As part of a recent, friendly bet (which you can see outlined here on Twitter) I have committed to not only watching every single episode of this season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, but I must also write 500-word (minimum) reviews about the series!
Yay!
That’s not actually sarcasm. I’m excited to write about Star Wars again, and am using this as an excuse and a bit of a prod to kickstart myself back into some writing. Without further ado…
A (Too) Familiar Caper(?)
This (past) week’s episode, “Decommissioned,” saw the Bad Batch sent on a retrieval mission by their new benefactor, Cid, to a familiar locale where they ran into some familiar faces and got into familiar clone-squad hijinks. Sounds pretty fun, right?
The return of industrial Corellia from Solo was a welcome sight, and I really enjoyed the intricacies of the reclamation plant—the conveyors and droid parts reminded me favourably of Attack of the Clones—but I have to admit that I did feel some trepidation while watching the episode. At this point the series has fallen into a (potentially detrimental) pattern of guest rôles given to established characters or at least familiar types (species, creatures, etc.) and so with the appearance of Corellia, a fear started building in my stomach—I worried we might see young Han (not-yet-Solo!) show up! Even during the initial skirmish with the newcomers who stole the droid head they were sent to collect, my first thought was, “Oh, are these going to be White Worms?”
Thankfully (for me) those fears were quickly allayed. I welcomed the reappearance of the Martez sisters from Season 7 of The Clone Wars, as I thought they were some of the more interesting additions to that final season. Here, they’ve clearly established themselves a bit more since the last time we saw them, but they’re still somewhat “green” and haphazard in their teamwork. The interplay with the clones was both interesting and funny, and the action sequence against the droid security force (and the eventual need to rescue Omega) allowed for the Batch to shine and be the cinematic action heroes they’re modelled after.
Wrecker once again injured his head, and this time we got some confirmation of where all this teasing and trauma seems to be headed: Whispering to himself before passing out, he begins to say the mantra of the activated clone, “Good soldiers follow orders.” On the one hand it’s good to have that particular theory validated, while on the other, I think they’re going to have to bring this thread to a head sooner than later or else the schtick might wear thin. We’ll see if this resolves in the near future or if we’ll have to wait much longer…
The end of the episode echoed Solo in the choice by Hunter: Faced with the “greater good” against his own need, he decides to give the information gleaned from the now destroyed droid head to the young women—mirroring Han’s choice to hand over the coaxium to Enfys Nest. I have to admit that I bought Hunter’s decision a little more than I did the scoundrel’s; it’ll be interesting to see if the failure of this mission sours their relationship with Cid, as well as to eventually find out who the Martez sisters are working for, a mysterious becloaked figure in holo. Rumours abound there for the obvious and not-so-obvious choices; I just hope we don’t see another major clash with a Canon source if it’s who we all think it is!
In Loco Mentis 