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Star Wars: The Bad Batch: S2 E3: The Solitary Clone
759 Plays3 years ago
J Scotty & Andrew return for another successful mission of taking on the latest episode of The Bad Batch's second season, now streaming on Disney Plus!
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Transcript
Introduction and Chumba Casino Ad
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The Bad Batch Season 2, Episode 3 Overview
00:00:30
Speaker
On another exciting entry of animation deliberation, we say hello once more to some old friends and some old foes on this week's coverage of The Bad Batch. Right after some ads, we have no control over. Mary redeemed a $50,000 cash prize playing Chumbacassino this year.
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00:01:14
Speaker
Good luck singing along if you know the words. Animation, deliberation, a conversation, and a celebration of our favorite action animated series, la la la. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I will never get used to that. It's so much fun. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Andrew Rogers.
00:01:41
Speaker
I'm Jay Scotty Sinclair. And we are your lovely dueling hosts this week to cover what is going to be one of the great shows going
Crosshair and Cody's Mission: A Moral Dilemma
00:01:51
Speaker
forward. I can just already tell the Bad Batch season two, episode three, the solitary clone. This was a real fun one. And I think Jay Scotty, I already am prepared for you to be excited for this. Oh, yeah, just right out of the gate. I'll go ahead and say this was one of my favorite episodes
00:02:12
Speaker
of the season so far, but maybe of the show in its entirety. It was just a great, great episode. So you know me too well. Oh, yeah. I know you've talked about your love for tech when it comes to the main crew. But if you had one gripe coming out of last season, it was we didn't get enough of crosshair. So as soon as it was he was the forefront, I said, oh, J. Scott, he's going to be happy. And honestly, I was too. Like I can complain about this little character story that we got from him.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And just a little glimpse behind the scene. This is the first week that we are kind of like doubling up my hero academia has returned. And we're also covering Bad Batch Weekly. So we're going to knock two episodes out in one session here. So I say if we've gotten our non spoiler thoughts out of the way, let's just kind of dive into it and give them the synopsis. What do you say? Yeah, let's jump right in. Okay, great.
00:03:03
Speaker
All right, so this is Bad Batch season two, episode three, titled The Solitary Clone. And we can talk about maybe what that title means, but I think it's up for interpretation. All right. Crosshair is assigned to Commander Cody on a mission to the former Separatist planet, Dessex, to rescue Imperial Governor Groton, who has been captured and taken hostage.
00:03:25
Speaker
After a successful assault, they encounter Desik's governor, Tawny Ames, who demands Desik's remain out of Imperial jurisdiction, citing the Republic's refusal to broker peace with the Separatists during the Clone Wars' reasoning. Cody argues for a peaceful resolution, but Crosshairs kills Ames on Groton's orders and Desik's is brought under Imperial control. Returning to Coruscant, Cody questions whether the Empire is really doing good around the galaxy and deserts soon after.
Visual and Animation Aesthetics
00:03:52
Speaker
There we go. And now with that out of the way, Commander Cody, like he took off the helmet and I was like, no way are they actually gonna like really start digging in and doing the connective tissue? And sure enough, there it was.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, I don't know if I can sing the praises of this show as far as the art goes anymore. I won't say it's beating a dead horse because the show is absolutely beautiful and it deserves all the praise. But it's just it's almost kind of a given at this point how beautiful it looks. But before I get super into the story, I just have to point out like towards the end of the episode, there's the wide landscape shot of Desiks right after
00:04:34
Speaker
uh, aims death and you see this star destroyer just kind of looming on the horizon and all the colors, like it just looks so beautiful. And I found myself having my breath taken away and just on that shot. So the show continues to deliver on that front.
