Cloning It
In Michigan right now, so sharing pictures from Minnesota. Close enough, right? Okay, now the Michiganders are hunting me down…
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 7.1 “The Bad Batch”
We open with a backdoor pilot for the spinoff. Somebody is predicting all of Rex’s tactics…very specifically…and Rex decides to go steal whatever AI algorithm they’re using.
He’s assigned the “Bad Batch,” a group of experimental and defective clones that have superpowers…and also issues (I could have done without the stereotype of the autistic tech guy, personally, but we’ll see how they develop). They have some very different ideas of how to do things, which help them get through.
Except there’s no algorithm. Is Echo alive?
They’re definitely putting together an interesting bunch with the Bad Batch, but I kind of worry this is going to be pretty close to straight up mil SF, which the series has so far mostly avoided.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 7.2 “A Distant Echo”
I was absolutely sure Echo would turn out to be a brain in a jar, but no, he’s actually alive. Kind of.
“This is a stealth mission.”
The Bad Batch doesn’t do stealth missions.
As a note, you can definitely see the technological improvements. Season 6 was released in early 2014, so probably made in 2013. Although the art style matches, there’s more detail and more grit to it. They’ve definitely improved their equipment.
I think I do like the “boys” but I don’t know about an entire series focused on them. It’s 16 shortish episodes, but slightly longer than the Clone Wars. We’ll have to see.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 7.3 “On the Wings of Keeradaks”
So, riding dragons is primitive now? I guess they’ve forgotten about the dragonriders on Onderan. Different species, same concept.
This episode was worth watching for Anakin basically force-scruffing a recalcitrant clone who was about to get himself killed trying to blow stuff up. Stuff that needed to be blown up, mind.
I just realized that the first four episodes of this season are prep for The Bad Batch, and the remaining seven may be the set up for Ahsoka. Which I’ll get to eventually, I hope.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 7.4 “Unfinished Business”
Echo has been retrieved, but is now heavily cybered. He’s certainly not a “reg” anymore. But he goes back in to pull a trick he’ll only be able to do once…fake himself as the “algorithm” and set a trap for the Separatists.
This is pretty much a heist episode, with the Bad Batch and Anakin infiltrating the separatist ship. It goes poorly…for both the droids and their organic commander.
The ending is very predictable. With his cybernetics and ability to talk to machines, it’s obvious Echo will be joining the Bad Batch. Very obvious. And a good thing, because I rather like him.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 7.5 “Gone With A Trace”
Oh dear, the pun. Trace is a person, a pilot trapped in Coruscant’s underworld, at least until she fixes the broken down freighter she got cheap because it’s not spaceworthy.
And Ahsoka’s new “friend.” Air quotes because I ship these two so hard from, ya know, frame one. It’s probably queer baiting, but I don’t care.
Trace has a sister who’s got some real problems…debt problems, taking on stupid jobs problems.
And Trace also hates Jedi, so Ahsoka has to help them without pulling out a lightsaber or obviously using the Force.
Thankfully, that only makes her a little bit less badass.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 7.6 “Deal No Deal”
Don’t run spice.
Don’t run spice.
Don’t run spice.
Unfortunately, Rafa didn’t get that memo and by the time Ahsoka tries to warn her, it’s too late. Then Trace panics when she realizes who they’re dealing with…a major crime syndicate…and dumps the spice.
Instead of the very sensible plan of pretending they got attacked by pirates, they try to give the syndicate empty crates.
This ends about as well as you think it will, even with the help of a Jedi mind trick.
Why not just pretend you got attacked by pirates, girls?
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 7.7 “Dangerous Debt”
Imprisoned, escaped, imprisoned. These poor girls just can’t get out at all.
One issue I have with this sequence is that it doesn’t occur to Ahsoka that telling her story to the sisters might actually work.
They hate the Jedi. Why not tell them she got tossed out? It might make them like her more, not less! And it has the virtue of being true.
But it really looks bad for the girls, except somebody else is on planet. Somebody with an interest in Ahsoka…
The Ark 2.5 “Museum of Death”
The Ark has been leaning into horror lately. I think I like it. As they return to Ark 3 to get spare parts, they discover an Eastern Federation shuttle…and a survivor. Eva’s brother. Who has gone completely insane. And I do mean completely insane. He arranged the dead Ark 3 crew in a tableau and thinks one of them is his wife.
Seriously creepy.
Seriously creepy.
And is Eva an Eastern Federation spy? Is there still an Eastern Federation?
