TV Club 10: The episodes that made Star Wars Rebels essential to the franchise

With TV Club 10, we point you toward the 10 episodes that best represent a TV series, classic or modern. They might not be the 10 best episodes, but they’re the 10 episodes that’ll help you understand what the show’s all about. 

When Star Wars Rebels premiered, the odds were stacked against it. It was the first Star Wars production after Disney acquired Lucasfilm, landing before The Force Awakens and after the huge success and controversial cancellation of The Clone Wars (despite several episodes being nearly finished at the time). Add a completely new art style, a fresh cast of characters, and a first season that skewed a bit younger and Rebels had a big uphill climb ahead. But just like its predecessor, The Clone Wars, Rebels quickly found its footing, aged up alongside its characters, and became not just a great Star Wars story but an essential chapter of the franchise and the cornerstone for what it is right now.

Rebels is set 15 years after Revenge Of The Sith during a time when the Empire is in full control, any hope of fighting back is a very distant dream, and the Jedi are but a memory long gone. Showcasing the earliest days of the Rebellion, the show follows pilot Hera Syndulla (voiced by Vanessa Marshall), Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar), former Lasat honor guard Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum), droid Chopper, and onetime Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.) as the crew of the Ghost. Eventually, this ragtag group of misfits fighting the Empire crosses paths with a young outcast on a planet oppressed by that dictatorship named Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray), who turns out to be Force-sensitive. From there, the Ghost crew goes from doing small jobs helping the oppressed and disrupting Imperial operations to becoming an active and significant part of the birth of the Rebellion, constantly running into familiar faces from the original and prequel trilogies and ultimately helping topple the Empire. 

Rebels showcases Leia actually using her diplomatic status to help small rebellions, Saw Guerrera turning into an extremist, Mon Mothma founding the Rebel Alliance, and much more. But as much as Rebels brings in multiple storylines and dozens of characters, it is not The Clone Wars. It didn’t change points of view every episode but rather remained focused on the Ghost crew and based on the planet Lothal, where Ezra comes from. This helped give Rebels a sense of intimacy, making it feel small-scale even as it dealt with big fights against the entire Empire, naturally growing the Rebellion into a force to be reckoned with. At the same time, the show also dove into the mythology of the Force and the conflict between Jedi and Sith, introducing radical new concepts like the Bendu and the World Between Worlds as well as giving resolutions to both Darth Maul and even Ahsoka Tano.

But without a doubt, the key to Rebels was, well, right there in its title. The biggest asset of the show is how it told the origin story of the Rebel Alliance and the many hurdles that plagued them before they destroyed the Death Star. Through this, the cartoon introduced elements that are now hugely important throughout several Star Wars TV shows. Ahsoka came back and had a prominent role in the Rebellion, paving the way for her own TV show, also starring Thrawn, a character that Rebels brought back into the canon. The plot of liberating Mandalore from the Empire and the importance of the Darksaber feel like preludes to the most recent two seasons of The Mandalorian. And the show’s surprisingly nuanced and poignant portrayal of Imperial oppression, and the sacrifices that paved the way to freedom, echo the tone that would later make Andor a Star Wars show like no other. 

Here, to mark the tenth anniversary of the show—it premiered October 3, 2014—are ten episodes of Star Wars Rebels that made it a unique, essential, and hugely influential part of Star Wars.

“Call To Action” (season 1, episode 13) 

This is the episode where the Ghost crew goes from being a nuisance to the Empire to becoming a proper rebel cell that inspires others. It doesn’t take long for them to become so effective in disrupting Imperial operations on Lothal that the Empire starts to take them more seriously and call in the big guns. Specifically, the episode begins with Grad Moff Tarkin himself arriving on the planet to put an end to the group by any means necessary. From the start, the installment shows a different side of Imperial villainy. Rather than being dependent on lightsabers and Force choking to inspire terror, Tarking settles on a more subtle approach, turning the entire Imperial propaganda machine to discredit the Ghost crew and branding them as terrorists and their actions as crimes. Tarkin also sets a trap for Kanan, recognizing that having a Jedi out in the open saving people is a much bigger threat than just losing a few factories or being behind on production schedules. Meanwhile, the Ghost team decides to attack the Empire not with weapons but by hijacking a transmission tower to send a message of hope and defiance to the people of Lothal.

