The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4 Review
Credit to: Disney and LucasfilmO-okay..? I guess?
Welcome back, y’all! This time around, we’re taking a look at Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 episode 4! So, episodes 1 and 2 were pretty good, episode 3 was amazing, and this episode was… interesting. I don’t want to say too much, so I’ll leave it at “uh-oh.” But let’s not panic, it’s just a regular old filler episode, I’m sure we’ll really get into things soon… hopefully. Anyway, without any further ado, let’s just jump right into it.
Episode 4: Faster
This review is gonna be pretty short, not gonna lie to you. It’s filler, so you really aren’t gonna miss much. Anyway, we start the episode in Cid’s bar, where we see Omega and Wrecker playing a game of holochess, which, for the non-Star Wars fan, if a holographic table game that has you maneuver holographic creatures in a way similar to chess until you wipe out the opponent’s pieces. Omega’s proven to be very good at the game in the first season, so she takes care of Wrecker quite easily. Not wanting to admit defeat, he offers double or nothing, but Cid interrupts the two, offering the crew yet another job. Hunter and Echo are off doing some other random job, so it’s just Tech, Wrecker and Omega here. Not caring to explain yet, Cid has them hurry up, as a shuttle is waiting for them. We cut to a shot of the ship flying to what is yet another sandy planet. Not Tatooine, not Jakku, not Geonosis, not Ferrix, but a planet named Safa Toma. It’s a rugged sand planet with a city that enjoys a very dangerous sport, one called ‘riot racing’, which is the purpose of Cid and the crew being there in the first place. Riot racing is like podracing, but with blasters attached to the vehicles and shield deflectors. Cid is betting on a pilot droid named TAY-0, a talented but overly confident droid with a spicy attitude. The crew meet the droid after the race, where they all inspect his speeder, specifically Tech. The two butt heads about the sport and the speeder, until they are all interrupted by a gangster named Millegi, an old rival of Cid’s. Things get a little hot between Millegi’s crew and the Batch, but things cool down after a bit of trash talking, and eventual bet on who’s the better racer, TAY-0, or Millegi’s champion, Jet Venim. We cut ahead to the race itself, where we see TAY-0 struggling a bit from the champion’s rough tactics. After a lengthy few minutes of the race, we see TAY-0 caught in the rear of Jet’s speeder, and in the front of another racer’s speeder, with this racer also being under Millegi’s command. The racer behind TAY-0 deploys some sort of claw device that grabs onto the rear of TAY-0’s racer, while Jet deploys a buzz saw from his own speeder’s rear, slicing the front of TAY-0’s speeder and taking him out of the race. Jet Venim wins the race, and TAY-0 is in bad condition underneath all of the debris of his speeder. The crew run down to the raceway to take a look, but it’s not long until Millegi and his henchmen come looking for Cid’s payment. Cid promises the payment soon, saying she’s good for it, but that’s not how bets work. Fearing for Cid, Omega makes a bet of her own, betting that this time they’ll win. With the promise of more money, Millegi accepts the bet, but takes Cid with him as collateral.
