A new mission brings Star Wars: The Bad Batch back to basics
Cannon fire, slick storyboarding, and premiere-level teamwork made "Common Ground" one of the more exciting episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch yet
TV Reviews Star Wars: The Bad Batch
The Bad Batch, perhaps more than any other Star Wars prequel series, has a unique opportunity to explore how the Empire settles all the lingering disputes and various power vacuums that remain following that abruptly decisive end to the Clone Wars, up close and personal.
Consider the sharpshooter Crosshair—once a willing soldier of the Republic, now the leader of his own Imperial kill squad—who maintains his loyalty to Chancellor Palpatine as he secures his grip on the galaxy as a self-appointed emperor. Yes, there remains the pesky matter of his inhibitor chip and the concept of free will among clone troopers (“good soldiers follow orders,” etc.) but set that aside for now; Crosshair’s position within the newly-forged Empire offers Bad Batch viewers a cherry vantage point to see how this authoritarian regime operates during its formative days. And up until this week, chain code intrigues notwithstanding, Star Wars: The Bad Batch had yet to take full advantage.
To be fair, that’s not really its function. The Bad Batch is a found family tale after all, a small (but feisty) drama set amidst the wider canvas of the Star Wars saga. Hunter, Tech, Echo, Wrecker, and Omega, trying to make their way in the universe. Simple. But Crosshair was also a member of this crew, and while his absence has been a persistent and painful sticking point for his former brothers-in-arms Crosshair has primarily been utilized as a peripheral threat for the series: he shows up, the Batch goes on the defensive, they make it out the other side of the conflict and everybody’s hurting that much more. Again, simple.
But what about Crosshair’s new job as a bonafide fascist? Does Admiral Rampart send his squad out on other missions? Without a Death Star looming around you’d think selling a galaxy-wide dictatorship would be a tricky thing to pull off. Aren’t there dissenting voices that need to be, um… taken care of? Recall Senator Padme Amidala’s words towards the climax of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, when she and Senator Bail Organa were seen scowling at the ascension of Emperor Palpatine: “So this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause.” Despite its sycophantic standing ovation the Galactic Senate was at least one or two Senators short of being unanimous in its decision to kneel before Palpatine, so what about those other Republic loyalists out there? What about their traitorous Separatist counterparts?
“Common Ground”, directed by Saul Ruiz and written by Gursimran Sandhu, might set Crosshair back on the shelf (presumably to heal and also possibly to find a cool eye patch?), but it does finally tackle this tantalizing bit of Imperial worldbuilding—or at least a part of it. The episode takes us to Raxus, formerly the epicenter of the Separatist government, where the Empire rewards its Senator’s loyalty to Darth Sidious during the Clone Wars with martial law. “The Empire is not your enemy,” the Imperial captain Bragg declares to the citizens of the planet’s capital city Raxulon, as Senator Avi Singh wrings his hands and confesses his doubts to his protocol droid, GS-8. “I don’t know if I can go through with this,” he says. Too little, too late.
Whether or not Singh also remained seated alongside Senators Amidala and Organa during Palpatine’s ascent to unlimited power isn’t broached in this episode, but it’s clear from the jump that he’s finally having some doubts about this whole “democracy’s terrifying degradation into totalitarianism” thing. (What did he think Sidious’ endgame was going to look like?) While Bragg curtly states that the Empire intends to treat them fairly the Raxian crowd isn’t having it, and with his people’s expectant eyes on him Singh declares he’s had a change of heart. With this act of democratic defiance Singh is silenced by Bragg’s stormtroopers and AT-TEs stomp into the crowds below, which leaves GS-8 to send out a distress call to, of all people, Cid, the black market finder and fixer from Ord Mantell. That’s where we find Hunter and his Bad Batch, who have returned to the relative safety of Cid’s dank tavern, munching Mantell Mix like there’s no tomorrow.
If this is beginning to feel familiar, that’s probably because it’s supposed to. Imperial power-flexing aside, “Common Ground” is a return to formula for The Bad Batch; it’s a welcome downgrade of stakes following the emotional gauntlet of the last three episodes and, most importantly, it reinforces how essential Omega has become to Clone Force 99. (Even if this aspect of the episode gets stuffed in the b-plot, Hunter does reveal, in his wonderfully clumsy way, that his would-be daughter is ever at the forefront of his thinking.) As Hunter & Co. fly off to pull Senator Singh out of the Imperial hoosegow, Omega, who has a mind for strategy, casually enters into a game of holochess and later wins the Batch’s freedom from Cid.
