Coming off the heals of a very well done episode last week, “Rescue on Ryloth” delivers a mostly satisfying conclusion to the revist with the Syndula family and the fall of Ryloth to the Empire.
As I said last week, it was wonderful to see Chopper and Hera again but mostly Chopper. Rebels is my favorite animated Star Wars series (yes, even over The Clone Wars) and a revisit to the characters from that series will always be welcome in my book.
“Rescue on Ryloth” is a competent episode with good action and Tech being a bigger idiot than Wrecker ever has been. Omega continues to be the best character on the show, with logical initiative and plans that actually work. It shows that she is intelligent, resourceful, and I will say this again… probably the best written child character in animation today. She is smart without being smarmy, she is curious without being stupid, and she is inventive without being a pest. I just love her and I wasn’t expecting to when this show started.
If I have to criticize this episode for anything, it would be the lightening of the dark tones and themes of the last episode which dealt with assassination and betrayal. Here, the guy we thought was assassinated is going to make “a full recovery” and imprisonment by the Empire seems more like a slight inconvenience than anything else. I have a feeling the episode wanted to go further, but was held back. I could be wrong, but I’m probably not.
I will say that I really dig the idea of clones overcoming their programming on their own. It opens up a wide variety of possibilities and, with the themes of family and free will woven into the tapestry of this series, I could see brothers joining brothers down the line.
Overall, though, a good episode. It could have gone further with the tones established in last week’s episode, but it was still very entertaining.
A Rebels sequel series, please?
Jason Gaston 