Ricky Church reviews the twentieth episode of Star Wars Resistance season 1…
With Kaz and Neeku on the run, Yeager and Tam captured and the Colossus on a full-lock down as it remains submerged, the first part of Star Wars Resistance‘s finale was already quite high in tension. However, ‘No Escape: Part One’ wasn’t quite as tense as it could have been because of some of the show’s trademark comedy, but the final moments where it tied into Star Wars: The Force Awakens amped up the pressure and was the highlight of the episode. There were also several payoffs for the character’s development as nearly everyone faced the consequences or were rewarded for their actions in game-changing ways. All in all, the first part of ‘No Escape’ was an entertaining and exciting beginning of the end.
Over the course of the season, Kaz has really come into his own as a leader and Resistance operative by taking initiative and forming some good plans against the First Order and others. That development is once again on display here as Kaz has to work pretty much on his own without Yeager to guide him and only having Neeku and the kids to bounce ideas off of (and Neeku is not particularly good help for that). Kaz showed some ingenuity as he thought to sneak outside the station to get by all the Stromtroopers, though he still showed a clear lack of skill with physical confrontations. It was still nice to see him eventually team up with Torra and work with her as they tried to come up with a plan to get up to the tower and ride themselves of the First Order. Kaz has shown a lot of growth and the finale is paying his development off pretty nicely.
One aspect of the story that was unfortunate was the show’s humour. Despite the tense plot and stakes for the characters, there was actually a fair amount of slapstick comedy involved, particularly with Kaz. From his conversation with Flix and Orca to his bumbling efforts at fighting Stormtroopers, both in and out of the water, the comedy took away a fair bit of the suspense. One moment that really exemplified this was when Kaz actually took a blaster from a Stormtrooper only for Torra to remind him he was facing the barrel the wrong way. While it is obvious that, despite the steps he’s made, Kaz is still pretty green when it comes to physical combat, it was too much of a stretch to believe he’d mix up the ends of a rifle. The same form of levity was applied to several Stormtroopers as well, such as when two Stormtroopers are easily lured out of the engine room and don’t even have their guard up after hearing a struggle another Stormtrooper had outside. Moments like these weakened the immediacy and stakes of Kaz’s conflict and didn’t put his safety into question enough. The only bit of physical comedy that worked was CB-23’s fight with the First Order BB-9 unit that utilized some pretty good animation and choreography for a droid fight that was reminiscent of RD-D2 or Chopper’s scraps in The Clone Wars and Rebels.
Despite the weaknesses of the comedy, the development of the other characters helped improve the episode overall. Torra was a pretty big help to Kaz avoiding detection and getting inside the tower while her father finally chose to side against the First Order, getting himself locked up with Yeager in the process. However, Tam received quite a bit of development of her own as she was faced with some big changes. Building off Tierney’s introduction in the previous episode, ‘No Escape’ continued to show how calculating and manipulative she can be. For instance, it could not have been an accident that Tierny took Tam for a walk just at the moment Yeager was being dragged to his cell, allowing Tam an angry outburst at her former employer for lying to and misleading her. Credit to Suzie McGrath for conveying Tam’s anger at Yeager in an emotionally charged moment that it both tragic and relatable. It’s not as if she’s entirely wrong in her anger since neither Kaz or Yeager trusted her enough, but she is also naive to the First Order’s true intentions. Her sympathies for the regime have been building for several episodes now and with Tierny’s offer to fulfill her dream to become a pilot, coupled with her feelings of betrayal, Tam seems ready to take it. It will be interesting to see just how the destruction of the Hosnian system affects her decision in helping or turning from her friends.
Fans have been awaiting the intersection of the series with The Force Awakens for a long time, especially since the mid-season trailer hinted at it a couple months ago, but now it has well and truly happened. The moment of Kaz and Torra overhearing General Hux’s big address from the film was well played and brought so much of the tension right back into the story as viewers had to watch Kaz’s reaction to the power of Starkiller Base. It was a pretty powerful scene as he slowly realized what was happening and which system got destroyed and a great place to end the episode. The only downside is, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, that we are suppose to feel the loss of Kaz’s parents yet they haven’t even been seen properly. A lot of the emotional weight of Hosnian Prime’s destruction comes from The Force Awakens rather than with Kaz’s family. It would have been nice to learn a bit more about his family or actually see his father before the First Order’s attack. While it lacks some of the emotion, seeing Hosnian’s destruction from an entirely new perspective works fairly well thanks to the animation of Kaz’s reaction as well as Christopher Sean’s line delivery.
‘No Escape: Part One’ was a little more comedic than it should have been with Kaz’s bumbling fights against Stormtroopers, but its presentation of him in a leadership role was still nicely done. The development of the supporting characters, however, stood out more, especially when it comes to Tam and her feelings of betrayal. With the series now fully in The Force Awakens territory, it is exciting to think of how Kaz takes in the news of his home’s destruction (even if it would have been better had we actually gotten to know more of his past) and helps save the Colossus if he can. The fact that the Colossus has a hyperdrive and also acts as a space station is a pretty intriguing one, especially when you consider the Resistance will soon be out of a base thanks to the events of The Last Jedi that immediately precede Force Awakens. Hopefully ‘No Escape: Part Two’ keeps up the tension and examines Kaz’s emotional state with a little more depth.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church
