Princess Leia on a mission invoking a Jedi and his apprentice. Why does that sound familiar?'
Princess Leia has three cruisers to deliver to the rebels, but they have to get them off Lothal without the Imperials suspecting that Leia arranged the deal.
Tropes in this episode:
- Age Is Relative: Ezra and Leia are the same age, give or take a couple of days (Ezra was born on Empire Day, while Luke and Leia were born shortly after). However, the two could not look more different in maturity — Ezra still looks and sometimes acts like an older child, while Leia instead resembles and carries herself as a slightly younger version of the woman she will be in A New Hope. The difference, of course, is that she's had a stable home life as a princess and representative of Alderaan under the parentage of the Organas, whereas Ezra lost his parents at age 7 and has spent half his life struggling to survive on the streets of an Imperial-controlled shithole.
- Best Served Cold: When Ryder tells Zeb to make Kanan and Ezra's supposed capture "look good", Zeb gets a wicked grin on his face, one that all but says "I've been waiting to do this for a long time." He then knocks out both Kanan and Ezra with the butt of his bo-rifle. Given the crap he had to put up with from Ezra and the friction of working under Kanan's command, there must have been a bit of pent-up aggression there.
- Call-Back: Sabine comforts Ezra after he comes back by telling him that at least he now knows what happened to his parents. She was the one most insistent that he learn what happened to his family in "Gathering Forces".
- Call-Forward:
- Leia gets stunned by a blaster bolt here, just like she eventually will in A New Hope four years later. This time, however, it's because it's part of her plan to make it seem like she's still a loyal Imperial subject.
- Later, she bonds with Ezra partially because he's just lost his parents — a fate that will befall her in A New Hope.
- In A New Hope, Vader calls Leia on her ruse by saying "You weren't on one of your mercy missions this time." In this episode, we get to see one of the "mercy missions" to which Vader refers.
- Canon Immigrant: The three transports delivered to Phoenix Squadron look extremely similar to the Hammerhead-class Republic cruisers featured in the Knights of the Old Republic games, as well as the Thranta-class corvettes from Star Wars: The Old Republic, both of which are a part of the non-canon Legends continuity. This model would later be identified as the Sphyrna-class Hammerhead corvette, and apparently descend from a design dating back at least centuries.
- Commonality Connection: After a rough start, Ezra and Leia bond over being too young for their responsibilities and their strong sense of justice.
- Continuity Nod:
- Leia mentions she knows Ezra from his message back in "Call to Action".
- Lyste has every reason to be shaking in his boots when Leia decries Lothal's Imperial presence, considering what Tarkin did to the last incompetent Imperial agents.
- Crazy-Prepared: Lyste doesn't underestimate the rebels. When Leia's ships land, he immediately has gravity clamps attached to their landing struts, has an entire garrison present to guard them, and drops off a couple AT-ATs just to be safe.
- Deliberately Distressed Damsel: A three for one deal. To free Ryder Azadi, Leia allows him to supposedly capture her, and then Kanan and Ezra, still in disguise, are supposedly captured by Zeb while trying to "rescue" her.
- Didn't See That Coming: Leia's plan didn't count on Lyste being so thorough in his attempt to prevent the theft of her ships. The rebels still manage, but it takes a lot more effort than she anticipated.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Kanan and Ezra make liberal use of their Stormtrooper and cadet disguises to fool the Imperials.
- Failed a Spot Check: Lyste and his stormtroopers completely fail to notice one of the ships taking off until Leia points it out.
- Foreshadowing: In her journal, Sabine mentions that Lyste is much more competent than the average Imperial officer on Lothal since he actually takes the time to make preparations and increase the number of guards on his operations in anticipation of rebel attacks. Guess what he does in this episode.
- Gunship Rescue: When Ryder is captured by the Imperials, Hera shows up in the Ghost to provide support.
- Heroic BSoD: Ezra spends the episode in a mild one. Getting back into action helps, but he's clearly still grieving the official loss of his parents.
- Immediate Sequel: This episode starts a few hours after the last one.
- Indy Ploy: Leia's plan starts going south when Lyste secures her transports more thoroughly than she thought he would, forcing our heroes to put in more effort to steal them.
- Internal Reveal: As per Rebels tradition, Ryder Azadi get a big surprise when Kanan pulls out his lightsaber.
- I Owe You My Life: Ryder Azadi says this word-for-word to the Ghost crew when they help him escape.
- Leave No Witnesses: Downplayed, but when Leia has to take up a blaster herself, she kills rather than stuns to avoid her cover being blown.
- Make It Look Like a Struggle: First with Zeb, who knocks out Kanan and Ezra to make their capture convincing, then later with Leia, who struggles a bit with Ezra before letting him stun her to keep up her cover.
- Negated Moment of Awesome: Kanan takes down a walker, astonishing Leia. Ezra tries to do an impressive follow-up, snatching weapons from some stormtroopers attacking Ryder and Chopper, only for one of the guns to hit him in the head.Leia: That was impressive. Mostly.
- Never Going Back to Prison: Ryder cites this as his reason for refusing to join the rebellion. He gets over it when he realizes staying on Lothal isn't an option and the only way he's going back is if it's liberated.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Former Governor Azadi has spent a decade in prison and has no intention of going back. He refuses to join the rebels, and only participates in the theft of the three light cruisers with some reluctance. In the end, like Han, he willingly joins the Rebellion, planning to join the resistance on Lothal.
- Not Quite Dead: The Ghost torpedoes one of the AT-ATs, causing it to collapse. Then it gets back up less than a minute later.
- Oh, Crap!: Lyste's reaction to learning that Leia (the princess he's supposed to be guarding) has been "captured".
- Plausible Deniability: Leia insists that the rebels steal the cruisers while they are in the hands of the Empire so that Alderaan can't be blamed for their theft.
- Properly Paranoid: Not only does Lyste not underestimate the rebels, he also seems suspicious of Leia.
- Rank Up: Supply Master Lyste is now a lieutenant and has his own command.
- Rousing Speech: Leia gives one to the Ghost crew when they're discouraged by the heavy security.
- Taught by Experience: Lyste doesn't take any chances when trying to repel the Rebels, considering in the past Rebel activity was so strong on Lothal that Darth Vader was called in to handle it.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: When Lyste calls Leia "Miss", she corrects him.Leia: It's "Your Highness".
- This Is Gonna Suck: One AT-AT pilot gives a little "Uh-Oh" when he sees the cruiser angling its engines at him.
- Too Desperate to Be Picky: When Ezra is unimpressed by the antiquated Hammerhead corvettes that Leia is providing, Kanan tells him that in their position, they have to accept any help they can.
- Villainous Crush: It is clear Lyste is attracted to Leia, despite the latter's Royal Brat act, and is constantly trying to impress her.
- Weaponized Exhaust: Ryder disables the second AT-AT by hijacking one of the cruisers and using its engines to blow the AT-AT over.
- Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Ezra has this reaction to Leia when she starts giving orders the second she steps off her ship. They get on better terms once she learns about the death of his parents.
- Would Hit a Girl: Ezra stuns Leia to deflect suspicion away from her. With her permission, of course.
