Star Wars Resistance Episode 10 Review: Secrets and Holograms

This Star Wars Resistance review contains spoilers.

Star Wars Resistance Episode 10

I had a thought while watching the cold opening for “Secrets and Holograms.” Watching Captain Doza go out of his way to protect his daughter as he does business with the First Order, whom he knows are Not Good Dudes, I kind of get the impression that Star Wars Resistance is dabbling with the nature of the hypocrisy and contradiction of the powerful and wealthy. He locks Torra in her room to keep her safe but warns no one else about the potential danger Commander Pyre may bring, not only to the Aces but to the entire base.

The episode even hints at the messed-up nature of this arrangement: when Torra and Kazuda are walking in the market, several regular citizens voice their concerns and complaints about canceled races and potential curfews. Even in the Aces’ lounge, a few of the pilots kvetch to Torra about what the heck her father is doing and why he has them grounded for so long. That Doza would be doing this without at least telling his Aces, let alone the citizens he’s sworn to protect, is very problematic, but it doesn’t feel like Resistance is interested in exploring it. (Maybe it will at some point, tying it to the very clearly demarcated socio-economic lines that are all but obvious, but it has yet to really hint at any real conflicts along those lines.)

Further Reading: Star Wars Resistance Episode 9 Review

Instead, we get a cute, somewhat confusing adventure between Kazuda and Torra. The former wants to sneak into the Ace’s Tower, the latter wants to sneak out, and due to a few convenient circumstances, they do both. Much of the episode is the two characters ducking behind corners and avoiding robots, with the occasional morsel of information to tie us over: some data on a hard drive that Kazuda stole from Captain Doza’s office, Doza possessing an old Imperial uniform, actually getting to hear some of the Aces talk. It’s fine, in that established Star Wars Resistance kind of way–a little bit tense and a little bit goofy, but not even a little bit interesting. (Just for peace of mind, I’m going to assume BB-8 contacted Torra so she could distract her father long enough so Kazuda could escape his office.)

The main thrust of this episode is about developing the start of some kind of relationship between Kazuda and Torra. I’ll give credit to the episode for not immediately utilizing the framework of a budding romance: there’s only one scene that suggests that there’s something more there between the two teens–their shared glances at each other as they play their augmented reality flight simulator game (which looks really pathetic, by the way). But that feels more like a shared connection of their young adulthood than anything concerning love–prior to that scene, Kazuda makes the subtly deep comment that people their age on the Colossus are rare. That seems… unlikely (Jace and his whole crew seemed to be Kazuda’s age, and we’ve barely begun to really see the full extent of the type of people that live on this base), but the moment resonants, even slightly, because it’s small, quiet, and honest.

Further Reading: Everything We Know About Star Wars Episode IX

The final moments, as per usual, are the moments where Resistance cuts loose, this time apeing the original Star Wars “trash compactor scene,” but making it a baffling trash incinerator, which works by randomly shooting lasers at the trash (instead of, you know, just unleashing a huge freaking fire). It’s completely nonsensical, put in place so Torra can realize that dodging said lasers is just like playing the flight simulator game, but they don’t connect in any way, since both Torra and Kazuda have to do death-defying moves that they do not do in said game at all.

There’s an implication–a small one, I think–of Torra always misjudging or downplaying any sense of real danger around her (which would be a very interesting trait for the character to have if I trusted Resistance to utilize it with some nuance, which… well…), but it ends with Torra asking the same question her father asked several episodes ago. “Who are you, Kazuda?” Which is supposed to be ironic, since he’s not really anything special (like his sad counterpart Jace Rucklin, who’s just kind of a failure of an antagonist but has just the right kind of wildcard energy to be a potential problem down the line). It’s hard to tell where Resistance stands with anything though. It’s moving pieces and setting up for future stories, but with no clear idea of the full board, it’s hard to play along.

Kevin Johnson is a writer who loves cartoons and animation. He has written for The AVClub and Topless Robot, and has more content at his own blog here. You can also follow him on Twitter.