Sunday 27 November 2016

Star Wars Rebels S03E09 "The Wynkahthu Job"

"The Rebels team up with unscrupulous pirates to salvage a freighter full of weapons the Rebellion needs, but find the mission is more dangerous than anticipated."

What I thought

Now this is more like it! After having to drag my enthusiasm through the last 3-4 episodes of Rebels, we have a solid half hour of entertainment. Boy oh boy this was an amusing episode. Sure, it had absolutely very little to do with the main arc of Season 3; there was no Maul, no Thrawn, no Rebel fleet hanging about or even any Empire turning up. But, for once, that didn't matter because the entertainment came chiefly from this week's guest stars of the charismatic Hondo and his new crew: the rather silly Azmorigan and the lovably funny Melch, These three combined to produce a surprisingly likeable and enjoyable gang that bounced off each other brilliantly. We all know what fun and flamboyant mannerisms Hondo brings to every scene he's in, but even I expected very little from Azmorigan, and even less from Welch in terms of entertainment. How wrong was I? Azmorigan produced a gem of a segment when he went bonkers shooting down the Imperial Sentry droid and Welch was just adorably amusing whenever called upon.

The story itself didn't sound anywhere near exciting, with it being essentially just a salvaging expedition between the Ghost Crew and Hondo's crew. Strangely this week, we had literally the whole Ghost crew involved for this job when often they've been split up in recent episodes. We even had the welcomed return of the pessimistically groaning AP-5! He's surely a relation of the Rogue One droid in terms of his personality. Even when he's being positive he sounds very less than interested or caring, He, along with Hondo's crew, all gelled together wonderfully into this "smash and grab" of an episode full of humour and feel-good vibes.

It wasn't perfect of course. There was little real peril here and, yet again, a lack of sustenance with any Series 3 Plot Arc. I was really expecting Thrawn to appear at the end for ten seconds and waffle about it all being part of his plan. That never happened. There was no conspiracy to this humongous Imperial Cargo ship being primed for raiding. That was a slight shame but the episode was so enjoyable, it mattered little. If they aren't going to really concentrate on a central season arc, then this kind of episode is the next best thing. The previous 3-4 episodes weren't horrendous, but even combined, they were nowhere near as enjoyable as this episode.

What I liked

A thoroughly funny and entertaining episode, The brilliant charismatic Hondo was a riot and his crew far more amusing than anyone could have expected. Plus we got the return of AP-5!

What I didn't like

Solid though it was, this was a complete stand-alone episode that left out Thrawn, Fulcrum, and any of the current season's arc from the story ... whatever that arc is, because it's not really been built upon a lot yet, Disappointedly Ezra is back to acting like a child (which he is) after the manly opening episode and Kanan continues to look like blindness is no issue for him. Was there any need for the Hondo jokes about Kanan though? Oh, and there's big sentry droids on the Imperial cargo ships that we've never seen before? Right. That's a new one. And, hey, those droids look just like Cylons!

Rating 7/10 (Very good)


It was great to have the funny Hondo back!

Azmorigan produced several entertaining segments this episode which was a real surprise to me!

AP-5! He's back! We've missed the pessimistic one!

Shouldn't they all be carried off in the wind instead of jumping straight down? Plus, that's still one hell of a drop!

Welch was cute and funny

Some beautiful visuals again this week

Imperial sentry droids? I'm not having it. They are Cylon knock-offs!


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