Star Wars Rebels: The Honorable Ones

February 25, 2016 8:01 AM - Season 2, Episode 15

The rebels visit Geonosis to discover the planet barren without life and evidence of a past massive orbiting construction project. As Admiral Ackbar would say, "It's a trap!" and the rebels are forced to flee. In the ensuing retreat, Zeb and Agent Kallus end up marooned on an icy moon above Geonosis, forced to rely on each other to survive.

Trivia!

• The original script was intended to reveal Kallus was picked up by an independent trader, as the Empire had elected not to allocate its time to finding one single missing officer.
• The bonzami creature, the ice moon's predator, is named after a Zamboni machine.
• The design of the bozami's horn was inspired by a truck-mounted snowplow.
• The Imperial construction sphere was inspired by early Revenge of the Jedi Ralph McQuarrie artwork of multiple Death Stars being built.
• The construction sphere is also of the same design as the Imperial complex that dominates Lothal's capital city, further underscoring the world's transformation into a factory for the Imperial war machine.

posted by Atreides (8 comments total)

I saw a lot of comments saying – based on the preview – "Pfft, it's just a version of Enemy Mine", but again the showrunners really banged one home. That last sequence of Kallus was genius, I thought, and I further think that cutting his rescue was a good call. He suddenly reappears in the Imperial fleet, as if his rescue was routine, nothing special, heightening the impersonality of the Empire. If Adm. Konstantine had stopped, I could imagine him asking, "Oh, you were away, were you?" I really hope they go somewhere with this!

My favorite shot was only a second or two long, a panning or tracking shot of Kanan in the turret. The camera held still on him while the action whizzed by – it was very cinematic I thought.
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 8:40 AM on February 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

I really enjoyed it, more than I expected in part I think bias against Enemy Mine (hey, I do like that movie!) aspect of it. This was really a surprise characterization episode for Kallus, not Zeb. The conclusion definitely is leading to the idea that Kallus might reconsider his Imperial ways.
posted by Atreides at 11:03 AM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

As I said, I hope they run with that! Thinking about Kallus in the show today, it occurred to me that he was the primary antagonist early on. When the Grand Inquisitor showed up, he basically had to take a back seat, continuing with the 2 Inquisitors this season (not to mention Vader!). Yet he's maintained – on his own? – this drive to capture/defeat this singular band of rebels. I've gotten at times an Ahab-like vibe from him, frankly. The question is, What long-term impact will this event have on him? Is he too steeped in Empire to consider flipping? Or might he instead stay in the machine, working against it from within? Kallus in the span of one episode became one of the more compelling characters on the show.
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 12:10 PM on February 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

I wonder how soon they'll address the genocide(?) of the Geonosians.

Because that's going to get dark.
posted by Mezentian at 12:08 AM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Just finished writing about this episode and decided that I really, really enjoyed it. I love that the writers decided to go with a melancholy ending with Kallus alone and a prison cell of a room aboard the star destroyer. The visuals were beautiful in their simplistic and stark tones, the blues, purples, and grays of the ice moon with the occasional contrast against the ringed orange Geonosis. Kallus has been kind of one dimensional up to this point and they did so much purely through conversation and a few decisions on his part.
posted by Atreides at 2:03 PM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Also, Marvel's Vader offers a little info on what happened to the Geonosians, which is the Empire, unsurprisingly, decided to sterilize the planet with bombs to make it easier to mine the planet's resources. In that issue, Darth Vader decidedly ends any chance of the Geonosians surviving complete extinction.
posted by Atreides at 2:05 PM on February 27, 2016

The firefight was very well done.
posted by bq at 1:51 PM on February 28, 2016

I really liked this one. They left me hanging on Zeb's story for way too long. That we got to find out so much about Kallus too is just icing on the cake.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:14 PM on March 13, 2016 [1 favorite]