Star Wars Rebels Review: “Double Agent Droid” + Rebels Recon. What Did You Think?
On the whole I’ve been thoroughly impressed with this season of Star Wars Rebels. There’s been the perfect amount of character development, action, canon, and stakes that it’s easy to get into week in and week out. Which is why I’m so disappointed in this week’s episode, because it really didn’t have anything that made this season so special. “Double Agent Droid” definitely has some enjoyable moments, but it can’t make up for how dull this episode is.
The episode starts with AP-5, Chopper, and Wedge Antilles going on a secret mission to an Imperial outpost to find some codes they will need for when they take back Lothal. Through the course of the mission they get the codes, but in the process Chopper is hijacked by a mysterious Imperial intelligence officer known as the Collector (more on him in a bit). The location of the Rebel Base is at risk with an evil Chopper on the loose and droid hijnx ensues.
Let’s start with what I liked about this episode, mainly the Collector. Voiced by the usual upbeat and loopy Josh Gad (yes, the same guy who tried to get some TLJ info from Daisy Ridley) who does a surprisingly good job of being a somewhat dull, yet menacing Imperial operative.
The usually not evil @JoshGad turned to the Dark Side and voiced the Imperial Controller in tomorrow’s #StarWarsRebels! pic.twitter.com/zzdGCKGssw
— Disney XD (@DisneyXD) March 11, 2017
The Collector could have very easily brought the Rebellion to its knees if the Phoenix Squadron hadn’t gotten to Chopper in time. Is it just me or does the Collector look an awful lot like Pablo Hildago? There is a pic floating on Twitter of Hildago and The Collector side by side and there is definitely a striking resemblance between him and the King of Canon himself.
@acarboni Is this @pablohidalgo in Star Wars: Rebels? #RebelsRecon pic.twitter.com/2SjJCtmpbG
— Matthew Poe (@fawkestar70) March 11, 2017
I also enjoyed some of the humor that this episode had to offer, the “Yes, I can” and “No, you can’t” interaction between Chopper and AP-5 legitimately made me laugh out loud. Being a big fan of musicals, I love seeing that type of silly nod to a timeless song when it works. Which brings me to the things I didn’t like, being most of the other humor not mentioned. It felt really forced and out of place. Especially AP-5 breaking into song in space, it just felt completely out of place and really took me out of the story.
My biggest negative from this episode was that it just didn’t have the stakes I like to see in the series. I have no problem with them going for a quirky and wacky episode, but for an episode that could literally expose the entire Rebel Alliance and it’s location, is that really the best time to make a quirky episode with lots of cartoon-like humor? It had a very “space whales” vibe to it from last season and with so few episodes left in this season, I, and I’m sure a lot of other Rebels fans were expecting a lot more. With a huge episode in “Twin Sun’s next week, it’s disappointing to see a story with so little relevancy to the series at large.
Rating: 6/10
Also the latest episode of Rebels Recon has been released. Tell us what you thought about the episode in the comments section and check out StarWars.com’s new video Rebels Recon #3.19: Inside “Double Agent Droid”.
Well, this episode didn’t work for me at all. I regret wasting 20 minutes and not watching recon only.
The SW version of a toilet was the most interesting thing there for me.
What didn’t work for me:
1. I really don’t like chopper and sounds he produces, so every episode concentrated on him is a bit annoying for me.
2. Ezra not using the force to open the door while they were trapped
3. The mission of getting codes being very dull
4. Blowing imperial ship (AGAIN) by simply sending too much information… really
5. No character/story development – this episode could’ve been erased and nothing would happen
The singing scene was a bit naive and very Disney-esque, but i don’t mind it at all
My least favorite Rebels episode out of all 3 seasons.
The “yes I can, no you can’t” yanked me out of the galaxy far far and brought me to familiar old earth. Star Wars shouldn’t stoop to quoting earth programs.
Star Wars uses Earth slang and Earth names. It’s hardly new to have SW contemporary culture references.
