Last week, Ezra and the crew teamed up with Hando Ohnaka again. Hando needed some help scavaging an abandoned imperial cargo vessel. The Rebels got some bombs and Hando got what was coming to him. Don’t worry, he’s okay. But while spending time with the space pirate is always fun, the episode itself didn’t do much to further the story. This week’s episode, An Inside Man, was the first in a long stream of episodes that actually pushes the overall plot forward.

Now, before I continue, I need to say that there will be potential spoilers in this post. If you haven’t seen the episode, and don’t want to know what happened, stop reading now.

Ezra, Kanan, and Chopper find themselves back on Lothal where the Imperials have really set up camp. The planet the young Jedi grew up on looks much different under new management. As part of their mission, the trio infiltrates a manufacturing plant in order to uncover what new weaponry the Empire is making on Lothal. If Ezra and Kanan succeed, then maybe Phoenix Squadron can convince other cells to work with them and taking out the facility.

As these episodes are want to do, the Jedi become trapped and have to make a daring escape.

Major Points

As I was watching the episode, I noticed three important pieces of information. While I know there will be things a more astute observer may have caught, these are just the things I think were the most important. I am purposefully leaving one thing out because I think it will require more research on my part.

A Fractured Rebellion

The thing that struck me first in this episode is just how cellular the rebellion is right now. As I mentioned earlier, Phoenix Squadron has to convince other cells to attack the facility on Lothal. This implies that the rebellion is more of a group of independently run cells with a central goal than it is the unified organization it becomes.

We know from the book Bloodline that Saw Garerra leads one of these cells. We also learn in the novel Ahsoka that Ahsoka was initially brought on by Bail Organa to build these types of rebel groups. What we don’t know is just how many of these groups there are or when they come together. Rebels takes place just a few years before A New Hope so I think it is likely that we will start seeing more of the rebel high command in the coming episodes.

Thrawn’s a Cold SOB!

If you don’t think Thrawn is a cold, calculating son of a bantha, then I am not sure what show you are watching. Thrawn. He’s the blue guy. In this episode, we see his utter disregard for the lives of the workers in the manufacturing facility. He makes one worker, who turns out to be rebel so I guess it’s okay, test out a speeder bike he knows will explode. And guess what? It does explode, and the rebel dies. Just check it out in this clip.

Later, after another vehicle malfunction, he orders the execution of another. I mean, none of this is new. And compared to the old canon, this Thrawn is like a cute puppy. But, keep in mind, it’s still a kid show…with a pretty high death toll.

A New Fulcrum

We learned a few weeks back that the rebellion doesn’t have just one Fulcrum. Fulcrum is a title that can be passed between multiple people, much like the Dread Pirate Roberts. Ahsoka was presumably the first Fulcrum, but with her “otherwise indisposed,” a new person takes her place, and the cycle of rebellion continues.

We learn the identity of the new Ahsoka in this episode. He’s a little more male, his lekku look more like mutton chops, and we’ve seen him since the first season on the show. The new Fulcrum is none other than Agent Kallus.

Now, for those us who have watched every episode of Rebels, we have seen Kallus slowly become less callus towards the rebels. There was a bro moment on an ice planet between him and Zeb. He helped Sabine escape the Imperial academy. We’ve even seen him show a bit of disgust a few times when the Empire has played their hand heavier than they needed to. With all that in mind, seeing this take place isn’t really shocking.

Kallus helps the rebel trio download the plans they need and escape the compound with their lives. I’d like to see Kallus make it to Rogue One, but let’s face it: Thrawn probably already knows that Kallus is a double agent is just planning on the perfect way to kill him.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought this was a good episode. It wasn’t the best episode of season three, but it also wasn’t the worst. We got to see more of Thrawn and a new side to Agent Kallus. I look forward to seeing what happens next with the rebellion and I’d like to know if Rebels will somehow tie into Rogue One.

There was more important part of the episode that I left out. The new weapon the Empire was working on. It’s a new form of Tie Fighter that has shields. I am going to do some research into what that means but until then, I will just leave the topic alone.

If you know what the new Tie Fighter means for the universe, or if you just want to tell me your thoughts on the episode, leave a comment in the section below.