"Bad Batch Ep. 6: Decommissioned"

"Bad Batch Ep. 6: Decommissioned" written by Amanda Rose Munoz and directed by Nathaniel Villanueva

I LOVED this episode!!! What a freaking payoff! I've seen people griping about the reappearance of the Martez sisters (see to the left), but personally I think it was incredible storytelling and a great way to create connectivity and continuity. I am so pleased with how this show is continuing a connected world across Star Wars canon. 

Cid calls Tech "Goggles" as she's trying to brief them on a new mission! Hahaha. They are to retrieve a tactical droid from a droid decommissioning facility on Corellia. Turns out it's guarded by police droids and everything about the mission is more dangerous than they probably expected--the molten decommissioning pool makes doing anything quite precarious.

So, just as the Bad Batch is about to take their prize, a couple of smugglers show up who just so happen to be Rafa and Trace Martez!! At the end of the episode, it is revealed they're working for someone higher up...who could it possibly be?? I'd say Ahsoka (except for Rafa saying patch "him" through), but the music was really ominous during the holocall with this person so I'm inclined to think it's a bad guy and that the Martez sisters were not being as upfront with the Bad Batch as it seemed. During the whole debacle, the Bad Batch barely manage to get the information from the tactical droid's head and Rafa gives a speech about always making sure you're working for the right people, prompting Hunter to ensure Rafa has the information as well. But was this the right move?? I'm nervously skeptical despite Trace saying that their contact wanted to use the info in the tactical droid to fight back against the Empire...things aren't always what they seem...

I sucked in my breath multiple times during this episode as bad situation followed bad situation. Omega almost falls into the molten decommissioning pool (see below), Wrecker's chip starts to work after he hits his head but then goes back into dormancy (he keeps repeating "Good soldiers..."--so scary!!!), and Rafa almost dies a couple of times.

Besides the on-the-edge-of-your-seat action, the humor in this episode is fantastic! There's of course Cid calling Tech "Goggles" and there's Trace saying that they need a diversion followed by Rafa saying the same and Trace asking, "Is there an Echo in here?" to which Echo responds, "I'm Echo." Hahaha!! Trace is incredulous. And there are battle droids!!! Tech reprograms the B-1s and B-2s to attack the police droids and as they wake up (see below), one of the B-1s asks, "What's happening? Did we win?" I love it so freaking much--battle droids make me smile every time.

So a truly wonderful episode that leads us in an interesting direction depending on what is inside the tactical droid's head...can't wait to find out!!