History Recap / StarWarsRebelsS3E12Warhead

** A robot built to harm and destroy gets bonked on the head when it lands on a new and unfamiliar world, causing it to forget its mission, then befriends two of the locals before turning back into a superweapon when something reminds it of its mission. [[WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant Sound familiar?]] Except here, there was never any good in EXD, nor will there ever be.

* ActuallyAGoodIdea: Zeb comes up with the idea to send the EXD back to the Empire in such a way that it will explode when they try to access its memory. AP-5, who ahs spent the episode insulting Zeb's intelligence, is momentarily speechless over Zeb coming up with a good idea.

* DidntSeeThatComing: Thrawn didn't expect that the rebels would get the idea send the droid back to him while counting down to self-destruct, leading him to ask how it was even possible. Even though he didn't account for that development, it still helped him in another way.

* HoistByTheirOwnPetard: EXD-9's self-destruct mechanism ends up being used against the Empire by sending it back while still counting down. Results aside, even Thrawn is surprised his enemies were able to pull that kind of stunt over him.

* ItsALongStory: Zeb says this to everyone else after receiving Fulcrum's congratulations.

* MortonsFork: If Zeb prevents EXD-9 from leaving the base, it will explode and destroy the base, and the Empire will come looking for it. If Zeb prevents EXD-9 from exploding in the base but doing so somewhere safe, the Empire will come looking for it. If Zeb can somehow prevent it from exploding but doesn't let it go, the Empire will come looking for it. If he stops it from exploding and lets it go, it will report where they are, and the Empire will come looking for ''them''. All the options result in the base being compromised. Even [[TakingAThirdOption taking the fifth option]], letting it go back back to its origin and exploding there before passing on the information, helps the Empire because the number of places it has to look has dropped considerably, but it bought the rebels a significant amount of time.

** The Imperial operators who activate the reprogrammed droid, and realize they're effed. "Is that a countdown?" "Oh my . . ." ''[KABOOM]''

** Since EXD-9 got out of contact with Thrawn's fleet, Kallus suspected the rebels have the unit, so he contacted them as Fulcrum.

* XanatosGambit: By Thrawn, naturally. If the droid returns safely to base, he gets the Rebels' location. If the droid never returns, he knows to investigate that world as a likely target. If the Rebels manage to catch and deactivate the droid, it will blow up and kill them all, as well as revealing what world to investigate to see what's left. Packing up and relocating their base (which was discussed in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E09VisionsAndVoices "Visions and Voices"]]) to avoid being compromised will only take a lot of precious time and effort away from a direct strike on the Empire, and the Rebels are on a strict timetable. Even when Zeb gets the idea to send the droid back rigged to blow, thus destroying a large portion of the droids without revealing which one was compromised, Thrawn still narrows his search considerably because all those droids had randomized, yet specific targets.

* FailsafeFailure: EXD-9's SelfDestructMechanism is intended to kill whoever disables the droid or attempts to alter its memories. Instead, the bomb itself is reprogrammed to detonate if the Empire tries to access the droid's memories, taking out an entire Star Destroyer.

* CallForward: This episode starts in pretty much the same way as ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', with a Star Destroyer sending out probes to locate the rebels. Not to mention a lot of talk about meteorites.

** The interface that EXD-9 has in combat mode greatly resembles the one that [[Franchise/TheTerminator the T-800]] has.

* WorthyOpponent: Thrawn may not know who got the idea to send back the Infiltrator Droid rigged to blow to make sure he won't know which one was compromised, he felt that at least deserved credit for effort.

* WorthyOpponent: Thrawn is impressed when the Rebels send back the Infiltrator Droid rigged to blow, making sure that Empire won't know which one was compromised.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: AP-5 and Zeb immediately trust a stoic, quiet droid that has virtually no personality. Droids of that type are usually bad news.

** The syllables on Chopper's response to Zeb's decision to bring EXD-9 back to the base sound a lot like a [[TheUnintelligible droid-speak]] version of "[[ThisIsGonnaSuck I've got a baaaaad feeling about this.]]" -- particularly like [[Film/ANewHope how Han enunciates the line when he and the others fall into the Death Star's trash compactor]].[[note]]Apart from this instance, and Ezra saying "I have a ''good'' feeling about this" in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E13TheCall "The Call"]], ''Rebels'' hasn't otherwise come ''close'' to using the famous phrase.[[/note]]

** The syllables on Chopper's response to Zeb's decision to bring EXD-9 back to the base sound a lot like a [[TheUnintelligible droid-speak]] version of "[[ThisIsGonnaSuck I've got a baaaaad feeling about this.]]" -- particularly like [[Film/ANewHope how Han enunciates the line when he and the others fall into the Death Star's trash compactor]].[[note]]Apart from this instance, and Ezra saying "I have a ''good'' feeling about this" in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E13TheCall "The Call"], ''Rebels'' hasn't otherwise come ''close'' to using the famous phrase.[[/note]]

* ADayInTheLimelight: AP-5, Zeb and Chopper.

** Zeb appears to have gone back to referring to himself as "Captain" again since he's Chief of Security. Back in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E12LegendsOfTheLasat "Legends of the Lasat"]], he felt he no longer deserved that title, and in [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E07TheWynkahthuJob "The Wynkahthu Job"]], it was an insult. Presumably, being made chief of security makes him feel like he can proudly bear his former title again.

** The syllables on Chopper's response to Zeb's decision to bring EXD-9 back to the base sound a lot like a [[TheUnintelligible droid-speak]] version of "[[ThisIsGonnaSuck I've got a baaaaad feeling about this.]]" -- particularly like [[Film/ANewHope how Han enunciates the line when he and the others fall into the Death Star's trash compactor]].[[note]]Apart from this instance, and Ezra saying "I have a ''good'' feeling about this" in "The Call", ''Rebels'' hasn't otherwise come ''close'' to using the famous phrase.[[/note]]

** The Imperial operators who activate the reprogrammed droid, and realize they're effed. "Is that a countdown?" "Oh my..." [KABOOM]

* XanatosGambit: By Thrawn, naturally. If the droid returns safely to base, he gets the Rebels' location. If the droid never returns, he knows to investigate that world as a likely target. If the Rebels manage to catch and deactivate the droid, it will blow up and kill them all, as well as revealing what world to investigate to see what's left. Packing up and relocating their base (which was discussed in "Visions and Voices) to avoid being compromised will only take a lot of precious time and effort away from a direct strike on the Empire, and the Rebels are on a strict timetable. Even when Zeb gets the idea to send the droid back rigged to blow, thus destroying a large portion of the droids without revealing which one was compromised, Thrawn still narrows his search considerably because all those droids had randomized, yet specific targets.

* MissedHimByThatMuch: Since Zeb and the droids had no idea where EXD-9 was gonna go, they unknowingly almost got Kallus killed if he was in the same ship where the infiltrator droids were being collected.

** Zeb appears to have gone back to referring to himself as "Captain" again since he's Chief of Security. Previously in "Legends of Lasat", he felt he no longer deserved that title, and in "The Wynkahthu Job", it was an insult. Presumably, being made chief of security makes him feel like he can proudly bear his former title again.

* PunctuatedForEmphasis: Kallus' line after seeing the star destroyer get blown up:
-->'''Kallus''': What. Just. ''Happened''?! Report!