”This fight is gonna be their last.”
By Eric Goldman
Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
Stronger than last week’s episode, the second part of the “Captain Rex returns” two-parter included a very cool action centerpiece, along with some nice moments for Ezra and a very heartwarming reunion.
That AT-AT attack sequence was terrific, featuring some beautiful animation and tense and clever moments. Simply putting the AT-ATs into that sandstorm was a great way to change it up from other environments we’ve seen them in, and the visual of them walking through all that blowing sand, with their lights shining forward, was great.
Obviously, it evoked Luke closing his eyes to blow up the Death Star, but it was still quite satisfying when Ezra successfully used the Force to target and shoot the AT-AT’s neck, having no way to actually see it. The entire scenario, with the three AT-ATs surrounding the Republic Tank, was just really well done.
Rex had been discussed too much in the promotion of Season 2 to believe he’d actually die so quickly, but it was still effective to see he, Wolffe and Gregor go into a battle with the Empire none of them really expected to walk away from. And the moments that followed, especially the Tank colliding with the AT-AT and both nearly buckling from it, were new and inventive ways to use these familiar vehicles – before Kanan and the others, inevitably, returned to help (and comedically send that one AT-AT driver running off, having not made it on the Speeder Bike Kallus and his buddy did in time).
Of course, the most emotional highlight, especially for fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, came at the end, as Rex and Ahsoka were reunited. Him telling her, “You got old,” was such a wonderful, poignant moment, and if you have investment in these characters (which goes back years at this point), it was hard not to feel the impact of them seeing each other after all this time – even as more questions linger about where each of them were when Order 66 occurred and when and how and when Ahsoka even found out Rex was not among the Clones who mercilessly killed her former Jedi comrades and could still be trusted.
I have to cry foul on Rex telling Kanan, “I always trust my general” though. Um, Rex, need I remind you of your time with General Krell?
“Relics of the Old Republic” also included a new Inquisitor (the “Fifth Brother”) arriving on the scene, giving us a new emissary of Darth Vader now working with Kallus – one who seems even more dismissive of those around him than Season 1’s Inquisitor. With Rex and Ahsoka now reunited and working with our heroes (at least from time to time), Season 2 has a lot of new elements in place and it’s fun to see how Rebels is evolving as it slowly heads towards the events of Episode IV (and Rogue One! They have to do at least one cool direct connection in that movie… right?)
