Hondo has never been one of my favorite recurring characters.  At best, he reminds me of Harry Mudd from the original series of Star Trek: the morally questionable smuggler that the crew must contend with from time to time, even if he is super-annoying.  At worst, he drags everything down with forced humor and memories of the uneven first season.    

 

 

The premise is straightforward: There is an Imperial cargo ship falling into a planetary atmosphere.  In exchange for allowing him to take certain additional cargo items, Hondo will help the crew get the cruiser and the bombs within it for the Rebellion.  Hera agrees and puts Zeb in charge.  Hilarity, or at least the intention of hilarity, ensues.

 

Needless to say, there’s a bit more Imperial resistance than anticipated, and that is largely the extent of the episode’s depth.  Much of the enjoyment of the episode itself depends on the enjoyment of Hondo, and for me, that is relatively limited.  His shtick is all about bravado and creative backtracking, and that gets tedious after a while.  Hondo is meant to have heaps of charm, and so a lot depends on whether or not that charm works its wonders.

 

 

Ezra is a bit more aggressive in this episode, which is an interesting turn of events.  For one thing, it seems to harken back to the beginning of the season a bit more than other recent episodes.  That’s a plus, since Ezra’s struggle with darker emotions seemed to get lost in the endless cycle of recruiting more and more allies to the Rebel cause.  On the other hand, because that character thread hasn’t been explored very much yet, it seems a bit repetitive.