"Iron Squadron" is the eighth episode of the third season of Star Wars Rebels. It is the forty-fifth episode of the series overall. It was released on November 19, 2016 on Disney XD.
Premise[]
The Ghost crew encounters three young rebels, while Thrawn plots a trap for his enemies.
Synopsis[]
The Rebels arrived at Mykapo on a mission to assist Rebel sympathizers in evacuating the planet before the Empire invades. Upon arrival, the Rebels noticed an orbiting Imperial transport and a squadron of TIEs were occupied with a freighter, possibly smugglers. Wondering why they were not jumping to lightspeed, the Ghost crew decided to go in and assist them while the rest of their forces proceeded with the mission. As the transport ship headed down to the surface of Mykapo, the Ghost, accompanied by Phoenix two and three, moved in to assist the freighter. Just then the freighter turned about and attacked the Empire head on. Hera contacted the freighter to convince them to retreat, but the commander of the freighter, calling themselves Iron Squadron, refused. The freighter continued to head straight for the Imperial transport, and as soon as it got close enough the ship released some of its cargo crates. The crates collided into the transport and exploded, disabling the Imperial vessel. After the crippled vessel retreated, Hera congratulated Iron Squadron on their victory and in return was invited to meet them. As the rest of Phoenix Squadron went down to the surface with Kanan and Zeb, Hera first reported in to Commander Sato before paying Iron Squadron a visit. Sato was familiar with Iron Squadron because it was his brother's detachment, who was killed at some point on Mykapo. He also revealed that he had a nephew known as Mart Mattin. Up till now he believed Matt was dead, but was never so sure since he never received a reply to any of his transmissions. He described his nephew to be somewhat rebellious, and judging by what Hera saw deduced that the commander of Iron Squadron was Mart. Sato then asked for Hera to make sure that Mart and his comrades escaped safely with the other evacuees.
Later, the Ghost docked with Iron Squadron's ship. Hera, accompanied by Ezra, Sabine and Chopper boarded the freighter and were first greeted by Gooti Terez and Jonner Jin. Following Gooti and Jonner to meet their captain, they found the ship to be in pretty bad shape. They even had a hyperdrive that did not work, to which Jonner claimed they do not need one. Soon the Rebels met Gooti and Jonner's captain, Mart Mattin, along with their droid, R3. After everyone got acquainted, Hera moved onto explaining their plan of evacuating their fellow dissidence. Unfortunately, Mart, Gooti and Jonner had no intention of leaving Mykapo. They would rather stay and fight rather than runaway and allow the Empire to claim their world. Despite the Rebel's best efforts, they were unable to convince the stubborn crew members of Iron Squadron to leave the system. Meanwhile, orbiting Lothal, Grand Admiral Thrawn was being briefed on the Imperial blockade over Mykapo. He was informed by an Imperial officer that the blockade was proceeding as planned but admitted they were having troubles with resisting forces, which brought up the Iron Squadron's recent attack on their patrols with the aid of the Ghost. Thrawn is most curious about the Iron Squadron. He then turns to Admiral Konstantine and orders him to accompany a squadron of light cruisers to lock down the Mykapo system.
