Today saw the debut of a new two-part episode of Lucasfilm’s animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch, entitled “Infiltration” and “Extraction,” via Disney+. Below are my brief recap and thoughts on these installments.
The first of this week’s two episodes, “Infiltration,” begins with Captain Rex (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, as are all the adult male clones of Jango Fett) and his team helping Senator Avi Singh (Danny Jacobs, replacing actor Alexander Siddig in the role that first appeared in The Bad Batch season one) from the planet Raxus Secundus meet with Pantoran Senator Riyo Chuchi (Jennifer Hale) about planting seeds of a rebellion against the Galactic Empire. But their covert discussion is interrupted by a would-be assassination attempt, which is thwarted by Rex’s crew. They take the assassin prisoner, and he turns out to be a “Shadow” (or Clone X trooper) whose target list also includes Omega. So Rex reaches out to Clone Force 99 to warn them, and the Bad Batch comes to meet with him at his hidden base. There, Captain Howzer is hesitant to trust Crosshair, and even wants to interrogate him further, suspecting that he may be providing information to the Empire.
Meanwhile, Echo gives Omega a new crossbow weapon, while Rex reveals to the Bad Batch that he has a Clone X in captivity. Crosshair tells them this means the Empire’s forces are likely already on their way, as they have means of tracking these elite clones that are not detectable to sensors. We see another Clone X trooper dispatched to infiltrate (hence this episode’s title) Rex’s base, and he easily sneaks past any security measures, then upon realizing that Omega is present, calls in reinforcements to help capture her. Our heroes are unable to get much more useful information out of the Clone X prisoner they have, and are forced to leave him behind when the attack begins. Aboard an incoming Imperial transport vessel, we see Captain Wolffe (in his first Bad Batch appearance, set between his memorable stories in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels) ordering his troops to keep Omega alive during their invasion of the base.
The second of today’s episodes, “Extraction,” picks up exactly where “Infiltration” left off– with our heroes scrambling to escape Rex’s base so they can rendezvous with Echo aboard the Bad Batch’s ship. Outside, when Wolffe and his troops arrive, he insists on taking over command of the situation from the Clone X trooper, who has already used too much brute force. Rex, Howzer, and the other members of Clone Force 99 manage to make it to an escape pod, but the Clone X trooper shoots it down, immediately being reprimanded by Wolffe for putting Omega’s life in danger in the process. The Bad Batch find themselves in the planet’s forest, forced to fight their way out so they can meet up with Echo. Along the way, Crosshair reveals a little bit more about why he eventually turned his back on the Empire and how he’s come to be so protective of Omega. The climax of this episode involves a knock-down, drag-out fight between Crosshair and the Clone X trooper in a rushing waterfall, with Howzer ultimately saving his companion in the end.
Then there’s a standoff between the Bad Batch and Wolffe’s troops as the latter demands the former to hand over Omega, but Rex manages to talk some sense into him, pointing out that in following Imperial orders he’s hunting down a child. Wolffe orders his troops to let Clone Force 99 and their allies leave, which they do, but in the end we see that the Clone X trooper has survived his tumble over the waterfall. There’s also a denouement scene with Rex telling Hunter that they need to figure out why exactly Dr. Hemlock wants Omega back so badly. It all adds up to a fairly exciting, well-made two-parter, but one that also doesn’t really move the overarching plot forward terribly much. It was nice to see Rex, Howzer, and Wolffe in these episodes, of course, but other than that I don’t know if I really got all that much out of this double-length story besides the necessity of escape being reinforced. I do wonder if this is the last we’ll see of Rex in the series, and if so I suppose this was meant as his final hurrah for a while. Otherwise this season is really beginning to feel like the old The Fugitive TV series, with the Bad Batch having a new adventure each week while they’re on the run from Hemlock. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’d love to see some momentum pick up in the narrative soon.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch are released Wednesdays, exclusively via Disney+.