Rebels, Season 3, Episode 10: Visions and Voices
LISTEN UP, PEOPLE: I started building out this post days before this episode EVEN AIRED, because I knew that I was going to need to post this recap as soon as humanly possible. I was already looking forward to the possibilities it would present after having read the official episode description, which mentioned both Undead Fucking Maul and a ridiculous-sounding Ritual of some sort, but I never imagined they’d give me THIS much material to work with. Good Lord. Coupled with the fact that we’ve got a New! Star! Wars! Movie! coming out this week (!!!!) I’m feeling like it’s Nerd Christmas. (Or Life Day, if you prefer.) Let there be no further doubt: the writers of this show actually love me. I would pay good money to get drunk at the Lucasfilm holiday party with these nerds, especially since I’m starting to believe that that’s where they come up with about 99% of the insane plotlines they use.
In today’s installment of Rebels, we find this era’s Confused Jedi Youth, Ezra Bridger, on a quest to cut ties with someone evil that he sort of misguidedly bonded with at one point. Oh and also somebody’s maybe gonna try to kill Obi-Wan despite the fact that he’s done nothing but be the greatest person ever, and he hasn’t even been directly involved with any of these people in like 17 years. So, just to summarize: a gifted young Jedi is going to have to contend with an old evil man who wants him to be his bro, and Obi-Wan’s probably going to end up paying for this in some capacity despite it being not his fault at all. Oh, Star Wars: always breaking new ground, aren’t we? Time’s a-wastin’: hit the hyperspace button and let’s jump in.
Here, There, and Everywhere
We’re sitting in on a mission briefing from Hera, and Ezra is…having trouble concentrating. As she speaks, he keeps spacing out for the totally normal reason that he is hearing someone who is not in the room speak his name.
Then he stares out past the Ghost crew and for a split second, it’s as though he sees someone.
Hera is like HEY BRIDGER: this is YOUR mission, so like maybe listen to what the hell I’m saying? Ezra apologizes, but the voice persists. Eventually everyone’s like “EZRA. What is your deal.”
Then, hearing the voice yet again, Ezra whirls around and comes face to face with…
…with that, Ezra blacks out.
You Probably Just Had a Jedi Drama Attack
Back in the Dour Living Quarters of the Jedi (I’m sorry but I love that these two have bunk beds, for God’s sake,) Ezra is coming to surrounded by the crew. He explains that he saw him — Maul! — Maul was right behind him!
Everyone’s like uhhhh I hate to break it to you, kid, but there was nobody else there but us.
Hera, grasping at straws, is like “Hey Kanan this is probably just another one of those bananapants Force Vision deals you guys have sometimes, right? That’s a thing, isn’t it?” Kanan says it’s possible, but doesn’t sound convincing.
Zeb concludes that Ezra’s probably just overworked and Chopper butts in with what was surely some bitchy comment about how Ezra should get off his ass and Ezra agrees:
He continues:
“I just had a bad something” should have been Anakin Skywalker’s actual life motto. Just saying.
Everyone leaves except for Space Mom and Space Dad, who stay behind to talk about their son.
They Make Great Conversation Pieces
Kanan stares over in the direction of the Jedi and Sith holocrons that Ezra and Maul merged earlier. OK, what? THEY KEEP THESE JUST SITTING OUT ON THEIR COFFEE TABLE? “Oh sure, these maybe unlocked Ancient Evil and warped Ezra’s mind, but they go so well with the dismal, nonexistent decor in here!”
Hera asks Kanan what he’s thinking. He replies, grimly:
DUN DUN DUUUUUN! Just kidding. There is absolutely nothing surprising about this: we all know no one’s business with Maul is ever finished now. Nor can I believe it ever will be at this point, given that this guy JUST KEEPS COMING BACK AND WILL NEVER BE KILLED. (That’s right. I said it. YOUR MOVE, FILONI. YOUR. MOVE. PROVE ME WRONG.)
Recurring Theme: Robo-Bitchery
Ezra and Sabine arre walking with Chopper and AP-5, loading up the ship. Sabine tells AP-5 to add more firepower to their arsenal for this mission and he stalks off, whining:
Sabine sighs and tells Ezra:
Chopper is totally offended by this and I laugh:
Suddenly, Ezra looks out and sees what he is certain is Maul, on the run — and he tears after him as Sabine yells at him to stop. Ezra catches up with “Maul” and starts wailing on him.
