By Ben Wright (@iamzavagno | www.xgeeks.co.uk)
This review contains mild spoilers.
This week, The Bad Batch treated us with a double helping of Star Wars animation goodness, as the double episode drop gave us an exciting and enthralling two-part arc that truly set the stakes for our heroes!
This was, essentially, an hour-long episode split into two, with each episode just as captivating as the other. They told an exciting, and emotional story that was incredibly well paced and executed.
With this particular story broken into two episodes, I will look at each episode and cover some of the highlights.
Episode 6: Infiltration
We started in a wonderful Middle Eastern-inspired setting, with a return for Senator Singh and GS-8 with Senator Chuchi. While this acted as a reminder that some senators are continuing to work towards standing up to the Empire, it mainly introduced the concept of the CX Trooper – a clone assassin, which we have seen once before. There was also that one shot of a CX Trooper on Tantiss, the one in a previous review that has me very nervous about their identity… This nervousness continued in this episode, as the CX Trooper had plenty of screen time, but more on that in the next part of the review!
I loved the purple tones of the Clone Rebels basecamp and especially enjoyed Omega receiving her new weapon an Energy Crossbow. This new weapon fires green bolts which may have some parallels to Luke getting a green lightsaber in Return of the Jedi – with this being the end of The Bad Batch, it may have some significance.
These episodes were about setting up the “end-game” which I feel will still be one last battle for the clones on Tantiss, The Last Samurai style, and I don’t think I am emotionally ready for that.
7: Extraction
They ended Episode 6 with a tease of Commander Wolffe leading the assault team. If you didn’t know, Wolffe served as the leader of Jedi Master Plo Koon’s Wolfpack squad and a good friend of both Rex and Cody. Wolffe also appears with Rex in Star Wars Rebels – so we know he’s got plot armour, so I wasn’t worried about him during the episode.
What I was worried about was the Rebel Clones, as the CX Trooper, who again was given a lot of character build-up, was in pursuit and took a few of Rex’s troopers out – including Nemec and Fireball, who both made their debut in the episode “Tipping Point” back in Season 2.
As I mentioned earlier, I have my concerns about the identity of the CX Trooper, although a new name has now entered the frame… I won’t mention who I THINK it is, just in case it does turn out to be them, but after the events of this episode, I am now leaning towards Cody… I feel they’ve put too much emphasis on the character not to be some one we know, and it feels like they have e some sort of history with Crosshair.
As for the fight, it had a ‘Reichenbach Falls’ vibe, both aesthetically and from a narrative standpoint. I also, genuinely, thought we might lose Crosshair at one point. And that’s the thing… other than Rex, Gregor and Wolffe, we don’t know the fates of these characters – and that makes it both exciting and torturous.
These were two incredible episodes in terms of the storytelling and the visual aesthetics – simply stunning! I was on the edge of my seat and I truly cannot wait to see where the story takes us next week!
What did you think about the latest episode of the final season of The Bad Batch? Let us know in the comments!
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