This is a bleak episode, as the crew loses Kanan and starts to realize the true cost of waging a war against the Empire. And Ezra’s arc—he goes from wondering whether it’s worth risking the lives of his friends for a message no one may even hear to realizing and accepting the sacrifices they’ll have to make in order to liberate their homes from the Empire—is particularly well done.  

“The Forgotten Droid” (season 2, episode 18) 

One of the most underrated aspects of Star Wars has always been the droids. From the very first movie, they’ve mostly served as comic relief and exposition delivery systems, even if characters like R2 and 3PO have personalities of their own. While C1-10P, also known as Chopper, began as a rather controversial character in Rebels, a comic-relief one who annoyed everyone around him, he quickly stood out from the many droids in the franchise for his manic personality, complete disregard for human or alien life, and love of mayhem and murder. “The Forgotten Droid” is Chopper’s finest hour, an episode that seems like an inconsequential side story on the surface, about Chopper taking a detour during a mission in order to buy a new leg (which he then decides to steal). Except that is only the beginning, because this droid-centric installment is also (much like another episode later on this list) about veterans on opposite sides of a war finding common ground.

While on the run from stormtroopers, Chopper runs into AP-5, an Imperial inventory droid. In between funny gags, droid shenanigans, and some light war crimes in jettisoning a ship’s crew into space to die slowly (Chopper’s preferred murder method), there’s a rather poignant story about AP-5 and Chopper bonding over serving in the Clone Wars and being part of the same campaign and becoming two bickering friends. It is an essential episode that showcases Rebels‘ approach to characters: giving arcs to everyone in the crew, be them Jedi or even a droid, and making them all feel important to the story. 

“Twilight Of The Apprentice” (season 2, episodes 21 and 22) 

The Star Wars franchise has always been about teachers and students, so it makes sense that the second season of Rebels would bring this to the forefront and show what happens when one fails the other. This two-parter is heavy on the Jedi aspect of Rebels, featuring the most lightsaber-related duels, reveals, and deaths in the show. It starts with Ezra, Kanan, and Ahsoka traveling to the planet Malachor to find a Sith secret that can help them defeat the Empire before the Inquisitors grab it. And it features the return of Darth Maul, who tries to tempt Ezra into becoming his own apprentice, as well as some truly epic action sequences and, of course, the very anticipated confrontation between Ahsoka and Vader.

There had already been plenty of discussions and hints in the past season about Ezra possibly going to the dark side if he kept falling to his impulses and anger, but “Twilight Of The Apprentice” pushes him to new depths as he gets manipulated by Maul. It’s a point of no return for Ezra and Kanan, who pays the price for his pupil’s mistake when he’s literally blinded by Maul, finally going from a reluctant teacher to one willing to risk it all for his student. Meanwhile, Ezra learns that his actions have consequences and that desire and anger aren’t necessarily good. Of course, the episode is best remembered for that duel between Ahsoka and Vader, which remains the peak of Rebels storytelling. Seeing Ahsoka’s declaration that she is not a Jedi as she proves to be just as strong and skilled as Vader is already emotional and poignant, with stunning visuals and some of Kevin Kiner’s finest musical work. But it is the moment when we hear the late James Earl Jones’ voice turn into Matt Lanter’s Anakin voice that makes this a highlight of the entire show. It’s no wonder that the franchise has kept trying to replicate this in both The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

“The Last Battle” (season 3, episode 5)

The end of the Clone Wars was never really properly given closure by the franchise. Sure, the movies showed the moment Palpatine declared the war was over and turned the Republic into the Empire as Obi-Wan and Yoda went into exile, but we never saw those who fought in the war get a resolution. The clones never actually finished their mission, their reason for existing. They just pivoted to slaughtering Jedi and then the war was yanked from under them. That is, until “The Last Battle,” which gives us a resolution to the war and the fighting between clones and droids (the two engineered, faceless armies) while finally asking two big and important questions: What was the war for? And who won it? In the episode, Kanan, Ezra, Zeb, and Rex are forced into fighting a sick war game by an army of old battle droids hoping to finally decide which army is best. 

