Star Wars Resistance review: Kaz helps Synara escape

With the First Order increasing its presence on the Colossus, Synara is desperate to get off the station before she’s caught and Kaz is equally desperate to help her.

After the First Order betrays the pirates in “The Doza Dilemma,” Synara finds herself trapped aboard the station. Luckily for her, Kaz wants to help. He does it for two reasons. One, he likes her. And two, he knows she’s a good person.

“The First Order Occupation” highlights how the unlikeliest people can surprise you in the best ways. From Neeku and Synara to Kaz and BB-8, each of them demonstrates selflessness, courage, and a willingness to do what is right. That’s what we love most about this episode, but let’s take a look at the rest and underline other touching and hilarious moments.

First Order patrolling the station

Synara discovers the Colossus is under a lockdown by the First Order. No one is allowed to leave until the spy they’re looking for is caught. Meanwhile, Kaz makes his opinion about the First Order clear with Tam and Neeku, saying how they’re the bad guys and meant for war. Tam doesn’t see them that way. To her, they saved Torra and provide more security to the Colossus.

Kaz is essentially fighting against a river right now. Nobody is going to believe him because the First Order hasn’t visibly done anything to make themselves look like villains. Their illegal activities have taken place in the shadows and outside of the known regions.

In a way, he’s the “Leia” in this series because he’s the only one amongst them willing to see the truth. Tam, on the other hand, represents the rest of the galaxy and doesn’t see how the First Order poses a threat. Star Wars Resistance is giving us a micro version of what’s happening at large, and we appreciate that perspective.

Something else we love about this episode? How Neeku’s literal personality and honest approach puts Kaz in awkward and even dangerous situations. He has absolutely no filter, making his scenes downright hilarious. There are, of course, serious things happening in the background, but Neeku continues to be a bright spot of joy in the story.

Back in the tower, Captain Doza meets with Commander Pyre and reminds him to keep his stormtroopers in check. It’s interesting how he went from a character we didn’t entirely trust to someone we feel sorry for because he’s been pushed into an uncomfortable corner. A combination of the writing, voice acting, and animation do a fantastic job at giving us an idea that Doza is already regretting this decision of bringing the First Order to the Colossus.

We also can’t help but think back to the Imperial uniform in his closet, a constant reminder of Doza’s past and what he turned away from. He knows what the First Order is capable of doing and the strategies they would use in the name of order and security, making him all the more uncomfortable with his decision.

Helping Synara escape

Yeager and Kaz talk in private about the First Order’s occupation and Yeager advises Kaz to wait until Poe contacts them with more information. Kaz is a lot of things, but seeing a more serious and angered side of him felt new and odd at the same time. He’s such a naturally sweet and cheery guy. It felt weird seeing him act the exact opposite, but we also want to see more of it because he’s more than just sweet and cheery.

While Kaz is out searching for Synara, we get a small glimpse of stormtroopers harassing Opeepit, the sole janitor of the Colossus. It‘s a funny scene because why would stormtroopers want to take a buffer machine away from the janitor? At the same time, it’s sad because Opeepit loves his buffer machine and feels lost without it. It’s such an insignificant scene to some, but we love Opeepit and hope he gets reunited with his buffer machine soon.

When Kaz finds Synara, she elbows him in the face and it brings us right back to when they first met in “Signal from Sector Six.” At the time, she punched him in the face, so it’s a nice little throwback. Kaz also hides her in a crate and that’s where he first found her, unconscious from the lack of oxygen aboard the damaged cargo ship. We love seeing parallels like this.

We especially enjoy how oblivious she is toward Kaz’s crush on her. The food analogy and his dramatic “no time for sensitive goodbyes” had us laughing hysterically because she’s on a completely different page than him, making Kaz’s own actions all the more hilarious. That said, we don’t think the Synara and Kaz ship is completely dead in the water. We like to think there’s potential there, but the timing needs to be right.

Putting aside the laughs, for now, we also appreciate Kaz’s sincere line to Synara, “You might be a pirate, but I know you’re a good person.” Once again, we’re reminded of Kaz’s sweet and kind personality and how he’s willing to do anything it takes to get Synara to safety.

Sure, it’s partly because he likes her, but he also understands how Synara is a good person based on her actions. He doesn’t stereotype her or lump her together with other pirates. He sees that spark of goodness in her and he wants her to hold onto that.

Helping Synara escape… again

After BB-8 accidentally trips the alarm, Synara heads into the transport ship, but she ends up leaving to help Kaz from the stormtroopers pursuing him. Unfortunately for her, the ships leave. Even though she misses her chance to escape, we like how she chooses to help Kaz over trying to save herself. It emphasizes Kaz’s thoughts about her and how they’re not misplaced.

She and Kaz go to Neeku for help, since he knows the Colossus like the back of his hand. Neeku shines once again, especially when he courageously exposes himself to the steam pipe and distracts the stormtroopers.

Another laugh-out-loud moment for us is the elevator scene between Synara and Kaz. It’s such a classic thing to do, adding elevator music to a tense moment, but it works so well here. Even though this is taking place in a galaxy far, far away, we love how modern-day references like that are inserted into the story. It helps keep the iconic trope alive.

As the episode comes to an end, Synara thanks Kaz for his help and says, “Being here has opened my eyes to so many things.” Still, Kaz wishes things had worked out differently. Just when we think the moment is going to be emotional and sweet between them, the door of the escape pod hits Kaz on the head as it closes.

On one hand, we wish that scene would have ended on a more serious note, but we also couldn’t help but laugh. Kaz’s awkward and downright embarrassing moments are extremely relatable, so we appreciate the accuracy behind hitting yourself in front of your crush because we’ve all been there at one time or another.

When Kaz arrives at Yeager’s workshop, he informs Tam of Synara’s departure. Tam is sad Synara didn’t say goodbye. We’re kind of upset about that, too. To be honest, we wish Tam and Synara had interacted more often, but after “Synara’s Score,” their friendship wasn’t the main highlight anymore. We sincerely hope Synara returns in the near future because we want to see that friendship again, especially if they join forces to fight back against the First Order.

Lingering thoughts

The last thing we see is Synara flying away with Kragan and rejoining the pirates. The look on her face tells us there’s more story to tell. We get the feeling she might return in the second season, since the remaining episodes seem more focused on the First Order.

All in all, this episode tugged at our heartstrings and tickled our funny bones. We don’t know how they do it, but the creative team behind Star Wars Resistance continues to find new and exciting ways to grab our attention from the word go. “The First Order Occupation” is no exception, and we have no doubt it’s only going to get better from this point forward.

Star Wars Resistance airs Sundays on the Disney Channel at 10 p.m. EST and DisneyNOW.