Review: Star Wars Rebels “Iron Squadron”

Possibly the lowest scoring episode of Rebels we’ve ever had.

Spoilers Below

While on a mission to evacuate a planet under attack by the Empire, the crew of the Ghost comes across a ship that refuses to come with them. This ship, calling itself the Iron Squadron, turns out to be entirely crewed by three children and a rather incompetent robot. While the squadron did manage to take out an Imperial transport ship, they are inadequately equipped to deal with the Empire’s larger ships. Hera attempts to talk the group into leaving with them but they steadfastly refuse. When Hera checks in with the Rebels, she learns that the leader of this rag-tag crew is Commander Sato’s nephew, Mart. However, it is getting too dangerous to wait for the kid to give in to common sense. When Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper go over to the Squadron’s ship to fix the hyperdrive, Ezra once again tries to convince the kids to leave. He manages to get two of them, plus the robot, to leave. But Mart is determined to take out the Empire himself. The Empire sends a larger ship to deal with the problem but the Ghost can’t stick around any longer. Hera takes off, leaving Mart to handle the Empire on his own. Unfortunately, he quickly leans that he is outgunned. After a call from Hera, Sato plans to save his nephew on his own, but he isn’t close enough to get there in time. Of course, the Ghost goes back with a plan to save Mart. With the help of both robots, the Rebels manage to save all of the Iron Squadron and their ship.

Yeeeah. This was a rather annoying episode. Thanks to a group of self-centered children, the crew of the Ghost were put in danger. There wasn’t even any good character development going on. All we learn about the kids is that they are orphans, they are loyal to each other, and they have no idea what a Star Destroyer looks like. We didn’t even learn anything about Sato or his family. That relation was little more than a footnote in the story. Eight episodes into the season and it feels like nothing has happened. At what point will the story start?