The Spy Dancer

"The Spy Dancer" is the sixth episode of the Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 that premiered on Disney+ on May 4, 2023. It is made by the France-based animation studio Studio La Cachette and directed by Julien Chheng.
==Official description==
The premier dancer at a famous, Imperial-frequented cabaret uses her unique skill-set to spy for the Rebellion, but the presence of a mysterious officer threatens to derail her mission.
==Plot summary==
===The Imperial occupation===
The episode opens with a pair of stormtroopers conducting checkpoint searches in a rainy city on the occupied world B-bel. They are picked up a wheeled MTV-7 light vehicle. The camera gives a wide landscape shot of the rainy city. Several stormtroopers head to a cabaret for rest and recreation. Two stormtroopers rough up a cleaner droid. A female waitress in pink dress named Hétis helps the droid and welcomes the stormtroopers to Loi'e's Follies, which she describes as the best show in the galaxy. She flirts with a male human stormtrooper with brown curly hair and takes him and his companions into a dining area built around a circular stage.
===The undercover rebels===
Heading inside the dressing room, she tells her leader Loi'e that she has placed the unsuspecting stormtroopers in the front seat as planned. The younger girl wants to do more for the struggle against the Galactic Empire but Loi'e tells her to wait. Hétis says she is a no longer a child, prompting Loi'e to tell her to stop acting like one. Hétis reluctantly complies. Another rebel named Jon contacts Loi'e via comlink and tells her that they are nearly ready for their planned operation. He also tells Loi'e that he has sent a parcel containing their last round of trackers, which he assures will work. He says that the trackers will collect intelligence for the Rebellion.
Loi'e is pessimistic but Jon reassures her that they will soon be free. Loi'e gathers with the stage crew before the start of the show where they remember the "lost." While the curtains are lifted and the dancers assume their positions, an Imperial officer wearing a white uniform hands a black cloak to a KX-series security droid. As Loi'e descends onto the stage, an orange frog-like alien manages the practical effects including wiring. Loi'e dazzles her guests with her long flowing robes before mingling with the audience, discretely planting trackers on stormtrooper armor.
While Loi'e dances across the auditorium, she recognizes the white uniformed Imperial officer and his KX-series droid as the man whom she believes took her infant son. Loi'e panic and loses her balance. Hétis uses a bungee cord to reach and rescue Loi'e while the stage crew pull them to safety. The two dancers safely land on the stage floor. Following gasps, the Imperial officers and stormtroopers clap and cheer. Following the first act, Loi'e gathers her crew and orders them to flee through the escape tunnel while she stays behind. She tells Jon to pick up her team while she remains to deal with unfinished business. Jon warns her not to compromise the mission but she insists that this is the only way she can be free.
===The assassination attempt===
As the Imperials clamour for the second act, Loi'e experiences a flashback of the Imperial officer taking her baby son while AT-ST walkers raze the surrounding area. The frog-like alien remarks that he has a bad feeling about this. Loi'e performs the second act and swirls furiously. She rises to the VIP guest section of the theatre and attempts to stab the Imperial officer. However, something causes her to pause and she asks who he is. The Imperial officer recognizes her as a rebel operative and his KX-series droid throws her onto the stage. She lands on the stage floor while the Imperial officer tells his soldiers that they should have shut down the cabaret a long time ago. The stormtroopers fetch their blasters and surround Loi'e.
While Hétis pauses climbing down a ladder, a glass of wine smashes on the floor of the auditorium. The Imperials open fire on Loi'e but she uses her dress to scatter the blaster bolts and fights several stormtroopers in hand to hand combat. The frog alien plays a passionate hymn while the cleaner droid knocks out a stormtrooper. Loi'e uses her cane to scatter the officer's bolts. Hétis releases foam through the ventilation system, disorientating the Imperials. While she uses a rope to dive into the auditorium and shoot stormtroopers, Loi'e attempts to speak with the Imperial officer. Hétis attempts to take out the officer but Loi'e pushes him out of harm's way.
The KX-series droid shoots at Hétis, grazing her cheek. The cleaner droid attacks the Imperial droid but is torn apart. The KX-series droid zeroes in on Loi'e but she uses her dress to lasso herself and the Imperial officer into the hole through the roof above. As the KX-series droid climbs the central structure, Hétis shoots the droid but is unable to pierce its armored hide. On the roof, the Imperial officer demands to know who Loi'e is and what she wants from him. Loi'e says she wants answers but the KX-series droid pulls the hem of her dress, dragging her towards the hole.
===An unexpected reunion===
While Loi'e struggles with the droid, the Imperial officer advances upon her with an electrical cane. Hétis manages to drag down the security droid with a pink cord, which she uses to choke its body, causing it to break in half. While Loi'e faces down the Imperial officer, the security droid grabs Hétis' leg. However, Jon beheads the droid with an electric saw. When the officer asks why she doesn't fight, Loi'e trips him and explains that twenty years ago, the Empire wrecked devastation and death on her people. She adds that they also took her son.
When the officer asks what that has got to do with him, Loi'e replies that her son would have been his age. The officer counters that the Empire brings order to the galaxy and says that he is proud to be part of the Imperial Military like his father. Recognizing the Imperial as her son, she asks why he fights for the Empire. After disarming him, Loi'e hugs the officer and tells him that the Empire ripped him away from her. As dawn breaks, mother and son embraces.
===Escape and memories===
Imperial reinforcements arrive in the form of AT-AT walkers and an Imperial shuttle, which deploys stormtroopers. The stunned officer watches as his mother Loi'e flees the disintegrating building. Hétis arrives in a stolen Imperial transport with four TIE Solar collectors and uses a bungee to pull Loi'e to safety with the help of the stage crew. Jon pilots the transport.
In the cockpit, Jon remakes that Loi'e gave the Imperials a show. When Hétis asks who the Imperial officer was, Loi'e reveals that the officer was her son. She says that she now has a way back to him and he has a way back to her. Aboard an Arquitens-class command cruiser, the Imperial officer grips a holoprojector that his mother discretely left behind. He gazes at an image of himself as an infant. He removes his cap, revealing severed horns below his hairline.
Unbeknownst to him, Loi'e has put one of the trackers on the back of the holoprojector.
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