Star Wars Rebels 4×09 Review: Rebel Assault

For the first time this season, there was only one new Star Wars Rebels episode this week, and with “Rebel Assault” viewers are left on edge until the rest of the season airs starting in early 2018.

“Rebel Assault” was an adrenaline rush from the very beginning, and while we did catch glimpses of Ezra, Sabine, Kanan, and others, most of the episode focused on Hera. Hera, who at the beginning of “Rebel Assault” was so hopeful (“They might have numbers, but we’ve got skill”)…and by the end was in, well, quite the predicament.

But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. Even after finding out that there were only 24 rebel ships up against countless TIE fighters (not to mention the Star Destroyers), I assumed that Hera would pull of a miracle. Well, surely you know what assuming does…though before things went bad Hera did pull off one heck of a hit on the Empire by sending a magazine careening into a Star Destroyer. (And showed off her extremely choice flying skills while she did it!)

At least Thrawn did his job for once…for the most part, anyway. He told Governor Pryce that he wouldn’t let a *single* ship through his blockade, and his TIE fighters did basically take out the entire attack force. It just so happened that not all of the rebels were killed or kidnapped after they crashed on Lothal.

Hera was one of them, at least for a while, because she is awesome and badass and a really freakin’ amazing pilot…which Thrawn recognizes, but does anyone else get a bit creeped out by the way he talks about Hera? It always sounds like there’s something else behind his words, something more than innocent admiration. I guess I can’t blame him, but his interest in her gives me chills (and not in a good way).

Thrawn wasn’t the only one who wanted to find Hera after she crashed – Kanan left Ezra, Sabine, and the others to go look for her himself. Meanwhile, Hera found another survivor – a pilot named Mart Mattin – and saved him from being captured. Unfortunately she couldn’t save his droid, R3, who was immobilized by the stormtroopers before she could do anything to help.

That was actually another interesting part of “Rebel Assault” – the stormtroopers didn’t think twice about essentially ‘killing’ R3, but their doing so definitely upset Mart. Personally, even though I’ve obviously seen several droids treated like ‘members of the family’ (for lack of a better term) in the Star Wars universe, it was a bit of a surprise (albeit a pleasant one) that this random pilot cared so much about his random droid, while the stormtroopers, [apparently] as usual, didn’t care at all.

Sadly, Hera was eventually captured, though she held her own against Rukh. She’s not just a badass pilot, she’s skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and she probably would have escaped had she not insisted that Mart and Chopper get away instead. And anyway, with her fighting, piloting, and negotiation skills, I don’t expect she will remain a prisoner forever – or even for very long. Unfortunately, we have until early next year before we find out.

As for Kanan going to look for her? He met with a Loth-Wolf along the way, and by just looking into Kanan’s eyes and repeating “Dume” (or is it actually saying “Doom”?), it convinced Kanan that he was needed elsewhere. In this case, the ‘elsewhere’ was at the end of the tunnel through which Mart and Chopper had escaped. When Kanan met them there, Mart apologized to him for leaving Hera behind, and “Rebel Assault” ended with Kanan’s somewhat cryptic reply: “There was nothing you could have done…but there is something *I* can do.”

The first half of Star Wars Rebels‘ final season flew by (yes, partly because the first eight episodes aired in just four weeks’ time). Are you as anxious as I am to find out how Hera escapes? And what about the other characters’ fates? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Author: Tara Lynne

Tara Lynne is an author, fandom and geek culture expert, and public speaker. She founded Ice & Fire Con, the first ever Game of Thrones convention in the US, and now runs its parent company Saga Event Planning.

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