History Recap / StarWarsRebelsS3E12Warhead

-->'''Kallus''': What. Just. ''Happened''?

-->'''Kallus'': What. Just. ''Happened''?

* AllThereInTheManual: Rebels Recon confirms that the EXD models are outlawed even by the Empire due to how dangerous they are, but Thrawn overrode that mandate to use them. They later blow up an entire Star Destroyer, but Thrawn doesn't care as he got part of the information he needed.
* AmbiguousSituation: This being the first episode shown of them after "An Inside Man", neither Kallus or Thrawn show any hostility or awareness to each other of the former's possibly compromised status as Fulcrum. Either Thrawn is just hiding it because there's not much reason to bring it up at the time, or Thrawn doesn't actually know Kallus is Fulcrum in spite of what he implied in the ending of "An Inside Man", let alone know of Fulcrum's existence. Alternatively, his planning means there's little ''anyone'', even Fulcrum can do to affect the outcome in a way that won't benefit him, so he has no need to exclude Kallus for that reason.

** Wedge and Hobbie return after last being seen in their debut episode, "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E02TheAntillesExtraction The Antilles Extraction]]".
** Kallus being Fulcrum is alluded to, after TheReveal in "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E08AnInsideMan An Inside Man]]". Almost every time Kallus appears, Fulcrum sends a message.

** 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]].

* SpannerInTheWorks: The giant spiders attack the Infiltrator Droid before it can investigate, or even relay knowledge of its destination, ultimately allowing the Rebels to postpone the eventual discovery of their base.

* AmbiguousSituation: This being the first episode shown of them after "An Inside Man", neither Kallus or Thrawn show any hostility or awareness to each other of the former's possibly compromised status as Fulcrum. Either Thrawn is just hiding it because there's not much reason to bring it up at the time, or Thrawn doesn't actually know Kallus is Fulcrum in spite of what he implied in the ending of "An Inside Man", let alone know of Fulcrum's existence. Alternatively, his planning means there's little Fulcrum can do to affect the outcome in a way that won't benefit him, so he has no need to exclude Kallus for that reason.

* 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. 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.

** The Imperial operators who activate the reprogrammed droid. "Is that a countdown?" "Oh my..." [KABOOM]

* SpannerInTheWorks: The giant spiders attack the Infiltrator Droid before it can even relay knowledge of its destination, ultimately allowing the Rebels to postpone the eventual discovery of their base.

* ProperlyParanoid: Chopper wants to destroy the damaged Infiltrator Droid, even though it just looks like a busted protocol droid. Zeb ignores him. Chopper gives him an "I told you so" through AP-5 when it reveals its true nature. Had Chopper gotten his way, however, the Rebel base would have been compromised even sooner since the Empire would have known exactly which droid failed to report back and focused their search accordingly.

** Kallus is rather disturbed when he sees the Star Destroyer containing the Infiltrator Droids split in half from the explosion, although when he looks away his face has a bare hint of a smile.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: EXD-9's failsafe proton warhead is powerful enough to split a Star Destroyer in half.

* 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 will at least buy the rebels more time.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Thrawn reveals to Kallus that even though Zeb took steps to make sure the individual droid couldn't be identified, its use as a bomb still narrowed the search for the Rebel base down to a much smaller number of planets. It wasn't helped by the fact that Kallus, who is on the rebels' side, implicated them on this ordeal. Still, better than the alternatives.

** An additional reason: there's nothing better than knowing someone is a spy and [[FeedTheMole using them to pass on information]] you ''want'' the enemy to have.

* NoSell: Unlike most droid's, both Chopper's shock prod and Zeb's electrostaff fail to disable EXD, and Zeb gets shocked in return when it grabs and electrifies the staff.

** 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 Sounds familiar...]] 'cept here, there was never any good in EXD, nor will there ever be.

