Star Wars Resistance – “Bibo” and “Dangerous Business” Reviews
Resistance returned from its winter hiatus with a big storyline, literally, not figuratively. When we last visited our friends on the Colossus, the specter of the First Order loomed threateningly over the future of the platform as Captain Doza finally agreed to permit the militant organization access. Rather than picking up where we left off, “Bibo” instead sought to lay a little more in the way of seeds for the future with some modest improvement for our main protagonist, Kaz Xiono. But all things big begin with something little and this is quite true for the episode.
Ever bent on improving the rickety Fireball, the episode began with Kaz getting a piece of salvage from our pirate cum salvager Synara San. Surprisingly, equipment off a Z-95 Headhunter that had spent 60 or so years rusting on the bottom of the ocean turns out to be unusable, but at the same time, along with the piece arrived a smelly, somewhat cute ocean critter. Neeku, our ever optimistic green alien, instantly falls in love with the creature and names it the titular Bibo. Bibo plays an unfortunate role in the episode, diverting the story away from more interesting prospects, while doing some of the aforementioned seed laying for the future.
While unnecessary drama is pulled up between Yeager and Neeku over keeping the pet, followed by Bibo making a run for it across the platform, Synara learns from her pirate boss that Kaz is a possible Resistance spy. Immediately after gaining this knowledge, our happy former New Republic pilot pops up to request another salvage piece and the setting is laid for an intriguing spy versus spy drama as the pair set off on the salvage craft. It’s a situation ripe for building up Kaz’s character toward becoming a more competent spy, as well playing off the already interesting Synara. Except, it never happens. Before the pair barely leave the platform, a massive sea monster attacks. We said things go big, didn’t we?
Back on said platform, Neeku and Tam engage in a game of hide and go seek with the odorously abhorrent Bibo. The chase leads them into the engineering section of the platform, home of the Chelidae, or the best darn turtle aliens in the Star Wars franchise, and the two children from Tehar. The pair ask the children for help, and we learn that Eila is most likely a Force sensitive if not a potential future Force user in the making, as the younger of the siblings recounts having prophetic dreams of something terrible coming for little Bibo. Tuck Eila’s abilities away for later, because something terrible, well, terribly monstrous, had arrived. Spurred to warn the inhabitants of the Colossus about the leviathan, Synara and Kaz had returned to the platform, where Synara, still wearing the pirate hat, uncovered the code to operate the defense barriers from Kaz. Yet, at the same time, she also sincerely seemed to push for Kaz to run and help fight off the creature (or perhaps, she wanted confirmation he was former New Republic). Either way, Kaz hops back into the Fireball and joins the aces combating the mysterious monster from the deep. Here another seed is dropped, we get a quick glimpse of Captain Doza taking a positive note of Kaz’s abilities as a pilot.
Ultimately, “Bibo” concludes with Neeku realizing the Bibo was the offspring of the monster and returning the child to its parent, bringing to an end the angry parent’s attack on the platform. What was the point of this episode? First, to look good. Through the entire season, Resistance has been beautifully animated and directed and Bibo featured some wonderful shots, be it an overhead view of Kaz and Synara heading out to sea with sea birds passing between the frames of depth or Neeku being dwarfed by his pet’s family member in an excellent use of scale. One can never complain about the animation. This leaves the second purpose of the episode, which was, well, to modestly advance the plot a few inches, but also leave some new plot points to be picked up; Doza’s interest in Kaz, Synara’s interest in Kaz, and potentially, the Force ability of one daughter of Tehar. Notably, the show has started to shift away from leaving Kaz something of a bumbling fool; but providing him the competence and courage we would expect from a New Republic pilot. This development of his character continued in the next week’s episode, “Dangerous Business.”
Given Kaz’s naivete and well, general Kaz’ness, would two competent business owners leave their livelihoods in Kaz Xiono’s hands? In any other world, galaxy, perhaps, no, but in Resistance’s “Dangerous Business,” that’s the setting for the second episode following the winter break. In this case, the owners of the Colossus’ parts shop, Flix and Orka, decide to leave their shop in Kaz’s hands while they take a day trip. It goes about as well as one might expect with Kaz immediately forgetting to ask a customer to pay for a piece (this is never remarked on later). While Kaz seems prepared to handle the delicacies of Colossus retail work, a gruff bull of an alien marches in and demands a dangerous and pricey piece of mining equipment from the back. His name is Teroj Kee, a member of the Mining Guild, and any worldly individual would recognize he’s bad news, except for Kaz, who agrees to deliver a shipment to Kee’s place of business. This Kaz does, only for Kee to lock him in a shipping container and tell a nearby platform worker to drop the unit in the ocean. At this point, “Dangerous Business” finally starts to show us a Kaz that we wished we had had all the time, someone competent.
Faced with disappearing beneath the waves below the Colossus for good, Kaz manages to rig up a welding torch and cuts his way out of the shipping container. On top of this incredible feat, he also tracks Kee down and discovers the foul mouth monster of an alien is in league with the First Order to get the piece of mining equipment. The son of Hosnian Prime does his planet well by downing the ship and keeping the equipment out of the hands of the enemy of the Resistance. This Kaz is a far cry from the character who was ready to surrender at a moment’s notice in “Station Theta Black,” a couple episodes ago. Not to mention, the episode began with Kaz doing almost all the repair work on the Fireball, revealing his development as a mechanic. Needless to say, the bumbling protagonist of Resistance was purposefully made something of a joke entirely to grow him as a character over the course of the first season. For other characters, this would be fine, but for a character of his background, a New Republic ace, it’s just plain awkward and not becoming with what we would expect of the same organization that produced Poe Dameron (granted, he’s the son of Shara Bey and Kes Dameron).
“Dangerous Business” is entertaining, and like “Bibo” has animation that makes the show enjoyable, even when not reflecting on the unfortunate character arc of Kazuno Xiono. Hopefully, with these two episodes, we get a more congealed character, one who will face down a growing threat to the galaxy in the manner that we expect and love of our Star Wars heroes. If so, the back half of Resistance should be a blast.
For more on “Bibo” and “Dangerous Business,” check out the episode guides for Star Wars Resistance on StarWars.com!
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