This goes beyond mere slang. It is the lyrics to an actual song. Would you be ok if everyone started quoting Mary Poppins?
No, but this was a one off and you’re playing the straw man by suggested I’d be okay with it’s continual use.
“Then we’ll meet in hell!”
“we’ll be sitting ducks.” Even Lucas couldn’t help it.
What song is that?
That line was put there intentionally..He had to figure out a way to bring people back to reality because the “Going to Tosche station to pick up some power converters” line was too much for the average human.
I couldn’t figure out why Ezra didn’t have his lightsaber to cut the bars…..thought he would carry it clipped to his belt almost all the time.
I liked Ap-5’s end scene in space and I enjoyed Wedge having a show, but as a Brit i can’t help but feel increasingly frustrated at the bad Alan Rickman impression. It was novel as a one off. Now it’s just annoying.
Plus the episode felt like yet another filler instalment. So probably 5/10 for me.
“as a Brit i can’t help but feel increasingly frustrated at the bad Alan Rickman impression. It was novel as a one off. Now it’s just annoying.”
Maybe stop thinking about Alan Rickman and just enjoy the voice acting. I think you’ll have more fun that way.
Maybe I can’t stop thinking about it since it’s quite obvious what the voice is meant to mimic, and the accent is terrible.
Maybe stop thinking you can demand others enjoy what you obviously do.
Maybe calm down. You’re whining and crying about a kid’s show and a weird accent (as if those are rare in the world of Star Wars).
It’s not the end of the world.
I agree, it’s not the end of the world. shakes like da dog’s.. is entitled to his/her opinion.
Of course, we all are.
Wait. LOL!?!?!? Are you fucking serious?!!!!
Now it’s okay to call this a kid’s show!?!?!?!
Ahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahaha
as a fellow Brit i concur. Cross between Alan Rickman and Kenneth Williams..was expecting an “ooow matron” at any moment
Alan Rickman voicing a SW character would have been amazing. I never thought of the voice sounding like him, but you’re right! Maybe that’s why I liked it so much.
All Ican say, glad that this is a filler. I kinda liked the ISB agents though.
i enjoyed the banter for the most part and it was good seeing that at least the ISB knows what they are doing. now the plot here is… interesting. first of all, i thought thrawn would have figured out where the rebel base was from the kallus episode(if he didn’t i’ll be disappointed). but further, the collector dude sees quickly that the rebels stole access codes to attack lothal, why not just let them go and prepare a trap? and finally, where the heck is kanan? he’s been awol the last two eps.
I understand they need filler episodes, and that this is a kids show, but this episode was pretty awful. I hate coming on sites like this just to complain, but this season has taken a toll on me. Seems like more episodes this time around did nothing to advance the plots season 2 left us with than did. I remember someone said early this season that knowing their first and last episodes will be great doesn’t justify more episodes being a quality like this one was. It’s to a point where I dont plan on watching season 4 until its over now. I know the trailer they put out will be fantastic, but just like the one with this season, all the amazing stuff will be from one or two episodes towards the end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-79FUYYJPU
I loved this episode. I loved the Imperial Lobot “listeners.” AP-5 was great, as usual. AP-5 singing? Fantastic. Granted, there were goofy moments. I agree with Bill that Ezra should have sat this episode out… and an Imperial ship being destroyed through a data transfer…. eh…. well, it worked in Independence Day… cough…
That song at the end is simply my favorite thing ever now.
My life is complete.
They should do a full on musical episode. I’ve always wanted to hear Zeb sing. 😉
Please tell me you are joking. That was one of the worst moments in SW history. Give me Jar Jar’s antics over that any day. Why would he be signing? Where in the history of his character has he ever sung before?
Of course I am… Or am i? 😉
cant be worse than Russel Crowe in Les Mis
Me too. That was completely unexpected. I laughed out loud.
