The Bad Batch is back, and so too are some unexpected guests!
Let’s dive in to our review of this week’s episode, “Decommissioned,” but as always, full spoilers are ahead!
SUMMARY:
On Ord Mantell, in Cid’s shop, Echo trains Omega on how to use her newfound weapon as others look on placing bets, telling her that it’s about tuning out the distractions. Cid then orders everyone else out and gives the Bad Batch a new job: retrieving a tactical droid’s head from a facility on Corellia. There’s some slight hesitation on Hunter’s part, on behalf of the group, over whether they’d agree to work for her, but Cid gives them no choice. So the squad heads off to Corellia, catching Omega up on why a tactical droid is so important: since it could adapt to strategy as the war went on, it’s very useful in fighting clones – which, given the fact that the clones are now serving the Empire, is even more valuable.
They find the facility on Corellia crawling with security, so they stealthily make their way inside. The squad then splits up to cover different areas, and it’s Omega who first spots the droid. It’s on a conveyor belt about to be incinerated like the other droids, and Tech learns that it’s the last one left. But before the Bad Batch can get to the droid’s head, one of the workers grabs it and takes off running. It’s soon revealed that there are two of them: Trace and Rafa Martez. Omega confronts Rafa, while others corner Trace (who has the droid head). As Omega and Rafa struggle, they accidentally alert the security to their presence, causing a total lockdown of the facility as more of the security droids come flooding in.
In order to lift the lockdown and allow them to escape, Tech needs Wrecker to leap over the lava and pull a lever. Wrecker makes the jump, but as he lands he hits his head again. After pulling the lever, Wrecker collapses, trying to fight it, and begins muttering “good soldiers…” before he falls unconscious. Meanwhile, Omega and Trace race for the droid head on the conveyor belt. Trace winds up in possession of it, and Omega is trapped. Hunter and Rafa are fighting together against the droids – all while fighting with each other verbally – when Omega calls for help. Hunter springs into action, taking down the droids and racing for the girl. But she falls into a pile of droids, about to be incinerated, when Trace shows up again to help rescue her. As Hunter arrives, they are able to rescue the girl, and the Bad Batch and the Martez sisters decide to work together to escape.
Regrouping, they decide to wire the tactical droid to activate the other battle droids to fight the security droids. Wrecker finally wakes up and arrives to the fight, giving the others time to re-program the tactical droid. With this done, the B1 and B2 battle droids activate and begin fighting the security, allowing the others a chance to escape. As they do so, the droid head is shot out of Rafa’s hands and destroyed, but Omega steps up with her weapon to cover Trace, saving her. The group escapes onto the Martez’s ship and fly away. They discuss how they now both are coming away empty, and how the Bad Batch doesn’t even know who their buyer is. Rafa says that the person they’re working for is trying to fight against the Empire, and asserts that these clones are supposed to be serving the Empire. Hunter insists that they’re different, and he proves it while leaving to board their own ship. After Omega says goodbye to her two new friends, Hunter gives Rafa the data from the droid that Tech had copied, saying that they’d use it for a good purpose.
As the Martez sisters fly away, they contact the person they’re working for, informing them that they have the information, but also had help from a squad of rogue clones – and that they know just where to find them.
REVIEW:
I’ve got to say, I didn’t expect the Martez sisters to show up in The Bad Batch, as it seemed to come out of nowhere – but it makes sense, given that they already had all the models and everything from The Clone Wars. This show seems to quickly be turning into a series of weekly cameo appearances from people we already know, and that has to be approached carefully, but so far I really think it’s been working really well and makes for plenty of fun connections, and this episode was no different! And it seems very possible that the inclusion of the Martez sisters won’t just be a random cameo but will factor into things in an important way… but more on that in just a second.
It was cool to see the sisters show up again, and they’re still running into trouble trying to survive – which is exactly where we last saw them in The Clone Wars. The dynamic with them and the Bad Batch is great, and it was especially great to see Omega and Trace together, as they really save each other throughout the course of the episode. But I think it’s noteworthy that at the end of the episode, it’s Rafa who imparts the lesson to Hunter that everyone has to choose a side eventually. It seems that these sisters have now realized it – and does that mean they’ve chosen the side of fighting the Empire?
