Star Wars Resistance Episode 13 Review: Dangerous Business

This Star Wars Resistance review contains spoilers.

Star Wars Resistance Episode 13

Kazuda Xiono–pilot, mechanic, and Resistance spy–now takes on the role of shopkeeper in this week’s episode, “Dangerous Business.” And, well, like last week’s “Bibo,” it’s pretty basic. At least “Bibo” had the luxury to re-acquaint the audience to the show’s various characters. This episode has us checking in on the two that were missing from last week’s adventure–Orka and Flix–but otherwise devises a fairly straightforward narrative in a clunky way. There’s not much real information revealed–Stormtroopers appear at the end, so yeah, the First Order is involved somehow–but beyond that obvious ending, “Dangerous Business” is… business as usual.

One thing that’s been getting to me more and more is the show’s approach to humor. There’s just this… thread of juvenile gags that are slowly starting to grate. Or, more accurately, the problem isn’t so much that they’re juvenile, but that they’re simplistic and overdone. I don’t mind that they’re there: Star Wars Resistance has all but embraced the fact that its demographic is skewing younger than I think most Star Wars fans would expect. But its reliance on prolonging gags or bits far longer than they should last is frustrating. 

Bitey’s constant aggressiveness (chomping fingers, attacking BB-8 for literally no reason) are overwhelming, all based on the visual gags of characters (namely Kaz), screaming “Ouch!” and running around like a goofball. This happens a lot. I’ve said this before, but Resistance’s comic strength lies in ironic juxtapositions and verbal spars. Physical gags rarely work. And while Bitey’s “bitey-ness” is the bit that indeed saves the day at the end, it feels just as random and forced as the gags that also involve him.

The plot, in its basicness, consists of a creepy guy named Teroj Kee who seems a bit too obsessed with a “phase connector” held in the back of the Acquisitions store. Kazuda delivers him some other parts with the intent to investigate him, which is smart enough, but he leaves B-88 in charge of the store, which is decidedly not (why not just close up Acquisitions for a few minutes?). Teroj traps Kazuda in a storage container as he makes off with the phase connector (after a failed attempt by BB-8 to stop him). Kazuda escapes the container after some quick thinking and some insanely convenient items, MacGyver-style, and manages to find Teroj with the phase connector just as conveniently: he literally just walks right by.

The script here relies on way too many forced coincidences and conveniences like this, particularly with Bitey clinging onto the phase connector as Kaz makes his way onto the ship. The only thing that keeps this episode (and this show, really) somewhat lively is Kaz and his quick-thinking/goofy-but-skillful agility, with another decent third act acton sequence seeing Kaz run around and dodge an assortment of containers as they get knocked about after setting the ship to crash into the sea. He escapes via an escape pod, and gets accolades for stopping Teroj by Orka and Flix, since Teroj has always been a shady creep, but is still forced to work in Acquisitions because comedy.

further reading: How Star Wars Resistance Tells Unique Stories

Again, it’s nothing particularly interesting or new here, and the question concerning what the First Order wants with a device to mine asteroids is too vague to be tension-inducing, but “Dangerous Business” does works, I guess, but barely. I will say this though: the sound mix on this episode was awful. I watch this show through my iPad, and I know that it’s not the best of audio outputs, but this episode in particular was egregious, with Teroj hardly audible over the extremely loud score. A slightly less-than-average episode with a poor sound mix only serves to downgrade this episode. The second half of this season of Star Wars Resistance is not off to a promising start.

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