Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Star Wars Rebels episode “An Inside Man.” Jump into hyperspace and away from this page if you haven’t watched the episode yet.
We haven’t seen the Ghost crew on Lothal for a while, but that doesn’t mean the Empire suddenly decided to leave the planet alone. If anything, their presence on the Outer Rim world appears to be stronger than ever in “An Inside Man.” Seeing signs with the Imperial cog around Lothal’s capital reminded me of Saw Gerrera’s quote in the Rogue One trailers: “Imperial flags reign across the galaxy.”
Ezra returned to his homeworld with his crew mates because they learned from Fulcrum the Empire was developing a top secret weapon in a Lothal factory. Ryder Azadi and Morad Sumar’s team had already infiltrated the facility to sabotage the speeders and walkers being made there, so they didn’t seem to have much trouble getting Ezra, Kanan, and Chopper on the employee list. But you know it couldn’t be so easy. Ezra and Kanan got in place just as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Governor Pryce, and Agent Kallus arrived.
It’s all well and good the resistance effort crippled Imperial ships with faulty manufacturing, but eventually, the Empire was going to notice. Thrawn had already started to connect Lothal with the Ghost, and I think his attention was more focused on the planet’s output. He had his eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. He told the gathered workers vehicles produced at the factory were manufacturing at unusually high rates. We’ve seen Thrawn show his might before, but he’s mostly been playing the long game rather than displaying force. Not this time. He made an example of one of the workers, an undercover Sumar, testing one of the sabotaged speeders. Thrawn was ruthless.
Given the evidence, Thrawn had to suspect Rebels were involved. He put the factory on lockdown in order to conduct a thorough investigation, which left Ezra and Kanan in a challenging position. Luckily, they had a disguised Chopper on their side. A couple of notes about that: they must have quite the stash of black and red paint on hand in order to give Chopper regular makeovers. It’s probably stored next to Sabine’s hair dye. And Chopper seems to be extra-talented sometimes. He gets them out of heaps of trouble. To help mark Chopper as unusually intelligent, Kallus commented on the droid’s particular competence. The remark helped in the believibility arena.
Kanan and Ezra pushed up their timetable for getting information about the weapon being built in A2. Extra security was posted in the area, but it wasn’t effective. The duo did find themselves in a pickle when it was time to leave A2, but they acquired the information they needed. As they searched for an escape, they ran into Kallus. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for him to announce he was Fulcrum. I’m pleased they didn’t keep the mystery dragging out too long. Kallus is at least partially Team Rebel now.
As you might have guessed after “The Antilles Extraction,” Agent Kallus is indeed Fulcrum. The trace of doubt seemed to be there before his time with Zeb on the ice moon, and seeing the galaxy from a rebel’s perspective was an important push. Zeb realized he probably had a part in recruiting the Imperial to their cause. I’m glad it wasn’t an instant turnaround with Kallus becoming Fulcrum in the very next episode. His switch took time, and I completely buy into it.
Kallus used his position to get Kanan and Ezra access to communications–this is when he complimented Chopper–and made it look like they overpowered him. Fortunately, Kallus has screwed up repeatedly over the course of the series. I can’t imagine his superiors would be surprised to learn the Jedi eluded him yet again. Wait. Has Kallus been failing on purpose all this time to cover up his role as a spy? Hmm. Regardless, I don’t think he’ll find Thrawn will let go of his mistake as quickly as other superiors have let him of the hook.
Thrawn knows there’s an Imperial traitor. He suspected Kanan and Ezra had help getting out. Kallus can’t pull wool over Thrawn’s eyes. I don’t know if anyone can. Thrawn’s taking it all in. The animators communicate so much with his eyes. You can tell he’s always studying, always absorbing, always menacing. His countenance as he studied graffiti left by Sabine and other art was nothing short of creepy. He gives me chills.
Once Kanan and Ezra got the information back to the rest of Phoenix Squadron, Sabine decrypted it. She found plans for a new model of TIE interceptor–one with shields. Ruh-roh.
Did you see the Kallus reveal coming? I’m a fan of the twist. Head to the comments to tell me your thoughts on Kallus and the whole episode.
Images: Disney XD
