3x07 Extraction (2)

[7.6/10] I’m going to harken back to a problem I often had with Star Wars: The Clone Wars. In Clone-heavy episodes, where everybody sounds the same, and everybody’s wearing similar armor, it gets really tricky to tell characters apart from one another. The Bad Batch usually manages to avoid that problem. Between the different looks of the “defective” clones and Dee Bradley Baker’s nigh-supernatural ability to distinguish them vocally while making their voiceprints feel of a piece, you can pretty readily tell who’s who.

But here, the neat thing about “Extraction” is also a problem: you have multiple clone contingents going against one another. I like that you have an alliance between the Bad Batch and Rex’s rebels to get the hell out of there. I like that you have a set of normal clones, led by Wolf, out to track and capture the “insurgents” through normal, relatively measured and humane methods. And I like that you have a wildcard shadow operative, much more willing to take chances and use lethal force, tracking the same targets, proving to be a fly in the ointment on both sides.

The catch is that almost everyone is wearing their armor through this evade and pursuit routine. Eighty percent of the clones speak in the same vocal tones. And if that weren’t enough, the lighting for this installment is particularly dark, making it that much harder to tell who’s who.

To be charitable, I think that's part of the point here. One of the recurring themes of “Extraction” and for this series writ large, is that the clone troopers have a deeper connection to one another than their connections to a particular side in the war or the institutions that emerged in its aftermath. There is an unspoken tragedy to the idea that these programmed soldiers are sent out to hunt and kill one another. The struggle to tell them apart fits with the idea that there’s not a difference between them, that distinctions between good soldier and insurgent are superficial. For longtime fans, the incident here echoes the unexpected clone-on-clone battle on Umbara.

But on a practical level, it makes an otherwise strong episode hard to follow. I love the scene where one of the clone troopers recognizes that Crosshair is going out of his way to look after Omega and inquires about what changed with him. Crosshair’s response, that he thought he was being loyal, only to find that loyalty to the Empire only goes one way, is a powerful one. To believe in something, a cause and a mission, only to find that those in charge don’t believe in you, or even your basic humanity, would affect anyone. Crosshair’s description is pithy but devastating.

I’m also not sure who exactly he said it to, or who saves him from the shadow operative at the end of the episode. Elementary screenwriting says it’s Howzer. The guy who starts out doubting Crosshair based on his past actions, only to trust him thanks to his current ones, makes for a tidy arc. But in the moment, I wasn’t quite sure whether it was Rex or some other random trooper. That's not ideal.

Still, I like the theme of trust in this one. Season 3 is, so far at least, the season of Crosshair. He’s steadily become one of my favorite characters in the whole franchise. Seeing him go from Imperial loyalist and someone who resents “the kid”, to someone willing to lay his life on the line to save his comrades and Omega’s fiercest protector is stirring. The idea that his brothers, even the most stringent doubters among them, see that too, is an affecting one.

When he fights the shadow operative hand-to-hand, it is brisk and brutal, with the waterfall adding inherent tension to the scuffle. What’s most notable is that the shadow operative scolds Crosshair for having his chance to be one of them and failing. It’s a sign that he never fit with the bad guys, defective or otherwise. Having someone ready to blast his head off in the last episode come to save his life in this one makes a powerful statement.

So does Wolf letting Rex and his crew go despite having them dead to rights. So much of The Bad Batch is well-crafted but familiar action. When the Imperial clone troopers drop in to block our heroes from their rendezvous point, you just know it’s going to be a solid firefight and fracas, but sure enough, someone will hit the right target or trigger the right hazard to get them through.

What I like about the ending of “Extraction” though is that it’s a solution founded on faith, not force. Wolf fought with Rex. He’s not going after some random troublemakers. He’s going after his brothers. The idea that no matter WOlf’s orders, he hears Rex’s plea, sees him as a person in a way that the Empire doesn’t, and choose to let him go, speaks volumes about what binds the soldiers on both sides of this conflict, a connection that overcomes orders and missions from even the highest authorities. It is, tragically, the thing that's been erased, the thing that's been prevented, in the shadow operatives who’ve been mangled in the mind to prevent them from forging such bonds.

In truth, there is a lot of the usual stuff in “Extraction”. Clones skulk through facilities, navigate treacherous terrain, and scope out their targets. Between the dim palette and the overlapping designs and voices, it can turn these adventures into an undifferentiated morass. But the clones see one another, the differences in who they are and who they’ve been, that even confounded viewers like me can miss. And that idea comes through loud and clear.

This one gets the first 10 of the season. Not because it's one of the best episodes overall, but because the plot is so perfectly honed and has almost no fat on it.

From the start to the finish, this episode is one, long run and gun. First it's the Imperial company against Rex's crew, then it turns into a squadron against the Batchers, then it turns into the Operative against Crosshair. Which leads to a very serious fight to the death that lingers on Crosshair beneath the water just long enough to make me genuinely worried that he was about to be Battlestar'd right then and there. You can see the fear of death on his face when he gets rescued. More trauma to add to the pile.

And the standoff at the end is a painting that Kubrick could be proud of. Even though it seems unusual that an Imperial Commando would just let them all go, they were clones that long stopped being mind-controlled by the inhibiter chip and are now just following orders - another clone's orders. Brothers recognizing brothers.

No wasted time, no wasted words. Everything that was done and was said is peak Filoni and peak Star Wars. This whole season has been almost completely free of filler thus far, but this episode in particular - the second half of a two-parter - is a shining example of why The Clone Wars and everything that spun off of it has tremendously raised the bar for what I expect from Star Wars and animation in general.