Still on the junk planet for some reason, The Bad Batch decide to do a little salvaging to get some money to pay off Cid, but when Crosshair and the Empire track them down, they must escape a decaying Star Destroyer before they are captured and terminated but things only get worse from there.
The Bad Batch is one of those shows that just will not spread the wings its been granted by sheer design. Sure, it’s standing up in the next and flapping them ever so cautiously, but it just will not commit to its grand flight to be the big beautiful bird that it can be.
Sure, it’s a fair sight prettier than it was when it first hatched… all wet and skinny and shivering in the cold, but it still hasn’t puffed out those beautiful nerdy feathers into the great bird it can be.
Call it timidness, call it a build up… call it low effort. Whatever you want to call it, it ain’t it yet.
It feels like it’s getting there. Every now and then, it runs its hand over the embers of greatness when Hunter says that they’re not soldiers anymore and that they have to adjust to a life of being something else, or when you see them try to adapt to life without the support they were used to, but it’s not there yet.
With “Reunion,” we get an episode of inevitable. The inevitable clash with Crosshair, the inevitable taking of Omega… these were story beats that we not only knew were coming, but, let’s be honest, by sheer design had to happen. Fortunately, the episode keeps it tight and keeps it fun. I enjoy watching Clone Force 99 go up against an enemy that knows them and can outmatch them as watching this series, sometimes, is like watching someone play a video game in god mode. Call me a sadist, or evil, or any of the other things that my Sunday school teachers used to call me, but I like watching the protagonists fail every once in a while especially when, as in the case of The Bad Batch, their egos are gigantic. Pride goeth before the fall and there was a lot of falling and a lot of lost pride in this episode.
“Reunion” was enjoyable, not only for the clever action and settings but also for the surprises that I won’t spoil here. Needless to say, as a fan of Star Wars, I was very happy to see things transpire.
The wings aren’t fully spread yet, but they are on their way.
Jason Gaston 