I was a bit underwhelmed by this one. Still had lots of great moments, but nothing got moved along very much. I did like the Waif's line of dialogue that "Everyone has their own rebellion." That's a good way to put it. Everyone has a reason to hate the Empire. They don't have to be the same reason. Luke, Han, and Leia all came to the rebellion for very different reasons. There were a lot of subtle things that I really enjoyed.
Hits1) Showcasing Cassian's skills, much like Shawn Spencer on Psych, with an impressive eye for detail - knowing which hand everyone shoots with and so forth.
2) Lt. Gorm setting up the dialogue so the 2 guys beneath him think they convinced him to give everyone the night off when in fact he's doing it to get the base security down to a minimum.
3) Having them actually practice for the mission as well as burning the evidence of the plan.
4) Making Denise Gough's character sympathetic to us, even though she only succeeds if she unravels the plan that there is in fact an organized Rebellion. I'd also like to think that she took some stim-pills there to stay awake, straight out of Mara Jade's carry-all in the Heir to the Empire books.
5) Confirming that Luthen's assistant is in on the Rebellion. I'd like to make her WInter from the Legends books, but that's just my sentimentality talking.
Misses1) Mon Mothma's two scenes felt edited down to where they had very little impact.
2) For all of the bickering with the strike team, they're pretty much exactly where they were to start the episode - they have various degrees of trust about Cassian and vice versa. They all act offended that he's a hired gun. Seems like that would be the norm for an operation like theirs when you need assistance..Just felt like the last episode could have been 15 minutes longer and woven all this stuff in and we could haven't gotten to the raid already.
3)Henry Thomas and his mom had what 3-4 scenes and the only thing that happened is that she made a off-screen phone call with no real resolution.
4) The end scene with Luthen - just didn't do much for me. Of course he'd be worried and anxious.
Theories/Questions1) The teenager is not Mon Mothma's daughter, but her husband's from another marriage, it's a marriage of convenience, and he either knows or is figuring out what she's up to, and that's trouble.
2) Who is Uncle Harlo? Seems like the obvious answer is that he's Major Paratgaz (head of ISD/Qyburn) and that he's going to get assigned as a second assistant to Denise Gough's character.
3) How many of the 7 are going to die in this raid? Other than Cassian, we definitely need a death pool set up for next week. The kid with the manifesto seems most likely to bet William Barett Travissed - all gung ho and then killed in the first 90 seconds of the fight.
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