Star Wars Rebels - 'Warhead'

"What a waste of a lovely night."

It's all quiet at Chopper Base as the bulk of the rebel forces go off on a mission, leaving the base in the capable hands of Zeb, Chopper and snarky ex-Imperial logistics droid AP-5. As an aside, I love Chopper and AP-5, who are basically like R2-D2 and C-3PO, but even grumpier and far more gleefully mendacious.

At the same time, an Imperial infiltration droid, disguised as a protocol unit, puts down on the planet and is promptly attacked by the spiders. Zeb brings it back to base for assessment - Chopper would rather scrap it on the spot, but I suspect that this is as much from a desire to smash things than out of genuine caution - and AP-5 marks its stirling capacity for rapid enumeration of supplies and adopts it as his inventory assistant to help him in the endless struggle against humans who put rations next to ammo and put the ketchup in the fridge(1).

Zap!

Zeb then gets a warning about the infiltrators from Fulcrum, but confronting the driod prompts it to switch to its heavily armed aggro mode and start kicking arse all up and down the base before they manage to shut it down. At this point, it immediately begins counting down. Fortunately, Zeb has a plan, and they are able to manipulate the bomb's systems so that the droid can be sent back to its base before detonating and taking out enough other infiltration units that the Empire can't work out which one it was. Unfortunately, the fact of the explosion is enough to tell Thrawn that the rebel base lies in one of the hundred or so worlds so far surveyed, substantially narrowing the search.

Zeb is a personal favourite, and if he sometimes seems like an underused character and mere foil for Ezra, the makers are always careful to give him an episode or two of his own - season 2's 'Legends of the Lasat' and 'The Honorable Ones', are the strongest examples - clearly recognising the value of Steve Blum's dry performance. 'Warhead' is a pretty standard storyline, but a good chance to showcase the aspects of Zeb's character; his compassion in taking in a damaged droid, his trust in the word of former nemesis Agent Kallus/Fulcrum, and his ability to swiftly plan and adapt to capture the infiltrator and prevent either its return or its absence giving away the location of Chopper base. 'Warhead' also once more proves that the makers of Rebels really get Thrawn, with his almost unflappable calm and his ability to take a setback and extract what victory he can.

(1) Topical food comedy.