Review | Star Wars The Bad Batch (Episode 4: Cornered)

In the fourth episode of The Bad Batch, the series continues to impress. It’s a fun and eventful supply run episode!

It’s Friday so it’s The Bad Batch day! This week’s episode is entitled ‘Cornered.’

Something Familiar

This episode brings The Bad Batch to the planet Pantora. It was first briefly seen in the opening scene of the episode ‘Sphere of Influence’ from The Clone Wars. Now we get to see more of this planet. It’s really beautiful, I love the Eastern inspiration for the architecture with a Star Wars vibe to it. Seeing how lively and crowded the streets are, it’s a reminder of how much the animation has evolved at Lucasfilm Animation throughout the years. It’s really impressive!

Familiar Faces

Fans of the animated series will also have noticed the appearance of Voorpaks and LE-series droids in this episode. Those first appeared in Star Wars Resistance! These series have built their own little universe in which you can see species, droids, or even ships being introduced in a series and then be re-used in the next one.

Even though it’s a small scene, this episode continues to expand on the worldbuilding of the early days of the Empire. I appreciate how each episode introduces a new element. Here it’s the transition to the Empire credits. Star Wars animation is great at worldbuilding!

Supply Run

As it’s a serial type of show, we get to experience the everyday life of Clone Force 99 including repairing their ship or getting new supplies. “Cornered” is that type of episode. We’ve seen some during Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars Resistance. It’s a storyline that brings more fun than usual but also keeps the show anchored in “realism.”

As seen in the trailers, this episode also brings some action with Fennec Shand. She first appeared in The Mandalorian and now is making her debut in animation. Ming-Na Wen is playing both versions of the character. Some characters are naturally badass and they become instant favorites, Fennec is one of them. This episode leaves us with a lot of questions and theories about her role in the series and it’s going to be intriguing to see how it unfolds.