“Legacy” brings us back to Lothal once again, but for good reasons. Namely, a deeper look into Ezra’s character and an investigation into the whereabouts of his parents.
Recap
We open on Garel in the middle of the night. Ezra is having a nightmare. In his dream he is seeing flashes of things he doesn’t understand. Among other things, he sees a white loth-cat, an attack by the Empire, a stranger he may or may not recognize, and, most importantly, his parents. In the dream he falls, which causes him to fall out of bed. When he hits the ground, he picks himself up and goes to tell Kanan about what he saw.
Hera and Kanan are discussing locations for a permanent Rebel base when Ezra interrupts them. He tells them about his dream, and they decide it’s time he knew what Tseebo told them he knew about Ezra’s parents. Apparently he revealed that they were captured and taken to one of the Empire’s prisons. But which prison? He didn’t know. It could be one of thousands, and Kanan and Hera had not yet been able to figure out which one.
Meanwhile, the Inquisitors give their report to the Empire concerning the information they recently obtained about the location of the Rebels. Admiral Konstantine doesn’t seem to believe that the Rebels are on Garel, but Agent Kallus confirms the information and he orders that the Admiral deploy the fleet.
Back on Garel, Kanan and Hera show a list of prisoners to Ezra. The list represents the occupants of a prison on Lothal, at which there was a mass escape the previous night. Ezra knows that this has to be where his parents are; he’s sure the escape coincided with his dream. Kanan helps him use the Force to select one of the prisoners. There is no name or picture, but the prisoner was arrested on Lothal for treason. Ezra knows this is his father, and he insists they go back to Lothal immediately.
The rest of the crew agree to accompany him, but they have to wait for Zeb and Chopper to return first. Zeb informs them that he’ll be back soon. He hasn’t seen any stormtroopers anywhere, so he’s moving a lot more quickly. Sabine, however, recognizes this as a strategic tactic by the Empire, they’ll pull out right before a full scale attack. Sure enough, the group looks up and the sky in suddenly full of Star Destroyers.
Outside, Zeb and Chopper are ambushed. Kanan and Ezra race to their rescue, but they are cornered by Agent Kallus and a squad of stormtroopers. Angry that they are prevented from going to Lothal, Ezra rushes the group, takes out the stormtroopers with their own blaster fire, and take out Agent Kallus with a Force push. Suddenly, the Inquisitors appear. Ezra prepares to take them on on his own, but Kanan shoots the door. This causes the door to close between them so they can make their escape.
The crew all take off aboard the Ghost, but as soon as they’re in the air, Kanan, Ezra, and Chopper separate from the group inside the Phantom. As Hera is the leader of the Phoenix Squadron, she needs to help the whole fleet escape. She orders Kanan and Ezra to go on to Lothal without them.
One of the Star Destroyers activates a tractor beam that captures Commander Sato’s ship. Hera, Sabine, and Zeb go back to take out the tractor beam, against Commander Sato’s wishes that they go on without him. Once they free the commander, Sabine asks what they are going to do. Will they join Kanan and Ezra on Lothal, or stay with the fleet? Hera tells her that they are staying with the fleet. They make the jump and disappear into hyperspace.
On Lothal, Ezra discovers that his home had been burned to the ground by the Empire. Disappointed at this turn of events, as he was sure he’d find his parents there, he begins to listen to the Force. As he meditates, he is distracted by the white loth-cat from his dream! He pets it, but the loth-cat acts like it wants Ezra to follow it. He chases it into a marketplace where he sees it jump on the back of a speeder, which takes off and disappears. All is not lost though, as Ezra managed to plant a tracker on the cat.
Kanan and Ezra return to the Phantom where they use the locator to track the cat into the mountains. When they land, a mysterious stranger begins to fire on them. It’s the man from Ezra’s dream! He calls out and asks the stranger if he knew his parents, Ephraim and Mira Bridger. The man stops shooting and tells them that his name is Ryder Azadi, and he does know Ezra’s parents. He takes them back to his home and tells them that he was the governor of Lothal. He supported his parents’ messages against the Empire and was sent to prison with them. However, he does not have good news. Ezra’s parents are indeed dead. They heard the message of rebellion that Ezra had sent out, and rallied the prisoners together. They wouldn’t leave until everyone else had gotten out safely first and, as a result, they themselves didn’t make it out.
That night Ezra has another vision. This time it’s not a dream. It happens while he’s awake. He sees his parents again, but this time they talk to him. They tell him that they are very proud of him, and that he needs to stay strong. Before the vision ends, his mother reminds him that they have nothing without hope. Ezra tells Kanan about the vision and Kanan tells him that the Jedi believe that life doesn’t end with death, it merely changes form. In this way, his parents will always be with him.
Review
“Legacy” was a great episode, even if I kind of saw the end coming. I’ve been under the impression that Ezra’s parents have been dead the whole time, so the only thing that surprised me was that they died so recently. Ezra is the main character of the show, and a core part of the Rebels’ team, so I knew it was quite unlikely that his parents would be coming back. If they did, he’d probably leave the Ghost crew to go live with them. I’m sure they’d all work together for the Rebellion, but it wouldn’t be quite the same.
Having said this though, I’m now wondering if perhaps they will come back in the future. Yes, Ryder did say they were dead. But did he see them? I felt like he was being just vague enough that there was a chance that one or both of them might have escaped. That could be just my wishful thinking though. The vision at the end would seem to imply that they are both dead for certain, but it was just a vision. I don’t think this was an instance of them coming back as Force Ghosts like Obi-Wan or Yoda. Who knows? They’re probably dead, but should they show up in the future I don’t think I’ll be too surprised.
I’ll be interested to see how long the Ghost crew is split up. I was kind of surprised at Hera’s decision not to join Kanan and Ezra, and I’m wondering if this is going to be a long-term separation. While I do hope they get back together soon, I think it was kind of a brave choice to split them up and I hope they have a few adventures independently of each other before reuniting. In Clone Wars the main characters were frequently split up for separate adventures, and I think that worked out really well in terms of storytelling.
Final Thoughts
“Legacy” was a great episode for Ezra’s character. I feel like the writers are trying a lot harder to make him an independent character, rather that the Rebel’s kid sidekick (which he has felt like to me for awhile). And while there’s nothing wrong with a kid sidekick, I much prefer it when the characters can be explored more in depth and “Legacy” was a great example of that.
What did you think of “Legacy”? Do you think this is the last we’ve seen of Ezra’s parents, or do you think they’ll be back?
Edited by: Hannah Wilkes
