“I hate monkeys. I hate them so much.” – A real thing that Star Wars Resistance writers made Oscar Isaac say.

This week’s episode, “Signal from Sector Six,” took us off the Colossus and into a hoard of screaming simians as Kaz and Poe (returning for the first time since the show’s pilot episode) investigate a distress signal from a derelict freighter and get more than they bargained for. In addition to giving Kaz a taste of real action – a taste that he didn’t seem to particularly like – they also met Synara, a survivor of the wreckage who isn’t who she claims to be.

This episode was, to me, one of the first episodes of the show that felt… well… like filler. A week after seeing Kaz learn about Kylo Ren, I assumed that a secret mission with Poe meant more interactions with the First Order were on the agenda, but instead, we got our heroes running away from a massive Kowakian monkey-lizard. (Editor’s Note: Apparently it’s a Kowakian ape-lizard and it’s here to haunt your dreams forever.) It’s certainly not a bad thing, but felt like more of a standalone plot line than part of an ongoing story than the past few episodes have. Of course, that feeling went out the window when we find out that Synara, who Kaz and Poe rescued from the wreck, is actually a pirate who has now, with Kaz’s generous help, conveniently infiltrated the Colossus.

After all that, we come out of the episode having not really gained anything. We did get a fun adventure – and a BB-8/CB-23 romantic B-plot! – and for now, that’s okay. The last few episodes have gotten going so fast that sometimes it’s difficult to remember that this show only started a month ago; we’re still ramping up and we have a long way to go. It’s weird to think of a shootout with a giant monster as a week off, but it reminds us that this is still a show for all ages, especially children. It was still a fun episode, and it’s so clear that the showrunners have learned all of their lessons from Star Wars Rebels and worked to find the balance between “fun kids’ show” and “meaningful plot lines”, no small feat this early in Resistance‘s run.

One quibble to leave you with: it doesn’t yet, but we’ll see if the show starts to feel a little too crowded. Between Team Fireball, the Aces, the First Order, the wider Resistance, and now the pirates, that’s a lot of moving pieces to fit into 22-minute chunks. I just hope that the show uses these characters to their fullest potential (Team Tam!!) to give us a complex, multi-dimensional world, rather than getting bogged down and only having one or two characters featured in each episode. It’s a bit of a tightrope to walk, but based on what we’ve seen so far, I think the show has a plan to keep us hooked.

So for now, we wait until next week to see what Synara and her pirates have in store for Kaz and the gang. “Signal from Sector Six” was a fun detour from the silly/serious espionage we’ve seen so far, but I, for one, am looking forward to sticking closer to home and learning more about the platform – and what kind of deal Captain Doza wants to strike to keep it safe.