2x01 Spoils of War (1)

[7.4/10] This is essentially half an episode. I don’t want to hold that against The Bad Batch. It’s a season premiere. You’re allowed to go long. But it makes it tough to judge an entry like this one where you get a setup but not a punchline.

Still, I like what The Bad Batch is setting up. There’s a central theme and key dilemma that, presumably, sets the tone for the season to come. Should Clone Force 99 continue to lay low, most notably so they can protect Omega, or should they take a more active stance in fending off the Empire as it rises from the ashes of the Republic?

This isn’t entirely novel. The show already played with the ideas a bit in season 1. But they’re a good thing to bring to the fore. I’m a big fan of anything that marks an ethical dilemma between someone torn between something they personally love and a pull to do the greater good. Hunter in particular has a fatherly relationship with Omega, and would all but let the galaxy burn to keep her safe. But the others, including Omega, recognize that there’s something bigger than any of them at stake, and want to go to the lengths necessary to work against the Empire, even if iit puts them at more risk.

Of course, this is a season premiere, so there also has to be plenty of action. The opening set piece where Clone Force 99 retrieves some key bit of cargo despite an attack from a group of giant crabs is solid. I continue to be impressed by the assets that the animation team puts in place, with lush environments that evoke the right blend of impressive realism with a certain amount of stylization that befits the source material. That said, while the direction isn’t bad by any stretch, it’s rare that any individual image wows you with framing and composition.

But that's all a means of prelude for Cid to set our heroes off on the mission du jour. Not before she introduces them to her friend, voiced by Wanda Sykes, though. I’ll confess to being somewhat of a Sykes skeptic, and she doesn't do much here to dissuade me from that. But the idea of a savvy pirate character who’s friends with Cid has potential, and hey, it’s nice to see AZI-3 in the fold.

The mission, though, is the main event here. Ddooku is dead after the events of Revenge of the Sith, and Cid sends Clone Force 99 on a job to raid his palace to get a chunk of his war chest. Just one m portion of it could make them set for life, especially as the Empire is exerting more and more control over otherwise independent systems. The catch is that the Imperials are also occupying Dooku’s former lair, which makes sneaking in there and retrieving the goods a much more challenging mission than Hunter in particular is necessarily up for.

For fans of The Clone Wars, it’s neat to see Dooku’s stronghold again. The place where Ventress and Savage cut their teeth has a certain charge based on the location alone, if you know what took place there.

But the episode also does a good job of splitting the Bad Batch into two teams. One, featuring Hunter and Wrecker, is charged with causing a distraction so the rest of the team can get away without the forty or so fellow clone toppers stopping them. The other, featuring Tech, Echo, and Omega, is stuck in a cargo container being ferried by the Empire to some other safe location with them inside.

Both are solid, if not necessarily over the top great just yet. Hunter and Wrecker eventually getting cornered by a contingent of troopers has promise. And I appreciate the fact that after Tech quizzes Omega on ship designs all episode, it’s her knowledge of those schematics that seems to provide her trio with a possible out even after the Imperials smartly jettison the escape pods. And the editor cuts back and forth between the two aspects of the operation nicely. The whole thing is all solid, simply lacking anything to truly wow the audience.

Overall, it will take the back half of this episode to fully judge, because I imagine there’s something more meaningful to the choice about Omega vs. fighting the good fight that will come as a result of this operation. Until then, this is mostly action set pieces which, while good, are old hat for the long time Star Wars animation fan.