Seeing the super tactical droid Kalani and Rex revisit their glory days, realizing what the war took from them, and how futile it all was, makes for one of the show’s most poignant moments. But it is Ezra slowly coming to terms with the fact that, for all that he’s gleaned and heard about the Clone Wars, he’s never actually thought about how both sides ended up losing that makes this a special episode. We all know Palpatine orchestrated the war to weaken the galaxy enough to take over, but it is another thing to see the people who fought in it understand what the fighting was really for and that the Empire was the only true winner. Plus, it’s also just plain fun seeing Battle Droids in action and being their goofy selves again. 

“Trials Of The Darksaber” (season 3, episode 15)

Training is an essential part of Star Wars—just think of how important Luke’s sessions with Yoda is—so it comes as a pleasant surprise that the big training episode in Rebels doesn’t involve Ezra but Sabine. After acquiring the Darksaber from Maul earlier in the season, and realizing it can be used to unite the Mandalorian clans, Kanan decides to teach Sabine how to wield it so she can lead her people. Though Sabine is already a great fighter, learning to battle like a Jedi proves quite hard—and also hilarious for Ezra, who’s gone through this many times before. It’s a refreshing change of pace to have an episode focused not on a mission, not on plot, but on character, training, and learning. The mythology around the Darksaber is both fascinating and well-told, and it became a central point of The Mandalorian.

This is an ace character episode for Sabine, who learns to overcome her own insecurities and that she doesn’t have to choose between Jedi training or Mandalorian. It’s a solid one for Kanan as a mentor, too, as we see that even he has room to grow and improve. This installment also introduced the idea of non-Force sensitive people being capable of wielding lightsabers and potentially even using the Force—if they’re open to it—which became a key element of Ahsoka years later.

“Secret Cargo” (season 3, episode 18)

Before Rogue One showed the moment the Rebellion turned into an open war against the Empire and Andor depicted the radicalization of people across the galaxy to fight back, Star Wars Rebels slowly charted the way small cells throughout the galaxy became a bigger and bigger threat to the Empire. “Secret Cargo” is the epitomic Rebellion story, a relatively simple one with huge repercussions. It starts with the Ghost crew listening to a HoloNet propaganda broadcast and culminates with an passionate speech from Senator Mon Mothma, a rare moment where the franchise shows that there’s more to fighting the Empire than big space battles, like the importance of politicians challenging Emperor Palpatine’s authoritarian rule.

Wanted by the Empire for “treasonous” remarks against the Emperor, Mon Mothma decides enough is enough and quits her job at the Senate. Genevieve O’Reilly does a fantastic job here (though you should already know that if you watched Andor). And her speech at the end of the episode, in which Mothma addresses all Rebel cells, vowing not to rest until they have restored the Republic and pleading with the different cells to come together as one single alliance, is one of the most rousing scenes in the entire franchise. This is the moment when Rebels fully becomes a prequel to Rogue One, with the tone and at times even the look of the show changing to better match the movie. Before Andor, Rebels gave us the definitive origin story for the Rebel Alliance and the sacrifices that paved the way for a new hope to arrive in the galaxy. 

“Twin Suns” (season 3, episode 20)

The position of Star Wars Rebels as not only a prequel to A New Hope but also a sequel to The Clone Wars made for some truly spectacular scenes fans didn’t even know they needed. Take, for instance, “Twin Suns,” the episode that finally brings Obi-Wan Kenobi back into the fold (albeit briefly), hints that the rebels’ efforts won’t be in vein as we get a tease of Luke Skywalker himself, and also gives audiences a resolution to the twisted story of Obi-Wan and Maul that began all the way back in The Phantom Menace. Believing that Master Kenobi is still alive, Ezra rushes to Tatooine to find him, hoping he can be a weapon to defeat the Empire. Unbeknownst to him, Maul follows him, seeking his revenge.

