A not completely horrible new episode of The Bad Batch last night, though it wasn't very well written. I guess that's no surprise since it comes from first time writer Amanda Rose Muñoz. Muñoz had previously worked as a variety of different kinds of assistants on Rebels, Resistance, and the last season of Clone Wars--imdb lists her as changing roles from writing to animation assistant so it seems like she was trying to learn all aspects of production, or maybe someone was trying really hard to find a good fit for her. I suppose I should applaud Disney for promoting employees from within their ranks, though I think it would make more sense if they recruited writers for their prestigious productions from among people who'd made their bones by writing--people who'd published successful short stories or maybe even fan fiction writers whose works had enjoyed a lot of circulation. But I'm not sure they care a lot about the quality of writing on a middle episode of a series so long as a few good episodes have already brought in the audience. Or maybe that's too cynical of me.
It was frustrating for me because I really like the Martez sisters, Trace (Brigitte Kali Canales) and Rafa (Elizabeth Rodriguez), they were one of the few aspects of the final season of Clone Wars I really liked. Their appearance in this episode felt very much like the "stunt casting of the week" episodes of Rebels--a flashy but ultimately meaningless appearance.
Most of the episode is an action sequence set in a factory where battle droids are being smelted down. The Batch (Dee Bradley Baker) and the Martez sisters meet as both groups are trying to nab a tactical droid for a bounty. They end up working together to fight off security droids. It works out to be a thoroughly disappointing scenario for the Martezes. Both are disguised as factory workers--they wear identical outfits and with their hoods on they're almost impossible to tell apart. This doesn't help the fact that the entire running-and-gunning sequence has absolutely no dialogue to distinguish the personality of one sister from the other. They might as well have been clones.
And now they seem to be proto-Rebels, working for someone whose identity the episode keeps hidden. Ahsoka Tano is the only probable candidate, the only person who'd make sense, but I wouldn't put it past the writers to be enraged by accurate fan predictions again and make it into a guy named Boner. I guess since it's the Star Wars universe it would be something like "Zoop Boonir".
But like I said, the episode wasn't completely horrible. It seems like the writers are mindful of complaints about Rey being too powerful right away and they're showing Omega (Michelle Ang) having to slowly learn how to use her signature weapon, a cute little bow with energy arrows. And it was nice that Wrecker's headaches do apparently mean the Order 66 chip is starting to work on him, that the writers didn't change course just because many fans predicted it.
The Bad Batch is available on Disney+.
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