Decommissioned (The Bad Batch - S01E06) - Animated Series

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"Is there an echo in here? Yes!" SPOILERS.

Another week, another planet. This time: Corellia.

"Decommissioned" introduces two characters that we first saw in season 7 of The Clone Wars. The Martez sisters are back! I am sure quite a few fans will be elated to see them again... sadly, the Martez sisters arc in The Clone Wars was easily the worst thing about season 7. So why are the Martez sisters back and do their plans still suck? The Bad Batch are still on Ord Mantell and Cid is apparently turning into something like a handler for them who will give them odd jobs to do. Cid wants them to retrieve a tactical droid for unknown reasons. But before the Bad Batch head out we find out that Omega is a really bad shot, since she can barely hit the target with her new bow she got last week. Something that may or may not be of importance later on. Look up "Chekov's Gun" on the internet for further info!

Off to Corellia in yet another merry adventure

The Bad Batch make their way to Corellia, where they can find a tactical droid. Once on Corellia the Bad Batch, including Omega, who is still a little kid, infiltrate a foundry where bazillions of droids get melted down. Everything works according to plan until some unknown figure snatches the head of the tactical droid they are after and Omega, who was told to hide away (why not let her stay on the ship in the first place then?), encounters yet another mysterious person... who turns out to be Rafa Martez. And of course the arrival of the Martez sisters messes everything up. Meanwhile the other Bad Batch members encounter the second Martez sister, Trace, who has the head of the tactical droid on her but promptly loses it again. Omega threatens Rafa with her energy bow, eventually Rafa tries to wrangle the bow from Omega, a shot is fired accidentally, damaging the forge which alerts the workers who then notice the Bad Batch and the authorities are alerted. Which means an army of police droids raids the forge and all hell breaks loose.

The world's best planner of plans threatened by Omega

The Bad Batch eventually enter some kind of uneasy alliance with the Martez sisters and together they try to escape the foundry which is swarmed by police droids. Wrecker suffers yet another headache and gets shot, but of course his plot armor is working and nothing really happens to him.

When plans fail spectacularly. Hannibal Smith would not be pleased.

In the chase for the lost head of the tactical droid Omega gets stuck on a conveyor belt but she's rescued by Rafa Martez. Meanwhile the police droids threaten to overwhelm the Bad Batch. But the team gets its hand on the head of the tactical droid again and Trace Martez comes up with a good plan actually, she reactivates the tactical droid and orders him to attack the police droids. So the tactical droid in turn reactivates the countless battle droids in the forge who then attack the police droids. Tech also copies all the data from the tactical droid, which is all they really need. And with the help of the battle droids engaging the police droids the Bad Batch and the Martez sisters manage to make their escape from the foundry.

It's not Rafa Martez that gives Wrecker a headache here...

Soon after the Bad Batch and the Martez sisters part ways again. but not before Omega invites them to come visit them on Ord Mantell. And Hunter hands over the data rod with all the data from the tactical droid over to Rafa Martez. She did wonder before why the clones are not working for the Empire, which prompted Hunter to reply that they are different. And he actually proves it by handing over the precious data to Rafa, because the Martez sisters will "use it for the right reasons".

The Martez sisters are contacting some secret figure over the holonet

In the final scene of the episode the only really important thing happens: the Martez sisters contact a mystery man and inform him that they have the tactical droid data and that they had help from a bunch of rogue clones, something which he may find interesting.

And that concludes this week's adventure! Overall it was an enjoyable episode, as in, it was action packed and lots of blaster shots were fired. Once again it was very light on actual plot, if you skipped the entire episode and just watched the last few seconds with the Martez sisters contacting the unknown mystery man it's everything you'd really need to remember from this episode.

It is quite apparent that the Martez sisters are working for some proto Rebellion in my opinion and the show does the same thing "Rebels" did - with keeping Fulcrum a mystery person for quite some time. But I believe the identity of the mystery man is not all that difficult to figure out. I'd be quite surprised if it's not Bail Organa. But we will find out eventually. I just hope the show doesn't delay the inevitable reveal for too long.

This in turn means that the Martez sisters were instrumental for the Rebellion, at least in the early days. About the Martez sisters: their arc in season 7 of The Clone Wars was really, really bad, as in, badly written, this time it's much better, but then again the episode was very much action driven and very light on actual plot. Still, the arrival of the Martez sisters caused lots of chaos and mayhem. Chances are very high that the Martez sisters will be recurring characters from now on. But we'll see. It's certainly only a matter of time before the Bad Batch get in contact with the early Rebellion.

Also, it seems the Bad Batch will be on Ord Mantell for now, with Cid giving them various jobs to do. I really hope this arrangement will not last for long though, since this could rapidly devolve into a very formulaic approach where the Bad Batch do random odd jobs for Cid. The sooner they leave Ord Mantell again and the sooner they meet Rex, Ahsoka, some other Jedi or even the Martez sisters or Bail Organa, the better, to get the actual plot going. We still need to resolve Wrecker's inhibitor chip troubles, Omega's mystery and Crosshair's eventual rescue (or death). And while "Decommissioned" was overall a fun episode with good action it's relevant moments are only found in the last few seconds when the Martez sisters contact mystery man.

A quick word about Omega: for once she did not save the day, instead Trace Martez did when she instructed the tactical droid to reactivate the battle droids. It seems the Bad Batch really need outside help. But still, they were quite competent this week, which is nice to see. But the show really needs to address the issue of taking a child on dangerous missions. Yes, it's just a (tv) show, it's not real, it's meant to be entertainment and an adventure and it's family entertainment, but even so it makes literally zero sense at all to take Omega along on missions and to put her in danger again and again, why she doesn't stay behind on the ship makes no sense. Any responsible person would not put Omega's life in danger all the time. And this is the issue you face when you create a child character like Omega. Inevitably the child will do all these adult things no child should do or will do. I think it would have been better to make Omega a little older, a teenager at least, so she can be a more active member of the team. The way things are now her involvement sticks out like a sore thumb, because everytime she's taken along on a mission you can't help but think that the Bad Batch are terribly irresponsible caretakers. But kids will certainly not see it like that. The ultimate question is though how many kids watch the show and if it's not just middle aged adults once again that tune in each week.

Overall "Decommissioned" was a step up again from last week's episode and it at least hinted at the Rebellion slowly forming. I wonder how much The Bad Batch will turn into a Rebels prequel eventually.