Last week’s episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch concluded with Tech and Omega beginning to understand each other. Unfortunately, their breakthrough occurred against the backdrop of Clone Force 99 being stranded at an abandoned space station. Unless the person who stole the Marauder can be tracked down, they’ll have to survive until (or if) Cid is able to extract them.
Thankfully, the person who stole their ship isn’t very smart.
As always, the recap portion of this review will contain plenty of spoilers along with some brief explorations of Star Wars lore.
Mining for Answers
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+)
The episode opens with Wrecker expressing his anger at being hungry/uncomfortable. He’s also frustrated with the broken skiff they’re trying to repair, although Tech insists it’s their best option to find help. Meanwhile, Omega suddenly realizes that she might be able to track their droid Gonky, thus leading them back to the Maurader.
*Side Note: This realization would’ve been extremely helpful before the Bad Batch got stuck inside the mine.
Speaking of Gonky, the wobbly little guy is busy chastising the person who actually stole the ship — and who is definitely not Hondo Ohnaka (pretty huge whiff for me there). Instead, it’s a random kid named Benni, who apparently had to fly around all day and night before returning to his mining village. After landing, he scarfs down a stray bar of food before meeting his boss (Mokko), who worries that stealing such a heavily modified ship means its owners will come looking for it. Mokko decides that he’ll need to sell the Maurader piece-by-piece. He also allows Benni to keep Gonky.
Any questions about whether or not Mokko sucks are answered when Benni asks for his water rations. Mokko gives it to him, but not before gulping down most of the canteen himself.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+)
Back at the abandoned spaceport, Omega manages to lock onto Gonky’s signal just as the rest of the Bad Batch get the skiff working. They ride it to the mine, locate Benni, and easily corner him before he can escape. As expected, the Bad Batch are able to strong-arm the boy into showing them where their ship is — although his fear over getting caught is oddly matched by his desire not to hurt Mokko.
Wrecker is ready to go into the mine guns blazing, but that idea is nixed due to the highly volatile ipsium surrounding them. Instead, they infiltrate the structure via an exhaust shaft (along with some nifty combat work against a mining droid by Hunter). As they make their way toward where the Maruader is parked, Tech remarks on how bad the mine looks. Benni responds that it’s due to the ipsium degrading, thus leaving little money for upkeep or repairs.
When the group makes it to the garage, they discover that the Maruader’s hyperdrive has been removed. Benni tries to leave, but Hunter insists he stays put while they put it back. Omega then points out that after the ship’s fixed, they’ll still need to get the mine’s ray shield down so they can depart. Benni replies that the task can only be accomplished from the central tower. After some hesitation, Hunter decides that Omega can accompany Benni to download the ray shield data so Tech can operate it remotely.
Wage Gap
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+)
Mokko is pigging out on hoarded food in his office when a droid tells him that the miners are waiting to be addressed. While he stuffs his face, Benni leads Omega (posing as another worker) to the mess hall, where everyone is waiting to hear who the mine’s top earner is — thus earning the winner more rations. Benni manages to steal a control room keycard from Drake, who’s obviously the top dog among the crew.
His status is reinforced when Makko saunters in, gives an asinine speech about making sacrifices, and declares Drake to be the winner (despite Benni bringing him a freaking starship). Drake quickly downs his bowl of food while the rest of the workers are forced to fight for another single bowl divided among all of them.
*Side Note: I get that Makko is being established as a ridiculously evil villain, but wouldn’t his workers need more food than that to be productive…or simply to survive?
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+)
As they make their way to the control room, Benni whines to Omega about not being named the mine’s top earner. Once they’re inside, Omega gets to work downloading data. As they’re waiting for it to transfer, Benni remarks on how well the rest of her team treats her. Omega responds that the Bad Batch’s dynamic is the way things are supposed to be and that Mokko seems pretty awful. Benni counters that Mokko is the reason he and the other workers are able to survive. And even if he wanted to leave, the planet is his home.
Despite the fact that he stole her ship, Omega takes pity on Benni and gives him some of her food — which makes him feel even worse about alerting Mokko to her presence. She then checks the data and sees that Mokko’s claims about the ipsium being degraded are completely false. Benni gets a few seconds to feel righteously angry before his boss shows up. He sheepishly reveals where the rest of the Bad Batch is before meekly apologizing to Omega.
*Side Note: BOO!
Worker Revolt
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+)
Back in the garage, the Bad Batch are spotted by a pair of workers. They manage to escape before Hunter can catch them, all but ensuring a confrontation.
Moments later, Mokko sees Tech and Wrecker holding up their guns and warns them of the consequences if they miss inside a mine filled with ipsium. He then has two of his droids bring Omega to the edge of a smelting pit and threatens to drop her in. Just as he’s about to take Tech and Wrecker prisoner, Benni finally decides to run out and tell everyone that Mokko has been stealing from them. Mokko tries to deny it, but Drake sees the data and adds his influential anger to the fire.
As things begin to boil over, the corrupt mine boss instructs his droids to throw Omega in. She manages to evade death via an admittedly cool rescue maneuver between her and Hunter. Meanwhile, Mokko is surrounded and nearly falls into the smelting pit. Benni tries to save him, but the mine boss uses the opportunity to try and pull him in, allowing karmic justice to do the rest.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+)
As the Bad Batch prepare to leave, Omega tells Benni that there’s a whole galaxy out there for him to explore. Benni responds that the mine is his home — and with Mokko gone, he and his fellow workers might actually be able to make a decent living.
*Side Note: If you’ve read a history book in the last century, then you know exactly how that’s gonna go.
Before boarding the Maurader, Omega laments to Tech about the evil that exists in the galaxy. Tech responds that while there may be awful people out there, there are also a lot of folks like them trying to do the right thing.
The Verdict
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+)
After last week’s episode aired, I saw a lot of folks online waxing poetic about how there’s no such thing as a “filler episode.” As long as there’s character growth and a narrative, then it’s still a part of the overall story. While that argument can certainly be made for “The Crossing,” I hope after this week we can all agree that there certainly is a baseline for what can and should be considered “filler.”
Aside from the fact that it did absolutely nothing to advance Bad Batch‘s overall narrative, “Retrieval” was filled with cardboard characters and painfully obvious story beats. Just one or two small moments could’ve made Mokko an interesting villain. Instead, he made whoever the worst cult leader or politician you can think of feel like a master of subtlety.
Benni wasn’t much better, either. While you can blame much of his behavior on abuse and Stockholm Syndrome, every one of his actions was predictable — right down to his bland cooperativeness after being caught by the Bad Batch.
The animation was great as usual, but aside from that, it’s a safe bet this episode won’t make it on anyone’s list of favorites. Let’s hope Star Wars: The Bad Batch gets back to the form it was showing at midseason soon.
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