Review: Star Wars:The Bad Batch “Bad Territory”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Having regrouped and recovered a bit on Pabu, Hunter and Wrecker head out to find someone who knows something about what M-counts are. They end up finding Fennec Shand, who once hunted Omega, who says she’ll take them to someone who knows if they help her with a bounty, but sells them out once the job is done. Meanwhile, Crosshair gets his injuries looked at but refuses to discuss his trauma, so Omega teaches him meditation techniques she learned from Gungi, the Wookie padawan she met.

OUR TAKE

Well, we’ve just passed the halfway point of the season, so it looks like it’s time for a lull in the action. Hopefully this is just us getting to the top of the hill on a roller coaster, with the remaining seven episodes being the zooming back down through various loops and twists. Because otherwise this is just kind of a dull episode that really depletes the momentum of the last seven episodes built up. I do understand the story reasons for it, giving Crosshair more time to get adjusted to being part of the team again while Hunter and Wrecker look for leads about the M-count, as well as bringing back Fennec Shand one more time. Then she can probably be the one to lead Hemlock’s forces to them, which will then kick off the final stretch of the plot. I comprehend the function of an episode like this, just like the other less plot heavy episodes of the previous two seasons. The problem is I didn’t really care for those episodes if they were more action than character because the action in this show on its own is not often very interesting. Definitely not if it’s just Hunter, Wrecker, and Fennec, against a random alien guy who has the same name as Zachary Quinto’s character from NBC’s Heroes.

The word “filler” is thrown around a lot in regards to episodes like these, which is then met with dispute because there are at least a few points within these episodes that do make them plot relevant, thereby not making them filler in the strictest sense. Personally, I define filler as something that can be removed entirely from a story with no noticeable loss in quality or plot coherence, which you could argue some episodes of this series have. But honestly, filler can be a fun time anyway, even if it’s not contributing directly to the plot at hand. The Other World Tournament from Dragon Ball Z is genuine filler one could ignore but most remember it fondly for the exploration of cosmology of the Dragon Ball universe and the fight between Goku and Pikkon. The Zanpakuto Rebellion in Bleach is filler top to bottom but many like the designs and concept it went with. Filler is essentially fat but fat can add flavor if the people making it have fun with it. This episode of Bad Batch though…not fun. Glad Crosshair and Omega got more bonding time, but that’s not enough for me.