Credit: LucasfilmStar Wars: The Bad Batch (2021) has some stiff competition this week with this episode, “Metamorphosis”, debuting alongside the third season premiere for The Mandalorian (2019). Their solution? Craft an opening that’s some of the scariest Star Wars we’ve ever seen.
The episode opens with a ship drifting through space, the interior in smoke and flame. Within, we see a Clone Commando sprinting through the dark. He’s terrified and something snatches him into the shadows as he screams.
Cut to the Imperial facility on Mt. Tantiss. A doctor, Doctor Royce Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) has arrived with some important cargo. In a cell complex, we see more Clone Commandos guarding Nala Se (Gwendoline Yeo). He has come to speak with her about her research, telling her it will come in useful as part of the Emperor’s plans.
She says she knows what Palpatine seeks to accomplish, and she will not co-operate. He tells her he is taking over the Tantiss operations, and his methods of persuasion can be far more brutal. An assistant tells him they’ve lost communication with a transport — presumably the one we saw at the opening.
He asks after any other Kaminoans who may still live. There is only Prime Minister Lama Su.
On The Marauder, The Bad Batch (Dee Bradley Baker as the Clones, Michelle Ang as Omega) are talking to Cid (Rhea Perlman). She’s commissioning them to retrieve loot from the downed ship and will give them a 50 percent cut. It’s the transport that went missing destined for Tantiss.
There’s a local village near the crash site. At the wreck, they find no signs of life. Wrecker finds the electrostaff from the Commando at the start. They’ve found a lab within the ship with the cloning tech inside. They find a malfunctioning droid that fails to tell them anything an a reinforced cell, open.
There’s drool and they spy something attached to the ceiling. It’s a four legged giant mawed beast. They fend it off just as the power begins to come back online. It’s hiding somewhere in the vents and shadows.
Tech tells the group it was some form of research vessel, and their subject just got loose. They find the monster devouring the power. They blast the generator to make their escape, but the creature survives and heads in the direction of the village. Tech says it at least won’t be hungry after devouring the crew, but they have to stop it.
Omega volunteers to help access the Kaminoan tech to find out more about the monster while Hunter and Wrecker track the beast down. She says she had heard rumors of other Kaminoan experiments but that they took place off-world. Tech says there are designs using the creature’s hide for armor material, explaining its relative invulnerability to blaster fire.
It turns out the monster is the same species that attacked Coruscant during the war, a Zillo Beast. It is growing exponentially in size with its energy consumption, and it’s reaching Godzilla-scale. The Empire, meanwhile, has dispatched its own forces to tackle the beast. They use giant ships to blast the monster with energy beams, before taking it within a larger ship. They’re capturing it rather than killing it.
The Bad Batch reunite on The Marauder and escape the system. On the capture vessel, we see the beast immersed in a tank. Back on the planet, the villagers are being imprisoned by the Imperial Forces, presumably to cover up what happened.
Tech has used the info gained from the ship to uncover more about the Empire’s plans for cloning, stating that they destroyed Kamino to control, rather than end the act.
On Tantiss, a new guest is arriving. Dr Hemlock is informed about a mystery vessel escaping the Zillo incident just as Former Prime Minister Lama Su arrives. He tells Hemlock Omega is the key to persuading Nala Se to help them with their plans, and the screen fades to black…
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