Back over Mykapo, the evacuation was complete with everyone, except Iron Squadron, leaving the system. Before the Ghost crew got on their way as well, Ezra convinced Hera to let him, Sabine and Chopper stay behind and try again to persuade Iron Squadron to leave, and at the same time try to fix their hyperdrive. Despite her concerns, Hera granted them permission to go back as long as they escaped before the Empire arrived, wherever they succeeded in convincing Iron Squadron to leave or not. The Ghost departed from the system, leaving Ezra, Sabine and Chopper with the Phantom. They re-docked with Iron Squadron, and Sabine and Chopper start affecting repairs on the hyperdrive. Mart, Gooti and Jonner still remained reluctant to leave their home. Ezra could understand how they felt since he too did not wish to leave his home. When he chose to fight the Empire it came with a cost to give up everything he treasured. Despite his loses, Ezra stood by what he and the Rebellion were fighting for. Just then Sabine and Chopper had completed their repairs on the hyperdrive, only for Matt to divert power to the weapons and shields. Mart then instructed his crew members to report to their battle stations because an Imperial light cruiser, accompanied by two transports, had arrived in orbit with Admiral Konstantine in command. As the Empire deployed their fighters, Mart prepared his ship for battle, despite Ezra and Sabine's plea to have him retreat. Even Gooti and Jonner finally agreed with them, but Mart would not listen and moved in to attack. Everyone continued to plea for Mart to abandon ship, but after a couple of hits that caused minor damage to the ship Mart reluctantly agreed too. They made their way to the Phantom, and pretty soon everyone, except Mart, was aboard. Mart chose to stay behind and detached the Phantom form his ship. Then he proceeded to engage the Imperials. Mart headed straight for the leading ship and like before released some of his cargo crates. However, his plan was foiled when the cruiser destroyed the incoming crates before making contact. Mart tried to escape but the TIEs disabled his engines, leaving him dead in space. Despite Gooti and Jonner's plea to go back for him, Sabine and Ezra were unable too. They were forced to retreat back to the fleet but promised to come back for Mart.
Mart remained a drift in space and was trying to get his running again to no success. He noticed a TIE Bomber passing over him, which attached a Magno-Mine to the haul of his ship. Knowing that he did need help, Mart sent out a distress call to the Rebel fleet. He managed to transmit the state of his situation before being cut off by the Empire. The Ghost crew, accompanied by Gooti and Jonner, boarded the Ghost and headed back to Mykapo to rescue Mart. They soon arrived, and prepared to hoist Mart's ship. To remove the mine attached to his ship, the Rebels sent out Chopper and R3. After being dropped into space, the droids found the mine and remove it. Then they attached it to one of Mart's remaining crates. After Mart got the droids aboard his ship, the Ghost came about again and moved in to hoist Mart's ship. Admiral Konstantine saw his chance to destroy them both and gave the order to detonate the mine. However, his crew were unable too. With a bit of a struggle, The Rebels managed to attach themselves with Mart's ship just as Commander Sato arrived to aid them. The two conjoined ships then charged towards Admiral Konstantine's ship, and on Hera's signal released the armed crate. It collided into the Admiral's ship and exploded, leaving them crippled. Then suddenly, Grand Admiral Thrawn's Star Destroyer emerged from hyperspace. The Rebels made a hasty retreat, but not before Commander Sato had a brief conversation with Grand Admiral Thrawn. The Rebels and Iron Squadron returned safely to Chopper Base, where Mart was happily reunited with his uncle and friends.
Credits[]
Cast[]
- Taylor Gray as Ezra Bridger
- Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Kanan Jarrus
- Vanessa Marshall as Hera Syndulla
- Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Kanan Jarrus
- Tiya Sircar as Sabine Wren
- Steven Blum as Garazeb Orrelios / Imperial Officer
- Lars Mikkelsen as Thrawn
- Dee Bradley Baker as Kassius Konstantine / Captain Rex
- Zachary Gordon as Mart Mattin
- Keone Young as Jun Sato
- Meredith Anne Bull as Gooti Terez
- Eric Lopez as Jonner Jin
- Dave Filoni as Phoenix Two
Appearances[]
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Locations[]
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Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Iron Squadron crew members were named after members of Lucasfilm.
- Mart was named after Matt Martin, Lucasfilm's manager of digital content and community relations.
- Gooti was named after and designed to resemble Andi Gutierrez, a digital communications manager at Lucasfilm, the host of Rebels Recon, and the co-host of The Star Wars Show.
- Jonner was named after John Harper, a cameraman, editor, and producer on The Star Wars Show.
- AP-5 does not appear in this episode.
- This is the third episode to feature Thrawn.
- This episode marks the debut of Thrawn's command ship, the Imperial Star Destroyer Chimaera. It was previously his command ship in the old Legends continuity.