00:04:51
Speaker
Yeah, once again, I think it was when the ship was first flying in at like the start of the episode. I was like, yeah, no, they're closing in on a regular Star Wars planet. This is live action Star Wars. Like it just it doesn't trigger the things in my brain that make me think, oh, this is animated. I just forget that. And I'm sucked right into the world so quickly by both the story and obviously the animation just I can't complain about it, which is like
00:05:19
Speaker
Somehow the number one praise that we can give in this world. Yeah,
Character and Design Evolution
00:05:24
Speaker
it's it's so flawless. Yeah, I think that's totally fair when you've got shots of ships or entirely man made structures and stuff like that the line really starts to get blurred between like,
00:05:36
Speaker
Is this, could this be movie quality or is this the TV show? But with that kind of in mind, kind of talking about the art direction, two of my biggest takeaways, or I guess one takeaway as a whole that has two parts to it is we kind of talked last week about what time period or how long this has been since season one. And just, yeah, seeing actual stormtroopers and I love that their design was inspired by the original Ralph McQuarrie drawings again. And then also during the,
00:06:06
Speaker
the rescue or assault mission, whatever you want to call it. The, I've never seen those droids before, but those droids that seem more capable, they kind of seemed like, like, I guess, desics reprogrammed droids for themselves. So they, maybe they didn't have super battle droids, but they had these droids that kind of reminded me of General Grievous's bodyguards kind of like fused with regular battle droids. But that was really cool. I love seeing
00:06:31
Speaker
the evolution and transition of armor and technology as well as politics in this time period. It's really great. Yes. So I will exposit a little knowledge if you're just joining for the Bad Batch. So we have seen those, I think they're called assassin droids, if I'm not mistaken. Throughout the entirety of Star Wars, the Clone Wars, they appeared as this, like you said, highly capable, flexible, like they did in this episode, leaping from beams and sticking to the wall.
00:07:01
Speaker
Basically, you have to have a Jedi to take them down most of the time. They are that level of capable. But I totally agree. There was so much visual storytelling. And again, if you are only watching this slowly throughout Star Wars Rebels, they change the helmets as well. And this is the first time that I've ever seen these stormtrooper helmets outside of Star Wars Rebel. It's not quite to what we see by the time we hit a new hope, but it is that like,
00:07:28
Speaker
covered face very round like helmet top. I don't know how else to describe it besides that, that we see in rebels we're starting to see for the regular clones. But still we have this old guard of Cody had yet to fully go into the stormtrooper helmet and crosshair still had his from the you know previous season. So it is kind of letting the old guard go
00:07:53
Speaker
and the new guard come up and I'm curious if we're gonna see crosshair get that helmet. But I mean, there are so many little layers just to the visual storytelling that like, if you don't know, you don't know. But if you do, it's so easy to appreciate and understand there is a passage of time happening.
00:08:11
Speaker
Okay. I definitely appreciate your insights from the having watched the Clone Wars because I've provided the caveat before.
Moral Ambiguity and Character Development
00:08:17
Speaker
I've only seen a handful of Clone Wars episodes. So to know that we've seen those droids before, I appreciate that. And I've got a lot that I want to hit. So hopefully I hit it all. Hopefully I don't get too scatterbrained here because you brought up a lot. But I'm also curious if we've seen Commander Cody before in the Clone Wars, because for me, this is the first time I've seen him since episode three.
00:08:36
Speaker
Um, which I thought was really cool. Um, but then I did find myself like talking about these storm super helmets and there was kind of, it wasn't really at the forefront of the episode, but I thought it was something that was a thread that was kind of playing in the background with some dialogue and, um, you know, kind of seeing Cody's mindset change, but I'm wondering.
00:08:57
Speaker
Were those stormtroopers that we saw in the beginning, were those clones that adapted new armor, or were those like the commissioned soldiers because when crosshair went to go sit down and have his breakfast, you heard a couple of clones chatting about this like bill that was coming through about
00:09:15
Speaker
something to do with commissioned or enlisted soldiers. And it sounded like the clones were kind of being phased out in addition to Rampart voicing some of his doubts. But then you mentioned Crosshair's helmet. And I was curious if it was the same as last season, because I thought maybe it had made some changes to look a little more stormtrooper-y. I thought there was more definition in the eyes. I thought he kind of had that single slit last season. And now he's got more of like the
00:09:43
Speaker
the classic kind of Stormtrooper eyeset in the mouth grill. But at any rate, it looks awesome. And I guess last thing I say before I'll throw it back to you though, we talked last season about how the Bad Batch had started to add more color to their garb. It's interesting to see Commander Cody lose color and become more muted. And then Crosshair just totally embraced this full black outfit that just has a couple little splashes of green that I think look awesome.
