Review: Star Wars Resistance “No Escape: Part 1”

Kaz and his fellow rebels work on escaping from the Colossus.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After the arrest of Jarrod Yaeger, Captain Doza has had enough and confronts Pryce about the First Order’s overreach of authority. Of course, it ends with Doza being detained and thrown into a prison cell. Tam gets interrogated some more, but can’t believe Yaeger is a spy.

Meanwhile, Kaz attempts to reach Yaeger to rescue him with the help of Neeku, the children, and CB-23. There’s a lot of bumps along the way, but eventually, he makes it back inside the Colossus, where he is brought to Tora’s room by her loyal pet. They’re sneaking to the prison section when they overhear a broadcast from the First Order – and Starkiller Base is unveiled and unleashed against Kaz’s homeworld.

Our Take:

Coming off an exciting episode last week, Star Wars Resistance continues to up the ante as we approach the season finale next week. Technically, this is part one of the finale, and it definitely shows. While there’s plenty of thrills and excitement to go around, there’s really no resolution to be found in part one, as almost everything that happens is clearly in a waiting stage until the payoff can be delivered in the second part. That’s just the nature of the game; you gotta move the pieces before you can play your final move.

Kaz and CB-23 sneaking through the Colossus take up the most of the screen time. It’s fun stuff, though not anything we haven’t seen before. There are some gags about how Neeku and the kids have to try pushing every button on the control panels before finding the one that does what Kaz needs, and of course there are some funny moments during hand-to-hand combat, like when Kaz tries to punch a stormtrooper with his bare fist and receives a lot of pain in return. (Did it strike anyone else as kinda funny that they have to wear an additional helmet on their helmets to go underwater?) Their code names were funny, especially how Kaz accentuated this line: “We are not calling each other blowfish!” I really enjoyed Neeku and Kaz’s dynamic in this episode, which might be surprising considering how I often feel about Neeku. His excitement at being called ‘buddy’ is very adorable: “That is a term of endearment in many cultures!”

Tam and Yaeger’s confrontation while passing in the prison hallway is one of the biggest scenes that sticks out to me. With all the information she’s being fed, and the proof of Yaeger saying that she should ‘try to understand’, Tamara is now being torn between her friends and the First Order. I love how she’s so shocked that Kaz could be a competent spy: “Kaz pretends he’s an idiot.” She’s even offered a chance to make her dreams of becoming a pilot come true… but it would be flying for the First Order. I’m not sure even Tam really wants to get involved with them after what’s been happening recently. Regardless, I’m super interested to see how Tam and Yaeger’s relationship will play out after this. She was his friend long before Kaz showed up, so not trusting her enough to inform her of his resistance activities might not have been the wisest move on his part.

Two last things that deserve mentions: CB-23’s ball battle and the destruction of Hosnian Prime. The fight between CB-23 and the First Order ball droid is awesome. I love when droids face off, and this was a really cool scene to watch. I didn’t expect CB’s straight up murdering of his fellow machine. Sending it plummeting to its doom down a deep shaft is a real power move. But, as Kaz says:“Only room enough on this ship for one ball droid.”

As for Starkiller Base, it’s officially operational. Kaz sees his homeworld destroyed in front of him. It was a very chilling scene even for me knowing what was coming. This will have a huge impact on him going forward, I’m sure, as his entire plan revolved around escaping to rendezvous with his wealthy family there. We leave off too soon to really get into his reactions, but I’m pumped to see where this is all leading to next week during the final episode of season one.

No Escape: Part 1 was a good episode of Star Wars Resistance. It has set up a lot of important piece for next week, including Yaeger’s imprisonment, Tam’s attitudes toward Kaz and the Resistance, and the collapse of Kaz’s plan to return to Hosnian Prime. Our heroes have tough times ahead of them, but they’ll pull through because they have something the First Order can only dream of… slow moving shell-folk to create great distractions!