Star Wars Rebels S03E11 "Visions and Voices"

Synopsis

Haunted by visions of Maul, Ezra must journey across the galaxy to engage in a strange ritual to sever his connection with Maul.

What I thought

Maul is back, which you know means it's likely to be a good episode, what with his meddling ways, and that there'll be a high likelihood of lightsaber action; he delivers on both these elements this episode. Despite it being weeks since he and Ezra were joined together with those holocrons, now he's starting to contact Ezra who, poor chap, thinks he's hallucinating, almost taking out a random rebel with a lightsabre. Seeking Bendu's help, Kanan & Ezra find out that Maul is still linked to Ezra because the joining of holocrons wasn't completed (Kanan stopped it). Thus, Maul knows where the rebel base is and turns up literally on cue. Bendu has legged it though! I'm sure him being there would get in the way of the story anyway but also I expect he doesn't want to get involved or be seen by others. We know by this point that Kanan has put a tracker on Ezra but the conversation between these three is still a little daft in some ways. Kanan lets Ezra go off with Maul in order to get the answers this time to what they both seeked (something he didn't want to let them do last time!). Yeah, it's hard to fathom a little but that's the way it goes.

Maul and Ezra land on the gorgeously looking Dathomir, which Clone Wars viewers will remember well. It looks like it's been wasted by the Empire, much as Maul confirms to Ezra. Seems he's been hiding out there as he has a little home with relics everywhere, including an interesting lightsaber underneath a painting of a female. Goodness knows how Ezra has the guts to do it, but he drinks a potion with Maul and the classic Night Sister green mist comes out of both their eyes and it's over in a flash. Maul says Obi-Wan's name, and Ezra mumbles words that must mean they are talking about the same person. Despite now having clear visual details, both lack knowing where this actual planet with two suns is. Typical huh? Anyhow, things start to go real Night Sister spooky as green mist comes out of an altar and starts attacking them. Maul had made a pact with Night Sister's to promise them flesh and blood in return for the magic. They escape to outside the cave they were in, which is apparently as far as the magic can go, but not before Kanan and Sabine (who tracked Ezra) all too easily and dumb-like, get touched by the mist. They are now possessed, green eyes and spooky night sister voice and all. After Maul begs Ezra for the upteenth time to join him and gets a no, he legs it, and leaves Ezra to battle to save his friends, which he does by forcing Sabine outside the cave and thus away from the magic, and saves Kanan with some strange conversation with the sisters. Ezra convinces them to possess him instead and to leave Kanan, which they do ... by letting Kanan go first? Yeah, they are stupid aren't they? It all seemed like a rather too plot convenient moment for me as to why they'd just do that. Anyhow, Ezra then nukes the altar with two lightsabers which renders the sisters inoperative and history once again.

It's an enjoyable episode on the atmospherically spooky Dathomir and those creepy sister's green mist. Maul himself is at his awesome best with some trickery and random mumblings. My biggest problem is that this episode actually adds little to nothing to the Maul plotline, because we all heavily suspected they both saw Tatooine and Obi-Wan when they were joined by the holocrons in Episode 2. We also learn that neither actually know where the darn planet is, despite this extra magic. We do of course learn more about Maul's backstory and Dathomir which is all interesting enough. The episode as a whole was visually beautiful and entertaining but I'm left just wondering if this was just an excuse to return to Dathomir.

A few questions I'm left with:

Is that the sith holocron in Ezra's room?
What's with that funky lightsaber?
Who is that lady painted on Maul's wall?

What I liked

Maul's was awesome with his presence and mumblings, the nightsister's return, the mystical and eerie nature of Dathomir, nightsister's versus Ezra, that funky lightsaber, confirmation of Obi-Wan. Oh, and the small scene with AP-5 was cool :)

What I didn't like

This actually added very little to what we learnt in the last Maul episode, no Thrawn or Empire, still a little unsure on Kanan's eyesight and intelligence, Bendu legs it when Maul arrives?

