Star Wars Rebels (S1E3): A New Evil Emerges

This episode finally unveils the most heavily promoted new character on Star Wars Rebels, The Inquisitor. An antagonistic character with an eye-catching design and voiced by Jason Isaacs, he's been a fixture of most marketing for the show, but makes his first physical appearance on the program three episodes in (to be fair, he did appear in a hologram at the end of the TV movie). Before we get to his debut though, we've got to deal with the recent shenanigans of the crew of the Ghost.

The proceedings open with Kanan giving Ezra some proper Jedi training, and dropping an unsubtle tip of the hat to Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. A weird tonal inconsistency appears here, as droid Chopper, with assistance from Zeb, tosses small objects for Ezra to deflect with a lightsaber in an extremely exaggerated manner, only for it to result in Ezra nearly falling to his death in a manner played entirely serious. There's a way for the two dynamics to work, but the writing and pacing here make it a sloppy start.

Luckily, after a reference to last weeks decent but forgettable episode (I do like how the shows got some kind of continuity between its episodes), we get a Brett Spiner cameo informing the gang that Luminara Unduli is...GASP....alive. Luminara was prominent fixture of The Clone Wars, so the idea of seeing her again is a neat one, and the chance to free her from an Imperial prison gives the show a chance to flex its action muscles. The initial break in sequence is pulled of nicely, courtesy of the shows MVP's Sabine and Zeb, even if it littered with some pointless moments from Ezra (whose still more whiny than endearing).

It's in the midst of this rescue mission that Kanan and Ezra run into The Inquisitor, a character whose got a unique lightsaber and seems to bear a strong resemblance to the Pau'an people. We don't get any clarity on his species, but we do get his personality; bloodthirsty, yet refined. His knowledge of Jedi movements and tactics is actually a cool idea, but he doesn't really do any major damage to the crew, so the violent presence the show tries to convey with him just doesn't work. Comparing him to the introduction of The Clone Wars beloved villain Cad Bane (where he killed a Senator without even looking at him!), and its apparent The Inquisitor needs work, especially since he takes the titular Rebels escaping from him in a weirdly calm manner.

By the end, Kanan tells Ezra he'll be the best possible Jedi master he can be, and it is an effective enough scene I suppose. Kanan actually gets the most improvement from this episode, since he gets to use his Force powers in a variety of ways, such as a Jedi mind trick on Stormtroopers. I wish the show could similarly improve though, especially after that extremely promising TV movie and fun first episode. It's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, and frankly, being only three episodes into the show, I honestly can't even call it underwhelming...yet. There's a lot of fun action in the episode, and the animation has plenty of nice moments. I just hope the show quickly makes sure some of its protagonists and antagonists leave as much of a mark as the artwork Sabine creates.