Zeb also happens to be friends with Bo-Katan, a character who played a key role in later seasons of Rebels. That alone suggests his appearance in Episode 5 may be more than a quick nod to Rebels. The Empire is clearly looking to start a new war, and Zeb and Bo-Katan could be the key to foiling that plan.
Star Wars: Rebels
Understanding Zeb's ending in "Rebels" means understanding his rivalry-turned-friendship with Imperial agent Alexsandr Kallus (David Oyelowo), a frequent foe of the Ghost crew. For starters, Kallus participated in the Empire's xenocide of the Lasats. Kallus also wields a Lasat bo-rifle, which is an implication that Kallus claimed it as a trophy in combat with a Lasat guardsman. Not to mention that in the heat of battle, Kallus bragged to Zeb that he also gave the order to eradicate the Lasats.
Zeb's conversation and sense of honor left an impact on Kallus, so the latter became a spy for the Rebellion, assumed the Rebel "Fulcrum" codename (that was kickstarted by Ahsoka Tano), and then fed intel to the Ghost crew to save their lives. Realistically, the Ghost crew did not immediately warm up to Kallus. But eventually, Kallus threw away the Imperial uniform and joined Zeb's rebel cause for good.
A few months later, Zeb was involved in a hijack of Imperial crates with fellow rebels Kanan Jarrus and Sabine Wren. However, before they could hijack the speeders towing the goods, a teenage con-artist street urchin named Ezra Bridger hopped down from the rooftops and hijacked one of the speeders himself, forcing Kanan and Zeb to go after him on the other two speeders and racing him through the streets and out of the city. Under Kanan's orders, he evaded the pursue and was left with the stolen crates, saying he will end Ezra if Kanan caught him. Zeb and his fellow Rebels regrouped aboard their ship the Ghost and picked up Ezra as he was being chased by TIE Fighters. Zeb and Ezra were soon butting heads and when Ezra made fun of his smell, Zeb dragged him by the legs and threw him into a closet.
After Zeb and his fellow rebels were able to escape their pursuers, they returned to Lothal and landed near Tarkintown, a refugee camp named after Imperial Outer Rim governor Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin that is home to farmers who lost their farmlands to the Empire. Zeb, along with Sabine and Ezra delivered three of their stolen crates full of food to the people of Tarkintown and soon after returned to the ship on another mission, to rescue Wookiee prisoners.
Arriving and docking with an Imperial Transport Ship rumored to be holding the Wookies, the rebels had Zeb pose as a hairless Wookiee to fool the Stormtrooper guards. However, the troopers didn't buy it, only because Zeb didn't give them a chance and took them out with a single punch against their heads. Unfortunately, rebels had no idea they were walking into a trap made by the Empire until Ezra came to warn them. While helping the rebels make a run back to their own ship, however, the boy was captured by Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) Agent Kallus, so Zeb regretfully abandoned him so they could escape but not before telling Ezra he did good. His fellow rebels were not pleased with him leaving Ezra behind and out of three votes, they returned to rescue him.
Eventually, Ezra was able to escape on his own and, rejoining Zeb and his other newfound friends back onto the Ghost, informed them that he just learned the Wookiees were on Kessel. Heading there and setting the Wookies free, the Ghost crew became outnumbered due to the arrival of a squadron of Stormtroopers commanded by Kallus, so is was here that Zeb became aware that Kanan was a Jedi. With Kanan's skills with the Force and Ezra's assistance, Zeb and his other fellow rebels successfully rescued the Wookiees and, after sending them on their way home, returned Ezra home until he decided to join their crew, with Zeb sharing a cabin onboard the Ghost with him.
Since the crew of the Ghost were running low on fuel and supplies, they decided to accept an order from crime lord Cikatro Vizago to steal a weapons shipment from the spaceport on Garel before it fell into the Empire's hands. After traveling there on a Star commuter shuttle ST-45 while Hera flew to the planet on the Ghost, Zeb and his rebel companions headed to Bay 7 of the spaceport where they discovered that the cargo shipment were T-7 ion disruptor rifles, which were banned by the Imperial Senate for their ability to short-circuit an entire vehicle. This discovery distressed Zeb since these weapons had been used in the Imperial massacre back on Lasan. He was able to set his depression aside for a while so he could hold the Imperials back while Kanan, Ezra and Sabine loaded the disruptors aboard to the Ghost as it fled off-world and into hyperspace, unwittingly bring the droid duo C-3PO and R2-D2 along with them. While their astromech droid Chopper befriended them, the rebels flew back to Lothal with the intention selling the stowaways, along with the disrupters, to VIzago, but unknown to them, the Alderaanian senator Bail Organa sent the two droids on the same secret mission to prevent the T-7 s from falling into Imperial hands.