(Also, under Acting Appropriately Stupid, leaving the crazy brother alone and unguarded. Of course he was going to do something…thankfully he only kills himself).
No science means this was a better episode. The tech stuff made something resembling sense…
Orphan Black: Echoes 1.9 “Attracting Awful Things”
Apparently, Tatiana Maslany is busy because it’s Delphine who shows up, not Cosima. Good to know they’re still happily married, though!
Craig is in critical condition and refusing to go to the hospital because of a decades old outstanding warrant. There’s murder involved, so no statute of limitations…of course, he didn’t actually kill anyone. Who knows if he’s being overly paranoid.
Not good to know the cops are still as bad as ever in this future.
Xander is realizing his prime is an awful person. I wonder if sparks will happen between him and Jules.
And the fact that Darros has access to literally everyone’s medical records (HIPAA anyone) including…the kind of scans used to make printouts.
What is he up to? Nothing good.
Star Wars: Clone Wars 7.8 “Together Again”
Ahsoka pulls a fast one, and yes, it’s best the sisters don’t know her plan so their reactions are genuine. She gets them out, plans to escape, but not knowing how good she is, they come back to rescue her.
It’s a classic, really. But while they’re gone, she discovers Pyke is working with Maul. And then a certain Mandalorean shows up to ask for her help.
It’s time to come back to the Jedi fold, or is it? One of the points being made here is that nobody can officially declare you not a Jedi if you are one.
Just like you can’t actually throw somebody out of a religion, only a church, for one example.
Star Wars: Clone Wars 7.9 “Old Friends Not Forgotten”
Should have adjusted things to avoid the cliffhanger.
Ahsoka and Barokan (sp) solicit Jedi help to corner Maul on Mandalore. (Of course, Maul is hoping for this to get another rematch with Kenobi).
Unfortunately, Grievous has managed an attack on Coruscant itself. Dispatching Rex (promoted) and Ahsoka (unofficially) to Mandalore, Obi-Wan and Anakin head back to Coruscant to protect the senate and Chancellor.
Much fighting ensues. Turns out Anakin has Ahsoka’s confiscated lightsabers, and gave them a tune up. And some of the clones are so loyal to Ahsoka, they have painted their helmets to resemble her facial markings. I think that’s a bit much.
But maybe they respect somebody who places principles above orders.
Three more episodes and none of them likely to have anything GOOD happen in them.
Star Wars: Clone Wars 7.10 “Phantom Apprentice”
Worth watching for the multiple Maul/Ahsoka lightsaber fights. Ahsoka is definitely not a Padawan anymore.
Maul and Ahsoka almost join forces, until he tells her the plan involves killing Anakin before he can become Darth Vader. Refusing to admit her former master could possibly fall, Ahsoka goes back to trying to capture Maul.
It’s pretty spectacular, and also packed with extra layers of the viewer irony this series is pretty strong for. When we all know what happens…
Two episodes left!
Star Wars: Clone Wars 7.11 “Shattered”
And…it’s happening. Anakin is going crazy/falling and Rex tries to kill Ahsoka, controlled by his “inhibitor chip.”
(Even though she’s not technically a Jedi). She gets away in part because he does fight it for a moment, not wanting to hurt the young woman he cares for.
And then she rescues Rex, removing the chip with the help of some droids. See, treating droids well is useful!
The galaxy is in chaos and the Jedi Order is all but gone, but I have a feeling Ahsoka’s that kind of a survivor…
When I played the old West End Games they had Jedi archetypes that you could play even in the there are no Jedi period.
Ahsoka is the Fallen Jedi…still on the light side of the Force, but no longer part of the order.
(And she’s both badass and adorable).
ONE episode left.
Star Wars: Clone Wars 7.12 “Victory And Death”
And it’s…over, but of course we know the story continues. Which is a good thing.
Pro tip:
Don’t destroy your escape pods to prevent two prisoners from escaping. This decision dooms every clone (and crewmember) on the ship, because when Maul sabotages it and flies it into a planet, they have no way out.
Rex and Ahsoka do escape, but Ahsoka leaves one of her lightsabers behind. At first I thought this was a bad move, but when Anakin/Vader shows up he finds it and assumes she died in the crash.
So, perhaps, a smart move, even if it’s now an irreplaceable item.
She tried to save them, Jedi to the end…and at some point I’ll get around to watching Ahsoka to see where she went.
Next up, “The Bad Batch”