Star Wars Rebels Recap with Spoilers: Iron Squadron

After another two week hiatus, Star Wars Rebels returns, and brings back the blue-skinned baddie, Grand Admiral Thrawn, along with it.

The episode starts, however, with the Ghost crew arriving at a surprisingly Earth-like planet; unfortunately, an imperial transport and four TIE fighters are there, too - and they're chasing a freighter. The freighter, a Correllian YT-2400 model (from the same YT line as the Millennium Falcon), is being piloted by a kid, who refuses to run, even when Hera clears the way for them. Instead, they attack the Imperials, and bomb them with their cargo, which manages to take out the largest vessel in the attacking force. "Sounds like a ship full of Ezras - let's get out of here," says Zeb.

The Iron Squadron was Commander Sato's brother's detachment, and he's pretty sure his nephew is the one running it now. The Ghost and the YT-2400 (we're pretty sure this isn't the Outrider, the 2400 from Legends) dock, and Ezra and Sabine head over along with Hera and Chopper. The ship's a bit beat up inside, like that other famous YT we were talking about earlier. They have an R3 droid with almost as much attitude as Chopper, it seems.

The captain of Iron Squadron is Mart, indeed. He thinks evacuation is "running away like a coward," and his two cohorts don't seem to have much more of an idea to get out of there. Mart thinks the small transport was a Star Destroyer annnnd that means he's in for a rude awakening. These impetuous youths have no idea what Imperial might really is.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is briefed on Mikapo (sp), and tells Admiral Constantine to personally head there to take out the Iron Squadron and the crew of the Ghost. This is almost certainly a test, but for whom is up for debate.

The evacuation has gone well. Sabine, Ezra, and Chopper want to fix the hyperdrive of the Iron Squadron ship, and try one more time to convince them. They dock in their new(ish) Phantom ship. Sabine and Chopper get the hyperdrive working as Ezra tries to convince Gooti and Jonner that leaving is the right way to go here. Of course, Mart reroutes the extra power to the weapons and shields.

Mart is excited - "Finally, a Star Destroyer!" Nope, it's light cruiser, 1/6 the size. Gooti and Jonner want to leave, but Mart still wants to fight; the kid has a lot of anger. He finally agrees to leave but as they all get into the Phantom, he closes the airlock and detaches it, and goes into the Imperial squad alone in his YT. It's a lot of TIEs, a couple of smaller transports, and the light cruiser. Mart tries to use his cargo bombing trick, and it fails miserably against this superior force.

Sabine and Ezra make the hard choice and follow Hera's orders - they leave Mart, stranded in his out of commission ship. A TIE bomber drops some sort of device on the YT-2400; the Empire is able to monitor Mart's transmission out to the Rebellion. Commander Sato wants to go personally, but Hera insists they take the Ghost to go in quietly. "It's obviously a trap," Mart's friend Gooti insists, but Ezra says "if it's obviously a trap, it's not a very good one." He's really learning, and seems to have matured a bit even since the start of this season - following orders, using strategy... intriguing.

Constantine wants the mine (the device) to explode when the Ghost is close enough to the YT. The Rebels realize it's there, though, and Hera has a plan. As the Ghost runs circular blasting runs on the Empire, Chopper and the R3 head out to the YT. They find the mine, and work to remove the detonator - they get the mine off the YT, and put it on one of Mart's cargo crates. The Empire is none the wiser.

Hera works the Ghost into position, and Sato and reinforcements arrive. Hera grabs the YT, flies it toward the Light Cruiser, and Mart releases his cargo with the mine to attack it. A Star Destroyer arrives - Thrawn is on it ("Now that is a Star Destroyer"). He addresses Sato directly, and seems intrigued by Sato's skills as a leader.

Sato (first name Jun, we discover) and Mart reunite, and the rest of the Iron Squadron celebrates. It's a small victory this week on Star Wars Rebels, but a victory none the less. Still, it feels like Thrawn is on the precipice of something massive, and that's more than a little scary.

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