Kaz and Yeager attempt to rescue Tam from the First Order while trying to evade capture on a Star Destroyer. Meanwhile, the Colossus is in trouble and faces an impossible choice.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: To the Spartacus television show. Although neither of their actors are in the scene, Commander Pyre's forces massacre the Aeosians (and presumably their queen) for helping the Rebellion and Resistance — a dark reversal of Spartacus leading the slave rebels to kill their Roman owners, Lucretia and her associates.
- Airvent Passageway: Kaz, Yeager, Tam, and CB escape the engineering room to the hangar bay via the vents... which was exactly what Pyre wanted.
- Ambiguous Situation: When Tierny and Pyre ask for backup Kylo Ren refuses to send any. Was it because of First Order policy that anyone who can't beat the enemy on their own doesn't deserve help, or was it because people were rising up against the First Order all over the galaxy and there was no backup to spare, but Kylo couldn't admit this to his troops?
- Arc Words: "Friends" and "family".
- Bad Boss: Supreme Leader Kylo Ren is not happy with Pyre and Tierny's failure to apprehend the Colossus, and demonstrates it so. When it becomes clear they're unable to do any damage to the space station, Kylo Ren force-chokes Tierny moments before her Star Destroyer explodes.
- Big Damn Reunion: Tam hugs Kaz upon reuniting. She later does the same to Neeku when she sets foot on the Colossus again.
- Blatant Lies: When Tierny gives her report to General Hux and claims that the Resistance has been completely neutralized.Tierny: General Hux, the suppression of the Aeos system is complete. There is no longer a Resistance presence in the area.
[Hux stares in silence]
Kylo Ren: Except perhaps the Colossus. [appears from behind Hux and glares at Tierny and Pyre] - Bond Villain Stupidity: Pyre succeeds in capturing Kaz, Tam, and Yeager. Rather than just shooting them or at least cuffing them, he brings them directly to the bridge so they can witness the destruction of the Colossus. But when the shields go down and the Destroyer starts taking hits, the trio are able to break free and escape, causing plenty of damage to the bridge on their way out.
- Call-Back:
- Tam steals back her commlink after having turned it in to Tierny.
- Tam's message says to rendezvous with her "where Bibo lives".
- Orka points out that the Colossus is still recovering from the last time the First Order found them, which was back in "No Place Safe".
- In the final battle, Synara pilots Kragan's modified Lambda-class shuttle, which she also flew in "The Triple Dark", back when she was a member of the Warbirds.
- Cassandra Truth: Played with. The First Order refuse to believe that Rucklin wasn't part of Tam's defection and arrest him along with her. They do, however, believe him when he tells them the Colossus' location, although they order him to be taken away anyway.
- Character Development:
- Kaz evidently has much better aim now since he's firing a blaster without anyone commenting on how poor his marksmanship is.
- Tam finally decides to defect once she witnesses the First Order killing innocent people firsthand and she reconciles with Team Fireball and the people of the Colossus.
- Or lack thereof, in Rucklin's case. Despite having moments of decency peppered here and there that could have been foreshadowing to his possible Heel–Face Turn, they ultimately mean nothing because he's too dense to admit that he's wrong and he's quick to turn against Tam when she defects.
- Doza is tired of running and accepts that they have to fight the First Order head-on, even if it's just for one person.
- Continuity Nod:
- Kaz and Yeager land on a racing ring that may be the one the former crashed on back in the first episode.
- Back in "No Escape", when Yeager told Doza not to take off the Colossus until he and Kaz could rescue Tam from the First Order, Doza bluntly answered that he prioritizes the safety of the Colossus over whatever issues they may be having. Now, Doza is convinced by Kaz to let him and Yeager rescue Tam, even after Venisa agrees with him that it may be dangerous for the Colossus.
- Pyre fighting Kaz in the wrecked hangar bay is a parallel to a similar scene in the climax of The Last Jedi between Phasma and Finn. Like Phasma, Pyre is defeated and presumed dead.
- Dare to Be Badass: When Kaz reports back that he, Yeager, and Tam are in a tight spot and tells the Colossus to flee and save themselves, the residents object and decide to join the fight.
- Disproportionate Retribution: After finding out that the Colossus was briefly docked on Aeos Prime, Tierny and Pyre retaliate by massacring the Aeosians.
- Dramatic Irony: Yeager reveals that he didn't just give Tam the Fireball because he was scared she would just leave, as he was afraid of losing her. That and his choice to withhold information about Kaz's mission is what ended up pushing her away.
- The Dreaded: No one wants to get on the Supreme Leader's bad side. Tierny has failed him one too many times, and she pays the price for it.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Tierny and Pyre are dead and their Star Destroyer has been destroyed, eliminating the First Order threat against the Colossus... for now. In the mean time, Tam is welcomed back to the Colossus and the residents have united to fight back against the First Order.