Kanan and Sabine catch up to him, and Kanan puts a stop to this just as Ezra’s about to land a blow on what he thinks is Maul…
…but is actually just Some Guy. Oops!
Ezra collapses and whimpers:
Recurring Theme: I’ve Got a Plan
Hera is getting ready to leave, and she frets to Kanan that maybe she shouldn’t go on her mission: maybe she should stay here with her difficult teen son because he’s going through some things. Kanan assures her that everything will be OK and Hera looks unconvinced. I can’t say I blame her, since I wouldn’t believe a Jedi telling me this, either.
Hera leaves, and Sabine razzes Kanan a little bit about how she can’t believe Hera was still willing to leave.
Kanan hands Sabine Ezra’s wrist comm, and tells her to add a tracker to it for him. A plot is afoot!
Recurring Theme: Unhelpful Neutral Advice From An Old Guy
Kanan and Ezra now ride out into the wild to go visit the Fourth Doctor for a little Forci-ified advice. The Bendu already knows they’re coming because the Jedi broadcast super loudly over the Force equivalent of CB radio, I guess:
Ezra tells the Bendu that That Guy who wanted to merge the holocrons together — the darksider — he’s seen him here, on Atollon!
The Bendu is like “you dumbass, I TOLD you not to merge those holocrons. Welp, looks like you’ve got yourself into a jam, huh?”
Ezra tells him that he never learned the full answers he sought from the holocron, anyways — he pulled away before he could get the full story. The Bendu is pretty unimpressed with this whole story and is like “hmm, OK. Well that’s not good.”
Kanan is like ARE YOU KIDDING ME:
…and please, Jarrus: do not act brand new here. As if this is your first experience with some old Force guy telling you something unhelpful.
Ezra tells the Bendu: I want to stop seeing Maul! DON’T WE ALL. (Well no, not really, because Maul is a delightful crazy person, but you know what I mean.) The Bendu warns him: well, don’t turn around, then…
What’s His Secret?
Hey look! It’s Maul for real this time. Kanan turns around again to ask the Bendu what to do and LOL, he’s already peaced out. What a delightful asshole.
Maul struts over to the two Jedi, and OK, we need to take a moment here to appreciate how well Maul is aging. How is he DOING THIS? He’s supposed to be slightly older than Obi-Wan, isn’t he? And we know that Kenobi’s gotta be fully grey and close to Alec Guinnessing by now, what with us being so near to the start of the OT. Maul, honey, you look fantastic. Who’s your doctor? (Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone if you’ve had work done.)
Ezra and Kanan immediately go on the defensive, and Maul is like LOL morons, I don’t wanna fight you. I’m just here to chat with my apprentice, Ezra.
Recurring Theme: Ill-Advised Partnership
After some blahblahblah about how Ezra’s not his apprentice, Maul tells Ezra he needs him to do him a solid and help the both of them piece together the information the holocrons were trying to tell them when Ezra fucked it up last time: Maul needs a hot tip on the location of something, and Ezra of course wants to know how to destroy the Sith. And surely those two pieces of information MUST be completely unrelated.
Kanan is like “We? Are not doing anything with you, OK? You’re going DOWN FOR REAL THIS TIME” and in response Maul is like oh how CUTE: I planted a beacon here and if you kill me the Empire’s gonna learn where your stupid rebel base is, mmkay?
Ezra and Kanan break into a huddle, and Ezra pleads with Kanan to let him do this:
With that, Maul’s Mandalorian ship arrives, and Kanan watches them leave.
Kanan returns to the base and Sabine says she’s tracking Ezra’s signal: they just made the jump into hyperspace. To the Phantom II! Let’s go get that blueberry dork!
Home Bleak Home
Maul and Ezra have arrived at their destination:
Yes, my friends, get ready: the ridiculous is about to go up about 6000% because we are now on Dathomir, home of Darksider witches.
Ezra wonders where everyone is, and Maul helpfully fills in some plot that was covered elsewhere in the canon:
Recurring Theme: Let’s Go Into a Weirdass Cave
Oh nice! It’s time for a journey into a bizarre, foreboding cave. That NEVER happens in Star Wars. Maul tells Ezra that in order for them to get the information they want:
Well, this sounds like a SUPER safe idea. They head into the cave and I brace myself.
Vader’s Been Out-Vadered
HOLY. SHIT. THIS SCENE. OK, so once deep within the cave, Maul guides Ezra to this…hovel of sorts, and I…just give me a minute here. I want to make sure I do not overlook any of the ten thousand amazing things happening in here.
