That Old Imperial Magic

A pretty good new Bad Batch last night, "War Mantle", from writer Damani Johnson. Johnson's previous credits mostly include scripts for Major Crimes and Necessary Roughness. The mere fact that he has experience sets him above many other writers for the show, though.

The Batch (Dee Bradley Baker) receive a message from Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) asking them to rescue one of the regular clone soldiers (Dee Bradley Baker). After a nice, credible argument, Hunter decides to deviate from their latest job for Cid and do as Rex requests.

Omega (Michelle Ang) is told to wait on the ship and, thank goodness, she actually listens this time though I found her annoying and extraordinarily whiny in this episode. Which is kind of realistic for a little kid so I'm not sure that's a complaint. Her anxiety when she and Wrecker go to rescue them felt a lot more authentic than when she and Hera commandeered the ship in "Rescue on Ryloth".

The running and gunning through the Imperial base had a real good Star Wars feel to it and the suspense was well earned. That pickup at the end, where the ship had to keep coming back, was terrific. I also liked Hunter using his tracking skills in the forest setting at the beginning of the episode and kind of wished he hadn't been captured at the end, just so we could have a real Rambo homage, with Hunter using guerrilla tactics to take out the proto-stormtroopers one by one.

Another notable aspect of the episode is that it features John Williams music, for the first time in what feels like quite a while. I don't understand why more people haven't commented on the near complete lack of the familiar John Williams themes from The Mandalorian, even in cases where it seems like Williams' music obviously should have been used, like the second season finale. It feels more like a pay dispute than a creative choice.

Incidentally, on that topic, I've been thinking about Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit regarding Disney+ and Black Widow. It looks like more actors and actresses might be following suit, including Emma Stone with Cruella. I think Johansson is going to lose this case. She's fighting a tide too strong, the industry is permanently changing. If she does win, I think Disney will simply spell things out more clearly in contracts going forward and only employ actors willing to sign them, even if that means employing fewer big stars. There's too much profit at stake. Slowly, the new pantheon of movie stars will become those who were willing to go along with it. We'll have a new reality where stars make only 20 million dollars instead of 40 or 50 million. Terrifying, I know.

The Bad Batch is available on Disney+.