- Easily Forgiven: Downplayed. Yeager admits it's hard for him to forgive Tam initially, and they nearly get into an argument when first reunited, but he has indeed forgiven her by the end of the episode. Played straight with Neeku, who welcomes her back with no issues.
- End-of-Series Awareness:
- Kaz, Neeku, and Yeager reminisce about Kaz's earlier days in the shop and when Tam was still with them.
- While waiting on Castilon, Kaz and Yeager note that things have changed greatly since the times Kaz and Tam first came to the Colossus.
- Grevel points out that the Colossus was a peaceful place until Kaz showed up.
- Et Tu, Brute?: After our heroes are captured, Tierny asks Tam how she had failed her when she had given her everything. Tam answers that Kaz, Yeager, and the others gave her something Tierny didn't: a family.
- Everybody Has Standards: Tierny and Pyre are understandably terrified and disturbed when Kylo Ren uses the Force to almost make them shoot each other.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
- Tierny merely comments "How touching." when Tam tells her she betrayed her and the First Order because they could never give her what Team Fireball did: a family. The First Order considers such concepts weak.
- Rucklin doesn't understand why Tam is so disturbed watching a planet of "subversives" get glassed by the First Order.
- Failed a Spot Check: Tierny is too busy on her datapad to notice Tam hiding near the door of her office.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: Several Stormtroopers are crushed by giant crates as our heroes escape to the hangar bay.
- Grand Finale: The last episode of the series.
- Heel–Face Turn: Tam finally calls it quits when she witnesses First Order ships performing orbital bombardment on Aeos.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Kaz tells Pyre that the Colossus has received his warning and will be long gone before the First Order ship drops out of hyperspace. The moment he finishes his sentence...Kaz: Oh, no, no, no, no. Why are they still here?
- Killed Offscreen:
- As Star Destroyers line up in the Aeosian skies, the camera cuts from the Oh, Crap! reactions of the Aeosians to Tam and Rucklin watching the Star Destroyers fire down on Aeos from space.
- Rucklin is knocked unconscious by Tam after he gloats about revealing the Colossus' location, and is left behind. At the end of the episode, the Star Destroyer explodes, likely taking him with it.
- Kaz knocks Pyre unconscious, who is left in the hangar to die. The Star Destroyer then blows up.
- The camera cuts away after Kylo Ren starts Force-choking Tierny.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Rucklin's jerkassery and haughtiness ends up getting him nowhere when the First Order mistakes him for being a traitor like Tam. When he continues to side with the First Order anyways, Tam knocks him out and leaves him for dead.
- The Colossus' janitor had his floor-washing machine confiscated by the First Order in Season 1, forcing him to scrub the floors by hand. Here, he trips up a First Order boarding party using - you guessed it - the very same floor-washing machine, allowing Aunt Z to finish them off.
- Last Episode, New Character: 5-L, the mouse droid that Tam befriends. Downplayed since it's a two-parter and 5-L only appears in Part 1.
- Misblamed: Before Kaz calls in a warning to the Colossus and tells them to flee, offering a Heroic Sacrifice to help them escape, several residents blame Kaz for their troubles, saying the Colossus was peaceful before he showed up. However, Kaz was sent there because the First Order was already targeting the Colossus for takeover and would likely have done so if not for Kaz's efforts.
- Mythology Gag:
- Aeos Prime gets subjected to the same treatment as Chopper Base in "Zero Hour".
- When Stormtroopers board the Colossus, Aunt Z grabs an E-WEB heavy repeating blaster and mows them down, just like a certain Mandalorian.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Tierny and Pyre when Kylo Ren briefly shows them what will happen if they fail again. Afterwards, they resolve to double their efforts immediately.
- The First Order when they realize the shuttle is set to self-destruct.
- Tierny and her tactical officer when CB deactivates the destroyer's shields.
- Tierny again, when Kylo Ren holocalls her after our heroes escape...
- Orbital Bombardment: Watching the First Order fleet perform a Base Delta Zero attack on the Aeosians convinces Tam it's time to defect.
- Psychic Strangle: Kylo Ren Force-chokes Tierny when she dares to fail him once more.
- Redemption Rejection: Despite Tam holding out hope for him, she gives up on trying to get Rucklin to defect when he continues to side with the First Order even after they've come to believe that he's also a traitor. Tam knocks him out and he's left behind, likely dying when the Star Destroyer they're on gets destroyed by the Aces and Jade Squadron.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Despite all of Rucklin's desperate attempts to prove he's not helping the Resistance, including betraying the Colossus' location, he's still captured for conspiring with Tam, and he ultimately dies with his so-called allies.
- Robot Buddy: Tam makes one out of mouse droid 5-L, who she initially forces to help her steal her commlink back from Tierny.