Cheers. 🙂
AP-5 will make a wonderful edition to the Disney princess roster! ☺️☺️
I Googled the lyrics to AP-5’s little song at the end – it had a Disneyesque tone to it (maybe Mary Poppins-type whimsy) but nope, nothing came up. But Chopper vs. AP-5 in the beginning was great…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO23WBji_Z0
https://youtu.be/twR_Rv7149U
Did anyone else think the baddie of this episode looked like Vsauce? lol
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f42eb0812735531655bf39a7f75217c615f9f10676a0df14bf834f5b2eb284c.jpg
So now that Josh Gad is part of the SW community, Daisy can now spill secrets.
Giving it a 6 out of 10 was extremely generous. Simply horrendous. I really wish they’d cut the number of episodes in half, if only to preserve the quality of the show. The annoying AP-5 announces multiple times that Chopper has been infiltrated by the Empire, and everyone laughs it off? Then they leave Chopper alone in the bridge? Then they all go down to the cargo bay together so they can all conveniently get trapped? Then they open the doors and nobody gets sucked out? And on and on. I haven’t even mentioned the completely UNfunny “what-the-HELL-are-they-doing” dialog between Chopper and AP-5 that starts on the ship and continues even as they are supposedly “sneaking” into the base. This was the worst CRAP the Rebels team has ever done — as cringe-worthy as the infamous Christmas Special.
I agree that it was bad, but Chewie’s dad jacking off is a bridge too far.
Plus they have a powerful force user and he can not close or open a door? Ultimate Fail!
How can you follow up the birth of the Rebellion with this episode!?!!? Awful
Yeah, could have buried this episode anywhere in season 2 or 3.
It wasn’t even a 1/10.
The jokes were silly and the story didn’t bring the overall-plot forward at all. Awful!
The collector looked like Hidalgo and that was the joke, I guess.
My first thought was: There are no imperial officers with beards (except moustaches) or glasses!
Was that the first time we have seen glasses in SW?
Too bad Pablo had to be represented in such a lackluster episode.
It’s the one episode my wife ever watched and spent the whole time looking at me with one eyebrow raised…..
My wife and I watched it last night after I had heard just how bad this was, and wanted to see her first reaction…she jumped off the couch and said, “If I wanted to hear kids arguing, I wouldn’t have to turn the TV on! Sheesh! This is annoying” Man, I couldn’t have said it better…I had hopes it wouldn’t be filler, but when Filloni himself admits it was filler….yea.
He stated that he knows some fans refer to an episode like this as filler. He views it as something more.
It definitely wasn’t for everyone 🙂 And she loves Rebels! I have to say Collider was interesting to watch with their reactions to it.
I’m glad that he understands that some of us see this as filler. I certainly saw it as filler. He see’s it as something else. What, I don’t know, but I feel like he spent too much time with George on the Clone Wars.
I agree. He said all these “filler” episodes like Space Whales will end up not being so, but when you see an episode like this it’s hard to believe. The show just needs to stay away from episode starring droids altogether if they can’t do it serious.
The song at the end was unexpected and hilarious. People need to lighten up.
Well… there’s half an hour I’m never getting back.
6 of 10 is mighty generous, IMHO. This episode was a concentrated hit of damned near everything that I don’t like about Rebels, and that I’d thought they were mercifully getting away from at long last.
But nope. Here we go again. The nauseating old “wacky dysfunctional sitcom family” cliche was in full bloom, the plot telegraphed itself about half a dozen scenes ahead of time every step of the way, and the whole thing seemed intended to be little more than a half-assed delivery system for cringe-inducing “rimshot” jokes.
And then, just when I thought that it had gotten as bad as it was likely to get… Marvin The Paranoid Android starts bursting into monotone song? At that point, I was half expecting the return of Bea Arthur and her musical cantina.
If Filoni and company set out to prove once and for all that you don’t need Gungans to turn Star Wars into a cheese-slathered double bollocks sandwich, they succeeded appallingly.
