This episode aired November 24, 2019.
The Ace Squadron is fighting off the forces of the First Order as the Colossus hangs in space, but Kaz knows they're running out of time and will have to escape soon. But Captain Doza is waiting for the person he's expecting to turn up, having launched a signal beacon for just that purpose. However, when Yeager and 4D point out that the station's shields are nearly down, Doza is forced to reluctantly call the retreat, as the Colossus jumps into hyperspace... only for an X-Wing to arrive just after the station leaves.
The pilot dryly notes that this isn't the welcome she expected, and she and her droid Torch briefly attack the TIE fighters, disabling two of them with ion cannons, before attempting to jump to hyperspace. Unfortunately, as the droid points out, the pilot's fancy flying was enough time for the Star Destroyer to snag them in a tractor beam. Discussing their predicament, the pilot and Torch decide that "playing dead it is" as the starfighter is pulled into the hangar.
When the stormtroopers demand the pilot disembark, she tells them that they'll be sorry if they wreck her ship. Agent Tierny arrives and demands the pilot's name, but instead the pilot demands that Tierny go first. The First Order Security Bureau agent responds that they have ways of finding out, but it turns out that the X-Wing's flight data recorder has been wiped and the droid is fried. Tierny orders the pilot taken away to the detention level.
Tropes:
- Action Prologue: The episode opens with the forces of the Colossus fighting off TIE fighters in deep space.
- All There in the Manual: The online supplementary material confirms that Lehon, a location mentioned by Venisa, is an alternate name for Rakata Prime just as it was in Legends.
- Armour-Piercing Question: Venisa delivers several of these to Tam, most pointedly asking her what she really wants out of life, instead of just spouting First Order talking points.
- Band of Brothers: Now that they're no longer engaging in competitive races and are focused on cooperating to fight the First Order, the Aces have gone from being friendly competitors to this.
- Birthday Episode: The episode takes place on Torra's 16th birthday.
- A Birthday, Not a Break: Torra and Captain Doza hoped to reunite with Venisa, but the First Order put a stop to that. What twists the knife further is that they always reunited on this day... Torra's birthday.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Doza family doesn't reunite for this year, but Kaz and the Aces throw a birthday party for Torra. Meanwhile, Venisa's words are getting through to Tam and possibly even Rucklin, and she's still out trying to find the Colossus. But, Tierny is not happy about this incident, and she's launched a full-on investigation that might force Tam to reveal what will put Torra and the rest of the Colossus in danger.
- Call-Back:
- In "The Platform Classic", Doza offhandedly calls Yeager an "old friend". Yeager reveals that he was friends with Doza and Venisa back when they were in the Rebellion.
- In "The New Trooper", when Pyre asked Doza why he left the Empire, the latter answers that it came down to a personal choice that he doubts the former would understand. Now we know that he meant he left for love.
- Continuity Nod:
- Venisa's X-Wing is a modified T-65B, the type flown in the Original Trilogy, as opposed to the Sequel Trilogy era's newer T-70s and T-85s.
- Venisa mentions Bakura, a planet originally from Legends that also appears in Vader Immortal as a hologram and is mentioned in Rise of the Resistance.
- She also mentions having encountered and escaped from Agent Terex.
- Hype calls Kaz "Kaz-tastrophe" again when it looks like he's made Torra upset.
- Kazuda realizes that Torra and Captain Doza's secret meetings with someone started six years ago, the same time Leia started the Resistance.
- Dangerous 16th Birthday: This episode takes place on Torra's 16th birthday, and it's safe to assume things are going to go very wrong for her after this, especially with the possibility that Tam could be forced to reveal that the pilot is Torra's mother.
- Defecting for Love: Turns out Doza defected from the Empire at the urging of Tora's mother.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": After Venisa recognizes her from time spent on the Colossus, Venisa calls Tam by her real name. But Tam keeps insisting her name is DT-533 now, not especially convincingly given that she has no objection to Rucklin using her name in her first scene in the episode.
- Dramatic Irony: Torra and her father are led to believe that her mother is too busy fighting the First Order elsewhere and accept that The Needs of the Many are more important right now, completely unaware that she dropped everything to try to get back to them.
- The End Justifies the Means: When Venisa points out that the First Order has destroyed the lives of many New Republic worlds, Rucklin argues that it was necessary because the New Republic was corrupt.
- Faking the Dead: Venisa's droid Torch "plays dead" so it can slip beneath the First Order's notice and out of the trash bin to rescue her.
- Force-Field Door: Venisa's cell on the Star Destroyer is sealed this way.
- Gave Up Too Soon: Despite insisting on staying for as long as possible until Venisa arrives, Captain Doza has the Colossus flee when it becomes clear the station and the Aces can't hold off the First Order any longer. Venisa shows up right after they leave.
- Happier Home Movie: At the end, Torra finds her father watching his and Venisa's goodbye, something he apparently does regularly.
- Happily Married: Yeager wistfully recalls how attached Venisa and Imanuel were to each other and that Venisa was the reason why Imanuel defected from the Empire in the first place.