It’s clear Omega was always going to be the person who got the Batch out of Cid’s pocket; that it happens in such a low-key way is a refreshing bit of subversion considering the overall bombastic nature of The Bad Batch. Besides, it’s not like “Common Ground” doesn’t have pyrotechnics to spare: The Batch’s stealth infiltration of hostile territory (alongside the startlingly hilarious GS-8) quickly escalates to an amusing commandeering of one of those clunky AT-TEs, inside which Hunter & Co. very gradually escape with the Senator in tow. Stun blasts, emp grenades, and hits to the head may keep this week’s body count low, but the cannon fire, slick storyboarding, and the Batch’s premiere-level teamwork make this one of the more exciting mid-stream episodes so far.
Yet The Bad Batch wouldn’t be The Bad Batch without a proper emotional epilogue featuring Hunter and Omega. Now unfettered by Cid’s debts, Hunter has an opportunity to take his family somewhere, anywhere, else. And while he wants to make sure Omega was safe (even if it means leaving her in the untrustworthy care of Cid), keeping a growing soldier from the action she craves ultimately doesn’t serve anybody but Hunter. It comes down to trust—who doesn’t deserve it, and who does. So an apology comes in a final game of dejarik between Hunter and Omega, its outcome already decided. “Are you ready for this?” Hunter asks.
Omega’s reply—pure, challenging, signifies the strengthening bond between these two characters, and reinforces the Batch for the peril yet to come—is almost poetic in her delivery: “Are you?”
Stray observations
- Gursimran Sandhu, a co-producer on The Bad Batch and the writer of this week’s episode, also worked on Game of Thrones; among other episodes, Sandhu worked on “The Wars To Come” and “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”, which featured Alexander Siddig, who voiced Senator Avi Singh.
- Siddig, who played Dr. Julian Bashir on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to charming effect, clearly has no horse in the Star Trek/Star Wars race. Good for him!
- We’ve been to Raxulon before: the Separatist city made its debut in Season Three, Episode 10 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, titled “Heroes on Both Sides”.
- Echo sniffs the Mantell Mix like it’s not completely delicious. (I’m totally guessing that it’s delicious—is there room in this universe for a Cracker Jacks tie-in, Disney?)
- It seems Cid’s dubious reputation has made it all the way to Raxon, which might raise some questions about her dealings with the Separatists during the Clone Wars.
- Trying to keep track of Cid’s nicknames for the Batch: Hunter is “Bandana”, Tech is “Goggles”, Omega is “Tiny”… I know I’m missing two.
- With Omega out of the picture Gonky sidles up to the Batch like it’s going on the mission, too. That’s Gonky!
- I like how the ithorian and the weequay can waste every waking hour of their lives inside Cid’s grungy bar playing the same game over and over again, but they absolutely know when Cid has stepped over the line with Omega. People are complex things.
- GS-8 rules: “Excuse me, guards, I appear to be lost! Can you direct me to the nearest egress?” (Sian Clifford rocked this episode.)
- Note that the Batch use the stun setting on their blasters when they’re up against their fellow clone troopers.
- I get how Wrecker can carry a grown adult down a zip line; he’s built like a tanker. But how does the relatively lithe Hunter carry GS-8? How much do droids weigh, anyway?
- Sian Clifford, GS-8, co-starred with Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag, notable because Waller-Bridge also starred as L3-37, Lando Calrissian’s droid co-pilot from Solo: A Star Wars Story. But you knew that.
- “Common Ground” played a game of Chekhov’s ornate vase: GS-8 saves the vase from Hunter’s messy guard takedown; she happily returns it to her master; she then carries it through the extraction; then Singh takes the vase and smashes it over a stormtrooper’s noggin at the most crucial moment of the mission. Singh: “I never much cared for that vase.” Good stuff.
- So where are you at with “Common Ground”, group? Are you gonna miss GS-8 like me? Does The Bad Batch need more Crosshair or is his intermittent presence enough? Now that Cid can’t lord Hunter’s debt over his head, will she sell the Batch to the Empire? Sound off in the comments below.
35 Comments
I like that Filoni related media blends the prequels with the OT. It was cool seeing the clone era walkers. Obviously it’s necessary here. I’m not a particular fan of the prequels but they are a canonical part of the story. I thought the sequels should have embraced them more. It was cool in The Mandalorian one of the advanced droids attacked Mandos home town.They did a nice blend of clone wars era and OT era tech in Rebels but it was more to the side of the OT. I remember some kind of walker looked like an OT walker but it had some design elements from clone war era machines.
