This week’s episode was noticeably slower and less dark than last week’s offering, however it introduced a new character, one who looks set to have repeat appearances.
The Bad Batch are running out of fuel and food, so they must land at the nearest planet, which happens to be Pantora. This planet has been brought up in the earlier seasons of Clone Wars, so it was good to see the planet in person.
However, there was nothing explored on that planet that couldn’t have been explored on a more generic planet. In the Clone Wars, there was a Senator for the planet who had a similar outlook to Padme that they could have explored, for example how does the Senator feel about the victory of the Empire?
Going back to the episode, Fennec Shand from The Mandalorian is brought in to hunt Omega. This is a great character to bring in, as the show could delve into her past and show how she rose to the status she had achieved in The Mandalorian. The show already showed her as a competent fighter, managing to quickly beat Hunter and even Wrecker with ease. The action was strong in this episode, with not only hand to hand fights but also a speeder chase which led to the Bad Batch escaping. Fennec also showed her brutality, by throwing a guy out of his speeder and then shooting the Pantoran police.
Echo also has an interesting part to play in the episode as well. In order to gain credits, he is “sold” to a merchant as a droid, and then he steals himself and other droid workers in order to fix the Bad Batch’s ship. This buying and selling of Echo fits in well with the themes of the Clone Wars and The Bad Batch, with the clones regularly being called property by the Republic and the Kaminoans.
This episode however did confirm suspicions about its structure similarity to the Mandalorian. Episode one and three pushed the plot of the Empire forward in exciting new ways, such as showing the darkness of Crosshair and his commitment to orders. Episode two and four however did not push the plot very far, as neither have given the Bad Batch any direction.
The introduction of Fennec Shand did bring up an interesting question, who is she working for? No doubt this will be revealed in due course, and the mystery of what Omega’s purpose is deepens. The fact that she will also no doubt be a future antagonist for our group is pleasing to see.
Ultimately, this episode provided strong action with a strong theme. However, there is little plot progression, especially for the main cast of The Bad Batch, which is disappointing. In the episodes beyond this, hopefully the structure of plot based episode a less plot based episode will drop away, as this series is set in one of the most interesting periods of Star Wars, and not learning anything about how that affects our heroes each week is slightly disappointing.
While side missions can be important to do, they should be used in a way that is driving toward a singular direction or goal, which this series is lacking.
By Kieran Burt
Feature image: Disney