One of the most effective elements of the Disney Plus Star Wars series so far has been how each has employed the detritus of war in interesting ways. In The Mandalorian it was a leftover AT-ST, in this week's episode of The Bad Batch it's the return of Battle Droids as The Batch departs for Corellia to raid a decommissioning plant.
Here, the MacGuffin is a Tactical Droid from the old Separatist armies which holds vital information about defeating Clones, who still serve the Empire. Who receives that information and what they do with it, isn't something Clone Force 99 considers - at least initially. Episode 6, 'Decommissioned', is all about growth.
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Returning to Ord Mantell, it's quickly established that The Batch has found a sort of hub in Cid's bar. It might be bad for custom, as Omega almost blasts a patron with her newly scavenged bowcaster weapon from last week's episode. Echo attempts to coach her, telling her to tune out the distraction of two patrons betting on her prowess. Cid believes she needs to grow physically to handle it, Echo suggests practice makes perfect. If the group continues to take missions from Cid, Omega will undoubtedly get plenty of practice. Cid is abrupt in her briefing, but she needs to be in this line of work. It may surprise fans to know that the voice actor who plays Cid has something of a history as another no-nonsense bartender.
Fittingly, The Batch arrives on Corellia employing a familiar Han Solo trick to evade Empire scans first seen in The Empire Strikes Back. As they sneak into the plant, the Clones note that it's surrounded by Police Droids, something Cid didn't mention. Not only is their name clunky, but they're also lacking in the typical personality often found in droids. Wrecker hesitates when the group climbs to their entry point - apparently apprehensive about heights. The Corellian decommissioning plant is stunning visually and the various establishing shots would look at home on the big screen Star Wars. It's refreshing this week to see no sign of Omega being excluded from proceedings, having proven herself more than resourceful in recent episodes.
Somewhat inevitably, a spanner is thrown into the works. With the value of this droid, another group of smugglers has infiltrated the plant in order to steal it. Those familiar with The Clone Wars will recognize the duo as the Martez sisters, Rafa and Trace. The group decides to split up, with Wrecker reluctantly taking the high ground in the absence of Crosshair. Complicating matters further, Trace manages to grab the Droid before The Batch, while Omega runs into Rafa. She holds Rafa hostage, with the bowcaster trained on her in a tense stand-off.
As the audience knows, Omega struggles with the physicality of the bowcaster - she could quite easily shoot Rafa without truly wanting to hurt her due to the physical strain and chaotic distractions. Rafa figures this out and plays on her obvious reluctance, managing to get the jump on her. To make matters worse, Omega blasts a hole in the wall, under duress from her assailant, which leads to a leak and sends the plant into lockdown.
Trace, on the other hand, runs into the remaining Batch members as she tries to escape with the Droid. Whether, in the ensuing chaos, the Batch forget to use their stun shot on her as they did with other plant workers or it was a conscious decision to gain more information is up for debate. Nevertheless, it proves to be a shrewd decision. While the Martez sisters aren't on the list of characters fans would have expected to see in The Bad Batch, they contribute significantly to this episode.
The two groups make for awkward allies as they attempt to overcome the swarms of Police Droids encroaching upon them and the plant makes for a more engaging set piece than the Droid assembly factory featured in Attack Of The Clones. From here the action ramps up as it reaches a crescendo. When Hunter saves Rafa, she saves him in return - quipping that she hopes he "isn't expecting gratitude." While other shows might linger here, disrupting the pacing, this one doesn't. Hunter goes on to take down another enemy and so does Rafa, almost like trading blows, as the action refuses to relent.
Meanwhile, Tech sets about getting lockdown lifted - relatable for most, if not all of the audience watching on from home. In order to do so, Wrecker must manually reboot the power. He attempts to get over his fear of heights, but as he hurls himself across a wide gap by swinging from a dangling claw, he bashes his head and prompts further foreshadowing that his inhibitor chip is going to cause trouble in the imminent future. In one of The Bad Batch's several retcons so far, the chips seem to re-write personalities completely - leaving Wrecker vulnerable to Order 66. While he grows to overcome his fear of heights, there remains a sinister undertone to the success as he utters the same line Crosshair did, "good soldiers follow orders."
With the power back on, Omega is trapped on a conveyor belt that drags her slowly towards impending doom in a melting pot below. Thankfully, though, the two teams manage to combine to save her as each minor skirmish converges. There's even a brief moment of levity as Rafa parrots Trace's line about "causing a diversion" mere seconds after her, prompting Trace to ask "is there an echo in here?" and right on cue, Echo chimes in: "I'm Echo."
Droids are often given the short shrift in Star Wars, but Trace decides that the group's best hope of survival is to use the Tactical Droid to activate the decommissioned Battle Droids and command them to take down the swarm of Police Droids. As Tech makes the necessary adjustments, Kevin Kliner's score fits perfectly as the Droid Invasion theme from The Phantom Menace ripples through the scene.
Though the two groups escape, the Tactical Droid is ultimately destroyed by the Police Droids in the ensuing firefight, but Omega tunes out distractions as she strikes down several enemies to save Trace. As the episode draws to a close, Hunter reveals Tech managed to snag the data from the Droid before it was destroyed.
Rather than hand it over to a source whose intentions are unknown, as they would have done when they were soldiers, Hunter offers it to Rafa - reasoning that she'd use it for the right reasons, though that remains to be seen. This change of heart emphasizes Hunter and the Batch's shift away from the clarity life as a soldier offered, "following orders" as the line goes.
During a brief glimpse of the Martez's client, Rafa reveals that they fought alongside Clones who have defied the Empire, and she knows where to find them. Sadly, the hologram is obscured, keeping fans in suspense as to exactly who they were working for. Are they as reliable as they suggested? Next week's episode of The Bad Batch will likely hold the answers. Nevertheless, 'Decommissioned' was a breathless episode that offered both personal growth for the characters and set up the next move in the overarching narrative.
New Episodes of The Bad Batch stream every Friday on Disney Plus.
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