The Bad Batch is good news for anyone who’s ever strived to be mediocre that, if you fool your audience into thinking that you’re improving, it only hurts them more when you slide back into being completely unremarkable.
Thus, we have “Infested.” When the Bad Batch return to Cid’s, they are surprised that the cantina has been taken over by a crime boss who deals spice (which is totally not drugs) for the Pikes, another even more criminal organization. But when Cid comes up with a plan to get her cantina back by stealing a shipment of totally not drugs from the crime lord, things go sideways as you can pretty much expect them to.
I never get excited to watch episodes like this where The Bad Batch, supposedly the most amazing set of super-powered clones ever to be produced, are portrayed as complete idiots. Heck, the only one who actually appeared competent in this episode was Tech who is usually the dumbest smart clone in every other episode. It just seems like every time the Bad Batch executes a plan, they’re amazing at what they do, but is something goes wrong, they panic and act like morons, dropping things, stirring up the colony of monsters you’ve been explicitly told not to stir up… it’s borderline amazing.
Yes, I know that this show is meant for kids, but this is also the animated franchise that has no problem going dark and mature when it wants to meaning that, when it goes for simple and silly, it feels like its slumming it.
Of course, it would be criminal to overlook the fact that this is yet another unnecessary episode that completely halts the forward progression of the overall plot and the evolution of characters that are in desperate need of evolution.
While I’m always happy to see more Cid as she is one of my favorite recurring characters and to see her actually inside the action of the episode itself, I wish it were in a better installment.
Jason Gaston 