Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 2 Episode 10: Retrieval
What is it ? : The Bad Batch are working on a damaged Skiff they have found in the abandoned settlement they find themselves in, when Omega comes up with the idea to track their Power Droid Gonky rather than the Havok Marauder since it's transponder has been deactivated. While the others don't think she'll have much luck as they think the thief will have deactivated the droid as well, they let her try.
Aboard the Havok Marauder, the masked figure, now revealed to be diminutive in size, is piloting the vessel which talking with Gonky, removing their mask they reveal themselves to be a male child, named Benni. He lands the vessel, where we discover he works for an alien named Mokko, who offers him only half a flask of water and ownership of Gonky for the vessel, but mentions this puts him in the contention for best salvager of the month.
Omega locates Gonky, and the Batch set off for it's location, arriving and finding Benni with Gonky. Under threats he reveals that the Marauder is being dismantled in a secure hangar, and they force him to lead the way, finding a way inside through a vent, but they have to avoid it's regular releases of superheated gas.
They find the Marauder, and will begin reassembling the parts already removed, but must deactivate shields to allow the ship to leave. Benni offers to lead Omega to the controls, as she is the only one of them who will pass for a resident, and as they move through the base we discover that it is mainly manned by children working for Mokko.
They head into a canteen so Benni can steal access codes to the control room, but he wants to hear the results of this months work, which a rival of his, Drake has won. From this, Omega discovers that Mokko is keeping the children mainly starving, but Benni argues that times are hard, the ore they extract is low quality, and Mokko is doing the best he can for them.
They access the control centre, and as Omega accesses the computers, she finds records of the ore sales, revealing that the ore isn't poor quality, and Mokko is draining off the profits for himself. However, Benni has signalled Mokko and hands Omega over, and the Batch is ambushed as well.
Mokko tells the Batch if they fire it will set off the ore, destroying them all, but they assure him they never miss, so he threatens to have Omega killed. However Benni reveals to the other workers they have been conned, and the Batch take out Mokkos guard droids and rescue Omega, allowing the workers to advance on Mokko, who falls to his death.
Later as they finish repairing the Marauder, Benni returns items taken from the ship, and reveals that the children will live in a more equal society now, and Omega comments how Mokko was similar to the Empire, but Tech responds that things will be okay as long as there are more people like them, and they fly off in the Marauder.
High Points : The episode is fine.
There's nothing much more to be said for it, it's absolutely fine. Nothing to get excited about here.
Low Points : Pretty much everything from last episode is forgotten, there no continuing elements of Omega missing Echo, no continued closeness between Tech and Omega. Even the hostility between Wrecker and Tech has been forgotten.
The whole situation is Oliver Twist, with Mokko being Fagin, the evil manipulator who puts children to work, and Benni being the Artful Dodger, the good at heart scamp. But the situation isn't rounded out, how did all these children end up here? Are they war orphans? It seems a possibility, but the episode makes no attempt to explain why a fairly large number of human children are living in a mine with an alien?
Benni betrays the Batch in the most telegraphed way possible, and then helps them because in this series it's impossible for a kid to actually be bad.
So what do you really think ? : Something which has become more obvious in this episode, but I've been noticing recently, is that the Bad Batch series doesn't like violence. It's a series about some soldiers, but everyone they shoot is a droid, or they use stun! Even the bad guy in this episode, who keeps kids as slaves, only gets his comeuppance when he falls to his death, not because anyone kills him.
I know it's a show for kids, but I can't remember Clone Wars or Rebels having this problem (or if they did it must have been handled more skilfully so I didn't notice).
Final Words : A pretty much pointless episode, the Batch get their ship back while facing off against a Victorian stereotype. We even get a moment where the bad guy eats vast quantities of food, while the kids struggle to win a bowl of gruel, as if we really need any other reasons to hate the character described as a slaver.
Oh, and I guess they don't need Cid's help after all.
Score : 7/10
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