Star Wars Resistance was… frustratingly good this week. Good because it was a phenomenal episode: Doza family content, Tam’s moral compass, Rucklin being, well, Rucklin, and more. Frustrating because why did it take us so long to get here?
Any episode that starts with Venisa Doza is bound to be a good one, and “Rebuilding the Resistance” gave us one of the more heartfelt scenes of the series right off the bat as Torra is reunited with her mother. Family is a big theme this week, as Tam and Yeager remember each other and wonder how things might have been different. But peaceful memories are for peacetime, and this is war.
Between Rebecca Roanhorse’s Resistance Reborn and this show, we’re starting to discover how the Resistance gets to the point of “still small but more than 20 people” that we see in The Rise of Skywalker. As Venisa (who is a natural leader, one that we better get more of than a single final episode) leads the Aces and Jade Squadron into battle, we deal more with the cost of war than any Star Wars property has since Battlefront II and The Last Jedi – war means that innocent, unarmed people will die. Whether you’re the one who failed to defend them, or the one tasked with pulling the trigger, these fights leave scars that can’t always be seen. It’s a message that’s gotten lost in the shuffle for these past few years with Star Wars, and I’m glad we’re seeing that complexity and moral ambiguity here.
As amazing as the Dozas are, it’s Tam who steals the spotlight this episode. We’re finally reached the point where she’s realizing that what the First Order and Agent Tierney are asking of her is not just harsh, but wrong, and she doesn’t quite know what to do about it. These are the makings of a real redemption arc, but it remains to be seen just how well we’ll see it resolved with only one more week left in the series. That’s where “frustrating” comes into play here – it still makes no sense that Tam has been in fewer than half of the episodes this season after being billed as a major character and primary antagonist. I can’t help but think that this episode, and Tam’s burgeoning feelings of guilt and realization, would have been more powerful if we’d actually seen her more than once in a while this season – especially with the weight that Suzie McGrath brings to every line.
A few weeks ago when I reviewed “Kaz’s Curse”, I noted that the exclusive focus on Kaz without developing his character at all was both inexplicable and malpractice – indeed, a racist exclusion of Tam and Yeager in the story’s major plot lines. Since then, the series has reversed course so fast that it sometimes feel like we have whiplash – Kaz is back to the adult, competent figure we see at the end of season 1, Tam is thinking about her moral choices, and we have more episodes about other characters (though still a bizarre lack of any of the non-pilot, non-pirate characters that made season 1 so delightful). It’s a welcome change, but a confusing one, and one that takes away from the slow-burn, meaningful character arcs that we saw throughout last season.
it’s an odd place to be for Star Wars Resistance – ending the show on such a high note that it only seems to emphasize how bad earlier episodes were. Still, I’m glad we got here, no matter how long it took. Here’s looking forward to having my heart ripped out during next week’s finale.
