Star Wars Resistance "No Escape: Part 1" Review

Spoiler warning!

Episode 1.21 – “No Escape, Part 1”
Directed by – Brandon Auman
Written by – Steward Lee

So, the whole season has been building to this. Commander Pyre, Captain Vonreg (who is patrolling the skies) and the rest of the First Order are officially running things on Colossus. With Jarek Yeager and Tam Ryvora under arrest and Kaz and the remaining crew in hiding, Pyre has assumed control of not only Captain Doza’s office, but the entire station as well.

With the platform still underwater, the episode starts with a station announcement from Pyre…

“Residents of the Colossus, the First Order is working tirelessly to raise this station above sea level. The Resistance insurgents who sabotaged the platform are still at large. Stay inside your domiciles until further notice. Anyone not inside their home is in violation of First Order law.”

While Pyre is speaking, we get some sweet underwater shots, complete with looks at some awesome First Order submarines, and the citizens listening to the announcement frightfully. Just as the announcement ends, Doza storms into his former office and demands to know why Yeager was arrested and what they plan on doing with him. Pyre is a foul mood and isn’t having any of it and tells Doza that they are from the reach of the New Republic, hinting at the Starkiller Base, and orders they arrest Doza for insubordination.

Doza orders 4D-M1N to “stop them” and she goes into full berserker battle-mode! She’s awesome and nearly stops them all before she is taken down by Pyre himself who is wielding a sweet custom gold F-11D blaster. Doza is arrested and as he’s being taken away, Pyre orders they arrest all the Aces as well. Pyre vows to find Kazuda and the rest of the group.

Meanwhile, Kaz, Neeku, Kel, Eila, CB-23 and the Chelidae are down below talking about what to do. Kaz wants to bust out Tam and Yeager and make their way to Hosnian Prime, returning later with Resistance and/or New Republic reinforcements to free the station. Neeku reminds Kaz that the Colossus is their home and they can’t abandon it, or its people just yet. Kaz tells them his father is Senator and can help free everyone, but they must make it to Hosnian Prime with the evidence first.

Back in her room, Torra is dismayed that her father was arrested, something she witnessed earlier, so she assigns Buggles the task of finding Kaz and bringing him to her. Cut to some troopers who are in the control room and are trying to figure out how to raise the station above water. The door opens revealing a Chelidae and then closes again, Stormtrooper CS-227 goes to get rid of the Engineer who they refer to as a “nuisance” The remaining troopers hear a scuttle and go to check it out where Kaz, Neeku, the children and CB-23 are waiting, knocking them out, gaining control of the room.

They plan to use the terminals to gain control of all the hatches and doors on the platform as Kaz makes his way to the tower, to reach Yeager and Tam. To gain access he must swim underwater so CB-23 tows him along while the others stay behind opening/closing doors as he needs them to. This is part of many incredible underwater sequences in this episode where we see the First Order and their array of awesome submerged vessels and tactical gear.

So Kaz is making his way there and Neeku has made up codenames, Blowfish 1 and Blowfish 2, something Kaz doesn’t particularly like but it’s kind of funny considering the dire straits they’re in. The show has settled in humor wise with Neeku still providing the occasional relief, and they have dispelled with Kaz’s bumbling style, something I was never very comfortable with.

He is almost at a hatch on Level 12 but gets spotted by some Frist Order SCUBA troopers who make chase. It’s kind of weird that the troopers are wearing their helmets underneath their SCUBA helmets but whatever.

They instead end up in a corridor through a hatch opened on a different level so Kaz gets Neeku to pressurize the corridor and it sucks the Troopers out just in time. They close the hatch and now Kaz and CB are safely back inside the main part of the station, they continue their mission to the Tower. It’s here we learn probably the coolest thing yet about Colossus as Eila points something out to Neeku high above their terminal, but I’ll get to that in a second.

Cut back to Kaz who, who as he’s walking by the Office of Acquisitions, hears a bit of a commotion coming from that direction. Flix and Orka have sealed themselves in a shipping container, with lots of food, hoping to avoid the First Order and waiting to get shipped out. Their plan is to go to Flix’s mother’s planet, Tallabar, as the station is just too “stormtroopery” for their liking. Kaz tells them his plan and they laugh at him and seal themselves back into the container. It’s the only time we see these two and it’s an odd but very funny moment. The point is, they are still on the station something that will come into play next week.

Remember Buggle’s mission? Well, he’s finally caught up to Kaz and CB and gets them to follow him to where Torra is waiting. En route Neeku tells Kaz what I referenced a second ago and is easily one of the coolest facts about Colossus to date; it’s not only a station but a starship with a Class-2 hyperdrive! Class-2 hyperdrive’s are historically meant for military ships, but we’ll don’t know that to be the case here. Neeku is confident he can get it in the air, not so confident in keeping it in the air, and this is something we’ll see in “No Escape, Part 2” for sure and into next season as well.

We cut to Yeager who is handcuffed and being led down the hall by a pair of Stormtroopers, they see Tam and Agent Tierny (more on that later) and he is thrown into a jail cell with Captain Doza, who greets him with a, “good to see you Jarek” They are both stuck, for now.

Kaz finally meets up with Torra who has a plan to free her father and Jarek, but they must get to the Tower first through the incinerator ducts, a reference to “Secrets and Holograms”. They are interrupted and then spotted by BB-9E who is patrolling the hallways but CB-23, who is really the MVP of this episode, springs into action and a full-on ball-droid battle commences! In the end, CB proves to be much smarter and more resourceful than 9E and tricks the evil droid into falling down an elevator shaft after damaging his viewport.

