Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 2 Episode 4: Faster
What is it ? : While Hunter and Echo are on a delivery mission, Cid takes the rest of the team as security when she goes to Safa Toma, where races take place between various armed Repulsorlift vehicles. Cid has a winning racer, a droid named TAY-0, but she gambles heavily against a Dowutin called Millegi.
In the next race, TAY-0 is caught between two of Millegi's racers, one who clamps his racer, and the other who cuts back into the vehicle causing it to crash. Having over committed, Cid cannot afford to pay up, and Millegi takes her as a prisoner, but Omega offers him double or quits.
Tech repairs TAY-0, and they fix the racer, but TAY-0 is destroyed in a pit "accident" caused by one of Millegi's racers. Since they cannot race, Millegi says they are defaulting on the debt, but Tech says he will race instead.
Tech does well in the race, but is not winning, until during one lap he races through the pits dropping his weapons. This provides more energy for engines, allowing him to take a more dangerous route and finally win.
As Millegi hands over Cid he warns the Batch that Cid isn't all she seems, and that their loyalty won't be returned, so they should watch their backs. Something Tech seems to consider as they leave.
High Points : To a degree this is a Tech heavy episode, and as stated before he's my favourite character in the series. And he comes out of this well, making sensible decisions. While they make out that dumping his weapons is somehow controversial, given that neither Tech, nor TAY-0 before him used them, they did seem like dead weight, so getting rid of them to speed up the vehicle is a pretty obvious decision.
The races seem to make a lot of sense as well, I initially thought we were going to see Pod Racing, but these races where they actually shoot at one another seem far more like the races in KotoR, and like a real part of the Star Wars universe.
And at the end of the episode, Tech actually seems to listen to Millegi, something I hope comes up again.
Low Points : They also make out during the episode, that Tech offering to become TAY-0's replacement pilot is a crazy decision. But Tech is the teams pilot, is intelligent, and is a very obvious choice for pilot as he has the skills required and has studied the course and rival pilots tactics.
So the Bad Batch are renegade Clone Troopers on the run, and are trying their best to not be discovered. So instantly walk through some very public races wearing full Clone Trooper gear. I think by now they should have modified their armour to not look as Republic in origin.
So what do you really think ? : While there's nothing really wrong with this episode, but it does feel like filler. The only point leading to a larger arc seems to be the Batch being warned that Cid is a little bit dodgy, something they should be very aware of by now.
We do seem to be getting introduced to more of Cid's acquaintances, which I wonder if it might lead to the downfall of the Batch and her relationship. As the Batch get recognised by her criminal friends, who sell that information to the Empire, leading to the Batch accusing her of betraying them. Jealous rivals who might dislike the power her having access to a squad of highly trained and genetically engineered super soldiers might want to destroy that advantage by setting the Empire onto them. Potentially interesting ideas, where Cid might actually decide to profit off the situation as well.
Final Words : While pretty enjoyable, with a decent race sequence in it, Faster isn't one of the best episodes of the Bad Batch and feels very formulaic and doesn't take us anywhere interesting.
Score : 8.5/10
Comments made about this Article!
There are currently no comments for this article, be the first to post in the form below
