Tag: Lucasfilm

Star Wars: The Bad Batch, as a concept, has so much potential. The context surrounding its titular team, as well as its placement on the galactic timeline, makes the animated series ripe for a mix of cerebral storytelling and unique action scenes. Perhaps this is why it’s so frustrating that the show constantly ignores its best attributes for the sake of forgettable plotlines and run-around episodes, and more importantly, why it feels so good when an episode actually does something interesting. Thankfully, this week’s entry is among the latter. Titled Metamorphosis, the latest chapter in The Bad Batch saga combines serious political intrigue with an exhilarating play on genre to craft a narrative that’s both entertaining to watch and momentous in the grand scheme of the series.

In Metamorphosis, Dee Bradley Baker‘s Hunter and his tactile band of misfits investigate the mysterious wreckage of an Imperial cargo ship, only to find that what lies inside might have been best left undiscovered. The first half of the episode, especially its opening moments, is maybe the most horrifying Star Wars has been in recent memory. From the beginning sequence, which highlights a lone Imperial Commando desperately fleeing from an unseen terror through dark and silent hallways, Metamorphosis promises to be different from what viewers have grown accustomed to seeing. Most of what follows falls more in line with a suspenseful science-fiction thriller, specifically in the vein of Ridley Scott’s Alien than the protagonists’ usual cookie-cutter escapades. The gimmick, though sadly short-lived, works completely for the time it’s on screen.

Star Wars is often its most fun when reviving, or replicating, the pulp of old-fashioned adventures. Watching a vintage space horror occur in the galaxy far, far away makes for a wildly enjoyable ten-to-fifteen minutes before the episode takes a surprising turn, shifting from one monster-based genre to another. Halfway through the runtime, the danger at hand is revealed to be a Zillo Beast, an evolving creature first introduced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. From there, Metamorphosis becomes a miniature kaiju film, with the Bad Batch chasing the larger-than-life organism across an otherworldly cityscape. The change in tone happens pretty organically, resulting in a delightful, pulse-pounding romp that pits the clones against an opponent they’ve never faced before. Especially striking in the climactic scenes is the show’s cinematography, its most consistent positive this season, vividly portraying the power of the beast against a sickly sky.

The Zillo, however, is not the episode’s true villain. That honor belongs to Dr. Royce Hemlock, a fresh Imperial baddie hellbent on expanding Kaminoan cloning technology for the benefit of the Empire. Played to menacing perfection by the great Jimmi Simpson, Dr. Hemlock is exactly the type of antagonist The Bad Batch has needed. His existence, and ultimate plot to condense and control the galaxy’s cloning operations, immediately tie a loose narrative together and raises numerous thought-provoking questions for the Bad Batch and the show itself to answer going forward. Hopefully, the series doubles down on this seemingly new direction and follows up on it next week, instead of leaving it until the season finale.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is usually at its best when it’s tackling one of two ideas – the state of the Galaxy in a post-Order 66 world, or the possible extent of humanity in its titular clones. This week’s episode, titled The Crossing, doubles down on the latter. After a tense midseason event altered the course of the series forever, the latest installment offers a bit of levity with an easier and more straightforward adventure, using its quieter moments as an opportunity for some much-needed character work. It does what more of its one-off episodes should do by standing alone as a semi-independent story while also progressing the development of its protagonists. In balancing these successfully, The Crossing continues the series’ current path toward a more interesting end to the season.

When fans last saw their favorite band of intrepid misfits, they were bidding a fond farewell to one of their own. Dee Bradley Baker‘s Echo, a Star Wars: The Clone Wars staple who joined the team after their inaugural outing and then never really did much, left to rejoin his old friend, Dee Bradley Baker‘s Captain Rex, on a separate mission in the heart of Imperial territory. There’s no telling whether this means Echo is gone from the series for good, but it’s certainly something that concerns Michelle Ang‘s Omega, as she spends most of the episode coping with her loss alongside either Dee Bradley Baker‘s Wrecker or Dee Bradley Baker‘s Tech. Oddly enough, Echo’s presence is felt much harder when he’s not on the team, used expertly by the writers as a means of exploring Omega’s youthful perception of abandonment.

