Every time an episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch lands, Fantha Tracks will be giving their responses, and here are our initial gut feelings, deep dives and thoughts on episode eleven of season two, ‘Metamorphosis’. Beware of spoilerific elements in here.
Mark Newbold
When things go from bad to worse in the Star Wars galaxy, that’s usually the signal for poodoo to hit the fan in an epic way, and as if the fracture of the squad / family of Clone Forec 99 wasn’t unbalancing enough, now they have to content with a creature that famously almost destroyed large areas of Coruscant a few years before, the Zillo Beast. Engineered as a means to an end for the use of the then future Emperor, the creature was a tremendous threat writ on a massive scale (Dave Filoni must have been beaming when this idea was pitched) and to see the fruits of that genetic work down the line just shows the many spinning plates the Empire are maintaining. That it comes across the path of the Batch could be seen as fortunate, or unfortunate. At the conclusion of the episode, no one comes off particularly well.
On top of their in-house issues the Batch are contending with, it’s clear their relationship with Cid is slowly crumbling. Her assumption that they will play ball and fall into line is met with resistence from the team, now asking for more information and a bigger cut of the proceeds, which the Trandoshan grudgingly agrees to. This time they are heading to a crash site, where they encounter a creature that has not only eaten the crew, but which feasts on power and poses an ever-growing threat to a nearby village. It’s a balancing act of staying alive and containing the threat while the forces of the Empire – far from the barndoor missing skittles of previous shows – move in en masse. Here, our team are at the very edge of their capacity, staying one step ahead of the Zillo which is growing exponentially bigger with every swallow of energy and the Imperial vessels roaring in to take out the Batch. With new adversary Dr. Hemlock clearly being lined up to pose an threat to the team and Omega directly marked as the key their Imperial success, they now have a target on their back that loks set to follow them across the stars.
With the arrival of The Mandalorian season three it would have been very easy – VERY easy – to overlook The Bad Batch this week, but thankfully the savvy constituents of the fandom were keen and clear to point out just how good this episode and the wider season has been, so much so that the show was trending globally on Twitter on Wednesday. There’s a vocal portion of the fandom who seem at best ambivalent, at worst derisory, about the show. Of course all opinions are valid, but loyal viewers of The Bad Batch know that the show pays off in unexpected ways while tying in older plot and character elements, delivering a fulfilling weekly watch that is building towards a season ending that given the tone of the last few episodes won’t be one to savour for the team.
Eric Onkenhout
A derelict craft floats aimlessly through space surrounded by debris. The ship is seemingly abandoned, with pressure valves releasing gasses into the air. The ship is dark, and far-off noises can be heard. A lone clone commando frantically runs down the corridors carrying an electrostaff. This scene is straight out of Alien but also has a Death Trooper vibe. The clone commando is being hunted. Finally, an unseen creature attacks him from above, and all we hear is his dying screams.
Wow! What a start to an episode! ‘Metamorphosis,’ the 11th episode of The Bad Batch, was a top-notch episode this week. With the release of The Mandalorian’s third season on the same day, The Bad Batch may have gotten a little overshadowed. However, one could argue that the animated series had the better showing this week.
Following that intense start, we cut to an Imperial shuttle escorted to a landing pad in a mountainous area. An Imperial scientist greets them, surrounded by more clone commandos. The scientists discuss unloading the assets. It’s pretty clear we’re in for a heavy episode. The newly arrived doctor enters the base and heads straight for a cell holding Nala Se (Gwendoline Yeo), one of the Kaminoan cloners arrested at the end of last season. The doctor is Dr. Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson).
Dr. Hemlock tried to talk Se into helping the Empire, but she wanted nothing to do with them after they destroyed Tipoca City. It’s also confirmed that this is all happening on Mount Tantiss. Se is on to what Palpatine has planned, and it’s too far for her to go. Dr. Hemlock is one creepy dude. One thing this series does really well is it makes it really easy to hate the Empire. In Rebels, we saw loads of oafish Imperial officers who couldn’t get out of their own way. The Imperial officers in the Bad Batch are all business.
After we leave Tantiss, we cut to the Bad Batch, speaking to a holo of Cid on the Marauder. They’re pretty unhappy with her for not helping them get their ships back. Many fans would love to see them ditch Cid for their own good. Tech addresses this when he says Cid knows too much and could turn them in. Instead, Cid sends them to investigate the ship we saw at the beginning of the episode. Since then, it had crashed, and Cid wants to see if anything valuable is aboard.
After receiving the ship’s coordinates, they arrive and immediately search the wreckage. After a quick check, Tech heads to the cockpit to get the power on. Again, massive vibes here with claw marks on the ship’s walls. ‘Metamorphosis’ is loaded with tension. Hunter, Wrecker, and Omega make their way to the center of the ship, where they enter a giant laboratory. Omega recognizes the equipment as Kaminoan.
The reinforced walls and distant roars tell us that whatever made the claw marks is still on the ship. Then, in great horror fashion, we see the creature slithering up above. As it looks down, it’s chewing on an electrical cable. The beast looked familiar at first, but I couldn’t place it at first, and then I realized it was the Zillo beast from The Clone Wars season two, episode 18. Recall from that episode that Senator Palpatine wanted to clone the creature so he could replicate its armor for his Imperial war machine. We’re seeing the results of that experiment here.
Fortunately? This one is much smaller than the original one but no less deadly. Apparently, it broke loose and ate the ship’s crew, although its preferred diet is energy. As it ingests more energy, it grows exponentially. Tech blows a hole in the ship’s side, allowing the creature to escape toward the village. The guys are in hot pursuit.
‘Metamorphosis’ grips you with its tension and use of music in all the right places. The sparse lighting also helps, as the flashlights show only a tiny bit of light. As the beast keeps eating energy, it grows even larger. By the middle of the episode, it’s reached young adult size. While the Marauder fires lasers at it, three Imperial cruisers arrive and launch a group of gunboats that surround the Zillo beast.
The Empire uses the same type of ray it used in The Clone Wars to subdue the beast to recover it. The Marauder escapes a chase by some Imperial V-Wings. I love seeing clone commandos get used more. They are some of the more interesting clone versions, but their skillset makes them rare.
Lama Su (Bob Bergen) is brought to speak to Dr. Hemlock and negotiates a deal. He tells Hemlock to search for Omega if he wants to control Nala Se. My gut feeling is the Emperor will discover the Bad Batch are sticking their noses where it doesn’t belong and will come after them. Things are getting really interesting. This means next week’s episode will probably be about another podrace.
