The Bad Batch Episode 9 review contains spoilers for the episode.

Another Friday has come and with it a new episode of The Bad Batch. While we’ve reached the back half of the season, it didn’t start out with a splash.

The Bad Batch once again fails to live up to its title with this episode. The lack of presence of the Bad Batch in this episode seriously hinders it. Progressing the story through the two bounty hunters was fun and fine, it helps us understand what’s going on in the background finally, but we aren’t here to watch Cad Bane and Fennec. Expanding on the story while simultaneously sidelining our main characters makes everything much less impactful.

READ: ‘The Bad Batch’ Episode 8 Review: The Return

A positive about the lack of the Bad Batch in the episode is showcasing Omega’s skills. Making Omega less of a damsel in distress by mostly saving herself. It’s clear she’s becoming more and more capable of holding her own with the Bad Batch. It’s great to see this progression for Omega, but at the expense of losing seeing her with the rest of the crew is sad. The dynamic the Bad Batch has is great and we were finally seeing some progress toward Omega forming better relationships within their family.

The reveal of Omega’s importance to the Kaminoans was a bit surprising. I was in the part that assumed she was just a younger enhanced clone. Omega being the only other generation one clone besides Boba that wasn’t aged up is something I didn’t see coming. There is still some mystery behind it though as not every Kaminoans shares the same views as the Prime Minister. So, I’m certainly anxious to see how Omega’s story plays out.

As always the music and animation for this episode were on point. The issue with this episode lies in the lack of the Bad Batch and that it’s starting to feel more and more like The Bad Batch is going to rely on previous Star Wars material. It seems like the plan is to just keep adding more and more people, places, and things we’ve seen already in other projects instead of letting The Bad Batch build their own story. Of course, I love seeing things I know in the series, I want more from the Bad Batch, not the Bad Batch becoming secondary characters to previous Star Wars content within their own show. –Collin Stetzner

Grade: 6/10

The Bad Batch drops new episodes every Friday on Disney+