Episode eight is, once again, a classic bad batch episode. Go on a mission, encounter a lot of danger, get the object of their desire, and make a daring get away. There are lots of great reviews online about the details, so I won’t reiterate what’s already been said.
The world building continues to be one of the best parts of the show. This dirty orange swamp planet that Fennec takes Hunter and Wrecker to brought up vibes of the Clone Wars episode where Kenobi and Quinlan Vos are going through the Nal Hutta swampland, in search of Ziro the hut. The purple and orange slime in the swamp water reminded me of the swamp level on Dathomir in Jedi Fallen Order. I feel like this is relevant, somehow as in episode 9 Assajj returns, and she had close connections with Quinlan Vos and, of course, Dathomir.
We get to see Fennec Shand who is voiced by Ming Na Wen, who again does an excellent job. At the end of the episode, she says tells Hunter and Wrecker she will contact them when she delivers her quarry and gets paid, saying “You can trust me or you can fight me.” Hunter and wrecker opt not to fight her, so they deem her to be that worthy of an adversary that it’s not worth fighting her. I find something off about that. Omega is like their daughter, so I don’t think they would let her change the deal so suddenly on something so important. I feel like the narrative could have been handled better there, but maybe it’s an indication of how the Batch is losing their edge. Anyway, we learn in Episode 9, that Fennec held true to her word.
Episode nine featured Assajj Ventress’ return. Nika Futterman was back and as beautiful as ever.
Here are the questions I, and many others, must have:
How is Assajj alive? If you have read it, or heard about the Dark Disciple novel, then you know she’s dead.
How did she get a yellow Kyber crystal? Did she go to Illum?
Is this all we will see of her?
Will she feature in a spinoff series?
Will she eventually link up with disenfranchised clones and become tangentially related to the rebellion?
Will she and Quinlan find each other and be a part of the hidden path together?
If so, will they move to Tanalor to start training a new generation of force sensitive non-Jedi?
Filoni may not even know the answers to these questions yet.
Back to the idea of how is she still alive? She alludes to that question by saying “I still have a few lives left.” So we wonder how was she revived? When she died, the Dathomirian genocide had not yet taken place, so there were plenty of dark magic practitioners, especially Mother Talzin hanging around who could have brought her back to life.
So many questions. Some I assume we will get answers to, others we will have to wait.
It was fun to watch Assajj test Omega. Although there wasn’t a whole lot action wise, we see that Assajj clearly wants to protect Omega seeing that there’s no future for the Jedi right now, and there’s no reason to pursue force sensitivity since she will just be hunted down, so she just tells her that she doesn’t’ have what it takes.
Hopefully the setup episodes are drawing to a close, and the Batch will start planning their attack on Tantiss.
Episodes 10
We return to Tantiss and experience some of the darkest, most disturbing content I think I’ve ever seen on screen in Star Wars. That’s what makes it great but also gives me lingering chills. These episodes, especially episode 10, deals with human trafficking and not just human, children and babies. And why is it so disturbing? Because it’s real here in our real world, not just in a galaxy far far away. The plight of these kids living in captivity, I would argue is a fate far worse than death.
As I write this, babies are being held underground, in horrible places, by evil organizations. Just as in this series we hope the Batch will find Tantiss, destroy the operation and rescue all of the captives, we pray that the governments and law-enforcement agencies of our world will rescue all the kids and hostages who are living at the mercy of people who are evil to their core.
Disney Star Wars gets a lot of flak for having a socio-political agenda, but they got it right with this one. As I said above, this is I think the most disturbing on-screen Star Wars content I’ve ever seen because it parallels a horrible problem that plagues our society at this very moment.
Episode 11 ends with Omega turning herself in because she could not deal with the guilt of seeing the entire island of Pabu destroyed because of her. She also figures her capture could give the Batch a chance to track her to Tantiss. Her personal tracking device was removed, and the ship was too far out of range for Crosshair to make the shot, but maybe she has a plan ‘C.’ As the episode ends, Omega sits down and deeply meditates.
Did she have another trick up her sleeve? Is she trying to contact Assajj through the force?
The Batch has lost their home and their transportation, (the Marauder being destroyed is maybe even more shocking than the Razor Crest) so the story will now begin to wind to its conclusion.
Back at Tantiss, Dr. Hemlock’s days are seemingly numbered. His conversation with Tarkin was a big warning about what would happen if his costly cloning project should fail.