00:10:12
Speaker
Yeah, no crosshair removing the red commander Cody removing his trademark orange there. It was definitely different to see. And yeah, I'll funnel back on some of your comments there. Throughout Clone Wars, we totally see Cody. He is the second in command to General Kenobi as Rex's second in command to General Skywalker there. Basically, they
00:10:35
Speaker
each get a clone underneath them. And that's where you really get this build up of the relationship between Kenobi and Cody. So the betrayal in Episode Three hits that much harder. So I'm really, really intrigued of now that Cody has, you know, left, is he going to search out the rebellion? Is he going to try and right the wrongs? Because we know there are several Jedi within the rebellion at this point.
00:11:01
Speaker
I want that I want to see the reconciliation see perhaps does he link back up with Ahsoka or Obi Wan and have this look I'm sorry I couldn't control what was going on because I noticed he had a scar on his head that I don't previously remember so I'm curious if that is his inhibitor chip possibly was messed with or taken out and that's why he didn't immediately good soldiers follow orders situation here but yeah there was definitely that question brought
Crosshair's Journey and Speculation
00:11:31
Speaker
up
00:11:31
Speaker
But we've talked so much about the Clone Wars and everything previously. I know there were some people hoping that Bad Batch would kind of leave behind some of the stories that we knew. But the best thing about Star Wars is we have so much to do. It is a connected universe because the Empire is trying to rule everyone. We got some name drops in this episode, largely the
00:11:55
Speaker
current governor of this planet named dropped Mina Bonteri I kind of figured I didn't know who that was but it felt very pointed when she when she made that name drop so I will try and truncate this one as much as possible Mina Bonteri was a character in the Clone Wars who was a
00:12:13
Speaker
teacher of Padme Amidala prior to her becoming a senator. But Mina left and went with the separatists because she actually believed in the separatist cost and said no cause and said no, they're trying to do good things. They're leaving because they think the Senate is corrupted. And throughout the Clone Wars, we actually see Mina and Padme try and work together to end the war peacefully. And then Dooku, or not Dooku, Sidious assassinates Bontari.
00:12:40
Speaker
which then leads to the big fallout of there will never be a peaceful resolution to this war. And I love seeing that through line of this governor obviously very much wanted to peacefully end things. But now that the empire is here, it's like no one ever wanted to negotiate with us. We tried our best because they believed in the cause and to see them just have this fallout, but see, you know, normal people, not just the evil that we're so used to with the separatist alliance,
00:13:09
Speaker
be, you know, behind this cause is always such an interesting thing to see. And I want just, again, tug on those threads that little bit to show there is more to this than Empire good, Separatist bad, because also halfway through this episode, I realized the guys that I'm rooting for the stormtroopers, you know, storm in the castle, they're the bad guys in this situation. They are legitimately right who I should be rooting for. But inherently, because I know the character, it's like, Oh, but I want to
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah. You have that great moment where the door slides open and you see the frightened like citizens and Cody's like, it's okay. We're here to help. And they're like BS and slide the door back shut and you just get everything you need to know right then and there. Um, yeah, yeah, I, I agree. And it's so interesting, like coming off of the last, the couple of episodes we got last week where we had, you know, uh, Romar kind of saying, look, Dooku was,
00:14:02
Speaker
pretty bad to us, his home planet, but now you've got Tawny Ames saying like, Dooku was right. Dooku foresaw the Scholastic Empire coming. So I just love getting the nuance and kind of going back and forth and having these characters that we had painted in one light for so long. Star Wars ultimately is like a story of good versus evil, but as we've been able to flesh out the galaxy more and more, just getting more nuance and more shades of gray, I think really, really,
00:14:30
Speaker
helps flesh out the world. So it's great. Yeah. And you talk about shades of gray. I'm really curious. You kind of teased it at the top. What is your thought of the interpretation of the single clone? The solitary clone, right. So I think on the surface, it clearly seems like it's about crosshair. And I have to say, like, I really appreciate how this episode, like, is despicable as some of the things crosshair has done and even did in this episode.
00:14:58
Speaker
the show still makes you feel for him. The fact that the guy goes to sit down to eat his breakfast and then has the other two clones just disgusted with him. And then he doesn't even get to eat. Both times we see him try to eat, he gets called away to go meet Rampart. It's like, no wonder his cheeks are so gaunt and he's so skinny. Let the guy enjoy a meal. But yeah, as the episode went on and we had everything that went down with Cody, I realized, oh, okay.
