Review: Star Wars Rebels – “The Protector of Concord Dawn”

The Empire has cut the Rebels off from almost every route to Lothal. Sabine suggests a route past Concord Dawn, a planet of a rogue group of Mandalorians called the Protectors. When the Mandalorians split into two factions, the Protectors took the side against the Empire. They could be valuable allies in the war. However, Kanan and Sato disagree about how they should approach the Protectors. Sato and Sabine think they should attack the Mandalorians, while Kanan and Hera think they could use diplomacy. In the end, the Rebels try diplomacy.

Hera takes the Phoenix Squad to Concord Dawn to talk to the Protectors. They are greeted by Rau and his fighters. It turns out that the Protectors are working with the Empire now. The Rebels try to flee but the Protectors manage to destroy two Rebel ships and seriously injure Hera before the good guys can get away. Sabine, feeling guilty that Hera was injured, vows to kill the Protectors.

Kanan returns to Concord Dawn to try, once again, to negotiate with Rau. Unfortunately for him, Sabine managed to sneak onto the Phantom and she is out for revenge. Somehow, he manages to keep her in check for most of the trip. Kanan meets with Rau but the Mandalorian doesn’t want to cross the Empire.

Meanwhile, Sabine has been planting explosives on the Protectors’ ships. When she is caught, she invokes the code of single combat. As expected, she chooses to fight Rau. Before the fight can really begin though, Sabine blows up the ships. But she was unable to blow up Rau’s ship. He leaps into his ship and takes off. But not before Kanan jumps aboard as well. After a bit of a mid-air battle, Kanan slams his lightsaber through Rau’s control panel, effectively destroying the ship. He grabs Rau and leaps into the Phantom, taking the Protector as his prisoner. Rau tells his men to make sure the Empire doesn’t find out that he has been taken. He also gives the Rebels permission to pass through the system. Mission accomplished, I suppose.

While it was nice to get some more Sabine, this episode still felt a little lacking. It was weird to hear Sato want to fight people while Hera wanted to talk. You would think they would have had the opposite reactions. Also, I’m not sure how I feel about the show dividing up the Ghost crew like this. Most of the recent episodes only have one or two of the main characters without explaining what everyone else is doing. The show was at its best when the gang was working together as a team. A rag-tag team but a team nonetheless. These episodes just feel incomplete without the whole team being involved. (Seriously, do you think Zeb was just sitting next to the injured Hera holding her hand or wandering around the Rebel ship the entire time? I doubt it.) I hope the gang gets back together soon.