2x01 The Lost Commanders

9.0/10. Oh hell yes, Captain Rex! I enjoyed so much that was going on in this episode that I didn't even care it doesn't really function well as an individual episode rather than a series of moments. Those moments are so enjoyable, and laden with meaning that comes from mixing The Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith and Rebels together that they carry the day.

More than anything, I love the way the old crew mixes with the new crew. There's so much consistency and naturalism in the way these people would respond to one another. The clones are, understandably, leery about seeing a Jedi and suspect Kanan is out for revenge. Kanan, for his part, is also understandably unable to feel copacetic the Clone Commanders, feeling the betrayal of how they slaughtered the Jedi.

The rest of the crew warms up to them pretty easily as well. Ezra has swung the pendulum the other direction in his idealism/cynicism and is almost preternaturally trust and open with these old warriors, instantly having what feels like a grandfatherly relationship with Rex. Sabine (who changed her hair, I think?) gets a thrill when her talents as a mechanic are recognized. And Zeb, while initially a bit reluctant, is a military man himself, who quickly feels at home with these guys despite being their bait.

That sequence, where the Ghost Crew and the old clones use Zeb to lure and fight a giant worm alien is one of the best and most inventive in the whole animated Star Wars canon. One of the great things about the original Star Wars films was this sense of adventure in the unexpected, the way the films always explored new locales that seemed to have their own unique quirks and surprises. The hunt for that big "bongo" was that idea to a tee. It had the thrills and the quips and the design work necessary to make the scene exciting and fun. Seeing the repurposed republic tanker go on an elaborate mechanical chase for a giant worm is the sort of funky Star Wars-ian fun that the show needs.

We also get so much world-building and continuity! The Emperor has retired the clones! As we saw hints of in Clone Wars, Rex questioned the point and purpose of the war once it ended! He and his buddies eventually took Fives's warnings to heart and dug out their control chips! The conflicted commanders don't really know how to feel about The Empire, or how it taints the way they felt they were serving The Republic!

That's probably what I enjoyed most about this episode. Seeing Rex & Co. again is a boon, and the bongo chase is a great sequence, but all of the nostalgia-fueled fun and visual excitement comes with the ballast of the difficult relationship between the clones and the jedis now. The lines between who the good guys were and who the bad guys were used to be so clear in The Clone Wars days, at least on the surface. But now we see Rex trying to be a good guy but not wanting to get involved in a conflict after his last round of involvement didn't go so well. We see Kanan and his inability to trust the people whose genetic copies took out the Jedi, skeptical of the protestations that they weren't control. We see Hera, trying to remind Kanan that the Jedi and the Clone Troopers once worked together to save billions, including, apparently, her. (Could she have been the little Twi'lek girl we saw back on Ryloth in The Clone Wars?)

For all the gnashing of teeth over the stifling qualities of franchises and cinematic universes these days, this is the benefit of them. In a vacuum, the story of old soldiers facing the friends of the people they killed in a war they didn't plan is strong all on its own. But buoyed by the fact that we know those soldiers and those friends, that we've seen the clones have their doubts about the nature of those battles, or seen Kanan have difficulty resolving the present and the past, makes that story so much more vivid and effective. There's a history there, one that informs every moment we see in that delightful old clanking tank. It makes nearly every moment of this one a thrill, and portends great things for the rest of this arc.