Theory: The Rebels Had A Secret Spy In The Imperial Navy

The various rebel cells fighting against the Empire and, later on, the consolidated Rebel Alliance employed various spies in order to learn about the plans of their common enemy and to stop their execution if possible. Probably best known are the “many Bothans” that died to “bring us this information”. But also, Cassian Andor was a spy for the Rebels, as well as the former ISB agent Alexsandr Kallus, who later switched his alliances and delivered crucial information to the rebels under his codename; Fulcrum.

There were undoubtedly many more rebel spies within the Imperial ranks, but today we are going to talk about someone who was really high up in the hierarchy. This theory (and that’s what it is, to be clear) has been around for some years and pops up from time to time: How and why Admiral Kendal Ozzel was actually a spy for the Rebel Alliance.

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The short story Kendal by Charles Yu, published in the book From a Certain Point of View initially supports this theory to some extent (and we will come back to this at the end of this article). Like many senior Imperial officers, Ozzel’s naval career began back in the days of the Republic. He served in the Clone War and later joined the Imperial forces. At that time Ozzel was engaged to a woman from his homeworld Carida, who one night offered him a chance to join the Rebels. But Ozzel had already decided that his loyalties lay with the Empire and so he and his to-be wife parted ways forever. It could be possible that this decision bothered him later in his life and so he decided to switch sides.

After serving in the Imperial Navy for many years, Ozzel became an admiral and the commanding officer of the Executor, Darth Vader’s personal Super Star Destroyer. Shortly before ending his life, the Dark Lord called him “as clumsy as he is stupid”, but what if the apparent errors that Ozzel had made before the Battle of Hoth weren’t really tactical mistakes, but intentional decisions to help the Rebel Alliance, who had built their base on the icy planet. It does indeed seem a bit strange, that someone who was found competent enough to receive command over one of the most powerful starships of the Empire would make such seemingly stupid decisions.

But let’s break this down a little bit more: Shortly before Han und Chewie could destroy the probe droid that had landed on Hoth, it was able to transmit a short video of the shield generators that the Rebels had built to protect their base. When Captain Piett told Ozzel about the transmission, the admiral was quick to dismiss it, stating that he wanted proof of rebel activity, not just leads. When Piet continued that there were life readings, Ozzel remained stubborn, claiming that these readings could mean anything, probably smugglers or something else. It is suspicious that Ozzel seemed to have absolutely no interest in following the best lead the Empire had at that time. Vader, of course, didn’t care for Ozzel’s opinion, ordering to set course for the Hoth system. And Ozzel does indeed look worried at that moment.

The theory further states that Vader must already have suspected Ozzel to be a traitor at that point. So, he and Piett set a trap for him and made sure that Ozzel never got to see the video of the probe droid being destroyed. This left the admiral with no other choice but to send the rebels a warning of the approaching assault and he did that by willfully disregarding Vader’s orders to come out of hyperspace further away from Hoth. His argument was that this would give the Empire the advantage of surprise, but in reality, it just enabled the rebels to raise their shields and to protect their base from an aerial bombardment. This was all that Ozzel could do at that moment.

This “tactical mistake” was enough for Vader to be convinced that Ozzel was not just stupid and clumsy, but a spy for the rebellion and a traitor to the Empire and he made the admiral pay dearly for “failing him for the last time”. Although this was probably never the intention of George Lucas, when he wrote the script for Empire, and also not likely the plan of Irvin Kershner, when he shot the movie, the theory that Admiral Ozzel was in fact a mole within the Imperial navy does indeed have a lot of merit.

But…

Let’s go back to the aforementioned story from From a Certain Point of View. Kendal ends with a dying Ozzel regretting that he had given his whole life to authoritarians, thinking back on his younger years and the time he could have spent with his fiancée. Moments before his life ended, he wished that he would have become a rebel spy all those years ago…

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Source: CBR

Written by Gerald Petschk

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