Maul’s place is filled to the brim with junk: boxes, random trash, and just to make sure this place is as MUCH of a fire hazard as it can possibly be, he’s also decided to decorate it with about 1,700 candles. Which are all somehow already burning even though they literally just got here. Safe!
Ezra starts walking around Maul’s stuff, and comments on what a bunch of garbage it all is. Maul immediately is like DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING OMG and tells him that it’s a collection of objects from his past, back when he was POWAHFUL, etc. OK, so, where has Maul been keeping this shit all this time? Here? This is the most ostentatious U-Stor-It I’ve ever seen.
But oh: candles are not the ONLY thing Maul’s been using to spruce this place up. NOPE. Maul’s apparently experienced a wee bit of a backslide in terms of his mental health recently, because the walls are streaked with blood and covered in random papers with red scribbles all over them. And, in addition to just random smears of blood to add a little bit of flair and color to the overall decor here, he’s also been writing in blood on the walls. IN MANDALORIAN. Mmhmm. In gigantic lettering, IN MANDALORIAN, is one six-letter word:
Dedicated Internet nerds such as myself were already well-aware, of course, that this spells out the only six-letter word Maul (or anyone, rightly) cares about: which is, indeed, “Kenobi”. Yes, readers, Maul has actually written “KENOBI”, IN BLOOD, IN MANDALORIAN, on the WALL OF HIS HOVEL.
I actually slammed my fist down when I first saw this. MAUL. FOR FUCK’S SAKE:
- This is some truly disturbed, creeptastic behavior EVEN FOR YOU;
- OH MY GOD;
- Holy shit;
- Mandalorian DUDE ARE YOU KIDDING ME;
- You win. You are even more obsessed with Obi-Wan than I am. I concede. FINE.
- Anakin is going to be PISSED because with this? You have officially surpassed EVEN DARTH VADER in being maniacally obsessed with Obi-Wan. Unless and until they show me what HIS Kenobi shrine looks like and DON’T EVEN TRY TO TELL ME VADER DOESN’T HAVE ONE. (I feel like Vader’s probably includes more handsome holos of Obi-Wan with hearts drawn over them, though. It’s a different sort of shrine and Sidious maybe doesn’t know he has it and OH MY GOD am I seriously talking about Obi-Wan and Anakin being in love with each other again even in this recap which NEITHER OF THEM ARE IN yes I am I’m sorry I can’t control it anymore than Obi-Wan can stop himself from flirting with everyone all the time.)
This season of Rebels is supposed to be taking place in what? Something like 3 BBY? And The Phantom Menace takes place in 32 BBY? JESUS CHRIST. It’s been TWENTY. NINE. YEARS, MAUL. You could have researched and developed the ability to GROW NEW LEGS ON YOUR OWN in this amount of time if you hadn’t been so busy getting “Kenobi” tattoos and writing murder-related fanfic all these years. And also? Obi-Wan’s life has been a SHITSHOW since Episode 1, OK? A SHIT. SHOW. Nothing good has EVER happened to him. Ever. Shouldn’t that be enough for you? Pretty much all of his friends are dead, his proper “career” is over, his best friend/husband is evil incarnate now and tried to kill him the last time he saw him, he had to SET HIS BEST FRIEND ON FIRE AND WATCH HIM BURN ALIVE, he had to watch the only woman he ever loved die, he had to watch his Space Dad die, he lives in a fucking desert alone and sad and any time he tries to reach out and help Luke, who is the ONLY CONNECTION HE HAS LEFT IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD to the life he used to have, he gets chewed out and called a murderer by Uncle Owen. WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT? If you KILLED HIM, you’d be doing him a goddamned FAVOR at this point.
The Delusion of a Schemer
PEOPLE. If you thought that what we just saw was the best the Rebels staff could do in causing me to yell, you were wrong, because they now proceed to throw a MARTINI GLASS FULL OF SADNESS right in my face with the next bit. I am writing this to you all from beyond the grave. I am a Force Ghost now.
So Maul’s lighting another candle at his Kenobi Shrine or whatever, and Ezra is drawn to something over in a corner of the room, which he gazes up at in confusion.
AHHHHHHHHH. Everyone: please sit down and be quiet because I am going to need to unpack this one. The portrait of Duchess Satine Kryze — my Martini-Drinking, Hissy-Fit-Having, Definitely-Kenobi-Sexing Personal Hero and Pacifist Mandalorian Wife — that most famously hung on the wall of the Famous First Church of Mandalore Throne Room IS NOW HANGING ON THE WALL OF MAUL’S REVENGE-THEMED HOVEL.
