SPOILER WARNING!! Do not read ahead if you have not seen the first episode of the first season of Star Wars: Rebels.
This episode opens with the crew of the Ghost being pursued by an Imperial Star Destroyer and several TIE fighters. Hera quickly makes the jump to hyper-space and Kanan cockily reminds the crew that he had assured them that they would escape. Sabine reminds him that he had also assured them that they would escape with the shipment they had planned to steal from the Imperials, whilst Ezra loudly and frequently complains about the lack of Jedi training he has recieved from Kanan. Hera worried out loud that the crew is nearly out of supplies and fuel, and out of desperation, Kanan decides to take on a mission from crime lord Cikatro Virago to steal an arms shipment from an Imperial minister on Garel.
The crew make their way to Garel and manage to find themselves on the same transport as Minister Tua and her contact Amda Wabo. Because of the language barrier between the minister and Wabo, they are forced to use a translator droid in order to communicate. This droid happens to be none other than movie favourite C-3PO himself, accompanied as always by his counterpart R2-D2!
The crew manage to convince the pilot to order all droids to the back of the transport, forcing Minister Tua to take Sabine up on her offer to translate for Wabo. Sabine of course mistranslates where the arms shipment is being held, causing the Minister to look for it in Bay 17 instead of Bay 7! Minister Tua eventually realises what has happened and attacks the rebels in Bay 7 with a squad of stormtroopers. The rebels overpower the storm troopers and manage to escape with the shipment- as well as Artoo and Threepio!
After realising that the arms they have stolen are illegal disrupters that were used in the Empire's conquering of his home world, Zeb pleads with Kanan not to sell them to Virago. Kanan goes ahead with his original plan, much to Zeb's chagrin, and meets Virago on Lothal for the exchange. Unfortunately, C-3PO makes contact with Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau revealing the crews coordinates. Kallus attacks the two groups during the exchange. Leaving the crew to fight their own battles, Virago escapes with half of the shipment, and without paying the crew.
During the battle Kallus goads Zeb into a duel, and reveals that he was the one who ordered the use of the disrupter rifles during the attack on his home world. Kallus defeats Zeb and is about to deliver the killing blow when Ezra instinctively uses the Force to blast Kallus against a wall, knocking him unconscious.
The crew escapes and returns C-3PO and R2-D2 to their rightful owner, who pays them handsomely as a reward. Unbeknownst to the crew the droids rightful owner happens to be Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan, the future founder of the Rebel Alliance, who seems to be very interested in finding out everything R2 knows about the crew of rebels!
Overall rating: ★★★★
"Droids in Distress" was a strong follow up to Rebels' TV movie premiere. I felt that the use of familiar characters (Threepio, Artoo and Senator Organa) was pulled off well- their introduction to the series was subtle, with none stealing the show from the new cast of characters the audience is getting to know.
Additionally, one of the great things about this series is the suspense that comes with every battle scene. Because none of the main cast are established characters, it is impossible to know if they will survive episode to episode, something that was always a downfall of the otherwise fantastic Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series.
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