"Fighter Flight" marks the fourth installment in the first season of the animated series Star Wars Rebels.
This episode premiered on WatchDisneyXD.com on October 13, 2014, followed by its Disney XD television broadcast on October 20. Kevin Hopps penned the episode, while Steven G. Lee took on the directing duties.
The narrative heavily emphasizes Ezra Bridger and Garazeb Orrelios, who, due to their persistent bickering on the Ghost, are dispatched on a mission to procure supplies. During this assignment, they abscond with an Imperial TIE/ln space superiority starfighter and receive orders from Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus to return to their ship. En route, they uncover the imprisonment of a farming family by the Empire, which includes Bridger's longtime acquaintance Morad Sumar. The two rebels then proceed to liberate the farmers and engage in combat with the Imperials. After concealing the stolen TIE fighter, Ezra and Zeb make their way back to the Ghost, their bond strengthened by the shared experience.
Aboard the Ghost, as it heads towards Lothal, the young rebel Ezra Bridger hones his developing Jedi abilities while the astromech droid Chopper teases him relentlessly. Incensed, Ezra gives chase to Chopper throughout the vessel. As he passes the crew quarters, Ezra notices the Mandalorian Sabine Wren occupied with painting in her cabin. He halts his pursuit briefly and rudely offers to be "inspiration" for Sabine's artwork, before noticing Chopper dart into his own cabin across the hall, and resuming his chase after the droid.
Inside their shared cabin, Ezra's bunkmate, the Lasat warrior Garazeb Orrelios, is resting on his bed and warns Ezra against disturbing him. Chopper then zaps Zeb with his electro-shock prod before making his escape, igniting a scuffle between Ezra and Zeb. Ezra is quick to remind Zeb, not for the first time, that he was recently responsible for saving the Lasat's life. Feeling rebuked, Zeb collapses back onto his bunk and turns over. Ezra then jumps onto the bunk above him, which, having been secretly tampered with by Chopper, promptly collapses onto Zeb. Zeb then chases Ezra out of their cabin, past Sabine, and into the main cargo hold, drawing the attention of the Jedi Kanan Jarrus and the ship's captain Hera Syndulla, who puts an end to the troublesome duo's squabble with a stern look.
The Ghost makes planetfall on Lothal. As a consequence for their disruptive conduct, Hera assigns Ezra and Zeb to a supply run in the nearby city of Kathol. Hera also instructs them to not return without acquiring at least one meiloorun fruit.
As Ezra wanders through the city market, he encounters Morad Sumar, a farmer and a childhood friend, tending to a fruit stand. Ezra inquires about the availability of meilooruns, but Morad chuckles, clarifying that meilooruns do not grow on Lothal. Ezra prepares to leave, but, upon spotting an Imperial officer and two stormtroopers approaching, he quickly hides himself. The Imperial officer, a Supply Master identified as Yogar Lyste, confronts Morad and demands to know if the farmer has reconsidered selling his farm to the Empire. Morad remains defiant, stating that he has not and never will.
Zeb locates Ezra and informs him that he has acquired everything on the shopping list, with the exception of the meiloorun fruit. Zeb attempts to persuade Ezra to assist with carrying some of the supplies, but Ezra, once again, reminds Zeb of having saved his life. Annoyed, Zeb backs Ezra into a crate, dislodging the lid and revealing its contents to be meilooruns. A Rodian trader, named Tsoklo, informs the two that the fruit has already been sold to the Empire. Ezra and Zeb then tail the crate as a stormtrooper takes it and loads it onto an Imperial Troop Transport. Despite Zeb's reservations, Ezra attempts to remotely steal the crate by utilizing the Force to levitate it off the transport. When this endeavor fails, Ezra decides to sneak forward and steal the fruit the old-fashioned way, but is quickly discovered by Lyste and his stormtroopers. Ezra and Zeb then flee the scene, leaving the supplies behind. Employing his natural climbing abilities as a Lasat, Zeb attempts to evade the Imperials by scaling the wall of a building, pulling Ezra up behind him by the collar. He manages to throw Ezra onto the roof, but blaster fire from the stormtroopers below causes Zeb to lose his grip and fall. Fortunately, he lands on top of the stormtroopers, incapacitating them. He shouts to Ezra to keep moving, and then runs off himself.
