First Impressions On 'The Bad Batch': "Decommissioned"
Welcome back, Star Wars fans. Another episode of The Bad Batch is out, an this week's had a fair amount to digest.
SPOILER WARNING for The Bad Batch episode 6. If you haven't watched it yet, stop reading. For those who have, let's get strapped in and start with a recap.
As you may remember, last week's episode introduced us to the character Cid - an "old Jedi ally" who hires the team to track down an enslaved child, which turned out to be an adolescent rancor, on behalf of Jabba the Hutt. At the end of the episode, Cid offers the team "work" for whenever they need it, and this week's episode picks up from that.
The episode begins with the team trying to teach Omega how to use the laser bow (not very effectively at this stage) she picked up from the enslavers last week, further cementing her place within the team. We see Echo specifically trying to teach her to be a soldier, with some funny results. Cid then arrives and tasks the team with retrieving information from a tactical droid from the Clone Wars, currently set to be destroyed in a decommissioned facility, due to the value it carries.
Hunter tells Cid that they haven't decided to work for her yet, to which Cid replies she's made the decision and confirms it would be a "mutually beneficial" arrangement. Before her leave, Cid takes the bow from Omega and delivers several clean shots, proving there's more to her than meets the eye.
The team arrive at the facility and are immediately concerned when they realize the place is covered in police droids. En route to retrieve their package, they are greeted by two females who are also after the tactical droid. At first, the two teams compete to retrieve the prize, but an onslaught of police droids soon causes them to team up to ensure all survive, which leads to a very troubling scene indeed.
Whilst trying to help, Wrecker suffers another head injury (along with taking another blaster shot), but this one seems to have possibly bad repercussions. Before losing consciousness, Wrecker mutters the words "good soldiers..." For those unsure or maybe who forgot, this was a sort of clone mantra during the Clone Wars and was repeatedly stated by Crosshair in episode one, hinting at a possible change in allegiance for Wrecker. This scene possibly suggests Wrecker's inhibitor chip may be starting to cause some troubles and trying to take over, brought on by the numerous head injuries. Could he turn to the side of the Empire as well?
Finally waking up, Wrecker meets up with the rest of the squad, including the two also after the tactical droid, and they come up with a plan to save themselves. Using the head of the tactical droid, they are able to take control of all the broken battle droids lying around and use them to take out the police droids, saving their bacon. I have to admit, after all this time, it is a bit strange to see clones and droids fighting on the same side, but not against the Jedi.
Unfortunately, the tactical droid's head is destroyed during the crossfire, but the data is saved thanks to Tech. Following their escape from the small droid battle, the two females explain that they where trying to capture the information for use against the newly formed Empire and giving it to someone who would use it for good and questions Hunter on his reason for retrieving. Before parting ways, Hunter hands the information over and the episode ends with one of the females informing a, conveniently hidden, hologram of someone about the events which transpired. She also states she now knows where the clone team are.
Now, above is the episode in a nutshell, so let's discuss actual thoughts on it. All in all, I enjoyed the episode. As mentioned in last week's episode review, I started to feel Omega was falling into the "damsel in distress" trap, so it was nice to see her get some action scenes. Wrecker seems to be developing a bit of a story arc with regards to his chip, so it could be the case we lose another team member, and it's good to see him get some development out with being he comic relief of the team.
You'll notice, above, I have referred to the other main characters of the episode as the "two females." Turns out we actually know who they are, although it didn't become obvious until hey removed their helmets and revealed themselves to be the Martez sisters, Trace and Raffa, whom you may remember from season 7 of The Clone Wars. They befriended Ahsoka, and she travelled with them for some time after leaving the Jedi Order.
The question on everyone's lips now is who they were speaking to via hologram. The inclusion of the sisters into the show, considering their relationship with Ashoka, seems to be a suspicious and a bit too coincidental. Could it, therefore, be too much of a stretch to believe they were retrieving the information for Ahsoka herself? Could we get another cameo from the fan favorite character? Or could it be someone else we know? The subtitles saying "patch him through" throws another wrench into the mix. Guess we'll just need to wait for next Friday!
Until next time!