do <\/em>with them?<\/p>\nWe don\u2019t see Gar Saxon\u2019s \u201csuper commandos\u201d in the Original Trilogy, for instance. Are they simply \u201cout of frame\u201d for those three films, or did something happen that gives their absence an \u201cin universe\u201d explanation?<\/p>\n
Rebels<\/em>\u2019 chronology now stands only a few years out from the events of A New Hope<\/em>. Whatever plans the show has for the Mandalorians, it doesn\u2019t have a lot of story time left in which to make them happen.<\/p>\n2) Is Fenn Rau a rebel for good?<\/strong><\/p>\nWill Fenn Rau\u2019s new ties to the Rebellion stay strong, or will his older and deeper bonds to his own people prove stronger? As he tells Sabine, \u201cMy only true loyalty is to Mandalore.\u201d At this point in Star Wars<\/em> history, the Rebel Alliance is still a fragile proposition. While Ezra tells Rau that the rebels would rather be with him than against him, there\u2019s no guarantee Rau will forever feel likewise.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not too hard to imagine a storyline in which Rau, seizing what he sees as an opportunity to restore Mandalore to its former greatness, turns his back on the Alliance, placing what he sees as his and his planet\u2019s own best interests over and against the common good. Might he eventually make good on his threat, early in this episode, to divulge the Rebellion\u2019s secrets to the Empire? The rebels\u2019 current alliance with Rau feels risky.<\/p>\n
3) Will Sabine be reunited with her mother?<\/strong><\/p>\nGar Saxon tells Sabine that her mother \u201cnow stands with [him] and the Empire.\u201d Sabine dismisses Saxon\u2019s words as a lie. But might she have been putting on a brave face for Ezra\u2019s benefit?<\/p>\n
This episode marks the second mention of Sabine\u2019s mother in Rebels<\/em>. (Last season, in \u201cThe Protector of Concord Dawn,\u201d we learned that her mother was a member of Death Watch, the Mandalorian faction that opposed Duchess Satine\u2019s vision of a peaceful Mandalore in The Clone Wars<\/em>, fighting instead for the culture\u2019s older ways). I wonder if the show\u2019s creative team is planting seeds for a future story in which Sabine either encounters or goes searching for her mother.<\/p>\nIn addition to being interesting in its own right, such a storyline might serve to strengthen Sabine\u2019s relationship with Ezra. Young Bridger, after all, also knows something about absent parents! And an arc about Sabine and her mother would be a rare instance of a story spotlighting a mother-daughter relationship in a saga that, so far, has been far more interested in fathers and sons.<\/p>\n