Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 3 Episode 11: Point of No Return
What is it ? : Phee Genoa lands her ship for refueling, and while she is away from the vessel, the Clone Assassin sneaks on and downloads her Navi Computer records. He decodes them and locates Pabu, informing Clone Commando Scorch of his discovery.
Meanwhile on Pabu, the Bad Batch are preparing to leave upon the advice of Asajj Ventress. Omega leaves the shattered goggles of Tech in the museum on the peak of the island, and Hunter speaks to the Mayor who is sorry to see them go, telling them they'll always have a place here.
The Clone Assassin lands on the island, concealing his ship in a cave, and approaches the settlement, and Hunter senses something, informing the others it's time to leave. Wrecker squabbles with Gonky about whether there's room for everything, with both suggesting leaving the other behind, when he notices that the Clone Assassin has planted explosives on the Havok Marauder. He grabs Gonky and leaps away, but the explosives go off destroying the ship, and leaving him wounded and unconscious.
They take him to a hut for treatment, as they spot a Venator Star Destroyer take up position over the island, and dozens of LAAT/i dropships start delivering Stormtroopers to the settlement.
As they treat Wrecker, they realise that the Empire is tactically removing all ways off the island, destroying all starships and sea going vessels to deny them escape. So Hunter sneaks off to steal a LAAT/i, managing to board one but he is spotted and the Clone Assassin shoots the vessel out of the sky, leaving Hunter swimming back to shore.
The Imperial forces begin searching from door to door, and prepare to use incinerators to destroy the settlement, so Omega decides that their only tactic is to let the Empire capture her, and to track her so they can locate Tantiss and rescue her and the other Clones. Crosshair isn't happy, but she tells him to look at the long term goals of the mission, and he reluctantly agrees.
Omega hands herself in, but the Clone Assassin scans her for trackers and locates it, summoning his ship and loading her aboard. Meanwhile Crosshair takes up position high on the island, but is spotted and fights his way through Stormtroopers, before using his rifle to fire a tracking beacon at the Assassin's ship, but it is too late and the ship retreats out of range leaving the beacon to tumble ineffectively into the sea.
In space the Assassin reports that he has captured Omega, while she begins to meditate in the hold behind him as they leap into Hyperspace. . .
High Points : So after a slow burning atmospheric episode last time, this one is all action, and the Empire truly shows how effective it can be. Destroying the Havok Marauder, and denying the Batch any way off the island is an excellent tactic.
We get emotional moments as the Marauder is destroyed, the island set fire to, and Wrecker disabled. And it looks as if for all their planning, it's all gone wrong, although there remains wiggle room for them to still be tracking Omega.
Low Points : While the Assassin scans Omega for a tracking beacon, and she hands it over when he finds it. He doesn't actually scan again, so it's entirely possible she's got another in her boot, or has swallowed one, or something like that.
And while the Batch in this episode is down three members (Echo is somewhere else, Tech MIA/KIA, and Wrecker unconscious), it's a long way from the first episode of the series where they turned the course of an entire battle by themselves. Where they were incredibly powerful at the start of the series, now they're elite troopers, but there's loads of other elite troopers around as well, with the Clone Assassin and Clone Commando Scorch being their equals. Definitely makes you wonder why the Republic didn't just totally ace the clone wars.
So what do you really think ? : I enjoyed this one, after too many episodes of just treading water, we're back onto the main plot, and while this seems a step backwards, with Omega heading back to Tantiss, exactly where she was at the start of the season. It looks as if everything coming together for the finale, some kind of massive breakout at Tantiss, and one which won't go well for either side, with Rex ending up in hiding afterwards, and the experimentation on Force Sensitive children being relocated to Nevarro (as seen in The Mandalorian) amongst other places.
Final Words : So four episodes to go, so I guess next we've got Tantiss to locate, and forces to gather before the final assault begins, and I'm really looking forward to it.
Score : 9.25/10
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