Star Wars Resistance Season 2, Episode 3 Recap And Review – “Live Fire″

Star Wars Resistance continued this week with “Live Fire”, which is the third episode of the show’s second and final season.

I wouldn’t say that this episode was as good as last week’s, nor did it feature a hefty chest of Easter eggs, but for the most part it was a good setup episode for both the First Order and the “Good Team” plot threads that have dominated this season so far. If anything, it was a great mirror episode of both plot threads, and it showed us how different it is to be a part of the First Order, versus being on the side of righteousness!

You can check out my full recap and review below via the embedded video or script.

Recap

Hey now fans of the Resistance, Matt Heywood here to recap and review Star Wars Resistance: Live Fire, aka, S2E3.

The episode begins with the Aces feeling sorry for themselves in the Ace’s lounge after getting worked over by First Order TIE pilots. They all clearly understand outside of Hype, that their racing skills don’t quite match the combat skills of the Order, which is why Doza makes Yeager their new squadron leader, and Kaz a new member of their group. 

Let’s just say that Hype find this news to be a Kaz-tastrophe, as he and the Aces begrudgingly accept Doza’s new orders. 

Back with the First Order Tam and Rucklin are rushing off to a TIE pilot training exercise, which is where we meet Lieutenant Gallik, who Tam doesn’t make a great first impression on by being late. Gallik seems like she’s as cold as ice, and makes it clear to Tam that she doesn’t stand for any BS.

Meanwhile, just like the First Order, Yeager is planning to host a training exercise with the Aces to teach them how to be combat pilots. He challenges the Aces by pitting himself and Kaz against them all, which the Aces think will be a walk in the park. 

Unfortunately for them, Kaz and Yeager show them what it means to be wing mates, and they easily take out the Aces to Hype’s frustration. 

Hype ditches the squadron after training and heads to Aunt Z’s for a drink of spicy water. Kaz comes in to try and talk some sense into him about teamwork, but he gets annoyed at Kaz and blames him for Tam leaving. Hype clearly has issues with Kaz, so he treats him like a dick until he leaves. At this point Torra comes in and talks Hype down and makes some sense to him. 

At this point in the episode Tam has begun her first training mission with the First Order, and she’s kicking ass at it. She takes down two out of the three X-Wing drones en route to clearing the map of them, but she breaks out of formation to save that jerk Rucklin, who is proving that he’s not much of a pilot. 

This move pisses off Gallik, who was watching the mission with Pyre before Tam went full hero and saved her wing mate. Maybe Tam isn’t as heartless as they all think.

On the Colossus, Yeager is still trying to convince the Aces to work as a team when Hype comes back and commits himself to Yeager’s way of doing things. 

Yeager makes Kaz Hype’s squad leader, and they all set off for another round of training with teams of two taking on each other. 

Kaz and Hype get ambushed by Torra and Griff early on, but then some big ass flying Manta-Whale-Shark shows up and starts attacking everyone. 

Yeager gets them all to form up in an effort to get the monster to leave, but instead it latches on to his ship and start to carry him away like an Eagle with prey in its talons. 

This makes Kaz the new squadron leader, but he stumbles in his decision making, so Hype steps up and offers up a plan to shoot giant ice pillars that are protruding from the water and use them to knock out the beast. 

The Aces all work together and blast a pillar onto the beast’s dome, which in turn causes it to release Yeager, and it becomes Miller Time.

As the Aces celebrate their teamwork, Tam gets yelled at for her by Gallik, who basically tells her she’s awesome at being a pilot, but in the First Order the weak must be culled, so she can’t be squad leader for saving Rucklin and compromising their mission. Tam just has too much heart still.

The episode ends with the Aces celebrating on the Colossus and Hype embracing Kaz as a new member.

The End.

Review

While Live Fire wasn’t as exciting as last week’s episode, I still mostly enjoyed what it had to offer narratively. I do fully appreciate how this season is featuring two distinct plot threads that will one day merge into one via the Tam growing with the First Order, and the Good team threads, and I love how they essentially mirror each other in every episode. 

This one in particular was a direct mirror of the threads by featuring both Tam and her new TIE squadron, and Kaz and his new Ace squadron team learning to work together. Although, the experiences were night and day different. 

On Kaz’s end, the combat training was all about how to work with a team and that the team is stronger as a whole, where on Tam’s end she was scolded for trying to work as a unit by saving a fellow pilot in distress, and lost out on being squad leader by not allowing the team to get stronger by culling its weakest members from it. 

It was a great look at how different the two factions operate, and I believe it will spell trouble for Tam. It just doesn’t feel like she’s too comfortable with how the First Order operates, but she’s still buying into the system for now, mostly because she’s able to live out her dream of being a pilot. But I do think a few more scoldings by her superiors for doing the right thing will eventually wake her up to their ruse, although, I still think she will bring some hurt to Kaz and gang before she fully realizes her follies. 

Anyway, I also liked how Hype was the focus of the good team plot in this episode. It’s always nice to get some of the secondary characters in the spotlight, so by featuring the Aces again, this episode helped to change the tone up a bit by not just having Kaz, Neeku, and the other mains be the focus of the episode. 

Thanks for watching, I’m Matt Heywood signing off for the Star Wars Time Show. Please consider subbing to our YouTube channel and the Star Wars Time Show podcast, which is on almost all podcasting platforms. Remember, if you listen to the Star Wars Time Show, the Force will be with you, always.