IR TV Review: THE BAD BATCH - EPISODE 4 (“Cornered”) [Disney+]

Finding the balance of a journey and an adventure, "The Bad Batch" in approaching its 4th episode: "Cornered" finds a little bit of both. Moving in the structure of being out of resources, the crew is forced to land on a populated planet probably aware that The Empire is gunning for them. Omega, as usual, propels the story but also reflects it. What the episode tries to do is show the tactics that worked for the guys while they were part of The Clones don't quite work the same way in the real world with no back-up. What makes this episode different is one sequence that feels in many ways similar to one in "Attack Of The Clones" but from a different perspective. Also the level of brutality becomes a little more apparent here which seems a little more vicious than previous episodes. Granted there needs to be stakes.

The aspect of also mask and what constitutes trust in an interesting play (but also mirroring in a slight way Ashoka and Ventress in "The Clone Wars"). The intensity is good but the episode does two things. It reminds the viewer, beyond the clones, that we are really in the bigger Star Wars Universe. Two, it also shows building towards a bigger story though the episode serves little more than a plot bridge. There is also a nice hiccup of humor with some droids that runs through the middle part of this ep. "Cornered" continues to show the path but also adds a slight wrench that will have implications. B+

By Tim Wassberg