“Rebuilding the Resistance” is a solid episode that shows what Star Wars Resistance Season 2 could’ve been all along.
Warning: There are SPOILERS ahead for the Star Wars Resistance episode “Rebuilding the Resistance.”
Season 1 of Star Wars Resistance culminated in a game-changing season finale. The show dared to have one of its heroes–Tam Ryvora–join the evil First Order. Meanwhile, Captain Doza and the people of the Colossus finally took a stand against the First Order. The Colossus left the familiarity of the planet Castilon and headed into the wider galaxy.
These key shifts in the status quo set up a compelling second season, one where Tam would wrestle with her choice to join the First Order and where the Colossus would become part of the larger Resistance.
The penultimate episode “Rebuilding the Resistance” definitely capitalizes on these elements. Kaz, Torra Doza, and Hype Fazon help the Resistance in a mission to get their recruits off of Dantooine and past the First Order. The Resistance’s Jade Squadron and the surviving recruits are given refuge on the Colossus and Captain Doza declares that he and the people of the Colossus are finally ready to join the larger Resistance in the fight against the First Order.
Meanwhile, Tam tries to do her job for the First Order, all the while knowing she could doom her old friends who are now working with the Resistance. Things become even more complicated when her squadron leader is killed and she’s put in charge, during which Rucklin shoots down and destroy an unarmed shuttle filled with Resistance recruits. The deaths of these unarmed recruits makes Tam truly question what she’s doing, a question that becomes even more pressing after these tragic events lead her to be “rewarded” as the new leader of her squadron.
However, unlike this episode, most of Season 2 didn’t as good of a job of capitalizing on the Colossus working with the larger Resistance or with exploring Tam’s inner conflict.
Star Wars Resistance had the potential to be like Star Wars Rebels, in which fans saw the journey of one rebel cell–the Ghost crew–going on to influence the growth of the Rebel Alliance. Through the journey of the Ghost crew, fans also got to explore the evolution of the Rebel Alliance and see how it became the full-fledged resistance movement seen in A New Hope and Rogue One.
The same could’ve happened in Star Wars Resistance as the journey of the Colossus characters provided further insight into the Resistance, especially into how they rebuild after their devastating losses in The Last Jedi.
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Instead, most of Season 2 was spent with the Colossus bouncing around the galaxy as they try to evade the First Order and keep the ship running. Since this was such a big shift from Season 1, this premise was interesting for the first few episodes of Season 2, but it soon grew stale. The promise of Tam’s storyline fell short as well. A number of episodes didn’t even feature her and the ones that did often didn’t provide enough moments that truly tested her.
All of this highlights the underlying issue of Season 2, which is that it never had any sense of momentum. Season 1 was largely successful because it always felt like it was building toward the people of the Colossus taking a stand against the First Order. All of Season 2 should’ve been building toward Tam making a final and difficult choice about where her loyalties lie and with the Colossus taking on the larger First Order alongside the Resistance. These elements have only come to fruition in recent episodes like “Rebuilding the Resistance” while the majority of episodes felt more standalone and as if they weren’t building toward any sort of climax.
It’s nice to see the show finally emphasizing the promising storylines that were teased at the end of season 1. Hopefully the two-part series finale will continue to excel in these areas, but that doesn’t negate the frustrating nature of a season that overall failed to meet its potential.
What are your thoughts on season 2 of Star Wars Resistance? What do you hope to see in the series finale? Let us know in the comments!