Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 3 Episode 14: Flash Strike
What is it ? : Arriving at Tantiss in the shuttle attached to the hull of the science ship, the Batch detaches but are instantly intercepted by Imperial Starfighters. Tantiss has been warned that the Batch infiltrated the station along with Rampart so might be on the way.
After a skirmish, the shuttle crashes into the jungle, with the Batch and Rampart bailing out at the last second. Inside Tantiss, Omega hears the laser cannons firing and tells the other children that her brothers have arrived.
The base goes onto lockdown, and using the distraction Omega prizes off the panels in her cell and begins exploring the transport tunnels behind.
The Science ship lands, and Echo takes the uniform of a Stormtrooper to disguise himself, destroying a droid and using it's hand to disguise the computer interface probe he has instead of his own. He accesses the systems on the base, and locates the lab.
In the jungle the Batch sneak towards the base, but Rampart awakens a large monster, and they are forced to flee it, and are spotted by some Stormtroopers, who themselves are attacked by the monster, but in the chaos Rampart gets separated from the group.
Echo enters the lab and access the computer, but is spotted by Dr Karr, who recognises him from Omega's description, as he does her. Karr reveals the existence of the other children in the Vault to be rescued.
In the tunnels, Omega spots through a vent a large creature being lasered and held at bay. As the routine blood sampling begins and Omega is still exploring, the other children provide a distraction until she returns. Telling them she has found something big. . . .
High Points : There's some good dialogue between Crosshair and Rampart, showing how far towards redemption Crosshair has come, and how far from it Rampart is. And the reveal of the large creature makes so much sense as it appears to be a Zillo Beast, so paying off a plotline 14 years old.
Low Points : But it really feels so routine, the Batch fighting another generic large monster, Omega sneaking through some tunnels (if they're just to carry blood samples (which are around the size of your hand), why are the tunnels big enough to fit a human child?).
And while it's occasionally amusing, the Batch abusing Rampart makes little sense. He's been helping them, and they should be keen on him not betraying them, so giving him reason to betray them seems silly (continually hinting they want him dead).
And when he admits to Crosshair that he's out for himself, they don't keep an eye on him, believing him when he says he'll betray them, they manage to lose him in the forest.
So what do you really think ? : It's a fairly enjoyable episode, but one that doesn't feel like the penultimate episode of the series. It's not wrapping up the storylines, and isn't bringing everything together, and leaves a lot of heavy lifting for the final episode to do.
Final Words : So one final episode of The Bad Batch to go, and it seems fairly obvious the Zillo Beast will cause chaos, so that Rex, Phee (and Batcher) can arrive and come to the rescue (even though they have no idea where Tantiss is). But we're left with the mysteries of what will happen to the other kids, where are they going to hide from the Empire, and the fates of Karr, Rampart and Hemlock.
If this wasn't a kids show, I'd think that everything is going to go bad. As we need a reason for Rex going into hiding, and for the Batch (and force sensitive kids) never showing up again. So it suggests that the Batch will be slaughtered, the kids remaining captive, and the horror of it all causes Rex to go into hiding with a couple of his brothers until Ahsoka (and the cast of Rebels) recruit him many years later.
But it's a kids show, so everything will turn out great, and any hanging threads will be picked up and fixed later.
Score : 8.5/10
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