Confined
A group of elite clone troopers who rejected Order 66 continue their attempts to save their fellow clones as the Galactic Empire starts making its way towards the use of stormtroopers.
After the Bad Batch decided to spring a trap during the final episode of season two to try to rescue a former member of their unit, that former member is taken away to a testing colony, along with their younger, clone sister whose growth has not been accelerated like the rest of the clones. Season three opens with Omega learning about another female clone and helping the Empire conduct experiments while she tries to save her former friend Crosshair and the Kaminoan scientist who helped create her.
The Bad Batch
Outside of the appearances of Omega, the young girl, and Crosshair, the former unit member who betrayed them in season one, the actual group known as the Bad Batch doesn’t appear in this episode. It felt a lot like the Mandalorian episode that spent almost 75% of its time on Coruscant instead of with Mando. It felt out of place for the rest of the series.
I know the Bad Batch experienced a tough loss in the season two finale when Tech sacrificed himself for the squad. While I’m sure audiences will get to experience their grief while still trying to rescue Omega, that should be shown in this episode. This is a case where parallel editing would’ve helped. We could see and understand that the Bad Batch’s actions are going on at the same time as the actions at the colony. Unfortunately, with all of the focus on the colony, the Bad Batch feel like they are second fiddle in the final season of the very show named after them.
Pacing Problems
While The Bad Batch as a whole has been hit or miss when it comes to pacing, this episode glaringly stood out. The first season may have felt like a guest of the week, that was usually one of Dave Filoni’s favorite characters, it was still able to build toward something. That doesn’t mean this season won’t build toward a satisfying conclusion, but the first episode felt off.
The Bad Batch needs to be its own series with its own identity, but this episode felt like it was trying to be Andor. For my money, Andor is the best Star Wars series released on Disney+, but that’s because it didn’t try to emulate what came before it. It built its own identity despite being a prequel for Rogue One. This series is a spinoff of The Clone Wars. While The Bad Batch doesn’t need to be The Clone Wars, it also can’t be Andor. Simply put, what could’ve been an exciting series with appeal for the entire family chose a method for this episode that was beyond niche, and I think it backfired.
Conclusion
While I wasn’t super excited for The Bad Batch as a series, by the time I finished season two, I was excited for what season three could bring. Unfortunately, the first episode abruptly tempered that excitement. The pacing was bad. The lack of Hunter, Wrecker and Echo just made me shrug. Omega is not connecting with older audiences, and she doesn’t really seem to be connecting with younger audiences the way Disney and Lucasfilm had hoped. There’s so much here that should be great that just isn’t. I’m not giving up yet, but this just didn’t hit the way it should have.
Stream all episodes of The Bad Batch on Disney+.
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Article by Jeremy Brown, Stelmach Brown Media2024
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