*Spoilers for episode 1*
Rolling into episode 2 now. For me, not quite as eventful as the season premiere, but it’s still packed with all kinds of goodness!
Because Cassian stole a TIE fighter by disguising himself as an Imperial pilot, a band of rebels from a different group don’t believe that they’re on the same side. They’re in a desperate situation themselves, and Cassian is captured amid the rapid disintegration of their ramshackle leadership. Bix and co. have been hiding out on a farming planet, but an Imperial audit is underway, and they’re afraid of being flagged as undocumented. As the three-day wedding festivities draw on, Mon Mothma is faced with a troubling conversation with Tay, her old friend who’s been helping her funnel money to the Rebellion.
This is one of those situations where a show about a rebellion against a fascist government has sadly become even more relevant than the production team necessarily expected when they were making it. Bix, Brasso, Wilmon, and B2EMO’s circumstances would’ve resonated anyway, as undocumented farm workers who fled their homes due to government persecution, but of course the parallels hit even harder during Trump’s second term. Their scenes are tense and gripping, especially Bix’s conversation with an Imperial lieutenant who’s taken an unsettling liking to her. I also really like their interactions with the locals who are doing their best to figure out how to keep the Ferrix crew from being discovered.
I continue to enjoy the Mon Mothma storyline. In this episode, we get a good conversation between her and Vel, I love how Tay’s bombshell is dropped on her through cloaked language, and Perrin of all people steps up with a surprisingly good wedding toast. Against the tide of anxiety and sadness that fills the galaxy, he counsels the young couple, “Pleasure, gaiety, amusement. These are the hidden things, the music buried beneath all that noise.” Meanwhile, Kleya is chafing under her limited resources when she’s away from their setup at the gallery.
Syril has made his first appearance of the season, and it’s a good one. He’s risen in station since we last saw him, and he’s completely gotten his old corpo mojo back. As he shows a new employee around, he 1) gestures toward something and then literally snaps his fingers at the employee when he looks where Syril was pointing, 2) basks in telling his own success story of apparently pulling himself up by his bootstraps, and 3) and proclaims, “There’s a future here for those who dare.” There’s also a great conversation between Partagaz and Dedra debriefing over their top-secret meeting about Ghorman. I like the reprimand Partagaz gives her for her continued preoccupation with “Axis” (a.k.a. Luthen,) telling her, “Next time, catch them first, then make them famous.”
Not as much Cassian in this episode, but unsurprisingly, Diego Luna still delivers. The Rebels who’ve captured him are stranded, starving, and turning on each other, and it’s evident that nobody here is the Rebellion’s best and brightest. Cassian is severely outnumbered and outgunned, so he waits for his moment as they fall to infighting.
Even though everyone involved here is with the Rebellion, this is still the age of fractured groups that don’t necessarily get along. The others are convinced Cassian is an actual Imperial pilot, but as he observes the contentious, increasingly frantic dynamic between them, I like that he tries to give them advice. He urges them to set up a tarp to collect rainwater, and I love this exchange between him and one of the would-be leaders of the group (whose name I think is Gerdis):
CASSIAN: “You need a perimeter.”
GERDIS: “I was just about to do that!”
CASSIAN: (resignedly) “That’s a good idea.”
If Cassian thought the Rebels at Aldhani were ill-prepared for what they were getting into, it’s nothing compared to these clowns. Again, Cassian is so good at feeling out what he can and can’t get away with in a volatile situation. He knows when to talk and when to stay quiet, when to badger and when to placate, when to wait and when to act. The Rebellion is lucky to have him, especially with bargain-bin Rebels like this in the operation.
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