Mon Mothma Forms The Rebel Alliance In Star Wars Rebels “Secret Cargo”

Senator Mon Mothma formed the official Rebel Alliance in last night’s brand new episode of Star Wars Rebels, “Secret Cargo.” Catch the highlights of the episode below.

The war against the Empire in Star Wars Rebels is shaping up fast as Senator Mon Mothma makes her debut in season 3, episode 18, “Secret Cargo.”

After speaking out against the Emperor in the Senate, Mothma recruits The Ghost crew to help her reach a rendezvous point over Dantooine. Her mission is to unite the pockets of resistance around the galaxy into a unified force.

That’s right: “Secret Cargo” shows us how the Rebel Alliance was formed.

Read the highlights of the episode below:

At the beginning of the episode, Hera, Zeb, Ezra, and Chopper wait in The Ghost at a wreckage site to meet up with a group of rebels who carry a “secret cargo.” Senator Bail Organa himself requested The Ghost crew’s help in guarding the cargo (though he didn’t give them any further details). Thus, it seems Organa and Mon Mothma were already in cahoots before Mothma’s galactic appeal for a Rebel Alliance.
When the rebel force the Ghost crew was waiting for arrives, Hera hooks up with its capital ship for refueling. The rebels onboard the capital ship insist on not revealing any more details than Organa gave Hera initially. But Hera and her crew find out that the secret cargo they protect is none other than Imperial dissenter Senator Mon Mothma when an Imperial cruiser appears and disables the capital ship’s engines. The attack forces Mothma and her entourage to escape into hyperspace aboard The Ghost. A squadron of Y-wings, one piloted by Ezra, serves as an escort.
Mothma needs to reach the planet Dantooine, which she arranged as a meeting place for rebel forces to discuss an alliance. To avoid Imperial blockades, Hera takes Mothma through a nebula filled with still-forming stars.

When he hears that Mothma escaped in The Ghost, Grand Admiral Thrawn sends a TIE Defender prototype which he designed out to flush the rebel force out of the nebula. Once the rebels come out the nebula’s other side, Governer Pryce and Admiral Konstantine will intercept the wayward senator using their Star Destroyers. Thrawn’s single TIE Defender takes out all the Y-wings except two (one of which Ezra pilots). It nearly succeeds in subduing The Ghost, as well. But the rebels’ lead Y-wing eventually knocks the Defender out of commission using the Y-wing’s ion cannons.

When The Ghost comes out the other side of the nebula, burned and struggling for power, it is caught in one of the waiting Star Destroyer’s tractor beams. But then an idea strikes Hera. She orders the Y-wings to fire their ion cannons into the nebula. The resulting conflagrations envelop the Star Destroyers and disable several of their systems. Including, conveniently, the tractor beam. Victorious, the rebels then escape into hyperspace.

Above Dantooine, Mon Mothma projects a speech calling for a unified rebellion to anyone who might be listening. After she finishes speaking, ship after ship jumps out of hyperspace to answer her petition. Many of the ships in the end scene of “Secret Cargo” are part of the Rebel Alliance fleet over Scarif in

Rogue One

. This is the Rebel Alliance we know and love, literally forming before our eyes.

Image Credit: Lucasfilm (screenshot via photo library Elaine Tveit)

Aside from Mon Mothma, three other original trilogy throwbacks made this episode: Gold Leader, Jon Vander, who pilots the lead Y-wing equipped with ion cannons in “Secret Cargo” and A New Hope; the ion cannons themselves, which Luke Skywalker uses to destroy the Death Star; and Dantooine, which Leia Organa tries to pass off as the Rebel Alliance’s main base in A New Hope.

“Secret Cargo” brought the series one step closer to crossing path with the events of Rogue One. It’s great to see how the Rebel Alliance formed with Mon Mothma at its head. She is the antithesis of Emperor Palpatine, kind and fair where he is cruel and tyrannical. I hope we see more of her as Star Wars Rebels continues into its fourth season.

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