Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Star Wars Rebels episode “Double Agent Droid.” Make the jump into hyperspace and away from this page if you haven’t watched the episode yet.

How can you tell Chopper’s not himself? Simple. If he’s not acting like a grumbling pain in the butt, something’s up. That was the case in “Double Agent Droid.” This episode of Star Wars Rebels paired Chopper and AP-5 together with Wedge Antilles for a secret mission to extract crucial information from the Empire. The specifics of the job aren’t so important. What’s key is how we again see the way the Empire dismisses droids and how it’s to their detriment.

As you’ve probably noticed, anytime Chopper goes undercover to sneak around Imperial ships and locations, he has the same paint job. My theory is they only have those colors on hand on the Ghost. His color scheme jumps out to me, but it doesn’t really matter in the story because the Empire doesn’t notice droids. We’ve seen the stark contrast in how the rebels treat droids versus how the Empire treats them again and again.

The Empire doesn’t pay attention to droids. They use them and leave them to their work, never giving them a second glance unless they’re bossing them around. Like AP-5 pointed out, they don’t take droids seriously, so it’s no wonder Chopper has been so successful. It was smart for them to include the bit of dialogue for viewers who have been wondering how the heck Chopper hasn’t been busted yet.

On the other side of the coin, Chopper’s actions have been noticed by the Empire. Or at least they note the Ghost rebels have a droid with them. An Imperial controller with one of the Lobot-esque devices noticed Chopper. By the way, said controller is voiced by Josh Gad. He became obsessed with capturing the droid in order to please Grand Admiral Thrawn. I always find it interesting to see ambition and brown-nosing in action in the Empire.

Not having respect for droids means Imperials don’t understand how they can have distinct personalities. When the controller takes charge of Chopper, he does it with a one size fits all attitude. He apparently believes all droids follow black and white programming and protocol. So, of course, when Chopper starts acting polite, it’s a sign something is wrong–at least it’s a sign to AP-5.

This led to a frustrating point of the episode: neither Wedge or any of the Ghost crew listened to AP-5. Yes, he can be a touch annoying. He has a vast amount of knowledge and doesn’t know how to be tactful about sharing it, so he comes across as a know-it-all. I say this with love because I enjoy all things AP-5. He knew Chopper wasn’t acting like himself and tried to tell everyone, but they ignored him and they almost paid for it. Chopper was this close to giving the Empire the location of Atollon base. They shouldn’t have ignored AP-5. Ugh.

On the upshot, Hera realized Chopper was being weirder than usual. We know Chopper is Hera’s pal, but I forget how fiercely protective she can be of him. She struck back at the Imperials, and while it was insanely effective since she wrecked the whole damn control center, she put Chopper at extreme risk. I was surprised she was willing to chance frying him. Chopper made it through, but I didn’t like seeing him hurting. Poor Chopper. What a stressful day.

Now, let’s discuss the wacky aspects of “Double Agent Droid.” If you watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars, you likely recall the “Sunny Day in the Void” arc. It won’t surprise you to learn this episode is written by the person behind those stories, Brent Friedman. He’s not afraid to explore the bizarre. We have AP-5 engaging in an “anything you can do, I can do better” gag with Chopper, and then we have AP-5 straight up singing in space, surrounded by little flying creatures. If the sequence is a nod to a film, I cop to not recognizing the source material. If it’s not an homage, it wasn’t a tone we’ve seen in the show before. I don’t mind it, but I can see it not going over well with fans.

And one final thought: why the hell didn’t Ezra use his lightsaber to get them out of the cargo hold?

How do you feel about the weird aspects of “Double Agent Droid?” Tell me your opinions in the comments or come talk to me on Twitter.

Images: Disney XD