Ezra almost annihilates some random rebel guy at start of show! 

Dathomir might be a wasteland but it looks absolutely stunning.

Who is she then?

oookkk, this can't be good.

The nightsisters return by possessing Kanan and Sabine!

Ezra has a brief battle with possessed Sabine and the funky lightsabre

Kanan possessed is a little funny and sinister looking, but also amazing to watch.

Ezra nukes the altar

Sabine collects the funky lightsaber, which is bound to have some hidden meaning for another episode.

The Curse of Oak Island S04E03

Synopsis

"The Lagina brothers find evidence of what could be an ancient shipwreck in the Oak Island swamp."

What I thought

We begin with some of the gang returning from Fred Nolan's funeral. There's a nice little extra tribute to the great Oak Island explorer before we return to the meat of the show and see Rick and Nick checking out the progress at the Money Pit which is becoming a pit once more as huge chunks of earth are shifted about, and space is created by clearing trees. It's a little hard to watch for tree huggers but, whilst walking about, Rick finds some interesting pottery that both he and Nick think has a symbol etched into it. I'm unsure on this but later on in the show they call in an expert! Blimey! This is a revolution. An expert you say? The geologist gives more information about the object and also supports their theory that the marking looks recent although the segment is cut short before we get to really hear anymore.

Away from the money pit, most of the show is spent in the swamp with the Lagina Brothers playing sailors in a dingy as Jack and a diver look to make sense of what a deep radar sweep months ago reported. If you are doing a drinking game for the show, I hope you don't have the word 'hit' on the list because you'll be passed out from alcohol poisoning after this episode. The first hit they find, based on the radar results, is an old Frank Nolan metallic marker for one of the tree stumps under the swamp. However, the second hit is more interesting, because they don't actually find the target, but instead pick up a long 18ft piece of wood. Seems the actual target is probably deeper than the manual detector that the diver is carrying can go. What we do find out at the end of the show is that carbon dating suggests that plank is roughly dated 1680-1730 which goes some way to supporting theories about their being a ship under the swamp.

It's not the most revealing episode, but with some supporting evidence that the radar survey brings back accurate results, that there is something else historical down the swamp, and that a piece of pottery might be significant, it's safe to say there's a tad more tangible results this week.

Rating 5/10 (OK)

Strolling about the money pit excavations, Hawk-eye Rick finds some pottery ...

I'm not highly convinced, but they are, that this piece of pottery they just happened to find has something significant etched into it.

That swamp looks cold and uninviting, so that's probably why the Lagina brothers stay on the boat.

There's that 17th century piece of wood they found

The geologist arrives to look at that piece of pottery, and other objects which we don't get to find out about.

The Curse of Oak Island S04E02

Synopsis 

"Rick and Marty Lagina investigate a mysterious 'Hatch' which may be a secret entrance to an underground treasure tunnel on Oak Island."

What I thought

Here we go again. Only the second episode in and it feels like we’re wading through Oak Island's muddy marsh and getting nowhere quick. Nothing much really happened this week in terms of progress on the actual island. After letting one of the gang loose on the newly discovered “hatch” section of sunken ground, they then decided to call in an expert. Right, so start digging first huh? Hmm. Anyhow, the expert arrived and took a look. He seemed to believe it’s possibly man-made due to the nature of 3 of the walls seeming solid. Next they have to contact the authorities before any meaningful archaeological work can begin. Well, that makes a change from getting the diggers in right?

Aside from a segment where plans for how to proceed with the upcoming big operation in the money pit, most of the episode took place 20 miles north, back at the suspected castle by the Knights of Templar ... and that well. The Lagina brothers obviously funded this as they called in a diver to go down the well to see what he could see. Turns out there are some symbols on some of the stones on the way down; there’s a triangular symbol and another arrow like one that’s apparently quite significant. Not much could be discovered at the bottom due to sediment being kicked up, which makes me wonder what the diver was expecting to happen if you go down a well and kick around the bottom? Seems the base might not be solid though.

