We’ve lost the art of a good stand-alone episode. Sure, the widespread embrace of serialization (especially in animation) lets shows deliver grand stories in which characters change and evolve across several episodes as the narrative builds toward a proper ending. And yet these shows have lost a level of rewatchability because they don’t have stand-alone episodes. More shows need to have just “very good episodes that are not the pilot†that you can show people to convince them to watch.
When we do get thrilling stand-alone episodes, like “Faster,†their scarcity makes them more special. The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels knew the importance of a good downtime episode, and The Bad Batch carries on that tradition with an episode that doesn’t do much for the plot but offers high-speed thrills on a racetrack.
Echo and Hunter are off on a mission, so Cid brings Omega, Wrecker, and Tech as her personal security while she deals with some high-stakes bets on some very fast podlike vehicles. That’s right, this is a podracing episode, complete with a Sebulba-esque racer, the firing of weapons on the track, modified cars, Fast & Furious–like stunts, and plenty of deaths. The job is to stand by and prevent Cid from being killed by her old acquaintance and now-rival Millegi, with whom she has a lot of history and beef. They make a sizable bet on the next race because Cid thinks she can win it thanks to her new pilot, TAY-0, a show-off droid who thinks he’s better than everyone and refers to himself in the third person.
TAY-0 is a funny and interesting character because he is probably the first droid we’ve met who is just a total douchebag without any redeeming qualities or childlike innocence. So far, we’ve met kind droids, funny droids who are mistreated by organics, and silly battle droids with dumb catchphrases that our heroes annihilate at every turn. But not until TAY-0 have we met a droid who acts like a character straight out of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. His arguments with Tech, who is very skeptical of TAY-0’s self-assurance and supposedly accurate calculations, are hilarious.
Naturally, Millegi’s pilots cheat. One such pilot, Jet Venim (a classic Star Wars name), works with a buddy to trap TAY-0 and make him crash. It is a stunning racing sequence, one that captures the excitement, danger, and thrilling sound design of the podracing sequence in The Phantom Menace. Unlike the Boonta Eve Classic, though, these speeders are equipped with laser guns that sometimes accidentally shoot at the audience and kill one or two of them.
Throughout the episode, Millegi tries to get Cid to fall back on old scum and villainy habits, and she keeps warning the Bad Batch not to trust her. Omega trusts everyone unconditionally, however, so she tries to save Cid by doubling down on her bet. We don’t really know Cid, but the moment we met her, it was clear she wasn’t the most trustworthy person — she worked as an informant for the Jedi, but then again, so did Cad Bane at times. Sure, Cid gives the group jobs, but she is also getting them in trouble all the time, so is it worth it for them to stick their necks out for her? Omega likes her, but would Cid put herself in danger for them?
With TAY-0 losing his limbs and then seemingly his life after yet another crash, Tech decides to race himself, trusting his own calculations and instincts. Taking calculated risks, Tech decides to ditch his speeder’s weapons and focus all energy on shields in order to gain speed. Granted, the shields don’t last him forever, especially with so many racers set on shooting Tech down, so he needs to do more. He’s got to outtrick and outcheat the others. The whole sequence ranks among the most thrilling things The Bad Batch has done, from its sound design to the look of the race, mostly lit by neon advertisements on the race track that give the sequence a look blending the podracing sequence in The Phantom Menace with the opening speeder chase in Attack of the Clones — one of the best scenes in that movie.
Tech decides to take the left tunnel near the end of the track. It’s the shortest of the three tunnels, but it had been closed off the entire episode because it’s missing part of the track. Without the weight of the weapons, Tech manages not to fall to his death and catches up to Jet Venim and the other cheating racer. Tech tricks them into entangling each other and crashing, giving our boy the surprise last-minute win.
Victorious, Tech, Wrecker, and Omega go collect their price: a captive Cid. She is relieved (and surprised), while Omega is just happy her faith in her friends seemed to be proved right this time. Before they leave, though, Millegi warns Wrecker and Tech to watch their backs around Cid because loyalty doesn’t always go both ways with her. Of course, this starts a ticking clock for Cid’s inevitable betrayal of the Clone Force 99, and it will be devastating when it happens. In the meantime, however, our boys are not just fugitives from the Empire but bona fide racers as well.
The Mission Report
• Omega and Wrecker play holochess at the beginning of the episode, and it is quite nice to see the animation replicate the look of Phil Tippett’s stop-motion figures. Unsurprisingly, Omega is way better at the game than her brother.
• One of the pilots is a protocol droid who bears a striking resemblance to C-3PO, so I’m inevitably thinking of the real 3PO somehow finding himself a star pilot in a dangerous race, politely asking the others to let him through before accidentally shooting them all down. R2 would be the leader of his pit crew, of course.