Captain Rex appears on The Bad Batch’s doorstep and is freaked out when he discovers that Clone Squad 99 still have their inhibitor chips in their heads. Calling them out on their stupidity as they should have been called out (I thought you were SMART, Tech!), he leads them to a spaceship graveyard to get the chips out before they take control of the best clone fighting force the galaxy has ever known, however, for one of The Bad Batch, it might be too late.
Okay, first of all… the elephant in the room. The fact that the Bad Batch were written so cluelessly that they didn’t recognize the danger in their own heads even after Crosshair fell victim to it and Wrecker’s headaches were increasing was bad writing. Plain and simple, there’s no way around it… it wasn’t just bad writing, it was stupendously bad writing that made the team look both incompetent and arrogant. The only saving grace to this purposeful stupidity is Rex’s reaction to it as the one clone with a brain equipped.
Beyond that, I found the episode pretty good with a few bad choices keeping it from becoming great.
It was a bad choice to wrap this up in one episode. After all the build up and anticipation for Wrecker’s turn and the dangerous effectiveness of the toughest member of the Bad Batch going bad, the conclusion was too sudden and too easy. Barring a prolonged payoff to this story arch, I want there to be lasting consequences… I want a wedge between Wrecker and Omega. I want distrust. Please don’t let this fall to the wayside.
Even with the rather big minuses, I did enjoy the episode. Bad Wrecker was surprisingly effective and scary, I enjoyed the setting, and seeing a post Clone Wars pre Rebels Rex was a treat.
While I think that “Battle Scars” could have been truly great with a few more chances taken, it was definitely not bad.
Jason Gaston 