Away from all the exploration and mysteries, the episode ended with a long segment about the discovery of Fred Nolan’s passing. I genuinely felt as sad as the gang on this one. No matter what previous differences anyone had had with Fred and the recent making up of relationships, it was a very sad moment. That guy had ploughed his life into that island and made lots of discoveries but still didn’t have the answers. I truly hope the Lagina brothers don’t end up also with many questions that go unanswered. 

Rating 5/10 (OK)

Rick helps organise a plan for the big money pit operation. This is going to lead to some serious transformation of the area, including a new temporary road and hardcore.

Is it a hatch? Is it manmade? Who knows! So, they let Jack loose and he starts digging it up.

Then they decide to call in the experts!

Time to send a diver (not suited up in this photo) down the well.

First up he finds a triangular symbol on one of the rocks.

Further down the well there's another arrow like symbol.

Sad news ends the episode regarding the passing of Fred Nolan.

The Curse of Oak Island S04E01

Synopsis

“Rick and Marty Lagina return to Oak Island and begin preparations for a major excavation in the Money Pit.”

What I thought

The Lagina brothers are back for a 4^th Season. Some watching this programme for the last three seasons might feel like they’ve been through six seasons of the TV show LOST, having been been drip dropped answers but thinking they’ll never get a thorough understanding of what is going on. Thankfully, judging by the trailer for this season, it looks like the brothers might actually be getting something tangible for a change. It’ll certainly be good to not see superfluous chases down blind alleys and digging up bits of mud and wood. But we don’t watch this for results do we? Unlikely you’d still be awake right now if you did. This is all about a long dragged out mystery and the promise of, well, not getting any answers.

The brothers return to oak island ready to plough more money into the project than is likely to be ever discovered deep below the surface. If these guys have this much money, I’m left wondering why they’ve never employed any experts of excavations and archaeological digs. Oh well. So, new this season is a researcher who has insights into the island. I know what you’re thinking – not another one! Yes, but as the episode progresses, it at least becomes likely that this lady actually has something tangible that stands up to scrutiny more than all the previous island theorists we’ve seen before. Although they don’t state where she got all her information from, she’s got an old map of oak island that the Knights of the Templar had something to do with. The map looks pretty detailed and accurate but also shows elements of the island the brothers had never known about, such as an hatch. Yes, I know, that was in LOST too. So, they go to where on the island this old map suggests a hatch is and Dave Blankenship says something along the lines of “Oh yeah, there’s a depression in the ground there” making you wonder why no one though that was worth checking out decades ago. Seeing it on camera, there’s certainly something there but if it’s a hatch, bog or ancient toilet is hard to tell from first glances.

The side story this week, but potentially very related to oak island is a place 20 miles away that the brothers visit where another researching couple have purchased a property they believe is situated where an ancient castle once stood, which was used by the knights of the Templar. They all investigate a well on the land, and draw conclusions that I find hard to be convinced by, especially when they saw a Templar cross on a stone but I saw something else. Oh well, they all seemed convinced that there was enough similarity between the well and stuff on oak island to go into some sort of cooperation.

There’s no doubting that from the trailer and this opening episode, there’s serious potential this season of something substantial being discovered that you can look and point at, and say “yup, ok, that’s definitely something tangible” rather than the usual “Yeah, but, that’s not really anything much”. I’m looking forward to finding out more.

Rating: 6/10 (Good)

We spend a good 5 or more minutes watching a pipe being pulled out of the Money Pit, which isn't the most fascinating TV.

At least the engineers seem to be having fun ...

Maps! Yes, the only thing missing is a big X marks the spot on any of the maps although there is lots of information.

Yeah, if it wasn't for this artificial impression of the cross, I wouldn't have got this shape from the stone.

Well, well, well. We spend some time down a well some 20 miles away from Oak Island which has some similarities to excavations on the island. i.e. stones, wet, and few answers but curiosity

Umm, Dave, why have you never mentioned this ground depression before?

