REVIEW: Star Wars Resistance "The New Trooper"
This week's episode of Resistance continued on the momentum of last week's episode, while also expanding on not only the First Order's plans for the Colossus, but also expands on the life and role of a stormtrooper in the eyes of the First Order.
The two children, Kel and Eila, knock out a stormtrooper, so Kaz, with help, decides to disguise as a trooper to help find out information on the First Order. Obviously, disguising oneself as a stormtrooper is nothing new, but here, I thought it was handled well with Kaz. He not only gets information on the First Order's plans, but gets to see firsthand how public opinion on the troopers are changing.
However, Neeku and Tam are still not convinced, thinking that they are good for the station, with Tam even going so far as to ask was her grandfather a bad person for working in an Imperial factory to put food on the table. Jeager, who lived during the reign of the Empire and was a part of the Rebel Alliance, obviously knows what the Empire/First Order are capable of. However, Tam, thinks this is another case of him taking Kaz's side, which kind of frustrated me.
I get that the whole point is for Tam to eventually find out the hard way about the First Order. However, even then, when Kel and Eila tells her what happened to their village, she wonders if the First Order had a good reason. Yes, because clearly mass murder is appropriate.
Like I said, Kaz as a trooper was handled well. Eventually, he sees a riot against the troopers, which makes me think public opinion was either always split, or has changed in the time they've been here. Kaz ends up taking an information rod, and is called to see Commander Pyre.
Side note, I liked how they showed the actual trooper throughout the episode, as he thinks he is slowly losing his mind. It was a nice touch.
Pyre says that a full garrison of troopers is coming, and they are to arrest anyone who doesn't cooperate. Pyre and the other troopers also reveal that they at least know Kaz, or the trooper he is impersonating, is acting strange. Pyre then says the trooper is going against his "conditioning," and that he is going to get reprogrammed with a brain scrape. First off, that's horrifying. Second, this is a big thing for Star Wars lore, as it shows that First Order stormtroopers are kind of like a middle ground between the clone troopers and Empire stormtroopers. They are technically real humans, not clones, but are programmed from birth to fight and be loyal, almost like droids. Therefore, it makes you wonder how often troopers go against their programming. It also makes you wonder if Finn's change of heart was real, or if his programming went away, allowing natural emotions to settle in.
Kaz and kids are able to escape, with Kaz and Yeager looking at the information. It's revealed that the First Order has a lot of ships in the galaxy, which we saw in the Last Jedi, and that they likely want to use the station as a refueling station, which I predicted a long time ago.
Overall, this was another really solid episode. In fact, I liked this episode more than last week's episode. Minor frustrations with Tam aside, I like the steady development, and that the First Order is slowly and steadily taking control away from Captain Doza. I just wonder if when the full garrison arrives, the station will be taken over by steady hands, or by full force.
