Star Wars Rebels - 'Double Agent Droid'

"You could not even draw a bow and arrow, let alone hit a small songbird."

Ah, the great battles of wits: Holmes vs. Moriarty, Aristotle vs. Mashy Spike Plate, and now Chopper vs. AP-5.

Our favourite antisocial grumblebots are on a mission. Chaperoned by Wedge, they are to infiltrate an Imperial data store and steal security codes for the Rebel assault on Lothal. Things get off to a rough start, however, as the two droids snipe at one another over who is in charge of the mission. On arrival, Chopper's presence is flagged by an ISB surveillance team operating from a listening ship. The team's controller identifies the droid and, in order to locate the Rebel base, launches an electronic counterattack when Chopper tries to slice(1) the base mainframe, seizing control of his systems.

AP-5 locates Chopper and is immediately struck by his sudden display of manners and protocol, especially of Imperial protocol. Unfortunately, no-one listens when he tries to tell them that something is wrong with the astromech, at least not until they are all sealed in the Ghost's airlock with the ISB using Chopper to try to extract the Rebel base location from the ship's computer. AP-5 is sent to manually override the internal locks and gets knocked into space by Chopper, but manages to let the others out of the airlock before the controller can space them. Zeb incapacitates Chopper with obvious glee, and Hera uses the connection to send a surge signal which nearly fries Chopper and causes the listening ship to explode(3).

"We did purchase the 'not explode' upgrade for the engines, right?"

'Double Agent Droid' is a rare showcase for the information war that is usually limited to 'astromech plugs into a wall, computer shows pictures', and it makes sense that this would be seen under Grand Admiral Thrawn's watch. The controller(4) is a meticulous, detail-oriented plotter; too meticulous, as it turns out, as his determination to secure complete information prevents him gaining even a partial win before his ship explodes because reasons(5). Also, a neat little visual extra is that he has the same sort of cyborg implant as Lando Calrissian's ADC, Lobot.

Also, AP-5 and Chopper do an 'anything you can do' bit, which is just adorable, as is AP-5's utter dejection when the crew rescue him from drifting in the perfect stillness of space and drag him back into their messy world.

(1) The Extended Universe term for hack; I don't know if it's still used in canon post Swexit(2).

(2) My own term for the separation of the main continuity from the EU.

(3) Another health and safety triumph for the Imperial Core of Engineers'.

(4) He and his ship have names, or at least serial numbers, but they aren't really used in the episode.

(5) My theory is that the server room cooling system sinks heat into the fuel tanks.