I’m sorry I can’t hear you over all of my screaming.
How…how did he even get this thing off of Mandalore in the first place? He got kicked off the planet and…what? He ran back to the palace and ripped this off the wall and threw it in a ship before he fled? Who am I kidding: this is Maul. He totally did do that. His obsession with those two is more than I can handle and that IS REALLY FUCKING SAYING SOMETHING BECAUSE HAVE ANY OF YOU READ THIS BLOG BEFORE.
Recurring Theme: Important Ridiculous Weapon With An Equally Ridiculous Backstory
So I’m totally fine and not having any kind of a meltdown about this or anything. Furthermore, he’s taken Satine’s portrait and A) streaked blood over her eyes and her neck, and B) PLACED THIS PORTRAIT RIGHT DAMN OVER THE SPOT WHERE HE IS STORING THIS THING:
THE GODDAMNED DARKSABER.
Maul. Keeps. A. Picture. Of. Satine. Hung. Up. Over. The. Weapon. He. Used. To. Murder. Her. It’s official, everyone: Star Wars IS Suffering. And I HATE that the writers know that I will always show up for it.
Ezra reaches for it, and is stopped by Maul:
Ezra is like holy shit what the hell is that?!
Maul explains: sure, it’s a lightsaber…
Hey everyone, guess what? I DON’T LIKE THIS GUY. I CAN’T IMAGINE WHY.
YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS THIS PICTURE YOU COCKROACH
Drinking Contest
Kanan and Sabine are en route to the planet now, and Kanan says he doesn’t think that Ezra really trusts Maul: only that he’s doing this For The Good of the Group. You’re probably right, I guess?
Meanwhile, Maul is telling Ezra the specifics of what they need to do now: he is LITERALLY MAKING A MAGIC POTION that will hopefully help “restore their memories”. Oh my God, this is so, so silly and I love it so much.
So he tells Ezra to drink it — and drink it all, or the spell won’t work and this is the absolute LAST THING I EVER THOUGHT I’D BE TALKING ABOUT ALL THESE YEARS LATER when I walked out of the opening weekend of The Phantom Menace BUT HERE WE ARE.
As the potion takes effect, their eyes take on a decidedly different look.
Question and Answer
Sabine and Kanan arrive and head towards Ezra’s location. At the same time, weird shit is going on with Ezra and Maul:
So now with the potion raging through them, Maul asks his question, and Ezra asks his:
As the answers are revealed to them, Ezra is like HOLY SHIT WAIT HOLD UP I KNOW THAT GUY!
The Beginning Is The End
They break out of their little trance thing and both have Important Realizations. First, Maul:
Yes, that’s right: it’s going to end (MAYBE. AGAIN: YOUR MOVE, FILONI,) where it all began — on a desert planet with twin suns. Maul, of course, knows Tatooine because he was there lo those zillions of years ago when The Force dragged all these guys together in the first place, because The Force is an asshole that just likes to watch its little puppets dance. It’s the place where he first got into a tussle with Qui-Gon, and the place where the Sith first rolled up to be like “LOL yeah we actually aren’t dead and y’all are in for a bad time.”
And Ezra, for his part, has had his mind blown: he recognizes the man he saw in his vision just now, because if you’ll recall, this particular man had the starring role (playing “Man Whose Life Is Fucked Up Beyond All Repair”) in the very first holocron Ezra ever opened. Ezra can’t believe this guy is alive and LOL that for the first time ever this statement is being said about someone other than Maul:
Recurring Theme: I Forgot To Mention The Terms and Conditions
With the info gathered now, the altar they were standing in front of now starts churning out a ton of green smoke and Maul is like OH RIGHT HA HA SORRY so now the spirits of the Nightsisters are going to demand payment for using their magic. Ezra is like SO PAY THEM ALREADY and Maul is like uh yeah about that…
Great. So of course at this moment Sabine and Kanan handily show up, and Ezra yells at them to stay back but of course they don’t (and LOL I love that Sabine, Mando Girl to the core, fires a gun repeatedly at a ghost.) As a result, naturally, both Kanan and Sabine end up possessed by the ghosts of the Nightsisters and God help me I love Star Wars so much because it allows me to write actual sentences like this.
