Kaz is stressed out because of his work trying to fix an engine, especially after it falls off the side of the station when he tries to work outside so he can watch a race. After hauling it out of the ocean, he gets a chewing-out from Yeager over his lack of work ethic. Later, Kaz is talking to Aunt Z at her tavern, and considers moving to a different place on the Colossus. He is approached by a pilot named Rucklin, who says he's heard of him and invites him to sit with him and his friends, Gorrak Wiles and Lin Gaava.
Kaz is impressed by the trio, and surprised when they reveal that Yeager used to be a racer. They mention that Yeager used to use hyperfuel as a boost. He agrees to Rucklin's offer of a speeder bike race. However, Kaz's bike malfunctions, and Rucklin has to save him. After returning to the Colossus, Yeager turns up and chews Kaz out for taking too long of a break, and Kaz has to leave. Once he's out of earshot, Rucklin thanks his Sullustan friend for the job he did on the bike, because now they have Kaz right where they want him.
After getting chewed out by Yeager again, Kaz tells Neeku about meeting Rucklin. Neeku warns that Rucklin and his friends don't have a very good reputation, but Kaz doesn't listen. He decides to sneak out and see Rucklin. He sees his racer, and Rucklin wishes he could see Yeager's ship. Kaz agrees to sneak him into Yeager's private hangar so they can see the ship. The two sneak into Yeager's office, avoiding Bucket, Yeager and Tam in the process, and Kaz discovers, via a screen with old photos, that Yeager was both in the Rebellion and had a family. However, the hangar door is locked, so that trip is scuppered. When Kaz isn't looking, Rucklin steals a container of hyperfuel, and leaves at the first opportunity.
Later, Kaz goes over to Rucklin's hangar to see if he and his friends want to go for lunch, but as they block Kaz's view of the stolen fuel, they decline, Rucklin saying that a race will begin soon, which he's competing in. Bucket is doing inventory and discovers the hyperfuel missing. In a panic, he rolls off to tell Tam and Neeku. Kaz and BB-8 arrive, and learn that the fuel is missing. Tam tells him that using more than a few drops of hyperfuel can turn ships into a flying bomb, and Kaz realizes that Rucklin must have stolen it. He and BB-8 take off in a hurry, rushing through crowded hallways. In his hangar, Rucklin pours hyperfuel into his ship, oblivious to the fact that he's putting in far more than is safe.
Eventually, Kaz realizes that he won't get to Rucklin in time if he goes through the hallways, and he and BB-8 take the service duct shortcut. Arriving, Kaz jumps onto Rucklin's ship just before he launches, and as the ship falls toward the ocean, uses the emergency switch to open the hatch, and then manages to activate the ejection seat, launching them away from Rucklin's racing ship before its inevitable explosion. However, the ejection seat's parachute was removed because of its weight, but BB-8 fires his cable and saves them. Unfortunately, Kaz and Rucklin are heavier than the astromech droid, and he begins to roll towards the edge as the young men climb the cable. Yeager arrives just in time to help pull them up.
Kaz attempts to apologize to Yeager, but he doesn't appear to be listening. Rucklin, furious, yells at Kaz for the loss of his ship, and Kaz points out that Rucklin would be dead if it wasn't for him, and that since he stole the fuel he only has himself to blame. Unaware that Yeager is in earshot, Rucklin says that no one can prove anything, and vows he'll get Kaz back before he and his gang leave. Yeager, looking at the silhouette of Captain Doza in the tower, comments that they can't attract attention.
At Yeager's shop, Kaz tells Yeager he understands if he wants to fire him, but Yeager instead orders him to clean some engine parts outside, and tells Kaz that despite what happened, he's a good person. Kaz, talking to Neeku and Tam, realizes it means he can watch the race. BB-8 tries to get Kaz's attention as the cart of parts begins to roll over the edge of the platform, but Kaz is a bit too slow...
Tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Rucklin and friends use some service ducts as secret passageways around the Colossus to and from their garage.
- Alliterative Title: "Fuel for the Fire".
- Book Ends: The episode begins and ends with Kaz getting distracted by a race and the cart with parts he was ordered to clean falling off the platform.
- Brick Joke: At Aunt Z's, Kaz asks her if she knows about anywhere else on the Colossus he could live, which prompts an elderly blue Arcona sitting farther down the bar to make an offer, which Kaz turns down. Later, while Kaz and BB-8 are running through the hallways trying to get to Rucklin in time, the Arcona appears again and shouts after Kaz that her offer still stands.
- Chekhov's Gun: Kaz uses the route through the service ducts that Rucklin brought him through the first time to get to Rucklin's hangar in time to save him from his soon-to-be-exploding ship.
- Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: After Kaz rescues him from getting blown up by his hyperfueled-ship, Rucklin complains to Kaz that he screwed over his chance of winning the race, ignoring the fact that he wouldn't be alive otherwise if it weren’t for Kaz's timely rescue.
- Continuity Nod:
- The photo of Yeager and his fellow Rebel pilots shows them celebrating in front of a burning, crashed Star Destroyer on Jakku.
- Yeager's family photo appears to have been taken on Batuu.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Kazuda learns from a photo that Yeager had a wife and daughter, which raises the question of where they are now and why Yeager isn't with them. Kaz senses that Yeager must've had a Dark and Troubled Past that he doesn't want to talk about, and shortly after, Yeager looks at his photos with a solemn expression.
- Ejection Seat: How Kaz gets himself and Rucklin out of the latter's racer before it explodes.
- Facepalm: Yeager, when the engine Kaz believed he'd repaired instead blows out.
- Foil: Rucklin and his two teammates are a deliberate contrast to Team Fireball's three mechanics, Kaz, Tam and Neeku. Both trios are composed of Two Guys and a Girl, with one of the guys being an alien and the other two being humans. Kaz and Rucklin are both good pilots who race, or want to. Tam and her counterpart, Lin Gaava, are both Wrench Wenches who wear big work gloves and a piece of facial protection pushed back on their head (a visor for Tam, a welding helmet for the other girl). Only, Rucklin and his crew are a trio of lazy, thieving jerkasses willing to screw other people over in order to win, even putting Kaz in physical danger in order to make him feel indebted to them, and all of them seem pleasant on first meeting. In contrast, Kaz and his teammates are genuinely good people, even though Kaz is awkward and naïve, Tam is surly, and Neeku is overly-literal and has a tendency to run his mouth, all of which are factors that might make them give off the wrong impression on first meeting.
- Foreshadowing: On Kaz's first visit to Rucklin's hangar, he's told that Rucklin's racer is being stripped of all extraneous systems in order to make it lighter. When Kaz activates Rucklin's ejection seat to get the two of them out of the ship, it turns out that the parachute has been removed because Rucklin didn't think it was necessary for racing, requiring BB-8 to use his cable to save them.
- Here We Go Again!: At the end of the episode, the cart of engine parts Kaz was ordered to clean falls over the edge, just like the engine at the beginning.
- I Owe You My Life: In a minor example, Kaz agrees to sneak Rucklin into Yeager's private hangar to look at his racer because he saved him from the exploding speeder bike. This was deliberately invoked by Rucklin and his friends, so they could get a chance to steal Yeager's hyperfuel.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Kaz spends more than the allotted time that Yeager gave him for a break (in fact, he spent two hours) messing around with Rucklin and his team.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Rucklin steals hyperfuel from Yeager, which then blows up his racer.
- Made of Explodium: Hyperfuel is so unstable that using more than a few drops in a ship will turn it into a flying bomb. Rucklin's ship blows up spectacularly when he puts in far too much of the stuff.
- Never My Fault: Rucklin blames Kaz for blowing up his ship, even though it was his own fault for putting hyperfuel in the engine and the only thing Kaz did was save his life.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The official synopsis said that Rucklin was going to outright pressure Kaz into stealing the hyperfuel. What actually happens is that Rucklin pretends to befriend Kaz in order to get him to sneak him into Yeager's office, supposedly to look at Yeager's racer, where Rucklin steals the fuel himself behind Kaz's back.
- No OSHA Compliance: The engine falls off the ledge because, as is typical for the Star Wars universe, there is no guard rail.
- The Reveal: Kazuda learns that Yeager was a rebel pilot who served in the Battle of Jakku and that he has (or possibly had) a wife and daughter. In addition, Yeager has participated in the races before, but for whatever reason, he chooses not to.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Rucklin and his team take advantage of Kazuda so that they can use his connection to Yeager to sneak into Yeager's quarters and steal his hyperfuel. Neeku tries to warn Kaz that they're slackers and not a good crowd to get in.
- Traitor Shot: As Kaz's speeder bike starts to malfunction, there's a quick close-up of Rucklin looking on smugly, making it clear that this is something he planned.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Rucklin, after Kaz saves him from his exploding ship — a problem which was entirely his fault — is instead furious that his ship, which he sank all of his savings into, has been destroyed. He vows to get back at Kaz for this.
- The Unreveal: We never get to see what Yeager's ship looks like.
- Vehicular Sabotage: Rucklin and his friends sabotage the speeder bike that Kaz is going to ride so that he can stage a rescue, specifically so Kaz will feel indebted to him.
