Star Wars Rebels S03E17 "Through Imperial Eyes"

Synopsys

The Rebels hatch a plan to rescue Kallus as Thrawn narrows in on Fulcrom.

What I thought

We’re now well into the second half of Rebels Season 3 and heading towards Thrawn’s endgame. Now is the time to start the momentum rolling, which this episode well and truly does by introducing the reality of the threat Thrawn brings to proceedings for our Rebels. This guy isn’t like any other regular Imperial toff; he’s a thinker, a patient man but he’s also physically strong with his muscles and his ruthlessness.

We start off with a first-person perspective of Kallus being alerted to an attack on his vessel. It’s a great way to start things off, seeing events through his eyes, but a shame it doesn’t continue past the opening thirty seconds. The attack is Ezra in a shuttle from Lothal. Apparently no one in the Empire know what Ezra looks like, except Kallus. I can believe that there might be lots who don’t but we are just outside Lothal so you’d think his photo would be prominent. No, they all think he’s just a random bounty hunter ... with two droids. Yup, AP-5 and Chopper are there too in Imperial disguise. As much as I love Chopper, AP-5 always trumps everyone with his dry humour, of which he has a few excellent moments this episode, especially when he’s told to be a look-out. Also, once again, there’s no checks by the Empire on any droids. They seem to automatically trust them! Anyhow, Ezra is there to spring Kallus out after telling him Thrawn is closing in, but alas that goes out of the airlock when Thrawn and his big bad destroyer show up. He’s brought everyone’s fav Imperial “Uncle” Colonel Yularen along to help find out who the spy is. Despite everything that goes down in this episode, I’m pretty sure Thrawn is 99% convinced it’s Kallus that’s Fulcrom anyway. However, it’s still an enjoyable episode.

Kallus amusingly manipulates his commander (the super enthusiastic one) into being framed as the spy through stealing his ID card, of sorts, in the form of an ID Stick. We got formally introduced to them as a level of security early in the episode, so no surprise that Kallus used them as his way of implicating the other commander. Kallus and the Rebel gang deem that the only place to get the clearance codes needed so that the rescue party can arrive (Kanan and Rex) is to go to Thrawn’s office, and also delete the planet with the base on from Thrawn’s map. This all seems like a bad idea for numerous reasons, not least that you’d think Thrawn would be more likely to notice a planet missing than most? Anyhow, whilst in there, Thrawn is on his way back to the Office, bypassing the hapless AP-5 who alerted Ezra, which leads to Kallus unleashing some other heavy duty droids on Thrawn. We’d seen him earlier beating up these droids in training so he eventually takes them down rather masterfully as the others get away. The final bit of Kallus’s plan sees the other commander successfully implicated, the rebels get away, and then ... a twist ... as Kallus stays behind. He think he can do more good from within the Empire for the Rebels. True, but even he should have realised that by now that Thrawn is seriously smart and on to him in a big way. I wonder if Kallus does realise this and believes that getting away isn’t his plan due to his history with the Empire and all the horrible things he’s done? Maybe he knows that he’s going down with the ship and it’s only a matter of time? Can anyone really see Kallus in Season 4? I can’t.

I loved being on Imperial ships for a whole episode. I was immersed in the corridors and seeing stormtrooper here, there and everywhere. Thrawn I like, as he’s a mean machine but the interaction with all the top ranked Imperials was like being a fly on the wall and really intriguing. The episode did seem a little pointless in some aspects, given that we already got the strong suspicion that Thrawn knew who Fulcrom was episodes ago. Did we need this episode to really highlight everything? Probably not but it was still great to witness Kallus at work and seeing more of life in an Imperial world. It’s also going to be nerve-wracking but engrossing to see how Thrawn uses Kallus to his advantage and if Kallus will work it out before it’s too late.

Rating 7/10 – VERY GOOD

What?

So, Jedi mind tricks don’t work on Pryce? I get the feeling we’ve been told this before or is this a new thing?

I’m still not getting this Kanan eyesight thing, In the shuttle he can’t see or sense all the star destroyers but outside shuttle he’s ok at walking about and sensing all the 101 hazards there are to trip over or walk into?

What I liked

95% of episode within Imperial Base with Imperial characters.

Kallus’s manipulation

Proof of Thrawn’s physical strength and “no mug”

AP-5 with all the best gags

Promise of even more tension for us watching the Kallus character.

What I didn’t like

Once again droids overlooked as “impossible to be imposters”

Not really “through” imperial eyes in terms of perspective as I thought.

Feels like we didn’t really need this episode to confirm Thrawn’s suspicions.

Kallus is woken up by the enthusiastic but inept Commander

Oh look, it's Ezra.

Oh look, it's AP-5 AND Chopper. Did it really take two of them? Probably not but I was glad AP-5 was there.

Is Kanan flying this thing with Rex?

Teacher's pet, Kallus, meets his former mentor.

Here begins Kallus manipulation of his commander.

AP-5 doing the "thankless" task of being lookout.

This feels very Force Awakens here. Deleting planets also like The Clone Wars.

Thrawn is almost unflustered as he takes down these droids.

We come in peace, says Kanan.

You can't help but cry and laugh at this poor guy.

Thrawn now formally knows it's Kallus although I reckon he already knew weeks ago.