Star Wars Rebels – 'Zero Hour'

Thrawn leads from the front.

Season 3 of Rebels comes to a close with the event we've all been waiting for(1). As the Rebels of Chopper Base prepare their big push against the Imperial occupation of Lothal, Grand Admiral Thrawn brings the fight to them and demonstrates just why the Empire is as big a deal as it is.

Agent Jarrus is uncovered as Fulcrum when he tries to warn the Rebels that Thrawn is planning to ambush them when they hit the TIE Defender factory. He tries to take Thrawn on, but the Grand Admiral is surprisingly tasty in a hand-to-hand confrontation. Jarrus gets a warning out, but the signal direction and the course of a supporting Rebel fleet under General Dodonna (Rebel Santa from A New Hope) allow him to triangulate the location of Atollon, despite the absence of a planet on the Imperial charts.

Sato's sacrifice.

As Phoenix Squadron attempts to evacuate, with support from Dodonna's fleet, Thrawn brings in the big guns: A wedge of Star Destroyers and a pair of Interdictors to prevent anyone escaping to light speed. Hemmed in, the Rebels retreat to the shelter of Sabine's force field, while Commander Sato sacrifices himself and his ship to ram one of the Interdictors – killing Admiral Konstantine – and give Ezra a window to escape and find help.

Senator Mon Mothma is unable to send any more of the Rebel fleet, so Ezra goes to the only other place he can think of, asking for help from the Mandalorian badasses of Clan Wren. They have a lot of their own stuff going on, but agree to lend their aid in return for future assistance in punting Imperial influence out of Mandalorian politics. Meanwhile, Kanan looks for aid more locally, but finds the Bendu just as pissed at him for bringing violence to his home as it is at the Empire.

Hera stares down the bombardment.

The shield on Atollon, not a patch on the later Hoth job, barely holds against an Imperial bombardment. Under Hera's lead, Rex and Zeb take out a few scout walkers with heavy ordnance, but then the AT-ATs arrive and steadily push back to the base, despite Kanan taking one out with a lightsabre cut to the leg. Apparently Luke was overcomplicating. Once more, the Rebels are forced to take flight, hoping that help will arrive in time.

As Thrawn arrives on the surface, the Bendu attacks. As the balance of Light and Dark, it turns out it doesn't just have a great line in gnomic wisdom, it can also ride around in a storm cloud and decapitate AT-ATs with Force lightning, because FUCK YEAH, TOM BAKER JUST BLEW UP AN AT-AT! Even Thrawn is rattled, although not so much that he can't direct his troops to shoot at the heart of the storm, bringing the Bendu down.

Fuck yeah!

Meanwhile, in space, the Mandalorians attack(2), crippling the second Interdictor's gravity wells. Jarrus needles Governor Pryce until she orders him thrown out of an airlock, giving him a chance to escape (a ploy so obvious that basically all the show gives us is Jarrus smiling as he's led into the lift, then there's unconscious guards and five minutes later he's calling the Ghost from an escape pod.) 

The Rebels escape to light speed.

Thrawn tries to first interrogate and then – faced with a prophecy of his defeat – execute the Bendu, but it vanishes with a booming laugh. The Rebels retreat to Yavin 4 to lick their wounds, while Sabine returns to Clan Wren with the hope that Hera can bring help in their battle with Clan Saxon.

"I see your defeat. Like many arms surrounding you in a cold embrace."
"Well, that's my afternoon knackered."

'Zero Hour' closes out Season 3 in epic style, with the largest battle we've seen to date on the show. When Rebels began, it was small scale, the Firefly of Star Wars, but now it's working on the same scale as one of the movies. Indeed, 'Zero Hour''s space-and-planetary battle puts the Battles of Yavin and Hoth to shame, with only the Battle of Endor and the climax of Rogue One really comparing. Back in my review of Season 1, I said: "Overall, Rebels is not a dead loss, but has more good parts than good episodes." I hold by that impression of Season 1, but the last two years have made such a difference. I liked The Force Awakens and Rogue One, but for my money, Rebels is the best Star Wars being made at present, and I really hope that the crew – especially those inconvenient Jedi who need to be got out of the way at some point so that Luke can be The Last Jedi(3) – get a proper send-off somewhere, rather than ending up reported dead in the background action of Rogue One.

Back to the here and now, pretty much everyone gets something in this finale. Wedge and Hobbie are there in the space battle. Thrawn is awesome. Hera, taking over from Sato, holds the whole thing together. Kanan continues his arc from reluctant teacher to primo mentor material and Ezra and Sabine's Mandalorians kick all kinds of jet trooper arse, despite Ezra not having a proper jetpack. Chopper and AP-5 bitch and snark. The Bendu is terrifying, but not so all-consumingly badass that he overshadows the main cast. Even Rex and Zeb get to blow shit up. It is all kinds of awesome.

(1) At least, those of us who weren't focused on last episode's showdown.

(2) In a ship that's built to drop flying badasses into space off a rack and then pick them up later. It's like the dropship in Edge of Tomorrow, but in space.

(3) My dream resolution on this would be for Luke to send Rey to study with Ezra to 'end the Jedi' by become a Bendu, thus finally fulfilling the prophecy of balance, but I accept that that's almost certainly not going to happen.