn, the Rebel command begins to worry that they are planning an ambush and send Sabine, Ezra and Fenn Rau to investigate. While Ezra tries to understand how Mandalorians tick, Fenn Rau gets the drop on them and he and Sabine wake on Concord Dawn, captured and disarmed. Rau is clearly pissed, having found all of his Protectors dead, but things get worse when a probe droid gets a signal off. Reinforcements arrive post haste, in the form of a squad of Mandalorian renegades in Imperial armour and jetpacks.

Surrounded.

Led by a man named Saxon, these Mandalorians belong to the same clan as Sabine. They capture Ezra, who bluffs as best he can until Sabine can rescue him, only for Rau to run off with their new-old shuttle. Sabine is able to pull a fast one and a chase ensues with Ezra swinging from Sabine's hand deflecting blaster bolts, in a scene which leaves the Coruscant chase in Attack of the Clones for dust. Saxon tries to lure Sabine back to the dark side with appeals to clan loyalties and Mandalorian honour, but she holds to the rebels and Fenn Rau has a change of heart and comes back for them, having realised that this very loyalty to the rebels displays her devotion to Mandalorian values.

So, what is there to love in this episode? Well, Sabine gets a jet pack(1), and the Mandalorians get a real going over for the first time in Rebels, which is good for someone with a limited experience of the Clone Wars shows and the EU. It also has one of the very few instances of showing what that deelie on the Mandalorian helmet is for (drop-down monocular viewfinder.) Even more than 'The Antilles Extraction', this is Sabine's show, and as in that episode it's got a few gimmes for the shippers, but a lot of more substantial work for the characters as well.

(1) It gets dinged at the end, but here's hoping it sticks around.