Star Wars Rebels enters its home stretch with the first episode of the final half of season four; Jedi Night!
This past Monday marked the beginning of the end of the journey for the Ghost crew as the back half of season four got underway with the episode Jedi Night.
The mid-season finale – Rebel Assault – left off with the team fractured. Hera in the hands of Governor Pryce and the Empire and their mission to take down the prototype TIE Defender production line seemingly a failure. But these Rebels are a family. Forged in battle and with a common purpose; no one gets left behind.
No one.
The crew devise a plan to slip into occupied Capital City unnoticed by gliding in overhead in the cover of night. Kanan Jarrus, knowing that he may be emotionally compromised, entrusts Ezra with calling the shots on this mission. Due to his relationship with Hera he doesn’t quite trust himself to make sound decisions. Sabine and Ezra disguise themselves in TIE Pilot uniforms, but Kanan opts to go sans disguise. Instead he shaves off his beard and trims his hair giving him a drastically different appearance.
Arriving at the Imperial complex the team splits up in order to achieve multiple objectives. Ezra and Sabine aim to acquire a vehicle to make their escape after Kanan rescues Hera. Something with a bit more kick. Kanan makes a dramatic entrance into Pryce’s office where Hera is being held and tortured. Escaping through the window they ascend to the heights of the complex and evade the Noghri assassin Rukh, but are forced to make a hasty retreat and fly a glider towards the City’s fuel pod storage. Ascending to the top of the fuel pod, the two share a moment as they wait to be picked up by Sabine in a commandeered Imperial shuttle.
But the touching scene is cut too short as Pryce and a pair of AT-AT’s arrive simultaneously and she gives the order to fire on the fuel tanks. In a last ditch effort to save the ones he loves Kanan taps into the Force to hold the explosion at bay until he can force push Hera onto the shuttle and then sends the ship out of harms way. With Hera, Sabine and Ezra at a safe distance and his energy spent, Kanan lets go and is enveloped in fire and light.
A Warriors End
In light of everything else that stood out in this episode, and there is plenty, it’s hard to think of anything other than the passing of Kanan Jarrus first. The ex-Jedi Knight, a Ronin of sorts now during these dark times, is no more. It has been quite the path for him, since the beginning he has searched for a purpose outside of the Jedi Order and he seemed to have found it with Ezra Bridger. But the journey is now complete for Kanan and he seems to have known that this would be his final mission.
The episode is filled with both subtle and less than subtle foreshadowing to his ultimate sacrifice. It’s even in the title. After communicating with the Loth-Wolves, Kanan prepares for the mission by meditating and ceremoniously cutting off his signature hair and shaving his beard. Not as a disguise however, it’s done with deeper purpose. After which he imparts some powerful words of praise and wisdom to Ezra that also serve to instill an ominous feeling. One of finality. The same heartfelt premonition can also be felt when he utters “May the Force be with you” to Sabine and Ezra before splitting up.
He knows that this is it.
Even the beautiful scene depicting the trio gliding into the sunset towards Capital City is evocative of Kanan flying into a literal Jedi Night. Although it is a single star, Suns have played a significant visual cue throughout the Saga as a whole especially in the wake of The Last Jedi.
It’s also a culmination of the relationship between Hera and Kanan. Hera shrugging off the effects of the serum from her session with the torture droid, tells Kanan that she loves him. No longer dancing around or hiding their deeper feelings for each other they embrace one final time before Kanan is forced to sacrifice himself to save them. Through the Force Kanan regains his vision in his final moments, seeing Hera one last time before the end.
Pieces Falling Into Place
Jedi Night includes a lot of nods to other chapters in the Star Wars Saga as well.
The Deathtroopers return again as the preferred bodyguards of high ranking Imperial officials such as Thrawn and Governor Pryce. Their garbled communications do not give anything away to anyone nearby.
Tarkin also returns, albeit in hologram form, and touches on a few interesting points. In communication with Grand Admiral Thrawn he mentions Director Krennic and a certain “special” project that Krennic is overseeing. The project in question is none other than Project Stardust. This should be easily recognizable as a nod to the Star Wars spin-off Rogue One as that is the code name given to the massive planet-destroying Death Star. The Stardust moniker being the pet name that the weapons designer Galen Erso, gave to his daughter and the films protagonist; Jyn Erso. As the series is coming to a close the gap between Rebels and Rogue One must be very small. In fact it would not be out of the question to assume that the finale of this series runs right up to the events in that film.
Also adding to the ominous nature of this episode is Tarkin’s mentioning of the Emperor. Specifically that Tarkin has arranged a meeting between Thrawn and Palpatine on Coruscant, with the aim of receiving further funding for the TIE facility. From the trailer of the second half of season four the Emperor appears to be confronting Ezra Bridger in the flesh so one can assume that this is the beginning of that coming to pass.
The Imperial Torture Droid makes a cameo to assist Pryce in her attempt to pry sensitive information out of Hera Syndulla, technology that was used in A New Hope. And speaking of technology – those gliders. Using a low tech contraption to enter the Imperial city is smart. It would be safe to assume that they would naturally not be picked up on any scanning equipment. But as with Return of the Jedi, where similar gliders were used, it just goes to show that sometimes it doesn’t take cutting edge tech to outfox or take down the Empire.
A Solid Episode
Visually and certainly emotionally this episode brings the heaviness. There is such weight to it. The concept of family, not necessarily blood, is a focus in how they are unwilling to leave Hera behind in enemy hands. A sub-plot to the episode is an artifact from the Syndulla family, one with special meaning to Hera. It is a memento meant to pay respect to her fallen brother and Thrawn uses art to understand his foes making it perfect to better pick at Hera’s wound in order to wear away her tough exterior.
A few moments of the trademark Rebels humor are sprinkled throughout to help balance out the more intense and bittersweet spots. These are welcome to help balance out the story as a whole. And on top of that Kevin Kiner’s score does wonders for the episode. Truly adding weight and emotion when and where no dialogue is required.
The follow-up to Jedi Night is DUME which aired immediately after. You can check out the review for that article here!
And don’t forget to check out the amazing Rebels Recon episodes for further insight into Jedi Night on Starwars.com.
Mike Harris hails from the suburbs of Chicago and has been a fan for most of his life. Working as an industrial radiographer and raising a family with his wife take up most of his time, but there’s always room for Star Wars books and podcasts! Just looking to give back to Star Wars and the fan community, it’s been a source of fun and learning for him for so long.