You’d think being hardened to stun shots would be the first thing you’d want out of armor. Like, Leia in her princess dress , sure. But fully armored troopers?
Less than zero sense.
Stun blasts are too effective. Someone with a flesh would from a normal shot could still fight, but being stunned takes them out instantly. It came up in Clone Wars too, a lightsaber could block a stun shot but not redirect it, completely removing friendly fire as the Jedi’s only offense against ranged attacks.
It’s canon that stormtroopers’ equipment is terrible. Besides, how often have we seen them facing stun shots, vs kill shots? It’s kind of an edge case.
It’s canon the stormtrooper equipment is terrible but these are still Clone Troopers. Thje was an ep. od Rebels in which Rex puts on the new armor and makes a comment about how shoddy it is.
Mistake on my part, I thought they’d phased the new armour in but looking closer it’s still clone armour. Makes a little more sense that way though, they were made for fighting to the death, not for getting captured.Best theory I’ve seen is that for most of the troops, it’s more of a uniform than actual armour; something TFA played with a little when Finn got reprimanded for taking his helmet off.
Yep just like everything else in the Empire it’s mass produced cheap shite. The theory being that the Empire should have the numbers and firepower to overpower any retaliation. That’s why the TIE-Fighters don’t have shields too. For every 1 enemy ship that does they can throw 10 TIE-Fighters at it.
“Whether or not Singh also remained seated alongside Senators Amidala and
Organa during Palpatine’s ascent to unlimited power isn’t broached in
this episode, but it’s clear from the jump that he’s finally having some
doubts about this whole “democracy’s terrifying degradation into
totalitarianism” thing.”
If Raxus was the center of the Separatist government, then it’s likely he either wasn’t a senator or wasn’t there due to having seceded from the Republic (and is a senator again due to clemency). All those clapping were from worlds still loyal to the Republic.
The Empire’s biggest problems are probably still all the systems that seceded, just because the droid army went away doesn’t mean all their grievances did.
As innaproriate and boring the politics were for a major motion picture based on exciting serials with cliffhangers and rediculous stunts. This is some really good space for the politics to play out. I was pretty unthused that this could go somewhere like in the old TCW arcs but then I realized that unlike TCW where we had several different cliques of characters interweaving between several episode long arcs that this was probably not just going to be on this show. I think with it’s emphasis one sole Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon trope type team that the show is doomed to a pretty basic serial storytelling style. Sure, the one overall arc is better than a cartoon from the 80s or 90s, but so far it’s not a very complicated story. Is there a really well defined story arc at this point? Rogue misfits on the run from the government that created them go on weekly adventure and tough leader guy get’s his heart melted by young precocious girl.And a few weeks ago Wrecker just bare handedly tore an automatic door open with his bare hands. That’s a cheesy 80s cartoon style trait. Strong guy, break and open stuff, hard.
The various films and shows all have their own strengths and flaws, but it’s nice that there’s room in the franchise for a variety of tones and feels. Without that diversity, the franchise would be much staler.
Yeah, The Bad Batch is stamped straight out of the 5 Man Band template.
Sian Clifford!!! Alexander Siddig!!! Brilliant voice casting (not to mention Rhea fucking Pearlman in her recurring role as Cid).
I was wondering if that was Rhea! Super fun. Also glad they brought Sian onboard.
“And while he wants to make sure Omega was safe (even if it means leaving her in the untrustworthy care of Cid), keeping a growing soldier from the action she craves ultimately doesn’t serve anybody but Hunter.”She’s a child though. “She doesn’t want to be left out” is not a reason to take a literal child into actual, deadly combat. Hunter is not being overprotective here, he’s being sensible and getting painted as unreasonable for it. This is yet another example of cartoon-logic leading to a fucked-up message, something that really drags down Filoni’s shows.Unrelated, it tickles me a little that Cid’s snarky nicknames for the Batch are less cheesy than their actual names. The show really needs more proper Star Wars names like “Cad Bane” and “Glup Shitto”.
Never forget Elan Sleazebaggano!!(Do you wanna buy some death sticks?)
Omega is a kid, true, but this is a fantasy. Robin shouldn’t be out on the rooftops with Batman, but then how will kids relate to the marquee maniac in a bat costume? Omega serves a similar function, that’s how I view it.