Okay, with the coast somewhat clear (they have to stun a lone Trooper), Kaz and Torra start making their way to a turbolift when they overhear some Troopers discussing a special transmission where they will learn more about a “Starkiller Base” They don’t know what that is but Kaz doesn’t like the sound of that so they follow them to where they witness something that is very familiar to us by know.



They see/hear the now infamous speech by General Hux (Voiced by Domhnall Gleeson!) from The Force Awakens, just before the Starkiller Base is fired for the first time. Kaz asks CB what star system they just witnessed get destroyed and she tells him remorsefully it was the Hosnian System. As you can imagine, Kaz is a mixed bag of shock, dismay and denial and unless you lack any moral fiber whatsoever, you’ll feel this moment as it hits Kazuda with a tidal wave of despair.

It’s also a fitting place to end Part 1…

Okay, you’re probably noticing I’ve skipped something and if you guessed Tam and Agent Tierny you’d be right. But I didn’t forget them, I wanted to deal with them apart from the main plot of this episode because it’s essential and likely something that will carry over into Season Two.

They are still where we left them last week, in the Aces Lounge, with Tierny going to work on Tam’s psyche, trying to manipulate her and turn her against her friends. She’s softening up Tam with charm and a good meal, two things Tam hasn’t had a in a long time. She’s already revealed to her that Kaz is a Resistance spy and grew up wealthy on Hosnian Prime and now she’s using an edited holo clip of Yeager to try and turn Tam against him. This is a tricky one for Tam, who desperately wants to believe Jarek is who he says he is. Doubt is slowly creeping in however as she’s seen time and time again Yeager taking Kaz’s side on different matters.

Yeager and Tam have a strong and unique relationship and Tierny knows that if she can turn Tam against him, convince her Jarek is not who he says he is, then she’s got her right where she wants her. So much that when they run into Yeager later in handcuffs, Tam goes a little ballistic on him, accusing him of lying and betraying her. Yeager tries to convince her that they are just using her and manipulating her, something the First Order does, but the Troopers take him to his cell. Tierny then leads away a very “hot under the collar” and distraught Tamara.

Then finally, closer to the end of the episode, Tierny makes Tam a shocking offer. She tells her that Tam has great potential that is being wasted and is squandering it on Colossus. She offers her the chance to join the First Order, to make her dreams of becoming a pilot come true. Tam has a look of surprise, confusion and most of all, curiosity.

Will Tam join the First Order? Will she betray her friends or come to their aid at the last minute? I believe this will be a thread that carries over into Season Two, so don’t expect a resolution by the end of next week. If I had my guess, don’t be surprised to see Tam wearing a First Order uniform, at least to see how it fits.

I can’t say enough about this episode and how the series is wrapping up this first season. What impressed me the most about “No Escape, Part 1” is the effort the entire cast is putting in; it’s simply high quality work. Christopher Sean has really elevated Kazuda to leading character status and as the season has progressed you’ve seen him turn from bumbling to heroic. Other characters, such as Neeku, Torra and Captain Doza, have simply benefited from stronger scripts and higher dramatic stakes. As for Tam, she’s been steady all year but was always hampered by the fact that she wasn’t in on the gag. But now that she knows the truth about Kaz and Jarek and is under the spell of the excellent Agent Tierny, she’s really shining bright.

What state of mind will Kaz be in when we next see him? His whole life has been turned upside down in an instant and any normal person who witnessed such horror and personal loss would understandably shut right down. Unfortunately for him things are in motion now which can’t be undone and there will be a time to grieve after the mission is complete. This will be Kaz’s greatest test to date, not rescuing his friends or defeating the First Order, but having the strength and courage to go on.

One of the more remarkable facts we learned this week is that Colossus is both a station and a ship with a Class-2 hyperdrive! Is it possible they’ll move the station off Castilon for Season 2 and have their sophomore season take place in space or on another planet? That would be such a daring and great idea if the show was constantly in motion, on the run from the First Order.

A quick side note, the underwater sequences are amazing to look at and for some reason I love how the First Order has these amazing jetpacks to move around but still have fins? Anyways, they are familiar to getup the Clone SCUBA Troopers used to wear.

So, what are we left with? Kaz and his ragtag group of freedom fighters don’t seem like the obvious group to lead a rebellion, but heroes rarely are. And when you think about the makeup of the Resistance and rebellions of old however, they are rarely prototypical. Besides the show needing to continue, I’m fully confident each will do what’s necessary when the time comes. Each of them has the one ingredient which is necessary when fighting tyranny and oppression, courage.

Next week we’ve got the season finale with “No Escape, Part 2” …

“With Neeku’s help, Kaz comes up with a risky plan to rid the Colossus of the First Order once and for all.”

As we found out in “Part 1”, Neeku is fairly confident he can fly anything including the station so it’s safe to assume we’ll see the station take off into space. I’m guessing, but I’ll bet the plan is to get the First Order outside of the station and then take off into the atmosphere, trapping them on the outside.

As wild as all of this will be, the inner-conflicts within the group interest me more. Will Tam take Tierny’s offer and join the First Order? Will the season end with her on the side of the First Order and not her friends? Tam, at the end of day, is a good, noble and decent person and while she may be hurt right now by recent revelations, she will always fall on the right side. It may take some time for her to reach that point, but I’m confident she will reach it. I’m expecting Tam to end this season wearing a First Order uniform.

Finally, it’s great seeing Captain Doza finally blowing his lid and pushing back hard against Commander Pyre. Unfortunately it cost him 4D-M1N as she was shot by Pyre, but droids can be repaired and hopefully after the dust settles, this is the case.

Till next week and the season finale of Star Wars Resistance...MTFBWY.

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