Star Wars Rebels S03E10 "An Inside Man"

"Seeking information on a new Imperial weapon, Ezra and Kanan infiltrate the Imperial factory on Lothal, but they must trust an unlikely ally to escape a lockdown of the building."

What I thought

Well, this is considerably better than most of Series 3 so far but no where near as fun as last week, although I don't really want every episode to be a comedy like the previous episode was. This week was much tamer and a return for Thrawn to continue his long calculating game of learning and luring the Rebels into a deadly trap. Thankfully he was much more prominent than any usual token "This is all my plan" scene, as he had lots of screen time and some interesting reveals into his nature, including deliberately luring a mechanic to his death, ousting another dodgy mechanic as a traitor, and showing us a room full of his calculating clues that he's learned. There were so many graphics in his office relating to the Rebels, you can see that Thrawn is seriously doing his homework, and that can't be good for the Rebels. There was even an old Jedi Temple guard mask in his room! How the heck did he get that? I didn't study everything he'd gathered but it certainly looked highly insightful into all our Rebel character's past and personality. I'm expecting some serious problems at the end of the season for Ezra and the gang. For all this to pay off, someone has to either be permanently captured at the end or die on the Rebels side, or Thrawn becomes just another numpty Imperial commander.

Like a Star Wars boomerang, we were back on Lothal again, where there's even more of an Imperial presence lurking overhead. What is it about that planet? As we've seen numerous times before, but not this series for obvious reasons, it was the Ezra and Kanan show this week. Now, as much as I love these two together, there's a big problem here. Let's start with the biggest issue, and that of Kanan's lack of eyesight. I totally get he can sense the force and that guides him, but in this episode he's running around building tops, walking around corridors unaided, jumping off buildings and doing lots of things on the side of a speeding transporter. This is a lot to take in. What's worse, it gets absolutely no mention about his lack of eyesight and his use of the force. He even takes off his stolen imperial helmet several times as if that makes any difference to him? Even Kallus said nothing when he saw Kanan. I can appreciate Kanan using the force to guide him and sense things but it takes a lot to believe everything we see him get up to now and to have zero reference to his visual health.

On the plus side, Kallus outs himself as Fulcrum to Kanan and Ezra, who aren't immediately convinced. Thankfully Chopper is, who seems to have formed an instant relationship with Kallus. LOL. The interaction afterwards between the four is enjoyable, not least that Kanan and Ezra enjoy beating Kallus up in order to make their collaboration less obvious. Some great dialogue moments there. It's a shame that Kallus being Fulcrum wasn't unveiled in a more dramatic manner but this will do. Unfortunately for Kallus, I'm more than sure that Thrawn has figured it all out, which would have to be the case for a man of his standing. The closing dialogue between him and Kallus was very suggestive, leading me to believe that if anyone isn't going to see Series 4, it's likely to be Kallus.

It was great to see the inners of an Imperial factory, and a look into a top secret room where Chopper stole the plans for a new TIE-fighter ... which has shields! Yikes! Now this is interesting. I admit, I thought it might be related to the Death Star but alas no. No Rogue One tie-in yet. But seriously, how many times is Chopper painted like an imperial droid going to trick the Empire? Some better security protocols with droids and pretty much the Empire could rule for ever!

All in all, this was a decent episode if you excuse some of the totally ridiculous things Kanan & Ezra got away with within the Imperial base. Think I have to take that as cartoon candy, but combined with the lack of any gravity to Kanan's lack of eyesight, my rating for the episode slips a little. Thrawn was awesome and certainly a lot more menacing this week, and the reveal of a secret new TIE fighter is making for more intrigue going forward.

What I liked

Great to see Kanan & Ezra back as a team. Inside scenery of an Imperial manufacturing facility was amazing, Loved Thrawn's calculating manner and his room of clues, plus Kallus revealing himself as Fulcrum and his interaction with Kanan & Ezra. And ... there's this new secret imperial ship!