- Shout-Out:
- The mouse droid's designation is 5-L.
- Though neither actors are in the scene, Commander Pyre's forces killing the Aeosians for cooperating with the Resistance is an Actor Allusion to Pyre and the Aeosian Queen's roles in the Spartacus show — at the end of the first season, Spartacus* leads the rebels in a massacre on Lucretia's home (which she survived).
- The exchange between Agent Tierny and one of the Star Destroyer's bridge crew after CB-23 disables their shields is nearly verbatim to the "Our shields are dropping" exchange between Khan and Joachim in The Wrath of Khan. Even the display showing the Star Destroyer's shields dropping is very similar to the shield display seen on the bridge of the Reliant in The Wrath of Khan, with a series of dots around an overhead view of the ship disappearing one at a time in sequence as the shields drop.First Order Lieutenant: Agent Tierny, sir! Our shields have somehow been deactivated!
Agent Tierny: Well, raise them!
First Order Lieutenant: I-I can't!
- Something Only They Would Say: Tam sends a series of beeps through her commlink, a code that only she and Neeku know. Her message, to meet her "where Bibo lives" is also something only the members of Team Fireball would understand.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Despite the various Pet the Dog moments to Tam that he's had throughout the season, Rucklin is still a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk. Even when given multiple opportunities to redeem himself with Tam even trying and failing to drag him back to the Colossus kicking and screaming, he refuses out of stubbornness and turns against Tam. Seeing that he's made his choice and has become a liability, Tam knocks him out and leaves him for dead.
- The other residents of the Colossus are reluctant to stay and help Kaz and Yeager rescue Tam, since doing so makes them a sitting duck. Even when Doza tries a Rousing Speech about how they're family, the residents find that label extremely forced and rather cheesy since they barely know the trio or don't hold a high opinion of them, though they end up pulling through when they see now is good opportunity to finally get rid of their pursuers.
- Though Tam and Kaz reconcile, Yeager is still upset that she didn't believe him and left because of it, which almost leads them into arguing again until Kaz reminds them that they don't have time for it. However, at the end, Yeager and Tam are shown happy together at the end with the rest of Team Fireball, showing that they're at least glad that Tam is home and that their relationship will mend in time.
- Determination aside, the Colossus and her fighters are no match for a capital warship and its compliment of TIEs in a protracted battle. It's only when CB-23 deactivates the Star Destroyer's shields that the tide turns in their favor.
- Whilst the First Order forces who invade the Colossus outnumber the residents, the latter know the station like the back of their hand and are able to even the playing field by luring the former into splitting up to chase them all, only to run into ambushes set up by other residents.
- Tempting Fate: Just as Yeager says he's going to erase their shuttle's flight data record so that the First Order can't see it, Rucklin comes to in the other room and is able to see that the Colossus's current location is in the Barabesh system right before Yeager starts clearing it.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Kylo Ren, realising that Tierny is about to fail, force-chokes her just as the ship is about to explode.
- Title Drop: In the Japanese dub, the episode name is "Team Colossus", which is what Aunt Z calls the people of the Colossus in the final scene as an extension of "Team Fireball".
- True Companions:
- Kaz insists on rescuing Tam, even though Yeager and Doza fear it may be a trap.
- Tam tries to take Rucklin back with her, but the feeling isn't mutual and she gives up on him.
- Doza gives into Torra's pleading to check up on Kaz and Yeager on Castilon, agreeing that they can't just leave their friends behind while the rest of them hide, regardless of what the residents have to say.
- The residents of the Colossus eventually agree to fight back against the First Order to save Kaz, Yeager, and Tam.
- Villainous Breakdown: Pyre and especially Tierny are both shaken up by their meeting with Kylo Ren, made especially worse for the latter when Tam betrays the First Order and Team Fireball goes rogue on their ship. When the Colossus gets the upper hand once again, Tierny is essentially pleading with Ren to give her another chance before he kills her for her failures.
- What Happened to the Mouse??: Synara wasn't seen during the final scene. The same amount of ships that went into battle came back from the battle, so she wasn't killed in action. It's possible she was injured and had to go to the medbay, though.
- Where It All Began: Tam's message tells Team Fireball to meet her "where Bibo lives": on Castilon.
- You Have Failed Me: Kylo Ren is clearly taking lessons from his grandfather's playbook, threatening Pyre and Tierny with a Force-assisted mutual suicide if they don't destroy the Colossus immediately. Then, at the end of the episode when Tierny requests First Order reinforcements to save her ship from the Colossus' counterattack, he decides she's officially run out of chances.Kylo Ren: The First Order does not tolerate the weak, Agent Tierny.
Tierny: I understand!
Kylo Ren: Do you? [cue Force choke]
Tierny: [gradually struggles to breath before clutching at her neck] Yes... Supreme... Leader-!