00:15:25
Speaker
maybe the solitary clone is actually Cody because Cody decided to go AWOL without anyone. He basically had enough and he didn't have brothers, like two or three brothers.
00:15:42
Speaker
to defect with. He went completely alone. That was kind of how I interpreted it. Clones can be brothers and be part of this big machine, but once whatever's going on with the inhibitor chip, whether it's removed or it just loses effectiveness once they start to doubt, they really are alone in this giant, terrifying machine that is the Galactic Empire.
00:16:07
Speaker
you know the second episode in a row where we have had a clone decidedly not obeying orders and what that means for the greater scope of things and what it means for crosshair because there was the very pointed moment at the end of huh it looks like you're the only one still sticking around you keep losing all these clones is he gonna think more about it you know what is his
00:16:32
Speaker
greater thought because I loved finding out at the last the end of last season that he didn't have the inhibitor chip. This was all of his own word that he wanted to follow the Empire and said, I'm a soldier, this is what I do. Yeah, and I hope there is if they go the route of having him defect or having him go back to the batch.
00:16:53
Speaker
I want to see the full arc. I want to see him go through the turmoil of is this right? Is this wrong as opposed to just being kicked out by Rampart? I want to I don't know where it's going to go, but there's just so many layers to sticking by the empire at this point because he did it for a reason. And not all of the empire is despicable, just like not all of the separatists are despicable. So.
00:17:18
Speaker
where that leads as well. If it goes that way, it'll be really interesting to see that unraveling of his psyche because he has that dialogue with Cody or even with
Focused Storytelling and Action Highlights
00:17:28
Speaker
Rampart when Rampart asks him like, how long were you stranded on that Kamino platform, 32 rotations, and you still came back? And he's like, I'm a soldier for the Empire. That's what I do. And later when he's talking to Cody, Cody's like, do you really think what we're doing is for the betterment of the galaxy?
00:17:45
Speaker
with soldiers, we do what needs to be done." And he says, Cody replies, the difference between us and battle droids is we get to make a decision and then we have to live with that too. So really interested to see if that has any effect on him going forward. Yeah, it's so nuanced for what was arguably a monster of the week show last season.
00:18:09
Speaker
Like it feels like a full heel turn and I'm I'm here for it. Yeah. And I like how you kind of mentioned the monster of the week because it kind of refreshed my memory. Like one thing that did stick out to me about this episode that reminds me of some of my favorite episodes of The Mandalorian is like.
00:18:25
Speaker
It kind of felt like a video game, like there is a mission, there are goals and they're like little mini bosses and whatnot, like the tank, like shooting the shot right down the barrel of the tank was like the first little mini boss and then taking out the tactical droid and the way that was done with like throwing the little mirror discs, like so awesome. But I think that was kind of the benefit of having this episode just focus on Crosshair and Cody. As much as I love bouncing around with the members of the batch,
00:18:55
Speaker
It was really sucked me in and had me like really engaged, like sticking to a single cup or a couple of characters and like seeing their journey all the way through and not bouncing around to these different scenes all the way throughout. I think it really helps kind of ratchet up the tension and helped us get like some long sequences of really satisfying action.
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah, you know, we talked about how beautiful this was. We've talked about the nuance of it. But the action like that tank scene was so fun. And the fact that he was intentionally missing shots, and you're watching him be patient and have tank shells fly right over his head. He was confident. He's like, I know where they're aiming. It's not me. It was
00:19:37
Speaker
So quintessential crosshair just silence the whole time. Like he knew what he was doing. Everyone else just kind of had to watch in awe of how this went down. But yeah, it was satisfying. I will say this was probably the most far fetched. I think we've seen crosshair be with the mirror deflections like every other time we see him very carefully place like, okay, I know what I'm gonna have to do. Whereas the idea of I just throw it out there and I'll hit it and it will hit all seven of these battle droids.
00:20:07
Speaker
All right, I'll give it to you because you're crosshair, but you only get one. This is your one shot right here. Everybody gets one. Yeah, but it was so fun. I couldn't care less that it's that goofy because it was that good. Yeah.
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, hardly the goofiest moment of the episode though. I will say like, it's not even a gripe, but like having the battle droids have so much dialogue and having the one be so
Humor and Music in Emotional Depth
00:20:34
Speaker
sassy. Like when Groton's like, I am the rightful governor of this planet. And he's like, I was like, okay, sassy droid over here.
