Return of Gall Trayvis! Tonight's episode of Star Wars Rebels is "Vision of Hope," which teases us with glimpses into the future (and past) of our crew while giving us more opportunities to wonder how the Empire wants to track down the crew of the Ghost, yet seem to keep ignoring their parking in a big empty field on Lothal.

It's great to see them pick up on a plot thread from before, and who isn't ever delighted for Brent Spiner to show up? I mean, he was Devlin Bowman in The Master of Disguise. Read on for more!

The story - Ezra, while doing some Jedi training, blacks out and has a vision while kicking all sorts of butt. The Force tells him that his pals will encounter Rebel podcaster/former Senator Gall Trayvis (Brent Spiner) and in grand fantasy tradition, a sewer will be involved. And from here on out, it's spoiler time.

We first heard about Gall Trayvis in "Rise of the Old Masters", basically luring our heroes into a trap. While he indirectly drove them to the Inquisitor's trap before, this time he joined up with them and asked a bunch of questions about their funding and such. Because when you're looking for freedom fighters, what really matters more than anything - more than ideals, motives, and the like - is how you pay for this sort of thing. (I'm being sarcastic as I write this knowing full well that's exactly the kind of thing I would ask.)

The whole meet-up is precipitated by another broadcast with mentions of locales only locals should know as well as a planet name, and our equal parts stupid and intrepid crew pick up on these and even ask "How come the Empire hasn't figured this out yet?" Well... they have. Because the ex-Senator is yet another an Imperial agent. It's kind of a shame they played their hand so quickly, as having him embedded in the crew for a few weeks could really help change the stakes for the show down the road - how would they react after someone knows all of their secrets, perhaps even their contacts?

Ezra's optimism, Hera's powers of observation, and Chopper's dubious value all demonstrate each character's value to the team, and the narrative. Chopper is useful at times. Hera basically can sniff out a liar, as we saw with Lando. And Ezra, like Luke before him, is ever the eager and oblivious young hero. The show does a great job making us want Ezra to succeed, as his vision lays out his hopes for finding out just who or what his parents were up to. We can assume they're probably Jedi, and perhaps were also early Rebels, but not much else. We kicked that can down the road again.

The show's music is improving with more varied song cues, and this helps us to focus on the characters more than the material nature of the episode. Some of the squeaky door effects are going to sound real familiar to those of you who have watched the original trilogy a kajillion times, but it's unfair of me to pick on something so minor on an episode with really stellar foley and scoring. Kudos!

Visuals and shots are composited nicely as usual, with lots of fog and some great lighting in dark rooms bringing little glimpses of hope in what amounts to a terrible trap. The cathedral-like atmosphere of the old Senate building is really something, while the architecture of Lothal is sure to inspire giggles in the most immature of all of us. (Like me.)

This was a perfectly nice episode. I don't feel that I lost or gained much from it, and I am kind of sad to see an interesting ongoing storyline end so quickly - but hey, we got to see some cool droid bodyguards and saw that Ezra's cadet buddy Zare Leonis got a transfer which could open the door for something down the road. Takeaway from this week:
Zare Leonis could probably make for a great spin-off or comic series, particularly if he gets sucked in to the Empire's infrastructure. I bet we'll see him again.
The RQ Protocol Droids are back and we get a better look at them.
I don't have that much to say. Glad we got to see more Hera.

Next time: "Call to Action," whatever that is. I don't want to spoil the special guest just yet. See you in seven!