Summary
“Screecher’s Reach” explores the idea of hope in another nice-looking short that suggests if one’s circumstances are desperate enough, a person will make any sacrifice to escape them.
This recap of Star Wars: Visions Season 2 Episode 2, “Screecher’s Reach”, contains spoilers.
“Screecher’s Reach” is, simply, about hope.
This is nothing new for Star Wars, which has always explored the concept in some form, whether that’s hope for freedom from tyranny or hope for meaning. This gorgeously animated little short is about that yearning for better circumstances, and how far one might go – what they might compromise – to achieve them.
Star Wars: Visions Season 2 Episode 2 Recap
For the point to stick we have to understand how bad the starting circumstances are, so “Screecher’s Reach” opens with a little panorama of slaves going about their menial duties. Our attention focuses on Daal and her three friends, all youngsters, all toiling under the yoke of the Empire.
Kids in film and TV are often insufferable, these guys are okay. They’re unhappy with their circumstances, obviously, and have that typical childlike impulse to explore and poke at the boundaries of what’s allowed.
What is Screecher’s Reach haunted by?
The titular Screecher’s Reach is a tantalizing prospect because it’s supposedly haunted. They head there on stolen speeders, away from the bustle and tyranny of the workhouse. It’s a temporary reprieve, but an important one.
It’s more important to Daal than the others. With determination, when she explores the cave, she confronts the ghoul that haunts it, a Dark Side spirit with a red lightsaber, the force of its screams powerful enough to tremble the rock.
READ: Which Episodes of Star Wars: Visions Season 2 are Canon?
Daal seems to have a connection to the Force herself, heightened by her fear and desperation. She’s able to crush the ghoul and – of-screen – strike it down with its own weapon.
Star Wars: Visions Season 2 Episode 2 Ending Explained
When Daal emerges back into the light, she’s trembling with adrenaline, and her friends admonish her for leading them into danger. Through her amulet, a voice communicates with her, and a shop promptly arrives with a female alien who confirms that she was being tested.
Daal had been offered the chance of a better life. Desperate to achieve it, she took on the ghost of Screecher’s Reach. Given the choice, she tearfully leaves her friends behind as she goes on to better things.
Some might quibble with the morality of this decision but it’s no different, I don’t think, than Anakin’s mother allowing him to leave with Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace, knowing she’d be left behind. If the circumstances are bad enough, people will do anything to escape them, and Daal made a choice that many would – she made a personal sacrifice to fulfill her own potential.
You can stream Star Wars: Visions Season 2 Episode 2, “Screecher’s Reach” exclusively on Disney+.