The actual task at hand in The Crossing, which has Dee Bradley Baker‘s Hunter spearhead the group on a mission to extract dangerous resources from a remote mine, is not particularly interesting. If it weren’t for the tender, familial scenes shared between Omega and her older siblings, the episode may fall flat. Most of the action is unremarkable, and the story as a whole is not overly memorable. Luckily, that doesn’t seem to be the main purpose of the plot or its arcs. Throughout it all, Omega expresses immense concern over the fact Echo is no longer part of the Batch. It’s clear that Omega, a child who has just recently found a genuine family, is not used to the prospect of losing one of her own. The Bad Batch utilizes this as a means of taking a deeper dive into the compassion and individuality of the clones, and The Crossing is much better for it.

So far this season, The Bad Batch has teetered precariously between redundancy and forward progress. Omega, as she’s always been, is the key to maintaining the momentum of the second option. The show is consistently more intriguing when it leans into her and what she has to offer as a wildly unique persona. Hopefully, the series continues to do this as the story moves on, and Omega is used as the centerpiece to a spectacular season finale.

Star Wars has always been just as much of a political allegory as hit has been a series of adventures in a galaxy far, far away. The allegory certainly became more overt during the prequels, however, as those stories took the audience into the Galactic Senate where Sleepy Sheev Palpatine played the long game and finally imposed his authoritarian rule over the galaxy. Sheev’s shifty and shady machinations all served his own endgame and the Senator from Naboo used anybody and everybody he could on his way to becoming the Emperor. Once someone served Palpatine’s purpose, no amount of loyalty or years of service could spare them, a lesson towards which Season 2 of The Bad Batch had slowly been building before Episodes 7 and 8 brought the idea into the spotlight.

The Bad Batch has taken its time dealing with the fallout from the destruction of Kamino seen in the Season 1 finale but The Clone Conspiracy and Truth and Consequences do a wonderful job of finally putting a bow on it. The two episodes weave together a nifty narrative that continues to tell the tale of the transition from the state of the galaxy in the prequels to the state of the galaxy in the original trilogy and remind the audience of the devious chess master behind it all. Now that they’ve served their purpose and all but eradicated the Jedi, the Clones, like the droid armies before them, are set to be decommissioned following the tragic “incident” that wiped out the Kaminoan cloning facilities and made the further production of Clone Troopers all but impossible.

Clone Force 99 finds themselves at the center of a high-stakes mission to stop the decommissioning of Clones (part of the Defense Recruitment Bill which also proposes a conscripted military take their place) that would also expose Season 1 villain Vice Admiral Rampart’s part in the Kaminoan genocide. Alas, the Batch and Rampart find themselves as pawns in Palpatine’s 4D chess match. Though they procure the evidence of Rampart’s evil act and relay it to their ally in the Senate, Riyo Chuchi, the Clones learn the hard way that Palpatine can and will twist anything to his advantage when the evidence they provide is twisted by the Emperor and serves as the nails in the coffins of their fellow Clones.

There’s a bit of historical horror as Palpatine, presiding over the Senate, announces that these acts of terror are reason enough for him to pass the Defense Recruitment Bill and usher in the era of the Imperial Stormtrooper. As fans of series in which stories are told anachronistically, knowing the heroes of The Bad Batch played a major role in the coming terrors that these Stormtroopers will commit is a hard pill to swallow. But as evil as Sleepy Sheev is, these two episodes go a long way in reminding us why he was able to keep his grip on power for so long: his prowess as a Sith Lord is matched only by his incredible political acumen and spin tactics. It’s Sheev’s galaxy, everyone else is just barely surviving in it.