The Future of the Force

"The Future of the Force" is the eighth episode of the Star Wars Rebels animated television series' second season. The episode premiered on December 2, 2015 on Disney XD.

Official description
After the Empire’s Inquisitors begin targeting select babies for abduction, Ahsoka Tano and the Ghost crew ''investigate. What they find is unsettling, and it all leads to a deadly confrontation with the children’s fates hanging in the balance.''

Plot summary
Departing from the planet Chandel, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer captures a passenger ship. Once docked with the ship, the Inquisitors board the transport searching for a child. They soon find the infant, known as Alora, with her grandmother, Darja. She tries to make a run for it but is eventually cornered. Darja warns them to stay away from her granddaughter, but the Seventh Sister approaches and coldly assures her they only wish to make friends with Alora. Then she turns to the Fifth Brother, and gives him the sign to kill every passenger on the ship.

Meanwhile on Garel, Ahsoka Tano pays Kanan Jarrus a visit with Jedi business to discuss. They decide to take the discussion in private and board the Ghost. Once aboard and alone in Jarrus' quarters, Tano briefs Jarrus on her recent investigation about the Sith Lord, and so far the information she has recovered eludes her. She has also learnt more about the Inquisitors, and reveals they have a secondary mission to make retrievals. Tano managed to decode two sets of coordinates, and while she investigates the first one, she wants Jarrus to investigate the second. Jarrus accepts the mission and so does Ezra Bridger, who had been listening in on the conversation. Bridger, Jarrus, Garazeb Orrelios, and Chopper depart from Garel and arrive at the planet Takobo, with a mission to find and retrieve whatever the Inquisitors are after before they do. After landing in the city, the Rebels take a look at the coordinates they were given, which turns out to be housing units. Jarrus orders Orrelios and Chopper to investigate the spaceports for any ship belonging to the Inquisitors, while He and Bridger check out the households. With everyone in agreement to their assignments, the Rebels head out in opposite directions. Meanwhile, Tano arrives at the other coordinates, and finds the ship the Inquisitors attacked earlier adrift in space. Once aboard, she finds the ship severely damaged and deserted. However, she does find Darja alive. Tano learns from her that the Inquisitors took her granddaughter and pleads for her to find her. Tano helps the grandmother rest and promises to find Alora.

Back on Takobo, Orrelios and Chopper have spent hours searching the other spaceports, and so far found no sign of any ship belonging to the Inquisitors. But their long search finally pays off after they find two Advance TIE fighters under guard by one of the Seventh Sister’s probe droids. Orrelios shoots it down, and the two proceed in destroying the ships. However, before they begin planting explosives they discover Alora in one of the cockpits. Meanwhile, Jarrus and Bridger arrive at the apartment they are looking for and find the place ransacked and a female Ithorian known as Oora. She tells them the Inquisitors came looking for her child, Pypey, but she managed to send him away with a droid before they could get to him. Bridger and Jarrus promise Oora to find Pypey before the Inquisitors do, and soon head out on their search. Orrelios and Chooper have returned to the Phantom with Alora in Chopper’s care. Jarrus informs Orrelios about the other baby and instructs him to find it before the Inquisitors do. Orrelios leaves Chopper to look after Alora, and is soon on the streets looking for the droid carrying Pypey. He soon crosses paths with the droid, and takes Pypey from him. He sends the droid to go a separate way to decoy the Inquisitors, but Orrelios doesn't get very far. The Inquisitors show up and take out the droid, but don't find Pypey. However, they do sense his presence, and when they spot him with Orrelios he makes a run for it. Orrellios informs Jarrus of the situation he is in and goes into hiding in a nearby apartment building. The Inquisitors lose sight of Orrelios, but the Fifth Brother senses Pypey’s fear within the building they were hiding in. The Seventh Sister dispatches one of her probe droids to keep an eye outside while they search inside. Bridger and Jarrus soon reach the apartment building as well, but immediately hide themselves after Bridger spots the probe droid. The droid doesn’t see them, and as soon as it’s out of sight Jarrus and Bridger enter the building to find Orrelios and Pypey.

Once inside, Jarrus and Bridger are roaming the corridors, and being very careful where they step, as the Inquisitors were about. They soon find Orrelios and he brings them to the apartment where he’s keeping the baby. Pypey has calmed down, but when he sees Bridger he begins to cry in fear. Bridger tries to calm him down but it was no use. Through the Force, the Inquisitors sense Pypey’s fear and find the apartment where the Rebels were hiding him. They try to spike them out with their lightsabers, but Bridger and Jarrus cut an entrance to the next apartment above them. They escape and make a run for the stairs. Bridger still hasn't managed to calm Pypey down, mainly because he can sense his fear through the Force. Jarrus finally understands why the Inquisitors are abducting these children, because they are Force-sensitive. Fear of them becoming Jedi, the Inquisitors have been tasked to find them and prevent this from ever happening. The Rebels decide to split up: Bridger escapes with Pypey through the ventilation shafts while Jarrus and Orrelios hold off the Inquisitors. Meanwhile, the Inquisitors are still roaming the corridors for the Rebels. Fifth Brother uses the Force to find them, and when he senses Pypey and Bridger in the ventilation, he uses his lightsaber to spike them. Pypey gets scared but Bridger manages to connect with him through the force and calm him down. Just then, Jarrus and Orrelios show up, ready to fight the Inquisitors.

The Seventh Sister engages Jarrus while Orrelios takes on the Fifth Brother hand to hand. Bridger makes out of the building and heads back to the Phantom with Pypey, unaware that the Seventh Sister’s probe droid spotted him. Meanwhile, both Inquisitors quickly overpowered their opponents, forcing Jarrus and Orrelios to retreat. They jump out of a window and land on a passing speeder. The Inquisitors jump onto another speeder, throw out the driver, and pursue Jarrus and Orrelios through the city streets. Jarrus shoots at the Inquisitors and takes out their speeder. However, the Fifth Brother takes out their speeder as well when he throws his lightsaber at them like a boomerang, slicing off one of the jets. They crash into the streets, but continue on foot. The Rebels make it back to the spaceport, but the doors are sealed. Worst of all, the Inquisitors catch up with them and engage them in a fight for Pypey. Both quickly overpowered the Rebels once again and are defeated. Then suddenly unexpected, Tano emerges from the spaceport, ready to fight the Inquisitors. She tells her fellow Rebels to get on the Phantom, and she engages the Inquisitors. Despite their best efforts, Tano manages to overpower each one of them singled handed. She easily takes out the Fifth Brother, and after an aggressive confrontation she defeats the Seventh Sister. For the moment, Tano is the one who is victorious, but the tables suddenly turn unexpectedly when Imperial reinforcements arrive and surround her. However, as the Phantom takes off, Tano manages to jump aboard and escape capture. The Inquisitors are left defeated.

As the Rebels depart from Takobo, Pypey is reunited with his mother. Tano is already aware that the Inquisitors are abducting Force-sensitive children and remembers a similar attempt made by a Sith Lord during the Clone Wars. The Jedi Order protected them, but since they died out the Rebellion is now their only protection. Meanwhile, the Inquisitors return to where they landed their ships, only to find them destroyed. Just then, the Seventh Sister’s probe droid shows up with some information that it caught when it spotted Ezra. Recorded in Ezra’s own words, the Inquisitors learn that the Rebels are hiding on Garel.