00:20:43
Speaker
The droids are so sassy in Clone Wars. It's it's so funny. Did we get a Roger Roger? I know there's some people that great but I how do we get battle droids without a Roger Roger? It's just a staple at this point. I think there might have been one Roger Roger. Let's go The last thing I want to bring up and it's I know you're normally kind of our music aficionado But I you know if music sticks out to me, I definitely make note of it But the end of the episode
00:21:12
Speaker
Like everything after Tawny Ames got shot down and Groton said, you know, put her body out there on the square and make an example of her, which I thought was like incredibly cruel because then he walks out and then crosshair walks out and it's like,
00:21:28
Speaker
Okay, so Cody's the one that has to do this. Cody was the one that didn't even pull the trigger. He didn't want to do it. Now you're making him do this. But anyway, the music sounded very different from what we've heard in Star Wars previously. It sounded very synthy to me. And I actually found myself like, this sounds like Blade Runner. And that's a good thing. I loved it. I thought it worked really well selling just this emotional impact and sorrow.
00:21:57
Speaker
throughout the rest of the episode, so I appreciate it. You know, John Williams, he's created an incredible body of work to inspire people, but just to kind of, like everything else we've talked about, seeing the galaxy expand, having the music expand as well, like Ludwig Gornson is doing incredible things on the Mandalorian, but this was just another example of hearing something very different in the Star Wars universe, but it working very well.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I didn't take too much note of it beyond the fact that it just emotionally sucked you in like the minute it happened. I don't know if I thought Cody was necessarily going to defect, but I knew something was going on with Cody from that moment onward, like, okay, maybe he's going to lead a few more missions or something. But it was definitely going to be a different tone for Cody from that point on. Agreed. Agreed.
Engagement and Listener Interaction
00:22:49
Speaker
Well, I think that's everything I have to say about this episode. Anything else you want to bring up before we call it a day? No, I'm full in on Bad Batch this season for sure. They've done some great work this time.
00:23:03
Speaker
All right, well, very cool. I encourage everybody that's listening, if you are watching along and enjoying Bad Batch season two, please let us know what your thoughts are. You can send us feedback. You can send a voicemail or, well, an audio message or an email to animationdeliberationpodcastatgmail.com. And there are other ways to reach us as well that I'll let Andrew talk about.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yes, you can reach us on all of your favorite social media platforms, except for some, now that I'm saying that out loud. You can reach us on Twitter at animationdelive1 and on Facebook and Instagram at animationdeliberation on both of those platforms. And yeah, that's all from the social side as well. Cool. Just a quick plug for me. The Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumanium Trailer 2 dropped earlier this week, and I
00:23:55
Speaker
had the privilege of joining Matthew Carroll on the Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast to break that trailer down with frame by frame.
Promotions and Sign-off
00:24:03
Speaker
And it was incredibly exciting because we got so much kang, got to really showcase Jonathan Majors as the terrifying villain he's going to be. So go check that out. Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast is part of the Stranded Panda network as we are. There's a video up on YouTube, Stranded Panda.
00:24:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's it for me. Anything you want to plug, Andrew? No, except for the fact that we had our New Year's episode drop earlier this week. Check that out for sure. It was a fun wrap up with plenty of listener feedback, as well as, like Jay Scott, he said, we have two episodes coming out. So if you're not watching My Hero, go watch My Hero. We also do have some news and feedback in that episode as well that you may want to be privy to. So check that out.
00:24:50
Speaker
All right, well, thank you all for tuning in. That's T-double-O-N-I-N. And then stay whelmed in muscle muscle.
00:24:59
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email animationdeliberationpodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at animationdelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash svchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.
00:25:29
Speaker
Mary redeemed a $50,000 cash prize, playing Chumba Casino this year. I was only playing for fun, so winning this was a dream come true. Chumba Casino is America's number one social casino experience. It's serious fun, with over 80 casino-style games to choose from. You, too, could win life-changing amounts of cash. Be like Mary. Log on to chumbacacino.com and give them a whirl. That's chumbacacino.com. No purchase necessary. Void war prohibited by law. 18+, terms and conditions apply. See website for details. The voice in the preceding commercial was not the actual voice of a winner.
00:25:59
Speaker
you