What They Say:
New information has our heroes taking on a dangerous mission.
The Review: Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the Bad Batch members now crashing out on Pabu, they’re getting some needed downtime and a chance to just exist for a while, which is a huge plus for Omega. But events continue to roll on elsewhere as we see a number of prisoners being taken under Imperial custody bringing them in. It’s a great if short sequence just to showcase the visuals and ship design and then to have them being raided by Echo and several Clones working with him. I love the ‘Batch in general but I’m really curious to see more of what RRex is up to at this point and those aligned with him in providing some agitation against the Empire. Having this team going on missions to rescue Clones from what’s likely certain death or something worse as prisoners is pretty slick and has you wondering how many more might still be out there in the galaxy, even with their aging done as it was. Especially at the back end of it seeing the Imperial ships chasing them which we just saw the same day in the Mandalorian post-Order 66 as they’re precursor ships to the TIE fighter.
With these Clones being saved, the news hits in the facility where Crosshair is being held. He’s being put through some rough interrogation in order to find information about his former comrades so they can get Omega as she’s the most important thing right now as we’ve seen. Doctor Scalder is trying to manage this situation as well as she can, especially in contrast to the way Doctor Hemlock is, but even she’s not able to smooth things out with Crosshair when he finally manages to free himself. As you’d expect, even a wounded and degraded member of the ‘Batch can outperform the Clones that are now serving the Empire, never mind the other rank-and-file humans being brought on. Crosshair continues to be a nicely complicated character and seeing him doing his best to send out a message for his former friends is done well and seeing the way he struggles to keep going forward really cements him as an interesting character.
The episode also gives us some time on Pabu as some time has passed and everyone is fitting in well to help out in the rebuild. And what feels like are some welcome costume changes to show them in more varied but connective designs. There are some fun light moments as well, such as Omega learning to fly the Marauder and that’s giving Tech some real grey hairs in trying to stay alive. She’s a natural with it though and is growing into a proper member of the team beyond what she already was. You know things will change, however, when Echo arrives after communicating with Hunter. It’s a good moment for Omega to see him as well, to help cement that those bonds still exist. Having Echo bring some corrupted data for Tech to look at from the Clone rescue is a nice way to bring everyone together and to help set up for the two-part season finale as well. The pieces are coming together well with the ‘Batch learning that Crosshair is in captivity as well, though some wariness about it possibly being another trap is there as well. It’s nicely nuanced and feels like everything is being laid out in a really good way.
In Summary:
With the final two episodes coming up next together to bring the season to a close, we’ve got a lot of pieces in motion and it all works well and flows naturally. I do wish we had spent a bit more time with Echo and what he’s doing with Rex and the others as it sounds really interesting. But we’ve had some good stuff between the rest of the Batch and their stories as well as the standalone tale we got from Crosshair. I’m definitely digging what’s going on with this episode, especially that cold open sequence that goes big, as it’s exactly the kind of stuff that the live-action side should be doing in some form in order to feel meaningful. The cast of characters continues to be great and I’m enjoying both what we get from Pabu as well as from this secret Imerpail facility, which looks to lead into a summit with Tarkin next time around that could open up a host of new storytelling possibilities in this period.
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