- Have We Met?: Tam thinks Venisa looks familiar and asks her if they've met. Venisa doesn't answer her question, although it's implied she knows about her from either Torra, Doza, or Yeager but she doesn't know her personally.
- Headbutt of Love: Venisa and Imanuel do this at the end of the recording that the latter has of their goodbye.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Venisa describes Rucklin as "not the brightest star in the system".
- Human Shield: Venisa uses Tam as one when they're confronted by Rucklin, having deduced that he won't actually be able to bring himself to shoot her.
- I Have Your Wife: The exact thing everyone is trying to avoid by not revealing Venisa's identity.
- If Only You Knew: Upon seeing the Resistance pilot getting escorted to her detention cell, Rucklin wonders if Doza was actually in cahoots with the Resistance the whole time. He's not entirely wrong...
- Leeroy Jenkins: Torch accuses Venisa of trying to show off during their dogfight with the TIEs when they end up getting captured. She vehemently denies it and says that it's his job to make sure they don't get captured by things like Tractor Beams. Judging by what later happens in the episode, Torch just seems to be whiny.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- When Kaz learns that Captain Doza is trying to contact his wife who is with the Resistance, Yeager tells him not to go about telling people about it in order to protect her identity. As he puts it, the less people know, the better, which is also why he kept Kaz in the dark about some other things like Doza being a former Imperial.
- Discussed. When Tam voices to Venisa about her anger towards Yeager for lying to her about his connection to the Resistance, Venisa assures her that people make mistakes and that she should be open to forgiving him at least.
- Missed Him by That Much: The Colossus is forced to flee from the First Order when it seems that Venisa isn't coming... only for Venisa to jump out of hyperspace right after they escape.
- Mythology Gag:
- The world of Bakura was first introduced into the franchise via early Legends novel The Truce at Bakura, although it has since been made into a Canon Immigrant.
- Lehon was introduced in Darth Bane: Path of Destruction as an alternative name for Rakata Prime from Knights of the Old Republic.
- Never Had a Birthday Party: A variation. No one knew about Torra's birthday because she never told them out of a belief that they didn't care, so when Kaz tells the Aces about it, they make her a cake and celebrate with her.
- Noodle Incident: After getting snagged with a tractor beam, Venisa and Torch discuss whether they should play things like they did at Bakura or like they did at Lehon. She later mentions having escaped from Agent Terex with the same tactic she uses to escape from Tierny.
- No, You: Venisa's response to Agent Tierny asking for her name is "You first." Tierny isn't amused.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The others find Torra and Captain Doza's behavior odd, as it isn't like the former to be so angry and the latter to make risky decisions like letting the station be vulnerable for too long. Kaz discovers that it's because they're trying to reunite with Torra's mother.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: Even though Torra doesn't get to see her mother on her birthday, at least her mother has escaped to continue finding them.
- The Reveal:
- Torra's mother, Venisa, is a pilot for the Resistance.
- Venisa was why Doza left the Empire.
- Captain Doza and Torra already knew about the Resistance since its inception as that was when and why Venisa left.
- Venisa and Yeager were colleagues back when they were in the Rebellion, hence Captain Doza referring to himself and Yeager as "old friends" back in "The Platform Classic".
- Secret-Keeper: Tam elects not to tell Tierny who Venisa is.
- Shoot the Hostage: Venisa dares Rucklin to do this when she's holding Tam hostage while escaping, having deduced that he lacks the skill to Shoot the Hostage Taker and can't actually bring himself to do so. When she's proven right, she sees this as evidence that there's hope for him, too, to realize the truth about the First Order.
- Tractor Beam: Venisa's X-Wing gets snagged by one of these before she can jump away, leading to her capture.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: While discussing a plan to get to back to their X-Wing, Venisa and Torch agree to do what they did when they escaped from Terex: Torch distracts the stormtroopers with hangar fires while planting bombs and acts as a decoy by pretending to escape in a TIE, escape the TIE as the stormtroopers focus on destroying it, then set off the bombs as the duo get back to their X-Wing and flee the scene.
- We Have Ways of Making You Talk: Agent Tierny's response to Venisa's No, You is to say that they have ways of finding out who she is.
- Weird World, Weird Food: Torra's birthday "cake" is a giant green jello with a living gorg encased in it. Well, it was encased in it...
- We Need a Distraction: Venisa has Torch fly a TIE fighter out of the hangar so that Tierny and her forces think that she's escaping in that one, while she slips off to her X-Wing in the chaos.
- What a Piece of Junk: The stormtroopers' opinion of Venisa's old R3 unit, Torch. They even throw the "inactive" droid in a scrap bin for recycling... All According to Plan.
- What You Are in the Dark: Despite claiming he'd be willing to Shoot the Hostage, Rucklin can't bring himself to shoot Tam when Venisa uses her as a human shield, demonstrating to Venisa that there's still hope for him to have a Heel–Face Turn.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Venisa was close to reuniting with her family again, specifically on her daughter's birthday, but the Colossus was forced to flee a second before she arrived.
