The finale of Star Wars Resistance season 1 is not merely a conclusion of one series’ plot. It is also a commentary on the plot of The Force Awakens. The series have finally arrived to the point where their timeline overlaps with the films. You can watch the final scene of “No Escape, Part 1” and think: right at this moment, Finn, Rey, Han Solo and Maz Kanata are on Takodana, seeing what Kaz and Torra are seeing. The series add more depth to the film and the film adds more depth to the series via this connection. Nothing happens in isolation. The Galaxy is one and whole.
But let’s start from the beginning.
No Escape
The situation is not looking good for the people of the Colossus. Yeager has been captured in the previous episode, and when Imanuel Doza protests, the First Order seizes him, too. During this short scene (despite the epic moment of glory of Doza’s personal droid, 4D), the power over the Colossus has been completely transferred into the hands of the First Order and commander Pyre.
Tam is in custody with agent Tierny whispering into her ear about Kaz and Yeager’s treachery. She even tries to convince Tam to join the First Order and become a TIE pilot. (I don’t know about you, but I think that would be the most amazing – and, of course, absolutely heartbreaking – plot twist/cliffhanger to end Resistance‘s first season with. Imagine Tam and the rest separated and on the opposite sides – her becoming sort of “reverse Finn”, if you will.)
Under the Sea
When the episode starts, Kaz, CB-23, Neeku and the children from Tehar are still hiding in the engineering. After sinking the Colossus to the bottom of the sea, they are planning to rescue Tam and now also Yeager. The daring plan to swim to their rescue becomes complicated when Kaz runs into several stormtroopers.
The underwater sequence reminds of similar “scuba trooper” aesthetics from one of the Clone Wars story arcs. These scenes are well made, both aesthetically and choreographically (if such a word can be used).
Another action scene follows with a showdown between CB-23 and the “evil” ball droid. Two remarks. With her fighting skills, CB-23 has proved that she is like fifteen times more competent than BB-8 ever was, which is kind of pity for the latter, but I feel like the storywriters are to blame. Second, I would recommend watching this scene to all those who were doubtful of the “ball droids” being a good pick for the film saga. I would, however, also recommend it to the filmmakers themselves. The droid battle was a textbook example how to make two funny little ball-shaped droids epic.
Cue the Starkiller
The episode eventually came to its grand finale. Neeku and the kids had discovered that the Colossus is actually a station capable of space flight. I guess that’s a way for future seasons to change the environment a bit. Kaz had reunited with Torra – just in time to see General Hux’s speech broadcast to the First Order.
Let me pause for a while to examine how this was done. Once again, I have to praise the writers for cramming as much information into this small event as possible. For instance: in TFA, it was not sufficiently clear what was the purpose of the First Order other than blowing something up. It was not clear who were the intended audience of Hux’s speech. Now we know for sure that it has been broadcast to the First Order only, boosting their own belief in how corrupt the New Republic is and how the First Order has been called to bring it down. We have the context, and we know why the entire film scene looked like a propaganda film – because it was a propaganda film. Just like the destruction of Hosnian Prime was a statement of power.
And then there was poor Kaz, and the fact that his parents had (presumably) just died in the Starkiller strike. Perceptive audience have been expecting this from the beginning. Kaz has now officially become Leia the Second, having had his home planet blown up right in front of his eyes. One can only expect much character development from there – and it is a territory vastly unexplored on-screen, as the original trilogy did not spend much time focusing on Leia’s own inner life and her reflections on the tragedy.
Overall, I can only say that this part of the finale, especially with this plot point in mind, was masterfully executed… oh, wait. Maybe that was not the word I wanted to use…
