Having made a jump back into familiar setting of Star Wars: Resistance main location, The Colossus, episode 12 allows us to see the heroes didn’t just idle their time but have actually learned much from their wins and their mistakes.
Which, to be honest, was quite a relief for my main fear, which was to be made to watch Kaz and Co stumble on the same obstacles again and again pretending there was never a lesson they could or should have learned from.
As usual: spoilers ahead. Also ahead: my personal opinions that don’t necessarily correspond with anyone else’s.
Recap: See? Kaz’s Not that Useless!
So, at the episode’s start we are presented with the usual stuff, which is: what task did our main hero complete (almost managed to repair “Fireball” by himself) and what will be the main problems of the episode (watching over Flix & Orca’s shop). Naturally in true monomythic way, Kaz is presented with a taboo he will inevitably break: never ever even enter a secret storage room, much less sell any stuff stored there.
Blessed with Neeku’s absolutely serious “Try not to blow it up!”, Kaz goes on his suddenly mercantile mission. And he actually manages all right (especially given he was apparently not told where to find which parts), until an obviously bad guy shows up to spoil his day.
The bad guy wants a very rare and valuable ship part I will call McGuffin from now on as it’s certainly what it is. As Kaz has grown up enough not to break taboo willingly he doesn’t get it and sets up a crystal clear plan to distract our naive main hero and steal McGuffin anyway. Being naive, Kaz does get caught; being not that naive any more, he at least asks BB-8 to look for the shop in his absence and ensures he can contact the droid if needed.
And it is needed, because the obviously bad guy not only had locked Kaz down in a storage locker but payed a station tech to drop that locker in the ocean.
So as the bad guy breaks into the shop he’s immediately made to face BB-8 in all his cunning glory. The droid looses, but not before giving the bad guy quite a fight, while Kaz uses his acquired knowledge of mechanic parts to break free from the locker and save his life. And not only that: he demonstrated he’s got better in spying by quietly following the bad guy to his ship and not making noise even when bitten by a pet gork.
Now he has only one problem: the ship had launched and he is still in, accompanied by McGuffin and the pet gork. And in any earlier episode it would’ve meant now’s the time for an ex machina rescue or something like that, but lo and behold! Kaz manages to find the way out himself, combining both his natural inventiveness, spy craft and mech craft (and even a pet gork does their part)!
In another sweet deviation from a usual trope, Kaz is not chastised for doing what he could and there is no dull misunderstanding involved. Shop owners happened to have known the bad guy and his desire to rob them for a long time so they believe Kaz’s story.
And we learn that McGuffin has a real function after all, being used in heavy mining operations. That just happen to be of interest for the First Order.
Review: A Refreshing Tale of Kaz Being Capable
As I’ve already said I was a bit afraid of this episode after the preview presented the audience with the mission Kaz would have in it (looking after a shop) and a taboo he’s given (not to interact with the back storage room in any possible way).
Surprisingly, all my fears turned out to be…just fears. Despite the problems he has to face, Kaz manages to show enough skill, quick thinking and really good planning for the audience to see how he’s grown up since the beginning.
Which is even better given he doesn’t go from 0 to 10 suddenly. He is still very naive. He still makes enough mistakes. He even still stumbles a lot. But he learns.
Getting caught and almost caught taught him to hide, to be quiet, to be attentive. Repairing ships made it possible for him to bring one down. Being friendly with people allowed him to make a deal with Flix and Orca in the first place. Whatever he is—still lacking finesse, still all to gullible, still idealistic to a fault—he is anything but a static hero. On the contrary; and I really like that the creative team managed to show Kaz both getting better with his task and still being himself and not turning in an almost totally different person as I felt Ezra was Star Wars: Rebels finale.
No momentary transformation from a troubled teenager into a mature Jedi here. Just natural growth the person undergoes in tough situation.
Moments, Thoughts, Theory Fuel
- The main question of the episode: they own a shop together, they live together, they visit Flix’s mom together…you know what I’m talking about, don’t you? More importantly: will it stay a queer-baity background, be announced on some convention or outright shown on screen? I have no high hopes, but a girl can dream, y’know.
- For the first time in this series Kaz not only acknowledges his guilt before Tam, but actually goes a long way to compensate her loss at least with repairing the ship for her to fly it. Not only was it sweet, but it has shown another aspect of Kaz’s growth as a person.
- So, this McGuffin…will it surface again? Or will it be just another clue for the Resistance?
- Mining Guild was mentioned and it’s member is our bad guy of the week. No surprise here, as those guys proved to be quite happy working for the Empire and engage in slavery in other canon material.
- Flix and Orca’s friendly banter is truly a treat for sore ears, Well written and well acted, indeed.