* 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 droid is captured and shut down on rebel base, it will self-destruct and destroy the base, ridding Thrawn of one source of opposition, as well as revealing what world to investigate to see what's left. 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.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Thrawn reveals to Kallus that even though Zeb took steps to make sure the individual droid couldn't be identified, its use as a bomb still narrowed the search for the Rebel base down to a much smaller number of planets. Still, better than the alternatives.
* NoSell: Both Chopper's shock prod and Zeb's electrostaff fail to disable EXD, and Zeb gets shocked in return when it grabs and electrifies the staff.

** The Imperial droid in its undercover mode ([[PaletteSwap previously used]] for other Imperial protocol droids we've seen) is based on Ralph [=McQuarrie's=] famous design for Threepio, the same painting that Chopper's design was pulled from. It's painted black with red highlights, but the design is otherwise identical.

** The self-destruct countdown vaguely resembles the one possessed by [[Film/PredatorFilm the Predator]].

** The self-destruct countdown vaguely resembles the one possessed by the [[Film/Predator Predator]].

** The self-destruct countdown vaguely resembles the one possessed by the [[Film/Predator]].

* OhCrap: Kallus is rather disturbed when he sees the Star Destroyer containing the Infiltrator Droids split in half from the explosion.

* MythologyGag: The Imperial droid in its undercover mode ([[PaletteSwap previously used]] for other Imperial protocol droids we've seen) is based on Ralph [=McQuarrie's=] famous design for Threepio, the same painting that Chopper's design was pulled from. It's painted black with red highlights, but the design is otherwise identical.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Thrawn reveals to Kallus that the droid being destroyed (and taking a Star Destroyer with it) simply narrowed the field of planets he needs to search for the Rebel base. Hero could refer to Zeb, for sending the droid back, or [[spoiler: Kallus as Fulcrum whose warning prompted Zeb's actions.]]

* WeHaveReserves: The officers go back and forth on this trope. On one hand, Kallus makes it a point that it's too wasteful to spend resources to keep chasing temporary comm failure, because the Imperial Navy has more important things to do. On the other hand, Thrawn has no concern for the loss of one Star Destroyer with it's entire crew and nearly all his valuable infiltrator droids, because the results were worth it.

* AmbiguousSituation: This being the first episode shown of them after "An Inside Man", neither Kallus or Thrawn show any hostility or awareness to each other of the former's possibly compromised status as Fulcrum. Either Thrawn is just hiding it because there's not much reason to bring it up at the time, or Thrawn doesn't actually know Kallus is Fulcrum in spite of what he implied in the ending of "An Inside Man". Alternatively, his planning means there's little Fulcrum can do to affect the outcome in a way that won't benefit him, so he has no need to exclude Kallus for that reason.

* 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.

* TakingYouWithMe: EXD has an internal proton warhead which is designed to detonate if the droid is disabled or its memory compromised.

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

* 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 droid is captured and shut down on rebel base, it will self-destruct and destroy the base, ridding Thrawn of one source of opposition. 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.

* AmbiguousSituation: This being the first episode shown of them after "An Inside Man", neither Kallus or Thrawn show any hostility or awareness to each other of the former's possibly compromised status as Fulcrum. Either Thrawn is just hiding it because there's not much reason to bring it up at the time, or Thrawn doesn't actually know Kallus is Fulcrum in spite of what he implied in the ending of "An Inside Man". Another interpretation would be that the involvement of Fulcrum wouldn't change the result, because with or without an informant, the rebels would be smart enough to figure out the droid and it's mission.

* ProperlyParanoid: Chopper wants to destroy the damaged Infiltrator Droid, even though it just looks like a busted protocol droid. Zeb ignores him. Chopper gives him an "I told you so" through AP-5 when it reveals its true nature. Had Chopper gotten his way, however, the Rebel base ''still'' would have been compromised sooner since the Empire will search for droids that fail to report their locations.
* RelocatingTheExplosion: After freezing EXD's SelfDestructMechanism, Zeb has AP-5 reprogram it to return to base and detonate on arrival. This way, the Empire can't be sure which droid detonated, buying the rebels some time as they figure it out.

* WorthyOpponent: For once, Thrawn is impressed of the Rebels' attempt to outsmart him by reprogramming the droid to detonate while allowing it to return to its Star Destroyer.