The Bad Batch Season 3 Episode 13
SPOILERS WILL NOT ABORT THE MISSION
When this season began, I wrote that moving into the homestretch had given The Bad Batch a more focused storytelling approach.
When the end is in sight, clarity arrives. The first three episodes of The Bad Batch Season 3 “Confined,” “Paths Unknown,” and “Shadows of Tantiss,” leap directly into the wrenching circumstances from the Season 2 cliffhanger. They’re propulsive and cohesive; even the quiet, character-driven first episode has an eerie energy. Finality has given The Bad Batch focus.
That remains true, to an extent. This season has been single-minded. It’s focus has been squarely on the goings-on at Tantiss. Our heroes want to know how to get there, how to escape from it, what types of experiments are happening there, and what it has to do with Omega.
Usually, this type of focused storytelling is an unequivocal plus. It provides an engine that drives events forward. Lots of writers and editors prefer lean-and-mean, will tell a screenwriter that everything in a scene must contribute to forward progress. Not necessary to the story? Send it to the cutting room floor.
But there’s a Catch-22 I hadn’t anticipated in having fewer detours in this episodic series. Episodes like “Into The Breach” offer a good example of this. Sequences are now all ostensibly related to the main story, but still have the feeling of wheel-spinning. Why are we punching alligators and chasing down Praying Mantis Man? We have to, in order to find Tantiss. Why are we breaking Admiral Rampart out of an Imperial prison camp? We have to, in order to locate Tantiss. Why are we meeting with shockingly alive Asajj Ventress? She might know why the Empire’s after Omega (she doesn’t) and that will help us find Tantiss (it doesn’t). It feels like finding Tantiss requires a lot of…stuff to do!
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