A very good first half of the finale with some unexpected twist. Although I was wondering why the Batch never entertained the idea of infiltrating as regular troopers. Now I know.
Very cool to see Krennic and the mention of Project Stardust.
When this show is good, it's really good. They should stop with the bottle episodes. Instead of 16 episodes, do 10. This and the last episode were excellent.
So, the mission to get a track on Hemlock utterly fails because Guerrera blows up the Imperial base (without actually killing anyone important, mind you). Small wonder Guerrera'll break away from the rebellion if his missions don't really yield any results.
Liked the nod to Rogue One. And the utter inhumanity towards the clones... Imperial property, indeed.
Can't believe we had Krennic there! What a nice cameo.
Rogue One prelude. Saw Gerra and Krennic.
Kind of a slow episode but a hell of a cliffhanger.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-03-29T23:15:13Z
[7.8/10] This is some bigtime business! The meeting among the Empire’s big luminaries (hello Aftermath fans!), and our heroes trying to infiltrate the titular summit in order to get a bead on Crosshair’s location, feels appropriately momentous for the penultimate episode of the season.
I was particularly impressed by the action set pieces here. If you’ve been watching Star Wars as long as I have, you become a bit inured to the big blockbuster sequences. For the animated shows in particular, they encounter a dose of fireworks every week given the comparative ease of conveying action in the medium, so it’s hard to get too excited.
But the show did a good job of laying out the stakes for the big tram ride to Tarkin’s fortress. The narrow window, the dangers below, and the chances that Wrecker freaks out a bit all make it feel like a big deal when they’re able to hang their way into the facility.
Likewise, Omega sneaking around the Imperial base to try to tag Dr. Hemlock’s ship with stormtroopers all around is shot and composed in a way where it’s easy to feel her panic at being penned in by the bad guys. Echo working to create a good distraction, and Wrecker coming in to save her at last minute shows good creativity in setting up the risks and solutions here. One of the best parts of this one is that it gives us a sense of the Bad Batch that started the series (minus Crosshair) all working together in perfect harmony, which is always nice to see.
And hey, a bad guy summit comes with a certain inherent thrill. Getting Stephen Stanton back as Tarkin is great, and having Ben Mendolson reprise his role as Krennic is a pleasant surprise, even if he doesn’t get much to do here. The group debating what to do with the clones ties into the season’s themes, features a callback to the events of The Clone Wars, and shows that at least one Imperial bigwig cares about the fate of the clones. (Though he sounded suspiciously like Rex? Who knows.)
But the big deal here, of course, is our heroes running into Saw Gerrera. Once more, I’m convinced that this could be the endgame for The Bad Batch given the bookend quality of him returning for the first time since the series premiere and talking about Clone Force 99 having taken his advice.
More than that, though, I like the philosophical clash, where the Bad Batch wants to use this summit to help track down Crosshair and maybe get a bunch of vital info to help the greater cause of freedom, while Saw just wants to take out the Imperials and damn the missed opportunities or the fact that they’ll just be replaced. It’s in keeping with what we’ve seen of the Partisans in other media, and I like the impact here.
I’ll confess, I’m not too worried about the good guys being stranded on a tram in the middle of the gorge. Surely they’ll get out of it. But I’m excited to see how! And that's the sign of a well done prelude to a season finale, with some action and substance in good measure.