Who would have thought space whales would be so important?
We find the Ghost dangerously low on fuel as they try to beat the Empire to a Mining Guild outpost in an asteroid field.
Captain Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall) announces that she has to divert more power from the heating system to keep them afloat in space, leaving the crew shivering.
As Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar) realizes just how bountiful the Guild’s fuel source is, Padawan Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray) hears a noise like a whale song echoing through the ship.
None of his comrades can hear it, until they see a massive school of Purgill (which are basically whales with tentacles) floating towards them.
Hera panics and prepares to open fire, but Ezra suggests that she turn the ship around to fly among the huge creatures. She is perturbed by the plan, but Jedi Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.) points out that they’ve been forced to do stranger things.
“Yeah, that doesn’t make me feel better,” Hera responds snarkily.
Once they’re in line with the creatures, Ezra notes that they’ve calmed down. However, Hera asserts that the Purgill are still a menace.
Before she can elaborate, a pair of yellow TIE fighters scream out of the asteroid field. Kanan quickly blasts one, but their low fuel forces Ezra to wait as Hera re-routes power to his cannon. The fighter gets dangerously close before the teen can take it out, highlighting the need to re-fuel ASAP.
Sabine and Hera realize the modified fighters were from the Mining Guild and manage to track them back to the fuel refinery. The Mandalorian also notes that the Pergil are headed in the same direction, much to Hera’s chagrin.
“For what it’s worth, I’ve got a good feeling about this,” says Ezra, expressing the opposing sentiment to a regular “Star Wars” line.
Hera notes that Purgill often wander into hyperspace lanes and cause ships to crash.
The Ghost’s sensors pick up an energy source on a planetoid and the crew spots the Mining Guild refinery perched on the side of a massive crater that’s filled with gas. Hera says that the Purgill and asteroids floating through space will mask their approach.
Sabine scopes out the refinery and sees that they have sentries posted, as well as a large blaster cannon that they’re using to shoot the Purgill. She suggests they drop some detonators into the explosive gas to create a diversion so the Ghost can land on the platform to re-fuel.
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In an effort to avoid the cannon, Kanan decides that they’ll jump from the Ghost and glide onto the platform. Zeb (Steve Blum) isn’t thrilled about the “dangerous plan,” until Kanan informs the Lasat that he will be staying behind.
“Sounds like a good plan,” quips Zeb as the Sabine, Kanan, Ezra and Chopper prepare for their leap.
On the Mining Guild refinery, Boss Yushyn (Fred Tatasciore) chastises his underlings over the Purgill continuing to eat the unprocessed fuel and wonders why they haven’t heard from TIE pilots that were sent to wipe them out. Now we know why the creatures were distressed when the Ghost crew came across them. Yushyn demands that the cannons be used to kill them all.
The three human members of the Ghost strike team don helmets to protect them from the gas, with Kanan shocked to find that Sabine has given his Stormtrooper helmet a nifty custom paintjob. He doesn’t appear to be wild about it, but it looks awesome and matches the rest of his outfit so well.
In a very cool sequence, they dive straight down to the platform with some of the Purgill gliding beside them. At the last second, Sabine grabs onto Chopper and his jets bring them smoothly down. She really should get a jetpack like most of the Mandalorians we’ve seen (even though that gadget will work against Boba Fett’s in “Return of the Jedi.”)
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Kanan uses a Force Push to slow his momentum, but Ezra’s effort fails and he falls passed the platform towards the gas. The teen’s master catches him with the Force, pulling him to safety.
“I have to work on that,” says a shaken Ezra.
The mishap catches the attention of the refinery’s guards, who immediately open fire on the trio. The Jedi pair deflect the shots with their lightsabers and Kanan orders Sabine to toss her detonators into the gas.
Just as she prepares to throw them, Ezra realizes that they can’t blow up the gas without hurting the Purgill and stops her. After they take out the guards (ruthlessly tossing the one on the cannon into the gas), Kanan decides to go along with Ezra’s instincts and orders him to use the cannon to cover them as they secure the landing platform for the Ghost.
It really doesn’t seem like the original plan was very good anyway; surely detonating the gas would have created a massive, uncontrolled explosion that would have wiped out the refinery in an instant? The Ghost crew need to stop defaulting to “blow stuff up” strategies (even if those plans will serve the Rebel Alliance and Resistance movements fairly well in future).
Composer Kevin Kiner’s work stands out for the second episode in a row as Sabine and Kanan take off towards the landing zone, with the pounding percussive beats really adding a sense of excitement to the scene.
Guards rush out to stop the Sabine and Kanan, but Ezra manages to drive them away with the cannon and the Ghost lands to refuel.
The teen takes advantage of a calm moment to stare in wonder as the Purgill dive into the gas and emerge rejuvenated. He realizes that it’s their food source just as more guards emerge and long range blaster fire knocks him off the platform, into the sea of gas.
The teen’s helmet is knocked off as he lands on a Purgill’s back. He begins to choke in the gas, but gazes into the creature’s eye and sees the creatures going to hyperspace in a vision. He nearly falls unconscious, but one of the creatures uses its tentacle to give him back his lost helmet just in the nick of time.
We’ve seen that Ezra has a gift for communicating with animals before; this is clearly his strongest Force ability. Perhaps his nearly falling into the gas early wasn’t a glitch, but actually the will of the Force pushing him closer to the Purgill?
The Mining Guild’s defensive effort intensifies as Zeb tries to refuel the ship, with two TIEs lacing the platform with blaster fire. Boss Yushyn steps out and demands their surrender.
“Kanan, don’t worry,” says Ezra through the Jedi’s helmet communicator. “We’ll be right there!”
The Padawan rides the leader of the school of Purgill up from the gas and (rather impressively) uses his lightsaber to slice off a TIE’s wing. The other is simply wiped out by one of the creatures.
With the Ghost refueled and plenty of spare canisters on board, Hera takes off. Kanan remains on the hull to deflect blaster fire with his own saber.
Yushyn quickly finds himself at the mercy of two Purgill, one of whom grabs him on its mouth and drags him into the gas. A bleak fate for a newly introduced two-bit villain!
Missiles from Ghost destroy the refinery and Ezra leaps off the Purgill to rejoin his comrades in the ship’s cockpit. Hera admits that the teen was right to protect the creatures.
The crew watches in wonder as the creatures become the first living beings we’ve seen blast off to hyperspace, revealing a new aspect of the “Star Wars” universe.
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