Zeb repeatedly tried to talk Kanan out of selling the disruptors to the Devaronian, but failed. He even became very frustrated with Ezra on the journey back and at one point tossed him out of their shared cabin. During their deal with Vizago, C-3PO, mistaking the rebels for criminals, made an emergency call to Agent Kallus, revealing the rebels' whereabouts. When the Imperials arrived, Vizago fled and spoiled the rebel's transaction by postponing the deal, so Zeb and the crew alone fought back against the attackers by overloading the disruptors against them. As Kallus stepped forward and demanded that Zeb face him, the Lasat came to the realization that it was Kallus who was responsible for the usage of the disruptors against his people and engaged him in a vicious Bo-Rifle duel. He was quickly overpowered from fighting recklessly and falling for Kallus' taunts, but just as he was about to meet his fate, Ezra Force-pushed Kallus away from him, saving Zeb. This gave Kanan the chance to get a half-conscious Zeb aboard the Ghost, and while Zeb was under the impression that Kanan had saved him, he thanked him for the save. To his surprise, however, the former Jedi revealed Ezra's role in Zeb's rescue, and the Lasat gained respect for the beginning Jedi Padawan.
Despite having his life saved by the boy, Zeb often butted heads with Ezra as they did not get along with each other. Sometimes the feud was pressured by Chopper, who would often do so by removing the bolts that supported Ezra's bunk, thus allowing it to collapse on Zeb. Their ongoing quarreling led Hera to punish them by sending them into the village of Kothal to pick up supplies and told them not to come back without at least one Meiloorun, which doesn't grow on Lothal. They eventually found some that have already been sold to the Empire, so Ezra tried to steal them when he failed to use the Force for one, only to be spotted by Stormtroopers. While fleeing, the two rebels were separated and Zeb found himself cornered by two more Stormtroopers and a TIE Fighter piloted by Rudor, whom was surprised to see the Lasat again after a couple of months. During a brief skirmish, Zeb leaped into the TIE fighter and tossed the pilot out, taking it for his own. He saw Ezra running from troopers on the rooftops and allowed him to board the fighter in return for admitting that they were both even, then flew into the surrounding countryside.
Due to their new-formed friendship, Zeb and Chopper were present during one of Ezra's Jedi training lessons on the hull of the Ghost high above Lothal's atmosphere. When both were assigned the job of hurling blue milk cartons and rocks for Ezra to deflect with Kanan's lightsaber, the boy was unable to pay attention and slid off the Ghost. He was rescued by Kanan who used the Force to hold him place in mid-air while Zeb fastened a hook and pulled him back into the ship. Following Ezra's lesson, Zeb and the other Ghost crew received word on the Holonet that the Jedi Master Luminara Unduli was still alive imprisoned on Stygeon Prime. At the urging of Kanan, the rebel band decided to travel there and rescue her, believing would be a better teacher for Ezra than himself. While Chopper and Hera waited aboard the Ghost, Zeb accompanied the rest of the rebels to the planet's surface in the freighter's auxiliary vessel, the Phantom, to infiltrate The Spire, the Imperial prison where Luminara was reputed to be held. Part of the infiltration plan involved Zeb carrying Ezra on piggyback as they leapt onto the sentry's platform in order to avoid arousing the Imperial Stormtrooper sentries. At the entrance, the Lasat warrior knocked two Stormtroopers guarding unconscious by smashing their heads together, and Kanan eliminated the other two troopers by using the Force to hurtle them into the door.
The rebels headed down a turbolift to Luminara's isolation cell, which was situated at the bottom of the prison complex. On the way, they encountered two more Stormtrooper sentries whom Zeb quickly knocked unconscious and dragged into the turbolift with Sabine's help, while Kanan and Ezra entered the detention block complex to look for the Jedi Master. While the Jedi were gone, the Lasat and Mandalorian reached the lower levels, where they encountered two more Stormtroopers whom Zeb also knocked out and threw into the lift. They then tried to contact Kanan, but discovered that the Empire was jamming their signals and quickly deduced that he and Ezra had stumbled into a trap. To delay Imperial reinforcements, Zeb and Sabine jammed the remaining turbolifts and staged a one-sided duel until reuniting with Kanan and Ezra, who just discovered that Luminara was long dead after all, and that her remains were used as bait for a trap set up by The Grand Inquisitor meant to lure any Jedi who survived the Jedi Purge to their fate. Dodging several closing blast doors with the Inquisitor on their tail, the four rebels entered an empty hangar bay. Zeb managed to delay the Inquisitor by jamming the hangar bay's blast doors, buying Ezra and Kanan to use the Force to open the hangar bay's outer doors, which led to the Spire's landing platform. However, the rebels were then trapped between the Inquisitor and several Stormtroopers and TIE fighter pilots who were waiting on the other side.
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