One of the positive developments of the third season has been the emphasis on character development and exploration.  While it was hardly absent from previous efforts, it has been a focus after the dramatic changes at the end of the second season.  This episode focuses on Sabine once again, though Ezra is (as usual) along for the ride as well.    

 

 

This installment updates the status of Fenn Rau, the Mandalorian that was captured by Sabine and Kanan in the second season.  Communications with Concord Dawn have been lost, so Sabine, Ezra, and Rau undertake a mission to find out why.  This results in more than a few revelations and changes to the overall status quo of the Mandalorians and the Rebellion.

 

In terms of Sabine, her loyalty is now firmly established.  She never considers joining Rau in forming an independent Mandalore, which makes it clear she’s a Rebel through and through.  Not that there was doubt, necessarily, but now it’s pretty clear.  This allows the writers to focus less on any internal hand-wringing and more on her sense of strategy.  The internal struggle is left to Rau, which actually works.  Regardless of how thinly drawn I believe Sabine has become, the episode couldn’t logically handle two characters struggling on the same level in terms of allegiance.

 

 

Sabine is also the polar opposite to Gar Saxon, leader of the Mandalorians who have sold themselves over to the Empire.  Without those two firm positions for Rau to move between, the episode would have come across as muddled.  Granted, it’s not exactly a character arc with a ton of nuance, but the time constraints and general arch-polarity of the Star Wars universe doesn’t exactly allow for much more.  The overall theme of growing ranks for the Rebellion still holds true.

 

If there is a drawback to the episode, it’s that the various factions and events that led Saxon to sell out to the Empire are tied to previous events in The Clone Wars.  For those like me that didn’t see all of the prior series, there was only a bit of clunky exposition from Ezra to fill in the gaps.  It didn’t necessarily take too much away from the episode, but it did mean that some of the larger context was lost.