We cut to Tech repairing TAY-0, while Omega takes care of the speeder. We get some pretty pointless dialogue, as it only explains everything that we know is the case. Slightly disappointing, even for a filler episode. Anyway, let’s jump ahead. With TAY-0 and the speeder are fully repaired, we see Tech taking a moment to study the track layout and the patterns of the racers, something TAY-0 finds useless. Tech actually finds TAY-0’s tactics to be flawed, which TAY-0 does not appreciate very much. TAY-0 stops to laugh at Tech, explaining how offense is the best defense, but before he can even finish his sentence, he’s rammed into by an incoming speeder, that crashes into a wall near the pitstop. This time, TAY-0 is done for. Millegi and his crew, with Cid there as well, pop up, with Millegi saying how it looks like a forfeit, but not to Tech. Tech offers to race himself, something even Wrecker finds funny, until he realizes that Tech is serious. We cut to Tech jumping in the speeder at the start line. The announcer states the name of all racers as the crowd cheers, until he says Tech’s name, making the crowd get reeeal quiet. Awkward. Anyway, we get to the race itself, where we see Tech take his time on the course. He’s dead last, which worries Wrecker, but Tech assures him it’s strategy. A section of the course has three tunnels, with the left tunnel being out of service. The racers all speed through the middle tunnel, but Tech has Omega send the schematics of the left tunnel to him. Tech realizes that he needs more speed, so as he gets to the pit stop, he dumps all of his weapons, making him much faster. We’re back to the tunnels eventually, and this time Tech takes the left tunnel, as it’s the shortest one, even though it’s missing a large portion of itself. Tech maneuvers through the tunnel safely, but a racer who was in pursuit proves to be the lesser man, falling to his death. Tech catches up to Jet Venim and the other racer under Millegi, and allows himself to drive between the two. The claw is ready, and Jet slowly deploys his saw blade, but when the claw shoots out, Tech swiftly dodges, forcing the claw to grab Jet’s speeder, while his claw destroys his ally’s speeder. The two spiral out of control and crash near the finish line, but with all of the smoke, it’s hard to see who’s in first place. Surprisingly, and I do absolutely mean surprisingly, no sarcasm whatsoever, definitely none at all, we see Tech cross the finish line first, and the crowd goes wild. Hooray. Anyway, we cut to the crew walking into Millegi’s bar to retrieve Cid. Jet being a sore loser, just sips his drink, with a blaster right next to him on the counter. They get Cid, but Jet tries to draw his weapon on the crew, with Millegi actually stopping him. Millegi warns them that while it was an honorable thing to do for Cid, they all need to be careful, because Cid won’t always do the same for them. Yikes. End of episode.
Well, that was that. Was the episode bad? No, not at all, it had good moments, basically all moments surrounding Tech. Was it good, though? I mean… eh. It was fine. I’m left wanting more, not because I’m satisfied, but more because I’m a bit lost after this one. Sure, it’s cute for those who enjoyed the podracing from A Phantom Menace, but did we really need an entire episode dedicated to it? No, not really. This is the problem the first season had. We get bangers and we get disappointments. The episode wasn’t bad, but this does fall under disappointment. Not great, not great at all.
Final Thoughts
Here’s the problem that people aren’t realizing, and by people, I mean the creators themselves, mostly. This isn’t The Clone Wars. The first few seasons of that series had many more episodes than this one, so they get to play around a bit when it comes to filler, This series? Not so much. Going into this, what we expected to see was the Empire’s rise to power, establishing their dominance over the galaxy while this rogue group of clones finds their way in this new era, by running from their own brothers, and by taking the fight to them in the early stages of rebellion. We do find ourselves with those kinds of episodes, but for some reason, we get fed fillers and other random plot lines. Fillers aren’t bad, but when like, half of the first season is filler, it gets kind of boring. We’ve seen cool things like the Empire itself, Cad Bane and Fennec Shand, and even the fall of Kamino, but beyond all of that, we have supply runs and now, racing. It’s just kinda disappointing, in all honesty. That doesn’t make the series terrible, not at all, but it does make the series extremely underwhelming. From the start, we all kinda knew this series wasn’t really necessary, if we ignored all the hype that the loud fans were coughing up, saying things like, “The Clone Wars continues,” or, “We’ll finally see stormtroopers in the Clone Wars animation style.” There’s nothing wrong with that, to be excited for those things, but think clearly. This project really wasn’t needed, and this episode, along with many of the other episodes, prove that. What would’ve been the alternative? Well, if it had to be anyone from The Clone Wars, it should’ve been a Rex series. Or honestly, if it had to be a character that we don’t see much in animation, it should’ve been a series about Boba Fett, taking concepts from the cancelled Star Wars: 1313 video game. We could’ve seen his life as a teenage bounty hunter, growing into his father’s armor, we could’ve still seen the rise of the Empire and the transition from clones to human soldiers, we could’ve still seen Cad Bane and Fennec Shand, and so much more. I don’t hate this series, I do enjoy it, but already, it feels tired out. Maybe with this fourth episode, this is a sign that two seasons really should be enough. But anyway, what do you all think? Did you like this episode? Did you not? Do you agree with my opinions? Let us know on our Instagram, and make sure you follow to stay up to date with the latest entertainment news and reviews. That’s all from me, this has been The Wolf Den.
