"To put a real stick in the eye of the Empire, and get paid for it."
— Luthen Rael
After escaping Ferrix, Luthen brings Cassian to the planet Aldhani where he's introduced to a crew of thieves who plan to steal a massive amount of Imperial credits. Luthen returns to Coruscant to meet with Senator Mon Mothma. Dedra, an Imperial Security Bureau officer, investigates the stolen Imperial device Cassian was trying to sell, while Karn is fired from Pre-Mor for the damage caused by his insubordination.
Tropes:
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Cassian's addition into Vel's team happens barely three days away from a major heist that had been in planning for five months. Naturally, absolutely no one is happy about such a late disruption in their plans.
- Ace Custom: Cassian is surprised at the speed and power of Luthen's spacecraft when it jumps into hyperspace. It also has an A.I. that deters him from just flying off while Luthen is talking to Vel.
- Anger Born of Worry: Syril's mother slaps him when she first sees him, though it's only because he put himself in danger.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Played With. While Mon Mothma herself is far from evil, her husband Perrin turns out to be sleazier and much less compassionate than she is, to the point of inviting her political opponents to a dinner at their residence without telling her.
- Big Brother Is Watching You: Mon Mothma has noticed a suspicious number of new faces around her and worries she might be under direct ISB surveillance.
- Bringing in the Expert: Heroic version. Luthen hires Cassian because Vel's team are amateurs when it comes to conducting a heist. Cassian is an experienced thief and liar, and can kill in cold blood if necessary. He also has training as a pilot which will be crucial to the crew's getting away after the heist.
- Blunt "Yes":Dedra: Are you denying my request?
Blevin: [without missing a beat] For the second time today. - Call-Back: Cassian mentions being sent to Mimban after he got out of prison. This would put him in the same battle Han Solo fought in during his time in the Imperial Infantry.
- Call-Forward:
- Luthen predicts that whenever and however Cassian dies, it's going to be while spitting in the Empire's face. The audience already knows from Rogue One that this is true.
- Jung and Partagaz mention security arrangements for shipments of construction materials headed for Scarif, the location of the climax of Rogue One and Cassian's eventual final resting place.
- When Karn is at the starport, the PA announces that a ship will be departing for Hosnian Prime, the eventual capital of the New Republic which will be destroyed by Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens.
- Mon Mothma mentions how some of the guests invited to her and her husband's Fancy Dinner were responsible for starving the peoples of other worlds, with the Ghormans being one of them. Later on in Star Wars Rebels, the Imperial attacks against the Ghormans would ultimately be the impetus for Mon Mothma resigning from the Imperial Senate and joining the Rebel Alliance full-time.
- The Caper: Cassian and the crew discuss a carefully-planned heist in an Imperial garrison over a table covered in models.
- Collector of the Strange: Luthen's day job is as a collector and dealer in art and antiquities on Coruscant, including:
- Some murals regarding the World Between Worlds.
- A Twi'lek kalikori.
- A suit of armor with a helmet identical to Lord Starkiller's from the non-canon Dark Side ending of The Force Unleashed.
- A partial suit of undecorated Mandalorian armor.
- What appears to be Indy's whip encased in carbonite.
- A disabled Gungan energy shield.
- Outside of his gallery collection, Luthen is also in possession of a blue kyber crystal which he loans to Cassian. (The kyber crystal celebrates the uprising against the Rakatans, an era some 30,000 years before Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, itself set 4,000 years BBY.)
- Constructive Criticism: Partagaz notes that Blevin has his flaws, among them a rigid approach to security and being a chore to work with, but also has his reports in on time, which is something Dedra hasn't accomplished despite only having a third of the workload. He does, however, compliment her intelligence and determination and notes that she was brought in specifically to shake things up from Blevin's traditional approach and also notes that her work has been exemplary in other areas (more than the expected number of detentions...) before he walks out.
- Continuity Nod: Sly Moore and Ars Dangor, two of Palpatine's closest advisors, are among the guests Perrin invited to the dinner party.
- Cryptic Background Reference: When Skeen berates Nemik for falling asleep on watch, he warns Nemik that numerous other rebel organizations would respond much more harshly if Nemik ever made a lapse like that, naming the leaders of several rebel cells, concluding with Saw Gerrera. While Saw is familiar to Star Wars fans due to his appearance in Rogue One and various other Star Wars properties, the other names that Skeen mentions are entirely unknown and have never appeared in Star Wars lore before.
- Defector from Decadence: Vel's heist crew includes Gorn, an Imperial lieutenant from the Aldhani garrison who serves as their man on the inside.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: We have the native inhabitants being forcibly removed to make way for a dam project. There are also references to Scottish history, as mentioned in Fantasy Counterpart Culture.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: After getting fired, Syril returns to the rundown apartment where his mother lives.
- Fancy Dinner: Mon Mothma's husband Perrin is planning one. She's angered when she learns he invited several of her political opponents, some of whom are starving entire worlds. He invited an old military friend of his, but neglected to inform her of the others.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Aldhani has a strong dash of Scotland in space — sheep, "uncivilized" highlands, industrial and prosperous lowlands, and the significant use of the word "clearances"
to drive the similarity home. - Foreshadowing:
- Cassian, despite having flown haul crafts of the same model that Luthen is using, is caught by surprise by its speed and acceleration when it goes to hyperspace, and nearly falls over before catching himself and remarking on it. This hints that Luthen's ship has significant modifications made to it. We won't see exactly how significant until Episode 11.
