Max Nocerino 
The Bad Batch episode 5 gets a B+ from me and since it’s only Episode 5, we still have a lot of ground to cover.
The Bad Batch Season 2 is quickly becoming something that I would very much introduce to a new generation of potential Star Wars fans. AKA my hypothetical kids. The episodes really play to a child’s imagination. And they have self-contained adventures that a young person can easily follow and have fun along the way. Entombed is another self-contained fun adventure story. Omega and Wrecker are looking for spare parts in the back of Cid’s cantina and find a very odd compass. It isn’t as cool as Luke Skywalker’s Force-attuned compass, but it is still very Pirates of the Carribean-y and has a very interesting feature. One that reminds me of the magic glass that lets you see things you normally couldn’t like in Coraline.
TO PHEE OR NOT TO PHEE?
Cid is absent for all of this episode, and the reins are given to Phee. Phee is Cid’s arrogant, headstrong human friend, and if there is a blaster on the wall in Act 1…It must be used in Act 3. Phee was introduced in the very first episode but had virtually no role. Now we get to see more of her. She is a pirate (or as she calls it liberator of artifacts) and loves to tell semi-factual stories about her adventures that make Hunter roll his eyes. She takes a liking to Omega and I have to say. Even though Phee is arrogant and bossy, she is pretty cool.
Omega is just so cute and upbeat that again, I think she is the new poster child of Star Wars that young audiences can relate to. She is sweet, has a thirst for adventure, and intelligence rivaling that of Tech’s! The compass has coordinates in a trinary system and Phee manages to convince Hunter to go and look for the treasure. Hunter is NOT a fan of doing this, as (as Echo points out), the last time they went looking for treasure, it ended quite poorly.
FEARLESS PHEE!
When they get to the mysterious planet, Phee starts making things up as she goes along. She is so confident and I have to admire her fearlessness. The clones are a little uneasy about going into this dark cavern and Hunter just about loses his patience with Phee during the events of their search. What I liked about the treasure hunt is that you expected some unoriginal Indiana Jones-type plot. But it delivers something slightly different. Something Star Wars is very much known for. A truly alien and unusual concept.
One of the reasons George Lucas himself thought Star Wars did so well was that it presented something that people had never seen before. In 1977, all sci-fi fans thought aliens made humans scream and run away as if they were “monsters”. Yet in Star Wars, the aliens in the Mos Eisley cantina were just like you and me!
VERDICT
Entombed taps into a bit of that magic formula by presenting something that I never would have guessed to happening and also making me ask What? I have no clue what the clones and Phee unearthed in this episode but I VERY much like it. As a self-contained adventure that doesn’t develop the Clones’ story progression, you might say this episode was a dud. Yet, the true identity of the “treasure” really sold the episode for me. And as I am writing this review (early in the morning), I am waiting for Wookieepedia to update to make sense of what I just saw.
When it comes to Star Wars (or sci-fi in general) it has to be weird. And weird it was. This episode gets a B+ for me and since it’s only Episode 5, we still have a lot of ground to cover. I want to see the season shift into the Clones’ long-term future soon but for now…I had a ton of fun!
Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 is streaming on Disney Plus NOW!
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
