The Bad Batch Season 2 Episodes 10 & 11 Review
Credit to: Disney and LucasfilmBack for more Star Wars, Y’all!
Welcome back, y’all! This time around, we’re taking a look at both episodes 10 and 11 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2! You know, I do my best to keep things nice and positive around here because hey, we all love to be entertained. You’re all here because you want to know my thoughts on things, because you might agree, you might want another perspective, or maybe because you’ve never explored whichever project I’m talking about and need my reviews to help you decide. I love all of that, that’s why I’m here. I’m here to entertain y’all. It’s for that very same reason that I feel so bad when I kinda review bomb a project, a project like this. I’ve always made my thoughts known. I always make sure that you guys get my honest opinion no matter what, because I don’t want to promote or prevent anything for y’all without it being my genuine opinion. My opinion about this series is that it’s really not that great. Not great at all. Thankfully, these two episodes I’m reviewing are a lot more interesting to talk about, so let’s take a deep breath and keep this on a high note. Phew. Okay. Ready? Me too. Without any further ado, let’s just jump right into it.
Episode 10: Retrieval
Pros
I will say that even though this still feels far too close to the Kessel mines part of Solo for my liking, I will say that we do at least get a fairly interesting story. Very cliche, very, very cliche, but the story wasn’t bad. To be honest, it actually helps you understand the state of the galaxy a bit more when you compare this series to The Clone Wars. For that series, when there’s a cruel group of people like pirates, slavers, or Separatists doing something horrible behind the scenes, you can expect the heroes to swoop in and save the day. Suspense is built with political roadblocks that prevent a conventional, legal way of providing support to the people in need, which is when you expect people like Anakin and Ahsoka, along with a hesitant Obi-Wan to come up with a way to sneak their way in and save the day somehow. This series is different. It’s not as dark as Rogue One or the Andor series, but it does present itself in the same light as those projects. The galaxy is different. There aren’t Jedi all over the place, and the Republic is gone. It’s the Empire’s galaxy now, and they couldn’t care less about what goes on in areas that don’t concern them or their Emperor. The best you can do in an environment like this is hope for the best or accept the way things are. Or of course, be a rebel, but we’re not exactly there yet in the timeline. Anyway, we see the Batch find their ship in this episode, which takes them into this mining colony, where they see the lives of a couple dozen young miners being taken advantage of by an ignorant boss who barely pays and feeds them, while he himself gets fat and rich off of their hard work. What’s worse is that the boss even has them competing for top earner, just to reward them with a single proper meal. Crude, but that kind of story does make for a good watch, I must admit. The Batch does some good work here, so honestly, I did like this episode. It wasn’t a very fresh idea at all, but it’s a whole lot better than getting an episode with a whole lot of nothing.
Cons
As I mentioned before, this episode is victim to being one big cliche. That, and also the fact that it’s still a very similar concept to a certain sequence in Solo. On one hand, one can’t really expect this series to be too serious and have these brand new, big storylines for each and every episode, but on the other, it would really do this series some justice to just explore a bit more. Maybe get a little more serious. Let’s see the Imperial stuff a little more, or at least Crosshair and the conflict between him and his brothers. That’s a whole rant, but you catch my meaning. This was a good episode, but there’s always the potential of so much more.
3.5 out of 5.
Episode 11: Metamorphosis
Pros
This episode was one nice big callback to The Clone Wars, and I actually really enjoyed that. Without giving too much away, we revisit an old project authorized by Chancellor Palpatine during the war, a project that made specific advancements to the soldiers of the Republic. Seeing it return here can only mean that we’re inching closer and closer to the arrival of the classic stormtroopers, which can only mean we’re getting closer to something massive happening. What exactly? Well, who knows? There’s the phasing out of all clone troopers that we’ll see eventually, pockets of rebellion that are certainly already happening, and dare I say, a potential peek at Darth Vader? That’s a stretch, but it’s always worth mentioning. Let me stop getting carried away, on with the review. So, with the Batch involved with the Empire once again, we’re left wondering what kind of trouble the group is going to inevitably come across in the very near future. The project they had no business being involved with certainly put a target on their backs, and we know that the Empire obviously wanted it to be under wraps as they didn’t deploy just any kinds of troops, rather they deployed a massive wave of clone commandos led by the most badass commando of all time from the classic Star Wars video game, Republic Commando, Scorch, to sweep the situation under the rug and round up any and all civilians who witnessed the event. Spoiler? Yeah, but come on. It’s Scorch. I’d be stupid not to mention him. Anyway, this episode was quite the rollercoaster. It started off as somewhat of a thriller, making use of the dark and a monster among the Batch in a small, contained space, so that was very enjoyable, but that turned into a whole different monster as things got more and more out of hand for the team. This episode was definitely the more interesting of the two that we’re talking about today, but that’s to be expected when comparing a filler episode to an episode of this magnitude. Not bad, not bad at all.
Cons
To be honest, my only con is me nitpicking if I’m being totally honest. I personally feel like this episode would’ve had a little more impact if it was a tad bit longer. Literally only a few more minutes. I would’ve really enjoyed seeing a tease at other projects that the Empire’s working on, like mentioning something we’ve never gotten insight into like Project Black-Saber, or something more important like Project Stardust (plans for the Death Star for those who haven’t seen Rogue One even though you’ve had since 2016 to that, y’all). I know that may not be necessary, but if we’re gearing up for something big, then yeah, this could’ve used a little more time. The story could’ve been fleshed out just a liiiittle bit more. Other than that, this was a good episode.
4 out of 5.
Final Thoughts
We’re on a really good path. I have talked some serious smack about this season, for good reason, but I’m glad that I'm able to sit and enjoy things… for now. This season really does have a lot of potential. It’s not that I want to compare this series to its animated predecessor or something like The Mandalorian, but if we’re talking about what the gold standard is for Star Wars, then those two, and actually Andor, are the prime examples. There can be a healthy balance of having a darker tone, and some lighthearted content as well, it just has to be written well. But what did you all think? Let us know on our Instagram, and make sure you’re following to stay up to date with the latest and greatest entertainment news and reviews. But that’s all from me, this has been The Wolf Den!
