Hello again and welcome to the Kazuda Xiono appreciation society’s weekly meeting. 

This week, we’re proud to welcome new members Tam, Flix, and Orka!

At the top of the episode, Kaz has done mounds of work on the Fireball, so Tam can finally get a turn in the ship(please please let us see her fly next week!). In exchange for the parts he needed to get the ship back in flying trim, he gets tasked with minding the shop for Flix & Orka as they head out on a family visit (#SpaceMarried). It doesn’t take long for chaos to ensue. When a nefarious newcomer claiming to represent a mining interest comes in looking for a Phase Connector that Kaz has explicit orders not to sell, he finds himself in deep trouble with the First Order.

This episode not only gave us action and intrigue– a glimpse at the mounting First Order threat and some high-flying hijinks thanks to the voracious appetite of the Acquisitions team’s pet gorg (his name is Bitey, and that’s fantastic), but it does a great job to show us how Kaz is settling in to life aboard the Colossus.

The Kaz of episode one would not have been able to make all those repairs to the Fireball. And he probably wouldn’t have cared to even if he was capable. He’s growing into this place on the team, and his mechanical skills have grown right along with him. His confidence is also rising along with his skillset and it’s great to see him coming into his own. In Dangerous Business, Kaz handles himself with a growing thoughtfulness and maturity– characteristics I’m sure will serve him well as the season progresses. He still wants to be a good spy, but he’s no longer possessed of the idea that he should spend every moment of every day actively spying. Of course, when the opportunity to get some possible intel presents itself, he can’t say no.

Kaz has always been the guy to leap feet first into a situation without thinking through the possible consequences, and that bit hasn’t changed. But what we see differently this week is that his ability to roll with things has vastly improved. He spends less time maligning his situation and more time responding competently to it. He even has the presence of mind to engage Bitey’s singular talent (biting!) to get them out of trouble.

With BB-8 sidelined for much of the action (although given a delightful sequence early in the episode), Kaz is forced to fly solo this week as he squares off against a band of thieves and smugglers to keep Flix & Orka’s Phase Connector from falling into the wrong hands. And he does a great job! Go Kaz! So what if you had to crash a whole giant freighter to keep the thieves from getting away.

The thing I was most interested by in this week’s episode, though, was the Phase Connector itself. Crack open planetoids and asteroids for heavy mining, huh? I wonder what else it’s good for….

Knowing what we know about the timeline at this point, it’s unlikely the First Order was looking for the part for their operations on Starkiller Base. The system-killing weapon surely isn’t without a key component at this stage of the game. The size and form-factor of the connector, along with its description, lead me straight to the ground-based “miniature Death Star tech” weapon we saw deployed on Crait in The Last Jedi. Could that be what the First Order is working on?

Whatever it is, seeds are being planted that will surely bear fruit down the road. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.