Eventually, Zeb enters a city plaza and finds himself cornered between two stormtroopers and a TIE fighter (piloted by Baron Valen Rudor, as we later discover). Disregarding their orders to surrender, Zeb instead jumps onto the TIE fighter, opens the hatch, and hijacks it, ejecting Rudor. Despite his lack of skill in flying TIEs, Zeb manages to fire at the stormtroopers, driving them away. He then flies the ship, with notable difficulty, over the city. Meanwhile, Ezra traverses the rooftops, leaping from one building to another, pursued by stormtroopers and dodging their laser fire. Zeb catches up with Ezra in the stolen TIE fighter. He offers Ezra a ride, but only if Ezra acknowledges that doing so will make them even. Ezra agrees, Zeb opens the hatch, and the boy jumps inside. As the two struggle for control of the TIE fighter, they inadvertently fire upon Tskolo's fruit stand, covering the ship in fruit pulp and impairing visibility from the cockpit window.
Back on the Ghost, Sabine prevents Hera from entering Ezra and Zeb's cabin, claiming that whatever she is doing inside was Ezra's idea. Hera shrugs and continues on, remarking to herself that at least it is not her cabin.
Zeb continues to pilot the TIE fighter with difficulty, struggling to see where he is going. Guided by the Force, Ezra senses a large rock formation ahead and, seizing the controls, steers the ship around it, narrowly avoiding a collision. When questioned about how he knew to do that, Ezra admits to Zeb that he is unsure. Zeb contacts Hera and Kanan, informing them of their situation. Upon hearing about the stolen TIE fighter, Kanan firmly instructs Zeb and Ezra to disable the ship's locator beacon and to immediately rendezvous with the Ghost at "Shadow Site 2".
Meanwhile, Supply Master Lyste and a squad of stormtroopers have arrived at the Sumar farmstead. Lyste informs Morad that the Empire is no longer interested in "purchasing" his farmland. Instead, he is there to seize it by force. He takes Morad, his wife Marida, and their Aqualish helper as prisoners.
From the cockpit of the TIE fighter, Ezra notices a plume of smoke on the horizon and, recognizing the location and fearing the worst, convinces Zeb to fly there to investigate. As they suspected, the smoke is emanating from the Sumar's farm, which the Imperials have set ablaze. Zeb points out the convoy of Imperial transports departing from the area, and the two decide to pursue them.
As Zeb approaches the convoy, he contacts Lyste, impersonating a "Commander Meiloorun," and warns the Supply Master of suspected rebel activity in the area, ordering him to reduce speed. Lyste complies, and Zeb moves in closer, allowing Ezra to disembark and jump onto one of the transports. Lyste catches a glimpse of the TIE fighter as it flies overhead and identifies it as the one reported stolen. He orders his transport's gun turret to shoot it down. Ezra locates Morad, Marida, and the Aqualish confined on the side of the transport. He uses the Force to activate the otherwise out-of-reach controls and frees them, urging them to jump from the transport into the surrounding grass. Activating the controls alerts the Imperials to Ezra's presence, and Lyste sends two stormtroopers up top to deal with him. Using his energy slingshot, as well as fruit from the meiloorun container, Ezra fends them off. While taking cover behind the transport gun turret, Ezra retrieves a wrench from his pack and shoves it into the barrel, causing it to explode. Zeb, in a display of impressive flying, swoops in upside down, hanging out of the fighter's open hatch while piloting with his prehensile toes, and grabs Ezra off the top of the transport. Together they fly away.
As a gesture of friendship, Zeb offers Ezra a TIE pilot's helmet to add to his collection. Ezra accepts, despite already possessing one. The two then deliberate on what to do with the fighter.
Having already arrived at the rendezvous point, Hera and Kanan await Zeb and Ezra outside the Ghost. Hera finally spots them as the two approach on foot. They present a single meiloorun to Hera, as promised, and claim to have crashed the TIE fighter to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Empire, which satisfies Kanan. On board the Ghost, Sabine reveals a mural she painted on their cabin wall depicting the earlier incident with Ezra's collapsing bunk. The image reveals Chopper as the instigator behind the incident, and Zeb and Ezra chase the droid around the ship.
The episode was originally planned to be adapted into the young readers book TIE Fighter Trouble by Disney–Lucasfilm Press, with a scheduled release date of March 31, 2015. The U.S. release of the title was ultimately cancelled, but it was still released in India by Scholastic India.
In the season finale, "Fire Across the Galaxy," it is revealed that Ezra and Zeb's stolen TIE fighter had not been destroyed, but had instead been concealed in the wilderness.