Idiot''s Array (Star Wars Rebels - S01E09) - Animated Series

Star Wars Rebels got a whole lot cooler this week with the return of Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian.SPOILERS.

Isn’t it a proven fact that Billy Dee Williams makes everything better? His return to the role of Lando Calrissian certainly elevated this week’s episode of Star Wars Rebels, which would have been a fairly standard adventure-of-week episode without Lando’s charm. The episode opened with Zeb losing Chopper to Lando in a game of sabacc. My first thought was good, Lando can keep him. My dislike for Chopper aside, this way a great way to introduce Lando in Rebels. Upon hearing that Zeb lost Chopper in a bet Hera was furious, but Lando offered to give Chopper back and pay the crew of the Ghost if they helped him smuggle cargo past the Imperial blockade.

So far on Rebels Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, R2-D2, C-3PO, Bail Organa, Yoda, and now Lando Calrissian have made appearances in one form or another. Even though it was great to see these characters again and most of their appearances didn’t really feel forced, having so many movie characters appear this early in this series is starting to make the universe feel small. Especially since the crew Ghost rarely ever leaves Lothal. With that being said, Lando’s inclusion might actually be the most exciting because there is a lot of potential here. Lando worked really with the Rebels characters. Of course, he tried to flirt with both Hera and Sabine. This angered Ezra whose crush on Sabine has been obvious from day one. Lando’s slightly condescending attitude toward Kanan and his reactions were amusing. In particular, I enjoyed Lando and Hera’s relationship in this episode. Hera quickly understood what kind of man Lando was and they two of them seemed to be operating a few steps ahead of the rest of characters. Lando’s subtle hint about the escape pods that only Hera picked up on is a great example of this. 

Lando, Kanan, and Hera met the crime lord Azmorigan to make a deal. Lando offered up Hera up as payment for the cargo. This naturally angered Kanan, but Hera went along with the plan. After Lando and Kanan returned to the Ghost, Hera knocked out Azmorigan and his guards and used an escape pod to get away. Back aboard Ghost, Hera thanked Lando with a punch to the gut. Most of the excitement surrounding this episode was the return of Lando, but this was also a great episode for Hera. While Hera is normally relegated to piloting the ship and giving orders, when she is given the spotlight Hera steals the show. Hera’s intellect, combat skills, and strong convictions were on full display in this episode. Hopefully future episodes will continue to give the spotlight to Hera, because the show is better for it when it does. The cargo that Lando went to all this trouble to get was a puffer pig which he planned to use for his mining operation. Lando tells Ezra and Zeb not to open the crate containing the puffer pig so of course they open it anyway. This has been a recurring problem with Rebels. The combination of Zeb, Ezra, and Chopper has endangered the lives of the rest of the crew more than the Empire itself. Zeb is a character I really liked in the beginning of the show but he has been poorly handled since around the second episode. He continues to make short sided or down right moronic decisions like letting the puffer pig out of its cage right after Lando told him told not to. Like I mentioned before, this problem is not exclusive to Zeb. Ezra frightened the puffer pig a second time, which causes it to puff up like a puffer fish, when he heard Lando flirting with Sabine and the Ghost’s cloaking device got turned off as a result. Admittedly, it was amusing to see the crew attempt to deal with puffer pig. After a few serious episodes, the fun tone of this episode was actually a nice change of pace. It’s okay to have a fun episode that doesn’t deal with the overall conflict every once and awhile. The Ghost escaped the Imperial forces and arrived at Lando’s mining operation. Yes, apparently Lando has a mining operation on Lothal. When they arrived, the crew of the Ghost and Lando were greeted by Azmorigan and his soldiers. The ensuing firefight was one of the show’s best so far.  After Azmorigan, who was a pretty one-dimensional villain, and his soldiers were defeated Lando returned Chopper to the crew of the Ghost. Hera told Lando he still owed her one and I do hope we see Lando on Rebels again. He fits in well with the regular cast and he could easily have a role similar to Hondo Ohnaka’s on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. While “Idiot’s Array” wasn’t a perfect episode, Billy Dee Williams’ return to a galaxy far, far away was a lot of fun.  

What Worked

• Billy Dee Williams makes everything better
• Lando worked well with the rest of the characters, particularly Hera 
• Great episode for Hera 
• Fun episode that used humor effectively

What Didn’t Work

• Having all these movie characters show up is making the universe feel small
• Once again, Ezra and Zeb’s antics get the rest of the crew in trouble

External Links:

• StarWars.com Episode Guide
• Wookieepedia Episode Summary