4x08 Crawler Commandeers

[7.5/10] This felt like a classic episode of Rebels, which feels like a weird thing to say for a show that’s only eight episodes into its fourth season, but the show’s come a long way since its first batch of episodes. “Crawler Commando” features our heroes on a mission on Lothal, jamming a thumb in the eye of the Empire, with a self-contained mission that has plenty of minor twists and turns. Even with Hera gone trying to convince Rebel Command to agree to an attack on Imperial outposts in Lothal, this feels like original recipe Rebels, before the show leaned more toward serialization and more direct connections to the past and future of the franchise.

And it’s a mode that really worked. There was something for everyone to do here, which usually helps in making for a good episode of the show. Hera got to give a (pretty generic) persuasive speech to the Rebel leaders on Yavin about sending support units to Lothal. Kanan got to get into a solid scrap or two, and save Zeb. Zeb got to have a pretty damn good heavyweight bout with a transdoshan slave-master (did anyone else get a certain Dorrity vs. Hearst’s goon from Deadwood vibe?) And Sabine got to apply her usual magic to the communications array.

Plus, lending to the classic feel, we had Ezra trying to provide a cover for their activities to random Imperials, getting into a scrape with the episode’s antagonist, and even crawling through the air vents. (I got a big kick out of his “I don’t even do this anymore” line.) It’s a solid Ezra episode, where he gets some interesting, caper-y things to do.

There’s also the return of Visago, adding to the Season 1 vibe. The reveal that he was a slave on that uber-plow (a device that I think was referenced in the Ahsoka novel?), and the awkwardness of him thinking the Ghost Crew came back to save him when they’d pretty well written him off or foregotten about it was a funny and slightly thought-provoking note to play. The fact that this episode serves as something of a make-good for Visago makes it unique and gives it the slightest bit of emotional and character depth.

But it’s also just a good episode for set pieces. The aforementioned fight between Zeb and the transdoshans is really well staged, letting you feel the weight of each blow, the peril of the ledge-hang, and the character details like the slaves cheering it on and Kanan racing to make the save. The struggle between Ezra and the lizard captain (Seth Green, I think, who’s always pleasant to have on Star Wars-related project) was also very well done. The image of Ezra sneaking on one catwalk while the lizard captain crawled on the underside of it was a cool one, and the chomping maw of the reactor furnace in front of the main control lent instant, ominous tension to their fight.

Speaking of which, I don’t really know how to read the scene where the lizard captain dies. He’s mostly a comic relief villain, so him getting such a brutal death (even if it’s more tastefully implied than seen) seems miscalibrated. But maybe we’re returning to hints of the dark side lurking in Ezra? Maybe the Rebel attack on Lothal doesn’t go so well and so he becomes disillusioned? There was just something about that scene, where Ezra looks on with satisfaction as his opponent falls into that fiery pit that didn’t sit right, and I don’t know if it was the show just not getting the tone right or if it’s meant as a hint toward something deeper.

Regardless, “Crawler Commando” was a very good episode, that used its single location and one major goal to give the episode a spine and find useful things for almost all of its characters to do. A nice meat and potatoes episode of the show.

This is a brilliant episode, one of the best yet. I can't help liking Grand Admiral Thrawn a little - he clearly has respect for Captain Syndulla's flight skills, despite her being the enemy. He remains calm and thoughtful whatever the situation, scheming artfully even in the face of destruction, and doesn't seem to mind suffering small defeats (or even bigger ones like Super Star Destroyers) in the (hopeful) pursuit of larger victories that will be more damaging to the Rebel Alliance. He seems to be the only credible threat to the rebels in the whole of SWR so far, apart from Darth Vader of course, and to a lesser extent the Inquisitors. This episode is proper quality Star Wars action, as much as it can be considering the primary target demographic, anyway. I had to watch the next episode straight afterwards, as the story does not wrap up in one 22-minute (on Disney Plus) bite-sized chunk like so many from the previous seasons. Having said that, what has been packed into those 20 minutes (subtract two for credits, etc) makes the episode feel far longer, in a very good way. The fight scenes are top-notch, especially Ezra vs the lizard captain. The humorous, if brutal, death of the captain, whilst Ezra just watched without attempting a heroic Jedi rescue - and with a mean, smug smile on his face - is a clever hint that maybe Ezra hasn't completely supressed the call of the Dark Side yet, and maybe could be a teaser for more such encounters before his story is done. This type of episode is exactly what makes Rebels worth watching, even for fully-grown adult children like me :blush: