Star Wars Rebels: Relics of the Old Republic Recap

Synopsis of 2×04: After Wolf’s lapse in judgement brings the Empire down on all of them, our Rebels and the Clones have to team up to escape. It won’t be that simple, though. They’re outgunned in pretty much every way and on their own. And Kanan doesn’t exactly trust them any more now than he did in the past.

Rating: ★★★★☆

When we left off last week, retired clone trooper Wolf had called the Empire to report Kanan and the others. After a quick talking-to from Rex he had another change of heart. Unfortunately, that’s not doing anyone much good. The Empire is still on it’s way, Hera is stuck in orbit making repairs to the Ghost, and a massive haboob is on it’s way.

The plan was initially for Kanan and the others to slip away and rendevous with the Ghost. Meanwhile the clones would stay on their walking tank living their life of solitude as far from war as possible. But when Kallus calls them up he blows that plan right out of the water when he shows them probe footage of Kanan and Ezra with them.

They’ve only given one option, then: fight.

Or run. Actually, running turns out to be the best thing they can do. Kallus brings down a ground assault team consisting of three AT-AT walkers to hunt them down. The clones power up the tank and make a mad dash for the haboob hoping to lose the Imperials in the sand storm. As Rex points out, their scanners will be blind. A Jedi, however, will not.

Using the Force, Kanan guides them into the storm and helps them fight back against the AT-ATs. Rex taught Ezra to fire the tank’s main guns and together the two Jedi are able to strike back at the walkers, taking one out by targeting a weak point in it’s neck. That gives them a chance to try and escape but it doesn’t take Kallus’s walker and the other surviving vehicle much to catch up.

Kanan doesn’t think twice about taking Rex up on his offer to keep the Imperials busy while they make  their escape on the Phantom. But Ezra isn’t so sure. They have all the information that Rex could pass on about old Separatist bases and other places of interest and that was all they wanted. Even after all of it, Kanan doesn’t trust them enough to stay and fight for them. But in the end – despite that – he can’t leave them to die. They go back for Rex and the others, take down Kallus’s walker, and take off to meet up with Hera.

Luckily the Star Destroyer waiting on Kallus took off to rendezvous with one of the Inquisitors and wasn’t there to shoot them down. But it’s only a temporarily lucky moment for them as that same Inquisitor will soon be right on their tail.

Our rebels and the clones all head back to the blockade runner together where they find Ahsoka has returned from her own mission. In one of the most touching moments of the series to date, she and Rex have a wonderful reunion that should tug the heartstrings of every The Clone Wars fan. I won’t lie to you all, I teared up a bit.

Though we get a pretty happy ending out of this two-parter you have to wonder how long that will last. We’ve been introduced to the first of what we know will be several Inquisitors hunting our heroes on Darth Vader’s orders. And if you’ve taken a look at the synopsis for next week’s episode… things are about to get a whole lot more intense.