Friday, 9 July 2021

Star Wars: The Bad Batch - S01E11 "Devil's Deal"

 



Wowsers. I was totally unsure what I was watching for a good ten minutes here. I’m all for telling more stories but the unexpectedness of telling us about Ryloth and the Syndulla’s really took me out of what we’d usually been watching. I liked it! Do not get me wrong. It was just so unexpected that it felt surreal for 90% of the episode of which the Bad Batch had only a few minutes in. Are we watching ‘Rebels’, Clone Wars or The Bad Batch? This week it was a mixture of all three.

It is an important tale to show – the Empire stamping it is ground so quickly after the war ended. There are going to be planets where peace, even one with Imperial troopers everywhere, is going to be better than what they were used to. Clearly the Empire are up to no good with the mining facility. Quite what seeds have been sown to convince some that having clone troopers around is automatically a bad thing I’m unsure as that’s not really explained. We all know these misgivings are going to prove correct but how some have reached a conclusion so quickly is not really spelt out.

This episode is full of characters most of us know inside and out if you’ve watched every ounce of Star Wars content but seeing Hera and Chopper!!! Well, my mind was blown, and initially totally blown so much that I lost all track of what was going on. Hera’s voice also sounded … odd. Italian? I don’t recall her having any accent much in Rebels. Anyhow, it was just so unexpected it was hard to appreciate initially. It also felt like we had seen all there was to see about Ryloth and the Syndulla’s before. I didn’t think there was much more to tell and although this didn’t really expand a lot on it for me personally, it was enjoyable nonetheless. The visuals once again were absolutely sensational so many times.

Questions though remain after this episode. It ends with the feeling that the next episode is going to continue the story, with likely the Bad Batch helping smuggle Hera out? Is this where we’re going with the gang? Are they going to be in the formations of the rebellion? Where the heck are they much later down the road? Why is Crosshair and the Empire not fully invested in tracking down the Bad Batch at this point? And what’s happened to all the Bounty Hunters after Omega? And is that one commander clone not under order 66 as he’s still painted and hair combed to suggest he’s not following order 66 programming?

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