Maul leads Ezra to the end of the cave to help them escape, explaining:
Recurring Theme: Dark Side Job Offer
Once outside the cave, Maul is like “yeah too bad about your friends but hey! You and me, desert planet with twin suns whose name I will conveniently not say out loud — let’s do it! We can be brothers for life!”
Ezra turns him down yet again:
Maul pleads with him, and then throws out one of the least self-aware series of statements anyone has ever said in Star Wars and PLEASE CONSIDER WHAT THAT MEANS BECAUSE NO ONE IS SELF-AWARE HERE:
MAUL, PLEASE. You are the last character in the entire CANON who should be lecturing someone about letting something go. The only thing that could make this funnier is if you and Anakin tried to set up a lecture series about Letting Go that you BOTH conducted.
Ezra Has to Save His Friends so he’s not going anywhere:
Maul is dejected:
And with that, Maul leaves and OH MY FUCKING GOD YOU GUYS BECAUSE THIS MEANS MAUL’S EN ROUTE TO FRICKING TATOOINE, yet another statement I never ever thought I’d be writing this late into the timeline. Is he going right there RIGHT NOW!? Is he gonna stop somewhere else first to load up on snacks and get some “I finally killed Obi-Wan” T-shirts made up in advance? Does he even WANT to kill Obi-Wan, or does he have some other use for him in mind? I mean, we know he hates the guy, but he’s got some pretty compelling reasons to hate Sidious — and by extension, Vader — even more. WHO CAN SAY WHAT NONSENSE AWAITS US. ARE THEY REALLY DOING THIS TO ME? Sweet merciful Force my heart is never going to survive this season.
Ezra Bridger, Destroyer of Evil Ghosts
Ezra, now Maul-free, ventures back into the cave. He reasons that if the spirits can’t do anything outside the cave, then logically he just needs to get Kanan and Sabine OUT of the cave. He first encounters Sabine, who OMG is armed with the Darksaber:
They fight, and Ezra ultimately Force-pushes her out of the cave, breaking the spell and casting the spirit back into the cave. (LOL, this show.) He tells her to stay outside, and he goes after Kanan, who’s sitting on top of the altar.
Ezra tells the Nightsisters that he’ll make them a deal: let Kanan go, and you can possess the crap outta me. They release Kanan…but Ezra’s got other plans now:
…he smashes at the alter with both his own lightsaber and the Darksaber, and the spirits all dissipate into the ether. So long, Nightsisters!
The trio reunite, with Sabine getting a sassy comment in:
Kanan asks Ezra if he got useful information out of all of this nonsense, and Ezra says he did indeed: he now knows the key to destroying the Sith, and it’s not a thing — it’s a person! The key to destroying the Sith is Obi-Wan Kenobi!
AHHHHHHHHHH.
I have to mention that Kanan’s reaction to this is amusingly low-key. Ezra just told him that he believes that Obi-Wan, a Jedi Master who was on the Jedi High Council and was more or less like an actual JEDI CELEBRITY when Kanan was at the perfect age to have grown up idolizing him and Anakin, is probably still alive, and Kanan’s entire reaction is like “huh. You think he’s still alive? How bout that.” Kanan’s never encountered ANY other Jedi since Order 66 other than Ezra and Ahsoka, right? THIS SEEMS LIKE A BIG DEAL, JARRUS. SHOW A LITTLE MORE ENTHUSIASM.
Ezra continues: there’s a problem, though — Maul’s after him, too. And I don’t exactly know where he is…
Sabine is like OH GREAT:
And Now It Calls To You
Kanan says they’ll have to do their damnedest to figure this out, because if Obi-Wan’s still alive then it’s imperative that they get to him before Maul does. The boys leave for the Phantom II, and Sabine follows…but not without noticing something on the ground first.
Yes! Sabine grabs the darksaber and takes it with her as they leave. AWESOME. I support this. I support anything darksaber-related except for using it to kill Satine.
This is where this episode leaves us, and man, what an installment! They covered a TON of stuff in just 20 minutes — and now The Hunt is On! Will Maul make it to the desert before the Rebels do? Will someone stop Maul before he gets to the place furthest from the bright center of the universe? Will the writers throw Obi-Wan a bone FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER without killing more people he likes first? I DON’T KNOW WHERE THEY’RE GOING WITH ALL THIS GUYS AND I FEEL UNSAFE.
…Ahem. Of course, I simply mean that I look forward to seeing where we’re headed with things, and I hope you’ll join me when we find out. With that, dear readers, that’s a wrap for this recap! See you next time!
