The season finale of Star Wars Rebels aired Saturday with “Zero Hour”. It was packed with several edge of your seat moments and delivered a very satisfying end to one storyline as another is set to begin. Warning, spoilers ahead…
The Rebels are unaware that Grand Admiral Thrawn knows of the Rebels impending attack on Lothall is readies his fleet to ambush them. When Agent Kallus tires to warn the Rebels, Thrawn captures him. Thrawn then traces back Kallus’ transmission to find the Rebel base at Atollon. With knowledge of their location, Thrawn orders his fleet to Atollon. He wants to create a bottleneck around Atollon to prevent the Rebels from escaping and forcing a showdown with the Empire. With the Empire now at their doorstep, Commander Sato knows that the only way they could survive is to sacrifice himself to allow Ezra to escape and bring in reinforcements.
Back on Atollon, Kanan seeks the Bendu’s help but he is reluctant. Upset by his neutral stance, Kanan accuses the Bendu of being cowards, this only anger the Bendu and it disappears. Meanwhile, Ezra contacts Mon Mothma and seeks her help, but she too is unable because she fears this is a trap set by Thrawn to cripple the rebellion. With no one else to turn to, Ezra decides to find Sabine.
With the battle against the Empire not going well, the Rebels retrat back to their base on Atollon. There, they activate the shield generator in hopes of protecting them from Imperial bombardment. Thrawn counters by sending a ground assulat team in which he personally leads. Ezra locates Sabine and convinces her and Rau to help the rebels escape by leading a small Mandalorian force to attack the remaining Imperial cruisers. Thrawn’s forces arrive but before he can capture the Rebels, the Bendu intercepts his forces. This gives the remaining Rebels the time need to flee.
As this was happening, Ezra and Sabine arrive in the nick of time and destroy the Imperial cruiser. Agent Kallus manages to free himself using an escape pod and is later picked up by the Ghost crew. Together, the Rebel fleet make their escape nad jump into hyperspace. Back on Atollon, Thrawn manages to bring down the Bendu, who offers Thrawn a warning foreseeing his defeat. When Thrawn tries to kill the Bendu, it disappears.
The escaped Rebels rendezvous with the rest of the fleet at Yavin IV. The Ghost Crew is reunited. Ezra sees this defeat as a major blow to the Rebellion. Kanan however sees things differently. He sees their escape as a victory and allows them to finght another day.
It’s a terrific ending to a terrific third season. Star Wars Rebels will return this fall.
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
