As Kanan and Ezra prepare to depart to face the Inquisitors, the Rebels settle into their new base only to find out that it’s infested with giant spider things and they’re all pissed off for some reason.
It’s weird to see Rebels revert into such a standard and cliched plot after turning in a string of solid episodes. To me, the story was an Aliens clone with lightsabers. Tedious and idiotic… so sloppily put together that the Rebels never seemed to remember or be bothered by the fact that there was another missing pilot and they did feck all nothing to even attempt to look for her. It’s like the ending to Poltergeist III all over again.
More than that, I almost have the feeling like Rebels already did a similar episode last season with the base that was overrun by alien monsters. It all seemed so repetitive.
Still, at least the episode was full of emotional highlights. Ezra and Zeb’s moment together where they watch the sunset, both knowing they might never see each other again, was very beautiful and understated and it was very nice to see Hera and Kanan have a moment at the end.
Still, out of the entire season, “The Mystery of Chopper Base” is the worst episode so far. It almost broke the narrative, it was a cliched and done situation, and nothing was added to this tale as old as time. I know that, being a show aimed at children, Rebels is not and never will be Shakespeare, but it doesn’t have to be cliched B-Movie nonsense, either.
Oh, and is there a reason that the lightsabers sounded so weird in the opening act? I know it’s nitpicking, but it actually took me out of the show wondering what the heck the sound guy was doing.
Jason Gaston 