Always Two There Are (Star Wars Rebels - S02E05) - Animated Series

Does this count as a holiday special? SPOILERS. 

It can't be an accident that this episode aired just in time for Halloween. Having two Inquisitors hunt down the Ghost crew in a creepy, abandoned Republic base was a perfect way to introduce some horror influences into an episode of Star Wars Rebels. In particular, I want to commend Kevin Kiner's score which was so effective throughout this episode. I wouldn't call this episode scary by any means but it was good way to introduce two new inquisitors in an intimidating way. The episode began with another look at the rocky relationship between Kanan and Rex. The Dejarik table even made an appearance! This time Kanan and Rex disagreed about how Ezra should be trained. The writers have done a great job of integrating Rex into the Ghost crew so far. Kanan struggling to trust Rex and Rex's mentorship of Ezra were two of the strongest elements of the two previous episodes and I'm glad they were carried over into this episode. Kanan has always struggled with the idea of whether or not he should even be someone's master. After all, he never finished his own training and has shown that maybe he doesn't really know how to train Ezra. The introduction of Rex adds another dimension to that struggle. Rex is a very experienced military commander that served with great Jedi like Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maybe Ezra would be better off learning from Rex. It will be interesting to watch how Kanan and Rex both struggle as mentor to Ezra over the course of the season.

Annoyed with the bickering between Rex and Kanan, Ezra joined Sabine and Zeb on their mission to retrieve medical supplies from an abandoned Republic medical station. The medical station was the same kind we saw throughout Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was a nice touch. Small things like that not only help bridge the gap between The Clone Wars and Rebels, but they also help to further connect the prequel era and the original trilogy era. The Fifth Brother was alerted to the presence of the rebels at the medical station after the Empire picked up on a power surge at the station. That was a bit of a stretch even for someone with Force abilities but I really liked that scene because it showed the divide between the Imperial military and the Inquisitors, or mystics as Admiral Constantine called them. This was the most annoying Ezra has been in a while but I did laugh when he told Zeb to keep his head down and then immediately ran into a metal beam. After receiving a distress call from Chopper, who they had left in the station's command center, Ezra and Sabine went to go help him. Zeb couldn't because he was stuck in an air vent. Don't ask. Instead of finding Chopper, Ezra and Sabine found the Seventh Sister, the new Inquisitor voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar. Of the two new Inquisitors, the Seventh Sister left a better impression. The Fifth Brother has an interesting design and was intimidating at times but he also seemed devoid of personality. While that can be effective for some villains, it didn't really work here. The Seventh Sister also seemed to be noticeably smarter than the Fifth Brother, in addition to being more powerful. With that being said, I don't think either Inquisitor was as compelling as the Inquisitor from season one. I'm glad we're starting to learn more about the Inquisitors as a whole though. Apparently the Inquisitor from season one was the Grand Inquisitor and now that he's gone the remaining inquisitors are vying for control. I have to wonder how much of threat these Inquisitors are if the most powerful one was defeated by Kanan. I'd imagine that they would be easily defeated by someone like Obi-Wan Kenobi or even Ahsoka Tano.

During her interrogation of Ezra, the Seventh Sister revealed that her sole mission was to track down Ahsoka Tano. The Fifth Brother captured Sabine and the Seventh Sister continued to interrogate Ezra, which left Zeb and Chopper as their only hope of rescue. Zeb's speech to himself about going back to save Ezra and Sabine was pretty cheesy. Zeb then called Ezra pretending to be a rebel commander and told them that he would bring Ahsoka and Kanan to come rescue them in hopes of drawing the Inquisitors out into the hangar bay. As part of his plan, Zeb told Ezra to keep his chin up. When Ezra realized that it just meant that Zeb was hiding in the phantom on the ceiling, he loudly and obviously signaled Sabine to look up. How neither of the Inquisitors noticed this is mind boggling. Zeb used the phantom to attack the inquisitors which gave Ezra and Sabine enough time to escape. It was a pretty simplistic and silly plan, but I guess it worked. The episode ended with Ezra telling Kanan about the new Inquisitors and Zeb admitting that Chopper helped. No, he didn't help. As usual Chopper did nothing. If the goal of this episode was to introduce the two new Inquisitors, the writers did a decent job. The Seventh Sister left a good impression and both showed some potential. However, the fact that they were defeated and outsmarted by Ezra, Sabine, and Zeb isn't a good sign.

What Worked

• Horror influences and Kevin Kiner's score
• Kanan and Rex relationship
• New Inquisitors, the seventh sister in particular, showed potential...

What Didn’t Work

• ...but were defeated with relative ease and neither are as compelling as the previous Inquisitor
• Zeb's big rescue plan and Ezra's reaction

External Links:

• StarWars.com Episode Guide
• Wookieepedia Episode Summary