After a high-speed side mission last week, The Bad Batch returns with … another side mission, one that trades fast vehicles for booby traps and treasure maps. That’s right, we’re finally getting a Star Wars–meets–Indiana Jones Lucasfilm extravaganza — with a bit of Horizon Zero Dawn sprinkled in for good measure. The result may not do much for those hoping to get more of Commander Cody or the larger Imperial plot, but it is another example of this franchise’s versatility in offering exciting and entertaining stories in vastly different genres and tones.
The episode starts with Wrecker and Omega scavenging a junkyard; she accidentally discovers an ancient compass with coordinates to a lost star system. Of course, the mere mention of a potential treasure is enough to pique Phee’s interest, as she’s always up to finding some treasure — just don’t call her a pirate. She prefers “liberator of ancient wonders.”
Now, even if this episode is entirely about a distraction from the “main plot” of the Bad Batch’s obligatory eventual decision to stop hiding and help out the other clones, it actually assists in making that part of the story more poignant. The lack of momentum only helps heighten and intensify the strife the first episode teased. In the premiere, Echo demanded the group do more to fight the Empire, giving more importance to the question of how the Batch should be spending its time. The galaxy is suffering, their brothers are suffering, and what’s the Batch doing? Going treasure hunting with a pirate.
Granted, it’s a very cool treasure hunt. After following the coordinates of the compass, the Batch and Phee arrive at a desolate planet, one that has been decimated and made uninhabitable. Unsurprisingly, Omega — in her endless naïveté — is super-stoked about finding some lost treasure, fully buying into the idealized notion Phee is selling her of being an adventurer and not even thinking of the possible dangers they may (and will) encounter. Looking at the millennia-old glyphs that cover the entrance, Phee theorizes they’re standing on Skara Nal, an old pirate legend that traces back to “the Ancients,” whom Phee says are much older than the Jedi.
There have been only two previous mentions of “Ancients” in Star Wars lore. One comes from a Marvel Comics story of Yoda visiting a strange planet plagued by a war between primitive human tribes. The other is far more interesting: the “Temple of the Ancients,” from the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game, which belonged to the ancient Rakatan Empire recently mentioned in Andor.
In any case, Skara Nal is said to contain a mythical “heart of the mountain,” a crystalized stone of immense power. Before they reach it, however, Phee and the Batch go through a classic treasure hunt filled with booby traps, intricate puzzles, and inexplicably complicated mechanisms. It may be a tad derivative of literally any other treasure-hunting show and movie, but it works. The puzzle solving is fun to watch, the design of the rooms looks good, and the episode’s pacing is brisk yet effective at creating tension. Unsurprisingly, the group gets separated at one point owing to a cave-in, with Echo, Tech, and Wrecker trapped on one side while Hunter, Omega, and Phee carry on in the main hallway, where they have to literally rotate the walls to be able to walk across the ceiling lest they step on the wrong tile and fall to their deaths.
Once they figure out how to use the compass to rotate the hallway and advance, Hunter accuses Phee of making things up as she goes, to which she responds, “That is part of the fun.” This may as well refer to the show, or even the franchise, at large. Sure, it would be great if all of this had been planned in advance and the inconsistencies were caught from the beginning and avoided, or if George Lucas had included Ahsoka in the movies or the first Star Wars had referenced Scarif — but where’s the fun in that? Granted, we’ve got a lot of bad stories in this universe, but the best ones have come from a desire to fill in blanks and remix what came before, from Andor to The Clone Wars.
This episode itself is a great example of that. Although we have no real proof of Skara Nal being based on anything that was published already, if it ends up connecting in some small way to the High or the Old Republic, and down the line we have some show or movie retcon Skara Nal into something hugely important, it would be worth it. That’s because treasure hunting is such a fantastic addition to this franchise, one that perfectly fits the tone of it despite our virtually never seeing it portrayed.
When our group finally reunites and finds the heart of the mountain, it activates not just the tomb but the entire mountain. Turns out, this isn’t a random treasure chamber but a rather powerful weapon in the form of a giant robotic creature with a huge laser beam that can annihilate everything in its path. It’s the very weapon that destroyed this planet. Phee stops the giant robot but only after Tech convinces her that if they don’t stop it by returning the heart of the mountain to its resting place, it will destroy their ship and leave them stranded. In another classic treasure-hunting trope, the moment the crystal is returned to its place, the robot doesn’t just power down — it blows up. The treasure is lost forever.
A big part of Star Wars lore and mythology is the idea of ancient and lost civilizations whose learning and technology are found and repurposed over and over again for millennia, with each new era adding to it while still being recognizable from its original design. The Expanded Universe (now called Legends and no longer canon since Disney bought Star Wars) is full of such lost empires. There are countless Jedi temples and Sith tombs, each guarding some magic secrets that grant huge power to whoever finds them. So why not use that? Instead of giving us yet another prequel or spinoff of a character we already know, why not do a miniseries of a treasure hunt inside a Sith Lord’s tomb? The Bad Batch just showed why that concept is so much fun. Star Wars should seize it.
The Mission Report
• The massive robot weapon thing bears a striking resemblance to a Horizon Zero Dawn creature, and that rules.
• If this Skara Nal is indeed connected to the Old Republic or even the Rakatan Empire, could this be the start of the Mass Shadow Generation canon? Or even the Star Forge? One can dream.
• We’ve seen bounty hunters, cowboys, and characters who call themselves pirates in this franchise before, but Phee takes things further. She looks as if she were just beamed up from the Caribbean, both wearing a bandana and wielding a literal cutlass.
• The Batch should really stop trying to find treasures …
