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Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 2 Episode 11: Metamorphosis

What is it ? : We begin with a Clone Commando moving through the cargo deck of a starship acting somewhat panicked. He wields an electrostaff, and is attacked by an unknown creature.
We then swap location to Mount Tantiss, where similar cargo vessels are arriving, and a scientist, Royce Hemlock, takes over control of the project. He visits Nala Se as she isn't cooperating with the project, and she tells him that she has no interest in helping those who destroyed her homeworld, so he summons Lama Su to be brought from Coruscant to help convince her to help.
We then see the Bad Batch aboard the Havok Marauder speaking to Cid. They aren't happy as she didn't provide any help when they needed her, but she points out everything worked out okay. She tells them of a crashed cargo ship they should loot on her behalf, and although the Batch isn't keen on helping, Tech points out that Cid could do them particular harm with her knowledge of them, so they agree to help her out as one final job to settle matters between them.
Arriving at the crash site they don't recognise the type of ship, and find it without power. They explore, and find the bridge abandoned and notice claw marks on the walls.
Tech remains on the bridge to restore power, while the others explore to see if there is anything to loot, discovering a laboratory containing Kaminoan technology. Tech discovers a damaged medical droid hiding on the bridge, which warns him of danger before shutting down, and he finally restores power.
In the lab, the others come under attack from a lizard like creature, which they identify as a genetically modified Zillo Beast. It is resistant to their weapons, and seems to feed on energy, but is set free from the wreckage when they cause an explosion to try to hurt it.
Seeing that it is heading for a nearby settlement, they decide that they cannot allow others to be harmed due to their actions, and Wrecker and Hunter chase after it aboard the Marauder, while Tech and Omega attempt to retrieve more information about it from the crashed ships databases.
They discover that one of the modifications will allow the creature to grow at an accelerated rate if it should gain access to energy, something the creature manages when it reaches the settlement and starts feeding on a power generator.
They attack, but themselves come under attack as they Empire arrives to retrieve their ship, they are attacked by LAAT Gunships, and Tech and Omega find themselves being pursued to Clone Commandos.
The Zillo Beast is fired upon by one of the transport vessels using a special turreted weapon, and then tractor beamed aboard when it is stunned, while the Marauder picks up Tech and Omega and flees into Hyperspace.
Back on Tantiss, Lama Su arrives and Hemlock threatens him to get Nala Se to cooperate, and he reveals that the key to manipulating her is a particular clone, Omega. . .

High Points : A pretty darn good episode of The Bad Batch, action packed although filled with many questions.
Straight away Royce Hemlock is a far more effective villain than Rampart ever was, he seems to have studied Kaminoan technology and be an expert on Cloning, and speaks with the slower deliberate style of the Kaminoans, which comes across as quite menacing, similar to Thrawn was in Rebels.
It's fun to see the Clone Commandos and Zillo Beast back, as that story in Clone Wars had always left it hanging as to what was happening with the creature, so it's great to pick that storyline back up all these years later.

Low Points : Not a massive complaint, but it annoyed me as to how many Clone Commandos there were in this episode. In a time when the Clone army is being wound down, and the Clone Commandos seemed pretty rare even during the Republic years (in fact I kind of thought that there were possibly only 4 squads of 4 Commandos, as you played Delta Squad in Republic Commando), but we see dozens of them in this episode.

So what do you really think ? : This seems to be a bit of a reset for the series, although the wheels have been in motion for a while. We get the Batch moving away from working for Cid, we get a new main villain, and the reintroduction of the Clone Commandos, now working for that villain and acting as potential opponents for the Batch.
This is an interesting development, as apart from their superpowers, the Clone Commandos are as skilled as the Batch, and seem to be far more numerous.

Final Words : Although I really enjoyed the Solitary Clone episode about Crosshair, this episode in my opinion is slightly better as it's more action packed and fun to watch rather than intellectually interesting, although there's not much in it.
With 5 more episodes to go, it's going to be interesting to see where things go from here.

Score : 9/10

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