REVIEW: Star Wars Rebels "The Lost Commanders"
You know, going into the sorta-of second season premiere of Rebels, I knew that this episode would be...ok. Nothing terrible, but nothing amazing. That seems kind of shocking. You would think a big season premiere would give us a grand-scale episode. However, the only point of this episode was to show us the return of the clones, which it did. The rest of the episode, well, seemed pretty generic.
The episode starts out with the rebel movement trying to find their next plan after being defeated by Vader. Ezra suggests that they find a place to hide, so Ahsoka suggests the Ghost crew find an old ally of hers. Of course, Ahsoka can't go to the big reunion because there are questions to be answered. No really, that is her excuse, there are questions. TUNE IN NEXT TIME!
Coming out of hyperspace, the Ghost gets damaged so Hera and Chopper stay behind while the rest run into the clones living in an old AT-TE tank. Right off the bat, let me say: it's great to have Rex back. He is still the same character that he was in the Clone Wars, just as a grizzled-old war veteran. Joining him, we have Wofe (because that was Dave Filoni's favorite clone) and Clone Commando Gregor, who the last we saw him was left for dead in a giant explosion.
Obviously, there are a lot of questions that are going to be asked, especially after the premiere. All we know for now is that the Emperor decommissoned all clones after the war, Rex and the other two removed their chips inside their head so they weren't a part of Order 66, and that some clones after Order 66 actually felt remorse and brainwashed after the incident. Obviously, there are still questions like, how did Rex find out, why didnt he warn more people, what happened to them after the war, and what happened to Gregor after the battle? Also, Rex also mentioned that he fought with Ahsoka at the Siege of Mandalore, when can we get more info on that? Hopefully they will give us it during this season or through another media outlet.
So yeah, that covers all the question side of the episode, but what happens next? Well, Rex agrees to give the others secret coordinates in the outer rim against Wolfe's wishes. According to him, the Jedi betrayed the clones. Ok, going off topic, how does that make sense? They better bring that up again. Anyway, Kanan, as you may expect, doesn't trust them, which makes sense, and Ezra starts to warm up to Rex.
Anyway, in exchange for the info, Gregor, who is a bit insane due to the explosion, asks that they help him catch a giant creature. As you might expect, you know where this is going to go. You've seen it a thousand times before. Zeb is tricked to be used as bait. Tense music begins to play, Zeb is pulled underneath the ground and a fishing fight ensues.
While it was cool to see the old AT-TE walker to be used in a unique way, the actual situation was not. You know how this will end and how it will play out. They kill the creature pretty anti-climatically in one shot. Surprisingly, the Ghost crew is ok with their friend being almost eaten and Zeb ended up saying it was not so bad. Yeah, I call b.s. on that. Anyway, someone in the tank notifies the Empire to their prescence so the Empire sends a probe droid.
It turns out Wolfe sent it because he was afraid that the Empire would kill the clones if they found out they were harboring a Jedi. Rex is mad of course. However, Wolfe easily swings around an apology and everyone except Kanan seems to forgive him. Ok, again I call b.s. If you betrayed me to the Empire, the least I would do is beat the crap out of you. That whole resolution seemed really forced and unnatural to me.
In the end, the probe droid comes, disables the Phantom, and gets destroyed the Rex with his old rifle. So, yeah, the episode was not terrible. The animation has gotten better, the clones are a nice return, and it brought up many more intriguing questions for the future. However, parts of this episode was cliche and forced to me, and honestly felt fillery at some moments. But again, I knew that this episode would be like it, as the rest of the season looks to be badass. I mean, next week has the Empire versus the clones and the crew, AT-ATs vs the AT-TE. Hopefully, this will be the only low point of the season.