The episode doesn’t forget that it is Ezra’s journey, so Maul finding Obi-Wan because of Ezra is just the wake-up call he needs after a whole season of toying with the dark side. His recklessness and desire to get rid of the Empire no matter the cost end up almost ruining their one chance at defeating the Sith, so this is an important episode for his arc. Then, of course, there’s the highlight of the installment: the confrontation between Maul and Obi-Wan. Rather than a drawn-out, acrobatics-heavy battle, we get a very short samurai-like duel. It’s a fantastic piece of animation, with attention paid to the smallest detail, bridging the character movements from The Clone Wars and the prequels. The fight isn’t just about clashing lightsabers. It becomes a poetic end to their cycle of revenge, with old Ben Kenobi having an oddly touching moment of compassion for his old rival, assuring Maul that the Chosen One will redeem them both.

“Zero Hour” (season 3, episodes 21 and 22)

Though Rebels was a small-scale story for most of its run, its last two seasons felt like a classic Star Wars movie, with epic space battles, despicable villains, and thrilling fights for freedom. “Zero Hour,” season three’s two-part finale, feels like the closest Rebels gets to becoming Rogue One The TV Show. There’s a losing battle of grand proportions against an impossibly strong foe in Thrawn, who gains his reputation as an all-time great Star Wars villain, as well as introductions to some fascinating additions to the Force and the Jedi. Thrawn had already proven himself to be a different kind of villain, a cold and calculated strategist who cared not about glory or humiliating his opponent but rather simply about getting stuff done.

So when his plans finally come to fruition in “Zero Hour,” it’s devastating to the rebels. His chess moves quickly obliterate the nascent Rebellion and ultimately end with Thrawn all but victorious. This episode has the show’s biggest space battle, with dogfighting worthy of the live-action movies, some great sacrifices à la Rogue One, and one extremely metal scene of Mandalorians space walking and attacking a Star Destroyer from the outside. 

“Jedi Night” (season 4, episode 10)

Rebels (like Andor and Rogue One) understands and never shies away from showing the sacrifices that paved the way for the victory of the Rebel Alliance. The show’s most emotional installment by far, “Jedi Night” is all about the attempted rescue of Hera from Governor Pryce and Thrawn and the sacrifices to achieve it. Saving someone from the Empire is a classic Star Wars story, especially if it ends with a Jedi sacrificing themself, but Kanan is not some mentor we just met. He’s the heart of Rebels, a character we watched grow from a reluctant Jedi who saw everyone and everything he cared about destroyed to Ezra’s trainer.

His sacrifice and death in this episode is one of the best moments in the entire show, a solemn one that is both intimate and seemingly small—a member of the crew dies to save another—but also hugely significant for the fight at large. Kanan’s demise not only saved Hera and the Ghost crew but also destroyed the TIE Defender factory on Lothal, which would have given the Empire a military advantage. With the factory’s destruction, funds were diverted to the Death Star, leading to the Battle of Scarif and the start of the Galactic Civil War. 

“A World Between Worlds” (season 4, episode 13)

Much like The Clone Wars, Rebels expanded our understanding of the Force and the universe of Star Wars, introducing wild new concepts that recontextualize the entire mythology of the franchise. Arguably the biggest and most game-changing addition to the lore came in “A World Between Worlds,” also known as the episode where Ezra time travels. Entering the Jedi Temple on Lothal, Ezra discovers a strange dimension, a literal world between worlds where all time coexists. This space is filled with portals connected to different moments in the history of the franchise, and Ezra uses it to save Ahsoka from being killed by Vader in the past, and the two are forced to fight off Emperor Palpatine, who wants the secrets of the World Between Worlds for himself. 

The introduction of time manipulation is already fascinating, and we’re seeing its ramifications in Ahsoka, but what makes this an essential episode of the series is the overall focus on arcane knowledge. Ezra solving a puzzle to get into the portal feels very Indiana Jones-inspired, and the sight of the Imperial scholar legitimately crying at the loss of knowledge when the temple collapses is fascinating and makes the show feel part of a much, much larger history than what we see on the screen. But this is also just a bonkers episode that refutes the idea that one could or should try to make sense of the science of the franchise. After all, we see a space wizard traveling through time to attack Ezra and Ahsoka, chanting some Sith magic, and literally shooting Force fire out of his hands. It is an installment that proves that there is always potential for more silly, high-concept ideas in Star Wars.