That’s all dependent on who their mystery client is, as at the end of the episode we only see the side and shoulder of a tunic. But there are a few subtle echoes of Ahsoka’s impact on the Martez sisters in this episode, and the most obvious one is standing right there in plain sight: R7! The droid flying the Martez’s ship looks exactly like (well, at least at first… he changes appearance in the next scene) R7-A7, Ahsoka Tano’s droid. That seems really significant. It seems to suggest that, maybe, they’re actually working with Ahsoka on this. Which could then also tell us which side they’re on. So who is this mystery client? Well, based on what little we see of him (and the sisters do call this person “him”), the best guess is that it’s Bail Organa. It looks like the tunic he wears. And it would make a lot of sense, as he’s already been planting seeds of rebellion against Palpatine’s regime and the Empire even though formal Rebel Alliance wouldn’t be formed for years. I think Bail is the most likely guess, and if that’s the case he could have connections to both Ahsoka and Rex. If I’m right about which side the Martez sisters are on, I could see that this is how Rex winds up finding the Bad Batch. But we’ll have to see. Regardless, I think the fact that we don’t actually see who they’re working for means that it’ll be a significant reveal, much like the secret of who Fennec Shand is working for. There’s a lot of mysterious plot lines beginning to form.
Another thing that I really liked from this episode was how Omega continues to feel more and more like part of the team. When they all were infiltrating the facility together, I was so glad that Omega was just going right along with them. There was no discussion about her staying behind or anything. She just goes with them, because she’s a part of the team. And even though she’s given the job of a lookout, she winds up playing a significant role. She first spots the droid, she pursues the droid, and she shows off her skills with the weapon at the end. (On that note, her heroics at the end confirm that what she needed to do was just tune out distractions. This doesn’t tell us a whole lot, and it could just be a totally innocent lesson to learn, but it’s also something that someone who is Force-sensitive would need to learn and practice. Just saying…). Her relationship with the Martez sisters grows, but it was also great to see how Hunter sprung into action, going full-on dad mode, in running to rescue her.
But another member of the team suffered another injury, and it confirmed our worst fears. For several weeks Wrecker has been hitting his head repeatedly, and complaining about how his head hurts repeatedly, and we all worried that it was his inhibitor chip beginning to malfunction. This episode confirmed it. After hitting his head again, he begins to begin muttering, “good soldiers…” while trying to fight it. So yes, his chip is definitely the issue. And that means we’re heading for a moment where Wrecker is going to activate Order 66, and it’s going to be heartbreaking. For Order 66 to activate, he’d need to target either a Jedi, or a traitor to the Empire. Well, if Ahsoka and/or Rex were to show up at some point (and we know Rex does), that would fit the bill. But so too would Hunter, Tech, and Echo, who defied orders and did not activate Order 66. We know from The Clone Wars that anyone violating the order is also a target, so that applies here. We’ve been worrying that this would happen, and this episode confirmed that it’s what we’ve feared. Now it seems like only a matter of time.
I’ve also got to mention that this episode contained maybe one of the best jokes to ever appear in Star Wars and one that’s been years in the making. Trace mentions needing a diversion, and then Rafa turns and says the same thing. This prompts Trace to ask, “is there an echo in here?” and then Echo pops up, saying that here he is. Trace doesn’t get it, but he says that his name is Echo. It’s a hilarious moment. I’m sure the writers have been waiting to use it with Echo for a while, and it worked really well here.
I’m really interested to see where things go from here. It was cool to see Corellia again, and it seems that the Bad Batch is going to kind of be operating from Ord Mantell while working for Cid. But someone has hired Fennec Shand to hunt down Omega, and now someone else (presumably) knows exactly where the Bad Batch are. So there are surely more appearances to come. We’re seeing the squad continue to work together and how Omega is really becoming one of them. That’s awesome and I love her, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
My grade: 8.8/10
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