On the bright side, at least the utter mess that this episode was ought to go a long way toward boosting my suspension of disbelief for the Maul episode that’s coming up. (Boy, for somebody whose torso was sliced in half and who was then dropped down a seemingly bottomless pit, that horny ol’ devil sure gets around!)
Can’t agree more. 6/10 is incredibly generous for this episode. The series has been building up to the climax wonderfully, and this is just stuck here.
There were some fun bits but the second half of the season has been so good, this episode is pure filler. I’d rather a shorter series than unneeded silly episodes like this.
I still like Rebels though. Next week will wash this all away I’m sure!
4/10. I really did not like how the ending was resolved at all. Way too neat and tidy for me. The worst episode this season for me. Can’t wait for next week though.
This episode had a decent premise, and I enjoyed most of the Josh Gad character. But the ending “reverse power surge” or whatever was just ridiculous and implausible.
Felt like a sitcom — laugh-lines, overacting, and then no real consequences or plot advancement by the end. Some Rebels episodes are serious and weighty, and some (this one) feel like they’re trying to inject Ep1-style comedy.
The controller looked exactly like Pablo and I’m sure that was intentionally. Why Josh Gad finds work as a voice actor is beyond me when he has one of the most annoying, grating voices out there is beyond me. If you don’t believe me, watch the movie Pixels. At least he was subdued in this episode… maybe he was on medication?
This was such a bad episode… from the first bump between Ezra and Zeb at the beginning to AP-5 singing at the end. Just…no. The story editor needs to be FIRED. Do they not have some sort of quality control? How are these episodes getting through? Whoever wrote this one should be banned from ever touching SW again. Sorry if that’s cruel, but we only have 1 SW animated show right now and these kind of episodes are inexcusable.
Also, no Kanan again? I’m good with that, though I supposed Kanan is off on some secret mission or something they neglected to tell us about. Ezra not using the Force? While for me that is a good thing, they have already established he has it and is like somehow super amazing at it, why wouldn’t he use it to force the door open that Zeb had trouble with.
The ending was soooo stupid. The power surge would fry a whole Imperial ship, but not Chopper? Come on.
This episode proved with Ap-5 that there can be too much of a good thing.
This felt like a joke episode they’ve made that accidentally made its way onto TV. I’m shocked over how truly bad this episode is. Especially after such a strong run lately.
I think it’s impossible for next episode to be worse than this considering it will have Maul and Obi-Wan
Unless the maul and obiwan showdown is all a vision ezra has and he is able to stop maul before he gets to obiwan.
This needs to be right up here on the top fellow forum goers!!!
“Maybe calm down. You’re whining and crying about a kid’s show and a weird accent (as if those are rare in the world of Star Wars).
It’s not the end of the world.”
This quote and hypocrisy brought to you by TUD! LOL! OMG I cannot stop laughing.
Woah woah woah…dude https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/368a604c2b2c80e58324b685c05c5b4a4ab15a59fff201a04c01348217a145a8.gif
Still laughing!
Wow, the rebels managed to get the plans, blow up the spy ship by sending data, figure out chopper was reprogrammed, recover chopper to his old state, all survive an open air lock AND recover their lost imperial droid that was “lost in space”. I really think they should just go to Coruscant and and ask the Emperor to surrender, nothing bad happens to these people ever.
Wasn’t my favorite episode but I did start laughing when AP-5’s happiness while drifting away was cut short by being picked up lol. The anything you can do I can do better was just cringe though..like why?
I actually loved the episode. Remembering that Star Wars Rebels is on a kid’s TV network, this felt the perfect amount of light and funny for kids and adults to watch. AP-5 is a real gem, especially when he is with Chopper.
What?! No mention of “refreshers”?
I have no idea why they would put such a filler episode before the season finale. The series as a whole has such bad pacing issues. You should be building to these last 3 episodes, especially with the hype around them. It caused everything to come to screeching halt. They did something very similar in Season 2, and it was a bad decision then as well. Hopefully these last 3 episodes will be worth it.