REVIEW: Star Wars Resistance "The High Tower"
Now that's better. After two weeks of, in my opinion, lackluster episodes, this week's episode, "The High Tower," was actually pretty good. In fact, this is my favorite episode so far. Was there some goofy moments? Yes. But for the most part, the episode focused on one of the main storylines of the show, Kaz being a spy, while also introducing some interesting character drama along the way.
The episode starts off with the Colossus running on basically no power, minus the High Tower, and that the First Order provides energy to the station for Captain Doza. Eventually, the First Order comes to the station and speaks with Captain Doza, prompting Kaz to get his first shot at spying on the First Order.
Whereas with the last two episodes in which I thought the pacing was sluggish, this episode picked up the pace from the beginning, and didn't stop, which I thought was a good thing. I'm also glad why finally get the see Kaz act as a spy...even if he still has a long way to go to be a good one. (It makes you wonder why Poe chose him for this role.)
Still, I'm glad the episode stuck to its guns early, and kept the focus on what really mattered, as the spy storyline and the action involving it was entertaining, and at some points, a little suspenseful.
In the middle of all that, we get our first proper introduction to the leader of the Aces, Hype Fazon, voiced by Scrubs actor Donald Faison ironically. I'll admit, when I first saw the trailers for the series, I wondered if he was going to be annoying to me. Thankfully, at least with this episode, he wasn't annoying. Sure, he has a cocky and playful attitude, but he also seems to have a dark or secret past, as he wants no affiliation with the First Order as well. I hope that this is explored more in the future.
There was also a dynamic between him and Tam as well, as Tam explains the two used to be good friends, until Hype became a racer and Tam didn't ... most likely due to a bad past incident. She wants to prove herself to Hype she can be a good racer in a piece of junk like the Fireball, but at the same time, feels hurt and abandoned by Hype, that makes him feel a little remorseful as well.
This relationship isn't explored much in the episode, but I think it can be something that can be compelling in the future.
Like I mentioned before, Kaz actually being a spy was the main focus of the episode, and, given the target audience, and the fact that Kaz is "inexperienced," I think it was handled well for his first attempt. He was clumsy, he was reckless...but at the same time, he was able to get dirt on Captain Doza and the First Order.
Basically, I felt the episode handled his first spy mission as well as it should have been handled, considering he is a young man that is way over his head.
Now, what is this dirt? Well, the First Order wants to "protect" the station by taking it over. Captain Doza doesn't want any part of it, saying he can turn the First Order over to the New Republic. In response, the First Order, under the command of Major Vonreg, have dirt on Doza that could get him into trouble with the New Republic.
I know that people tend to have problems with politics with Star Wars, including me in the past. However, when it's handled well, Star Wars politics can be interesting stories to tell. For a show aimed at a younger audience, I like how the political state of the galaxy at the time, just before the Force Awakens, is represented by both sides, and I hope this interesting dynamic can be continued further into the future of the show, especially when the show crosses with the Force Awakens, which was confirmed it will.
So did I have any complaints with the episode? Only a few. While I thought most of the comedy worked in this episode to me, there were some jokes that I thought were not needed. Also, while I think the episode put in good building blocks for future stories, they weren't fleshed out enough to feel really important yet.
Still, this episode was really good overall. It picked up the pace, told its story well, and kept my interest going through the whole thing. Is the show on the right track again? We'll see. But if episodes are like this, then there is hope for the rest of the season after all.