- Nemik is the first to trust Cassian, claiming the latter is committed to the cause, showing he's young and naive.... but correct. Meanwhile, Skeen just rolls his eyes, showing he's the mercenary of the group. Taramyn, the former stormtrooper, quickly clocks that Cassian carries himself like a fighter, but questions the wisdom of adding him so late in the game.
- Improperly Placed Firearms: The rebels are armed with blasters based on Kalashnikov rifles with minimal alterations other than a shortened magazine. Blasters in Star Wars are usually based off of real-world firearms (such as the E-11 and DH-17 both being based off of Sterling submachine guns), but they usually have a lot more alterations than the AKs seen in this episode.
- Jurisdiction Friction: The Imperial Security Bureau apparently has multiple officers attempting to muscle in on one another's territory and frequently clash when demanding evidence. The Imperial Security Bureau also uses this with the corporate security officers, letting them know that their incompetence will now result in their sector losing its neutral status and coming under full Imperial control, meaning they're all being fired and reassigned. Dedra's Attendant, Heert, even later makes a note of the fact that they misspelled the planet's name in their incident report.
- Man Behind the Man: Luthen is this for Vel and her band of thieves/proto-rebels. They both warn Cassian not to mention him to the other members of the heist crew under any circumstances.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Dedra thinks Cassian's stolen Imperial box will do this. Her superiors disagree.
- Mirror Character: Both Mon Mothma and Syril are "class traitors". Mon Mothma is rich but cares about the poor and oppressed. Syril comes from a poor background but helps the rich oppress the poor.
- My Fist Forgives You: When Syril returns home, his mother slaps him before hugging him.
- Mythology Gag:
- Luthen says the Kyber crystal he gave Cassian is from battles against the Rakata.
- One of the artifacts in Luthen's gallery is a set of armour with a helmet identical to the helmet of the Sith Stalker outfit from The Force Unleashed.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: The Rebels' blaster rifles are clearly just AK-47s with a different paint job.
- Phony Veteran: Cassian says he was conscripted out of prison to fight on Mimban, and after two years was one of just fifty survivors. Luthen, however, knows Cassian was recruited to be a cook, and survived because he deserted after six months.
- The Place: The episode title is "Aldhani", after the planet on which the bulk of the action takes place and where the title character is.
- Properly Paranoid: Luthen and Mon Mothma are wary of ISB spies when they meet on Coruscant. Even Mon's new chauffeur is considered a possible Imperial spy, so they make sure to talk out of earshot while a store attendant keeps him distracted.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Partagaz is quick, efficient, and fair to a fault. He denies Dedra due to her stepping outside her lane, having no time for internal squabbling, or for her hunch that an organized rebel movement is on the rise, citing insufficient evidence. But when they're alone, he assures her in a polite, brisk way that he sees her hard work and potential and encourages her to keep it up. He also notes that, while she shouldn't see Blevin as a rival, if she insists on it she's clearly not measuring up, given that he's got three times the workload she does and has already done the paperwork she's still working on.
- Refuge in Audacity: The heist plan depends on the Empire thinking that no one would have the audacity (and stupidity) to try to rob a vault inside an Imperial base and then try to get away in a slow freighter.
- The Reveal: Luthen goes to Coruscant and changes his attire from a rugged outer rim commoner into something more elegant and elite, showing that he is an antiques dealer working with Mon Mothma and using his business for money laundering to Rebel activities.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Dedra thinks that the stolen Starpath device is part of a bigger rebel plot. There is a bigger rebel plot but the Starpath device has nothing to do with it. It was stolen by Cassian before he joined the rebels for purely monetary reasons.
- Stepford Smiler: A sympathetic example. Luthen sports a pleasant and cheery persona for his public face as an antique dealer. He even practices his smile and mannerisms so as not to raise suspicions among his Coruscanti clientele, many of which are part of the Imperial elite.
- Suddenly Shouting: Vel and Luthen both raise their voices considerably while arguing about the merits of Cassian joining the former's team. Cassian even hears the former's yelling from inside Luthen's ship.
- Table Space: Invoked when Perrin promises to seat his wife down the "boring" end while he has dinner with his pals.
- Upper-Class Twit: Perrin doesn't seem to care about the political situation in the Galaxy. He even invites Ars Dangor and Sly Moore, despite being enemies of his wife as well as close collaborators of the Emperor, to a dinner party because he considers them funny.
- Villainous BSoD: Karn is unresponsive the entire episode after his disastrous failure that got his entire company absorbed by the Empire and his coworkers fired or reassigned. Hyne protests against his verbal lashing and Mosk tries to ask questions, but Karn has shut down.
- We ARE Struggling Together: The Rebellion is still in its infancy stages, but the tensions between its early members surface here, namely when Cassian becomes a last-minute addition to Vel's crew.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Several members of the heist team complain quite vocally about Cassian — an unknown and untrained party — being added to the mission at the last moment. Neither is Vel happy that Cassian is Only in It for the Money unlike the other rebels.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: ... to try to steal a freighter from an Imperial garrison with TIE fighters standing by to blow them out of the sky within minutes? Vel's heist plan hinges on this. They'll get in because the garrison is minimally guarded precisely because the Imperials don't think anyone would be stupid enough to try it, and get out because they're counting on a unique astronomical phenomenon, the Eye of Aldhani, to stop the TIEs from pursuing.
- You Won't Feel a Thing!: Inverted; when Cinta treats the blaster burn on Cassian's arm, she warns him that it will hurt because they're trying to save their pain meds.