What I didn't like

Ok, this blind Kanan thing now is ridiculous and totally underplayed. Again, the legs of Imperial walkers being chopped off so easily annoys me, as does Kanan & Ezra's Imperial base antics.

Rating 6/10 (Good)

Thrawn's ruthlessness shocked a lot of people, including me.

Ok, I just can't stop being annoyed about how easy this is.

Kanan seems to have no problem in any aspect this week with his lack of eyesight.

These helmets don't seem to provide any protection if one punch is all it takes to knock them out.

Loved the inside of this room!

Thrawn's room of clues is very intriguing

Loved the enjoyment Kanan & Ezra got beating up Kallus.

Here's Ezra and Kanan zipping around Imperial Walkers as if they were made of chocolate.

The rebels steal the plans, but not for the Death Star.

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!

Star Wars Rebels S03E08 "Iron Squadron"

Synopsis

"The Rebels team up to tame a young rogue hotshot pilot and his crew who recklessly risk their lives in a fight to defend their homeworld from Imperial occupation."

What I thought

Continuing on from a number of underwhelming episodes since the opener of Series 3, this week is yet another filler of sorts that seems to only exist for … well, I’m not really sure what the point was of this episode really. I can’t imagine the “children” of the Iron Squadron will ever appear in the show again. The only plot plus I can possibly see in this episode which develops or reveals anything meaningful, is to do with Thrawn and Fulcrum. Not only do we see more manipulation and pondering thoughts by Thrawn this week but we also get an ever clearer indication that Fulcrum is Kallus. At least to me it seems highly likely. I’m also wondering if Thrawn already realises this? Certainly Thrawn knew about who the Iron Squadron were and that by letting them get their way for a while it might drawn in Jun Sato, which eventually it did. Was it me, or did it seem like Sato and Thrawn knew each other? There seemed to be familiarity between them in their brief conversation.

Aside from Sato and Fulcrum, this was a bog standard run-of-the-mill episode with nothing really spectacular or gripping to really drag it up from being simply watchable for half hour. It felt like we’ve seen this kind of episode in about 101 different variations since Rebels began. You know the drill, Ghost Crew heading to planet having Empire trouble, find someone in trouble, save them but something goes a little wrong, and the Rebels return to fix what went wrong and also get away from the Empire again. Yup, it’s that kind of thing. Thankfully, the actual kids of the Iron Squadron didn’t get too much dialogue and weren’t too annoying although there was nothing much particular intriguing about them. Not sure why it was three kids and a droid leading any resistance at all to the impending Empire assault and not a few more adults at least. Chopper once again saved the episode with a few memorable moments with the Iron Squadron’s droid where they battled over fixing the hyper drive, and then when he pushed the nervous droid out of the airlock - Classic Chopper. Kanan once again showed that a blind Jedi using the force is almost as good as one with sight, as he manned the controls of the Ghost and took out a few TIE-fighters. This is all hard to grasp, only because he seems to have mastered it all in no time at all. As said before, I can believe he’d get to this level of expertise, but not this quickly and easily. I suppose he is already a trained Jedi so maybe it’s not such a big step when one actually accepts the situation and embraces the force? I dunno.

This was a feel good episode, a victory of sorts for the Rebels, whilst the only thing missing from the closing scene were some trumpets and the awarding of medals as the Iron Squadron kids celebrate, Sato hugs his nephew, and everyone is happy. Just a shame there wasn’t a scene after that which threw a spanner in the works, as that wold have made up for the entire episode.

What I liked = More Thrawn strategy and pondering. Chopper’s antics, Fulcrum intrigue. Does Sato know Thrawn? Zeb had enough sense to leave the Iron Squadron to Hera & Co.

What I didn’t like = Another variation of a typical standard Rebel’s episode, nothing much really happened of any note.

Rating 5/10 (Ok)