Like I said, it’s a well-worn trope and I get why it’s there; I just think it’s something that detracts heavily from the show.Also, Batman bringing Robin into battlefields wasn’t exactly their finest moment…
She’s a child though. “She doesn’t want to be left out” is not a reason to take a literal child into actual, deadly combat. Yeah, but hauling little kids into the middle of combat just ‘cause is kind of how they roll in the Star Wars universe. Hence Anakin being front and center on Naboo even though there were several perfectly safe places they could’ve stashed him (like Coruscant, or literally any other spot on the planet of Naboo. I mean, it’s a whole planet and you’ve got space ships. Stick him in day-care 1000 miles away from the fighting.)
Not much drama. Not much heavy-lifting. Still, this was a fun, action-filled episode. I was expecting some sort of crisis for Echo… after all, it’s the Separatists who tortured him, turned him into a cyborg. He was clearly unhappy about the mission.
I am still waiting for a stubstantial Echo episode. There’s so much they could do with the character, considering his arc.
Same here. Filoni’s saddled this poor guy with some pretty heavy baggage. Clones aren’t supposed to have PTSD, not break under pressure. That said, in Ep1, when Echo wakes under the surgical lights of the Kaminoan medical bay, he starts to have a major freak out, the look on his face pure terror… until he hears Omega telling him he’s safe. Lotta baggage courtesy of the Techno Union.BTW: 2x Omega’s done that, refused to leave the side of an incapacitated Batcher. Echo was first, then Wrecker, then the earnest attempt to protect Hunter from Bane. She’s a peach.
Note that the Batch use the stun setting on their blasters when they’re up against their fellow clone troopers. I noticed this too and thought it was a neat little detail. Could make for a really interesting episode down the line if they come to the realization that they need to switch from stun to kill.
TBB knows now, thanks to Rex, that none of the Clones are acting under their own volition. When Rex told them “I don’t want to bury any more brothers,” that had to hit a nerve. Plus Wrecker’s tale, after coming back from Order 66, that he was still in there, fully aware, and in a battle of wills with his O66 alter ego is just terrifying. (It explains why they weren’t all killed. By rights, Tech was a dead man the moment Wrecker grabbed his throat.) It affirms Rex’s story. Each and every one of the Clones, they are imprisoned in their own minds. Awful.
Awesome take.
I feel like there haven’t been any large scale time-jumps, so it would be interesting, from the Empire’s perspective, to hear how troops on the ground feel about this new Darth Vader character slotted in below Palpatine at or around the Grand Moff and Grand Admiral level. I mean to be fair, the whole organization is new. “I hear he crushes people’s wind pipes remotely!”
I want some clone perspectives on this new “Empire” thing, dang it!!
The “Mantell Mix” looks suspiciously like (okay, identicaly to) the “Kat Saa” popcorn sold at Galaxy’s Edge. Why didn’t they just go full product placement and call it such?
I was super dubious of this show when it was announced, but it’s ending up being the look into the transitional period from Galactic Republic to Galactic Empire I’ve always wanted. I wan’t a fan of Resistance but this show is working with an actual narrative. Good stuff.
I’m really enjoying it, though I’m still hoping for more Crosshair/Empire intrigues. Feels light on those.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a whole Crosshair episode that’s just a collection of the types of missions he and his murder-happy team are being sent on.
That’ll come, I bet. One thing I’ve always gotten from Filoni’s shows is the impressive amount of setup and states-setting that goes on in the early going, which lends the Master Conflict that much more weight when it comes to a head.
I think Resistance ended up demonstrating just how thin the whole First Order idea was in the first place.
How thin the entire sequel-era is as a whole. Without rehashing it all, JJ Abrams is a hack who did very little for the franchise.
Whether or not Singh also remained seated alongside Senators Amidala and Organa during Palpatine’s ascent to unlimited power isn’t broached in this episode, but it’s clear from the jump that he’s finally having some doubts about this whole “democracy’s terrifying degradation into totalitarianism” thing. (What did he think Sidious’ endgame was going to look like?) I’m sure plenty of others have pointed it out by now, but he definitely wasn’t in that room because he was on the “Count Dooku, General Grievous, battle droid” losing side of the war.
Part of the point was that Clone Force 99 was being sent to rescue the enemy, and them coming to terms with the idea that who the enemy was has most definitively changed.
Also, a small design note that hasn’t really been remarked on is that all of those clone troopers after Order 66 have removed all of their custom armor paint jobs and distinguishing features.
I also still find it funny that about 3/4ths of this show is Dee Bradley Baker talking to himself.
The Mantell Mix, according to Wookiepedia, is the show’s stand-in for Outpost Mix, which is a snack served at Galaxy’s Edge in the Disney Parks. It’s tasty! It’s basically just red-and-purple popcorn; the red ones are cinnamon flavored and the purple ones are a sort of mild grape/fruit flavor.