Star Wars The Bad Batch: War-Mantle review S1 E14
War-Mantle only manages to shake up the Bad Batch formula slightly, but it does make for a better than average episode.
Capt. Rex calls asking for help. Hunter is clearly the laziest leader ever as he’s worried rescuing Rex’s friend will put them in jeopardy. Just once it’d be nice for Hunter not to need prodding/serious guilt trips to decide on a course of action. This time, Echo has to give him the nudge followed by the guilt trip push by Omeee-ga to convince Hunter they should help.
Tech offers the practical side if they ditch the current job they’re on for Cid they won’t get paid, but that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. A better question is are they sleeping on the ship every time they’re around Cid’s parlor. And do they have a regular hotel they shack up at when they’re not on a mission.
Loathe as I am to suggest since their armor is so cool, but shouldn’t the Bad Batch ditch their armor to not be so obviously spotted/detected? It would make carrying out missions a lot easier.
Although Hunter is supposed to be the tracker, it’s Omega who finds the beacon from Rex’s clone trooper friend. The Batch uncovers an Imperial base with some odd adjustments to the clone trooper armor. This was a nice touch to see their reaction to the clones getting phased out in favor of the Stormtroopers. Tech remarks he’s not familiar with the TK designation and realizes they’re the clones’ replacements. A war would reduce a supply if disposable soldiers pretty quickly…
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Thankfully, Hunter has Omega stay behind on this mission,. but that means Wrecker has to stay behind and babysit. That makes a certain amount of sense as Wrecker isn’t the best-suited for infiltration missions. And it’s not like Tech and Echo get much of a spotlight anyway. They quickly make their way into the base and find Rex’s friend, Gregor, who we know will be around through the Rebels era of this timeline.
The rescue attempt means we get some solid action from the Batch trio while Omega flies the ship to bail them out. That rescue doesn’t go as smoothly as hoped and Hunter crashes down several stories to the ground.
This armor is clearly death from falling from mountaintop proof so they probably should keep it. Omega doesn’t want to leave him behind, but Hunter is already surrounded by Imperial forces, who somehow hoped one of the Bad Batch would fall several stories down so their ground forces could greet him?
Back on Kamino, Lama Su knows the Empire is about to cancel their… “contract” and has Nala Se set up an quiet evacuation. That’s a good plan, but somehow Vice Admiral Rampart figures it out and presumably orders Lama Su’s execution. There goes another Attack of the Clones era Kaminoan.
Hunter patiently waits in his cell contemplating his next move when he’s greeted by a guest — Crosshair finally tracked him down and it only took Hunter getting caught for him to do it. This confrontation should be interesting and it’s a great cliffhanger to end the episode.
War-Mantle had a lot more action than the standard episode and teased the long-awaited Hunter/Crosshair confrontation making for an all-around solid installment.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: Star Wars.com
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