Fixing Wrecker

A lukewarm new episode of The Bad Batch aired last night written by series co-developer Jennifer Corbett. There were some nice underlying ideas that didn't quite produce exciting television for reasons I'm not entirely clear on.

Order 66 is finally starting to show itself in Wrecker (Dee Bradley Baker), mostly taking the form of bad headaches, but thankfully at this point the other members of the team have figured out what's happening. Luckily for them, Guest Star of the Week, Rex (Dee Bradley Baker), shows up, having been tipped off by the Martez sisters. Much as the previous episode ended with the Batch refraining from teaming permanently with the Martezes for no apparent reason, this episode ends with the Batch not teaming up permanently with Rex for no apparent reason. And once again the guest star feels gimmicky and empty, even more so considering there's not a whole lot to distinguish Rex from Hunter, who have the same face and are voiced by the same actor.

It is pretty impressive Dee Bradley Baker can perform capably enough to differentiate Wrecker and Tech though maybe that's why both of their performances come off kind of flat and one-note. Especially Wrecker whose relationship with Omega (Michelle Ang) should be at the core of this episode. Part of the problem is that Wrecker is essentially just Drax and Dee Bradley Baker's one-note imitation lacks the big-heartedness of Dave Bautista. Michelle Ang is much better but I wish she'd been directed to play this episode with a greater sense of urgency and panic as she waits to see the results of Wrecker's surgery. I like the idea of a bond between the two characters and I like their tradition of eating snacks together after a mission but something about the idea isn't catching hold on a visceral level.

Partly I think it's because Star Wars writers have been bullied so much by fans that they're afraid to write emotionally vulnerable characters.

The episode has nice light rendering and the action scene with the squid monster is kind of effective even if it is just basically the squid monster from Fellowship of the Ring.

The Bad Batch is available on Disney+.