The Bad Batch continues powering through its first season by bringing back yet another familiar face from The Clone Wars as the threat of the Batch’s inhibitor chips rears its ugly head once more. Will the Bad Batch be able to remove their chips before one of their own succumbs to Order 66? Will this show finally find its footing? Will I stop being a crotchety old bitch complaining about a Star Wars show for children? Read on to find out as we dive into Star Wars: The Bad Batch‘s “Battle Scars!”
Oh, and spoilers, as always.
1. Did I Miss An Episode?
Woah, woah, woah. Now, there’s in media res and then there’s opening your episode in such a way that I had to check that I hadn’t missed something. As much as I’ve enjoyed the Bad Batch doing these jobs for Cid on the fly, dropping us into the getaway from one of these missions when we’ve only had two prior felt a bit jarring. It was certainly a fun sequence to open with a bit of action for a change, but it kind of came out of nowhere and definitely threw me for a loop before I could settle in. That’s not necessarily a complaint, mind you, because I’ve been hoping for the show to start bucking the formula for a few episodes now, I just hope that it can be used a bit more tactically in the future and not quite as jarring as this.
2. Friends In Low Places
Well, well, well. This was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. Last week’s episode ended with a tease of Trace and Rafa contacting someone about the Bad Batch’s existence and location and while I’m sure rumours as to who that could be were abound in the week between episodes, I certainly wasn’t expecting it to get paid off this early. Seeing Rex, though, is a lovely touch and makes a lot of sense for him to be the first major character from The Clone Wars for our ragtag group of clones to reconnect with. Ahsoka’s too big of a name to drop in right now and no one else would have the effect that Rex had when revealed.
That being said, I have to wonder now how long the Bad Batch’s working relationship with Cid has. Sure, they’re now in her debt and are working to pay that off, but I don’t really know how long the show’s going to stick with Ord Mantell given that, as a base of operations, we’ve barely gotten to know it. This place doesn’t necessarily feel like solid ground underneath their feet and their relationship with Cid keeps getting rockier and rockier. This is beginning to feel more like a stepping stone to something new, and, hopefully, more driven as the season progresses.
3. Finally, The Show Gets Going
You know, I’ve been hard on The Bad Batch. Since it started, I’ve been pretty down on the season as a whole for what I’ve felt like is a lot of wheel spinning in terms of the overall narrative, with too much emphasis on the otherwise pretty rote stories of the individual episodes themselves. I mean, when you set up this grand, overarching narrative about the changing face of the galaxy in the aftermath of the most impactful war in living memory and the beginnings of a fascist regime that’ll last nearly thirty years and what the place of these runaways is in that new regime, turning around and making silly, little romps on deserted moons with them being chased by a big bug isn’t exactly what I had in mind for the follow up. No, I won’t get over that episode, it was bad.
Once this episode got going, though, I really felt like things were picking up. We had a returning face from The Clone Wars who had a certain narrative weight behind them, we had a mission that had direct repercussions on our heroes if things turned ad and we had something of a ticking clock. Real drama! Imagine that. That being said, I did find the resolution to all this (we’ll get to the meat in the middle in a second) a little… easy. I don’t know what it is I want from this show, but by the time all is said and done and the inhibitor chips are removed, I feel… nothing? It’s not like they were established as much of a threat and now they’re gone, I don’t really know what the show wants me to feel. Relief that Wrecker’s in the clear and that they’ve removed one of the few sources of dramatic tension in the show? I wish I knew.
Continued below4. A Gluttony Of Monsters
Listen. I know. It’s Star Wars. Big, weird creatures showing up as obstacles are a dime a dozen in almost every story set in the galaxy far, far away, but as soon as Hunter noticed something in the water, I knew exactly how it would play. I knew it was going to be a Dianoga and it would show up for one scene to create some kind of dramatic obstacle that would resolved almost immediately with little to no lasting consequences. I get it, this is a show for kids and there’s only so much drama you can actual have in one episode, but this felt pretty cheap to me and it’s a trick the show keeps pulling. Shallow obstacles that pose a certain level of danger to make kids gasp at their screen because one of the characters is in a level of danger that isn’t necessarily that threatening, but are relieved to see they’re immediately okay. Rinse and repeat. It’s the same gripe I had with the early seasons of Rebels and what I watched of Resistance and I just need more than empty dramatic tension to keep me coming back each week.
If you’re going to make a fun, adventurous romp of a show, I need to feel like those adventures matter and that our heroes are developing as they experience them, not just clocking in each week to go out and face some big creature that poses only the most superficial of threats. Again, I know this show is for children before anyone else, but even I struggle to see what kids are getting from this show.
5. It’s Wrecking Time
This, however, was exactly what I’ve been wanting from the show. Wrecker fully turning heel and going after not just his brothers, but Omega was really the first time I’ve felt a palpable sense of drama from this show since it’s first episode. It was really cool seeing Rex and Hunter trying to work together to outsmart Wrecker only to still be bulldozed by his sheer strength and then for the episode to switch gears and play him almost like a slasher villain relentlessly pursuing Omega was really effective. Especially given how the show so far has played him up as this big kid with the closest personality to Omega, seeing her best friend in the group become this stone cold killer and unable to stop himself from trying to hurt were was fantastic.
While I think the build up to this point could have been handled a bit smoother and the resolution was, weirdly enough, a little too smooth, actually being in that moment and wondering how on Earth Omega was going to escape Wrecker’s grasp was real, genuine drama and I need more of that from this show. Less of the dianoga stuff, more of this, please and thank you.
