Review: Star Wars Rebels – “Homecoming”

Hera and the gang are sent to capture a larger ship for the Rebels. The Empire ship they have chosen happens to be orbiting her home world, Ryloth. Unfortunately for Hera, this means she has to talk to her father, Cham Syndulla. Cham was a resistance fighter during the Clone Wars and fought against the Empire until Hera’s mother died. Then his priority turned towards his people instead of his daughter.

Cham and two other Twi’lek agree to help the Rebels steal the Imperial ship. However, once they are on board, the three betray Hera and her friends. Zeb, Sabine, Ezra, Kanan, and Chopper are all stunned while Hera is merely handcuffed to the pilot’s chair. Hera wakes Chopper, who frees her before the rest of the group wakes up.

Realizing the betrayal, the Rebels break into two groups. Zeb and Sabine go to stop the two Twi’lek from blowing up the Imperial ship while Kanan, Ezra, Hera, and Chopper rush to the control deck to finish their mission. As Hera verbally faces off with her father, she wins the allegiance of his partners. Eventually, he gives in as well. They will steal the ship instead of blowing it up. However, they still get to blow up a ship. The Empire has sent another Destroyer to stop them. But Sabine and Cham have something different in mind. They send a Tie Bomber filled with explosives into the other ship, blowing it to pieces. Both sides get what they want.

Hera’s backstory is difficult. Her father was a hero but they don’t even give her mother a name. I hope that, at some point, Hera’s mother does get a name. On the same note, the two Twi’lek that accompany Cham, Numa and Gobi, are barely given any characterization themselves. They blindly follow Cham until Hera gives her big speech. It’s a little shallow.

There were only two big parts of the episode – Hera’s reactions to her father and Kanan’s and Ezra’s Force powers. At one point in the episode, Hera falls back into the accent of her people while she argues with her father. It’s rare that we see Hera lose control of herself.

However, my favorite part of the show was the Force powers. Kanan and Ezra Force push and pull each other through sets of closing blaster doors. I had to re-watch that part of the episode a few times to satisfy my awe. We’ve never seen the two of them do something like that. We’re seeing Ezra’s powers grow and Kanan treat him almost like an equal. The two of them together will definitely be a force to reckon with.