With the second episode of Star Wars Resistance released this week, we can already begin to guess what the rest of the show is going to look like. In “A Quick Salvage Run”, the crew of the Colossus arrives to the ruins of Resistance base on D’Qar (destroyed how short time ago?). They need to salvage some hyperfuel in order to continue their journey, and for this, cooperation of experts on salvaging – the pirate part of the crew – is required. The First Order is not far behind, however, so we find ourselves in a strange web of former friends and enemies on different sides of the encounter.
The Last Jedi Timeline
Many casual viewers did not necessarily grasp the fact that the events of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi take place within the course of only a few days. Nothing proves this better than Star Wars Resistance. While the beginning of the first episode of season 2 is set roughly in the middle of TFA, the beginning of “A Quick Salvage Run” is already some time into The Last Jedi. And at this rate, we are soon going to find ourselves after the end of The Last Jedi – because it does not have such a large timeframe, either.
Since we have been told that there will be a time-jump before The Rise of Skywalker, Resistance is not going to catch up with it. It will, however, have the entirety of this gap to cover freely – which gives the writers free hand in many ways.
Resistance is doing “the Filoni trick” again – stitching the universe together. That is the work that, I think, can never be appreciated enough. Just like The Clone Wars, Resistance is making sure that the films don’t exist in a vacuum, making even them, in retrospect, seem much more interesting and adding the feeling of realism.
What Side Are You On?
Kragan Gorr’s pirates seem to have become real chummy with the crew of the Colossus. When the salvage run starts, they are very cooperative. No real problems ensue aside from the fact that the greedy pirates want to salvage as much as they can.
Meanwhile, different drama is happening on the First Order ship. Tam decides to, after all, listen to Kaz’s message. But who does not walk in – Jace Rucklin, who, frankly, we would have nearly forgotten about. So Jace and Tam are now both First Order pilots, which gives Tam a familiar (not necessarily pleasant) face to interact with. Jace fills the role of the voice reminding Tam that Kaz has betrayed her. That leads one to believe that Tam herself may start having doubts about her role, and the righteousness of the First Order, sooner than anticipated.
So far, Tam has managed to avoid seeing her friends mercilessly destroyed. At the same time, her friends on the Colossus are now speculating what was her role in setting the First Order on their trail. More drama is to be expected, I daresay rather sooner than later.
Binding the Universe Together
The episode featured a couple of notable cameos, or nods to other films. Obvious one is the hyperfuel, used in a very similar manner as in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Less notable, but still triggering for at least some part of the audience is the music from KOTOR that plays in the Colossus’s cantina. And obviously there is the base on D’Qar and the remains of the Dreadnought, destroyed by Poe’s and Rose’s sister’s heroic assault. The sense of familiarity adds to the interest of the story. And, like I mentioned above, it is not self-serving – it binds the universe together. Well, just like the Force.
On the background of the great events of the sequel trilogy, Resistance remains the personal story of select few. By which I mean, randomly selected common folk. Resistance continues to show how the dramatic, Galaxy-shaping events impact the lives of ordinary people, mess up their relationships, force them into unexpected situations, and make them work together with people they would otherwise hardly care about.
The second episode adds some hints for future development. Besides the drama involving Tam, there are things such as Kaz’s family being alive, but targeted by bounty hunters. At this point, the show is becoming interesting probably just for those invested in Kaz, Tam, Yeager and others – but I daresay that it is worth watching in its entirety, because of the flavour, nuance and realism it brings into the setting of the sequels.
