Welcome to my weekly review of The Bad Batch, where I will be walking us through each episode and giving my thoughts on the show. My reviews will follow my usual format: an overview of the plot (so be aware, there will be spoilers!), my review of the show, then a few “Moments in canon” – references that link to other media and the galaxy as a whole. Today, we’ll be looking at the ninth episode of season 2: “The Crossing”.
Plot Summary
The Bad Batch arrive outside a mine that Cid has purchased as she has tasked them with excavating the volatile substance ipsium. As Hunter has been warned about poachers in the area, he chooses to assign both Wrecker and Omega to be lookouts, despite the loss of Echo meaning that this will slow down their operation.
Making their way into the mine, Tech deduces that the amount of ipsium present is much less than Cid expected, though they do find one small vein, which requires them to call in Omega for assistance due to its position. The group emerge, but as they do, the Marauder is stolen by someone who had been watching them. The group argue over whose fault it was, as Wrecker was on lookout duty, but Tech had landed the ship around a corner—the closest landing spot he could find. With a storm approaching and no long-range comms without the Marauder, the group start making their way to a spaceport 40 kilometres away.
Their journey takes them through a canyon, but after evading a stampede of antelope-like creatures, they find that the storm is upon them. Finding a mine entrance just ahead of them, the group make their way inside, but Tech drops the pack with the ipsium they collected, and the storm’s high winds force it to crash against the canyon wall just above the mine entrance, trapping them inside.
“The Marauder‘s our home. We already lost Echo. We can’t lose that too.”
As the clones start trying to dig their way out—while arguing as to who is at fault—Omega realises that the Marauder‘s transponder is not displaying a signal, which will stop them from being able to track it. Techs matter of fact attitude towards replacing the Marauder upsets her and he loss of their home and Echo is enough to see her go off deeper into the mine, wanting to be alone. Tech is confused by her actions but Hunter and Wrecker explain that she is clearly struggling at Echo leaving. Realising that the group would benefit from a small amount of ipsium to blow their way out, Tech goes deeper into the mine to see f he can find any, only to find that Omega has found numerous veins, which are even more pure than what they found in Cid’s mine. Omega extracts as much ipsium as they can, but as they try to fill her last vial, she loses her footing and falls down a chasm. Tech immediately jumps after her. The pair fall for a while before landing in an aqueduct.
Hunter gets a feeling that something is wrong, and when neither Tech nor Omega respond to him on the comlink, the pair go deeper into the mine to find out what has happened. The aqueduct leads to some rapids, and then a waterfall, which deposits Tech and Omega in an underground cavern, where they swim to the shore. A chink of light helps them find that one wall is separating them from a passage that would get them out. Re-establishing communication with Hunter and Wrecker, Tech directs them down, allowing them to join up and bring their gear, including the ipsium. While they wait for the pair to arrive, Tech and Omega talk and make amends, including talking about how change is a fundamental part of life, and how the Bad Batch constantly adapt. Hunter and Wrecker arrive and the group use the ipsium to blast their way out, finding themselves close to the spaceport.
Arriving in the spaceport, they find that it has been deserted some time ago, however Tech is able to use the communications array to send a long-range transmission to Cid, who is initially unwilling to help them, but relents as they remind her of how often they have helped her out of situations, though she states that it may take a few days—longer than their rations will last. As the clones look at an oncoming storm, Omega is confident that they will adapt, as they always do.
Review
For much of this episode, I thought that we were getting another annoying filler episode with a stupid mission, that was only made better by the fact that the group were adapting to the loss of Echo. However with the reveal at the end that this is just the first part of a longer story, I will probably keep my thoughts quite brief until I can judge the story as a whole.
What I will say for now is that the plot itself is not something that has grabbed me, with the group once again being wasted doing a pathetic job for Cid, but I think that the way that we have been left with the group stranded with a storm incoming sets us up for potentially a better second half to this story. In the meantime, it was the character advancement that really made this episode stand out, something that had been missing in the earlier episodes like “Faster” and “Entombed”. Here we see the group all having to adapt in their own ways to Echo leaving, which caused issues for the group on both a practical and emotional level.
I do however think that—not for the first time this season—better tactics could have helped avoid all the issues in this episode. With the group now down to 4, Hunter should be making sure that he is picking the best people for each job. There was no need for him to go into Cid’s mine, while his heightened abilities would have probably benefited the group as a lookout, while he could have also taken the chance to talk to Omega and make her feel better, as she was clearly distracted when on lookout, hapering her usual hyper-awareness.
And the last thing I need to mention is Cid and her reluctance to help. This has to be the final straw for the clones. They have always dropped everything to help her, and yet the fact that they had to guilt trip her into helping them, and are still being made to wait a few days just highlighted that they are not valued by her, which after everything they have gone through for her should be enough to make them walk away. My cynical side thinks that they’ll give her another chance, but we’ll have to wait and see…
“Echo chose a different path, as did Crosshair. I have to respect their decision.”
A few final thoughts from the episode:
- It felt a little weird that when talking about Echo leaving, Omega was not bringing up Crosshair too, so I’m glad that Tech mentioned both Crosshair and Echo leaving them, as while the chip may have been the original cause, he made his decision later in season 1
- I did get a little annoyed by the way the first pack of ipsium was dealt with, as everybody is talking about how volatile it is, then the group are just clunking the pack around, but then when the stampede and storm threaten it, suddenly it becomes dangerous
- Hunter and Wrecker’s screams as they get shot out of the waterfall right after Tech and Omega’s serious conversation was just the right level of humour for the moment without feeling over the top
- Given that we are getting some week of double features, I don’t understand why we did not get 2 episodes this week. If nothing else, it would help reduce the overlap with The Mandalorian
Moments in Canon
- Tech refers to the events of “Faster” and “Infested” when reminding Cid of the times the Bad Batch have helped her out of a sticky situation
What did you think of the episode?
Thanks for reading. Rebellions are built on hope….
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