Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Metamorphosis
March 2, 2023 7:08 AM - Season 2, Episode 11 - Subscribe
The team's decision to retrieve the cargo of a crashed ship results in the return of a familiar face and hints at the Empire's nefarious plans.
"Metamorphosis" is the 11th episode of the season, which means we have just four weeks left in the season.
"Metamorphosis" is the 11th episode of the season, which means we have just four weeks left in the season.
Zillo isn't just a kaiju, it's a wonderful state of mind. The CW episodes were some of the best and I was pretty delighted when I saw baby Zillo and even more delighted when baby zillo became teenage zillo. I think that's the nomenclature.
Even without the Mt Tantis stuff, this was a pretty great episode from the animation to the directing and everything else. The opening shot of the freighter with the light shifting across the damaged bridge was incredible. The zillo portions made me wish the animation team would be given an opportunity to create a horror film because they have the tools and the chops.
This episode also drew upon some of the "filler" episodes earlier this season in two ways:
1) The team's frustration with Cid pulled on the warning by whats his name in the racing episode that they couldn't trust her. To be fair to Cid in the last episode, she said she'd get help in a few days to them and they basically rescued themselves before that could happen. Nonetheless, we're seeing this storyline slowly proceed. I have a bad feeling for Cid, in that I fully expect she will be given a chance to sell out the team and save herself/get rich, and she won't and will meet a bad end.
2) The whole scene when Omega is shadowing Senator Riyo Chuchi and meets Kaminoan Halle Burtoni, and Omega blurts out she's a clone from Kamino...it finally paid off in today's episode. The back half of the season is starting to potentially put a big target on Omega with the introduction of our bad cloning guy villain at Tantis. Big guess that at the end of the next episode, there'll be a hunt out for Omega and the team because of this. Or, at worse, we'll learn more about what makes Omega special.
Speaking of Tantiss, what's the deal with the two women working there? Are they supposed to be mind controlled or something? Why do they wear those strange glasses but the male scientist doesn't?
Ten to one they're clones. I was just rewatching for a split second and I caught something of a Kiwi accent, i.e., like Omega's. The male researcher may be the only person there that isn't a clone. Those are Clone Supercommandos, and it was interesting as it seemed, too, there was some kind of doubt happening in that one commander's response to dealing with the poor townfolks who got to see the blessing of Zillo.
Unlike some of the past episodes, this one just felt a bit more put together.
posted by Atreides at 10:58 AM on March 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
Even without the Mt Tantis stuff, this was a pretty great episode from the animation to the directing and everything else. The opening shot of the freighter with the light shifting across the damaged bridge was incredible. The zillo portions made me wish the animation team would be given an opportunity to create a horror film because they have the tools and the chops.
This episode also drew upon some of the "filler" episodes earlier this season in two ways:
1) The team's frustration with Cid pulled on the warning by whats his name in the racing episode that they couldn't trust her. To be fair to Cid in the last episode, she said she'd get help in a few days to them and they basically rescued themselves before that could happen. Nonetheless, we're seeing this storyline slowly proceed. I have a bad feeling for Cid, in that I fully expect she will be given a chance to sell out the team and save herself/get rich, and she won't and will meet a bad end.
2) The whole scene when Omega is shadowing Senator Riyo Chuchi and meets Kaminoan Halle Burtoni, and Omega blurts out she's a clone from Kamino...it finally paid off in today's episode. The back half of the season is starting to potentially put a big target on Omega with the introduction of our bad cloning guy villain at Tantis. Big guess that at the end of the next episode, there'll be a hunt out for Omega and the team because of this. Or, at worse, we'll learn more about what makes Omega special.
Speaking of Tantiss, what's the deal with the two women working there? Are they supposed to be mind controlled or something? Why do they wear those strange glasses but the male scientist doesn't?
Ten to one they're clones. I was just rewatching for a split second and I caught something of a Kiwi accent, i.e., like Omega's. The male researcher may be the only person there that isn't a clone. Those are Clone Supercommandos, and it was interesting as it seemed, too, there was some kind of doubt happening in that one commander's response to dealing with the poor townfolks who got to see the blessing of Zillo.
Unlike some of the past episodes, this one just felt a bit more put together.
posted by Atreides at 10:58 AM on March 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
The opening shot of the freighter with the light shifting across the damaged bridge was incredible. The zillo portions made me wish the animation team would be given an opportunity to create a horror film because they have the tools and the chops.
Yeah, it's like they know how excellent their lighting effects are, and in this one they were fully flaunting it.
Of note: Doc Hemlock is voiced by Jimmi Simpson, of the McPoyle lineage and of Star Trek: Prodigy.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 11:48 AM on March 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
Yeah, it's like they know how excellent their lighting effects are, and in this one they were fully flaunting it.
Of note: Doc Hemlock is voiced by Jimmi Simpson, of the McPoyle lineage and of Star Trek: Prodigy.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 11:48 AM on March 2, 2023 [3 favorites]
Ten to one they're clones.
Yeah, that was my thinking. They got a lot of attention from the camera, and they sounded a LOT like Omega. The question is: are they Regs (like the regular clones); modified clones (like the Bad Batch), or unmodified (like Omega and Boba)?
... Is Omega unmodified other than gender? Have we learned that?
I really enjoyed this episode: it was very atmospheric and horrifying. Those poor villagers! They didn't even do anything! I do wonder if they would have been rounded up if TBB hadn't accidentally freed the Zillo Beast.
posted by suelac at 3:40 PM on March 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yeah, that was my thinking. They got a lot of attention from the camera, and they sounded a LOT like Omega. The question is: are they Regs (like the regular clones); modified clones (like the Bad Batch), or unmodified (like Omega and Boba)?
... Is Omega unmodified other than gender? Have we learned that?
I really enjoyed this episode: it was very atmospheric and horrifying. Those poor villagers! They didn't even do anything! I do wonder if they would have been rounded up if TBB hadn't accidentally freed the Zillo Beast.
posted by suelac at 3:40 PM on March 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
This definitely felt like the season, having mucked around quite a bit, finally got into its groove and is going somewhere with the BBs and the developing Empire and how they really deal with each other. My thoughts (WRT some of the points made above):
- I don't know if Cid is really bad per se; regardless of her former partner's warning, she may have had just a bit too much of a conscience to be really bad, which was his problem with her, or, and this is what I'm leaning toward, maybe she's just inherently a small-timer and is hard-pressed to come up with the relatively pathetic scores that she's given the Beebs up until now. Her bar never seems to be busy and she can't get a rescue out to them on Mining Planet sooner than they can get themselves out. If she either gets killed, it will probably be because of Doc Hemlock (what a name!) looking for Omega, and whether or not she gives them up or not, she'll probably either die or have to go to ground.
- Speaking of the Doc and his crew, I think that the scientists are clones, and that the whole purpose of Hemlock's operations is to investigate cloning humans for other purposes, even if they're going to go with recruits for the stormtroopers.
- ... Is Omega unmodified other than gender? Have we learned that? No, we have not. I still think that she's got something going on other than simply being leverage over the Kaminoan scientist.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:20 PM on March 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
- I don't know if Cid is really bad per se; regardless of her former partner's warning, she may have had just a bit too much of a conscience to be really bad, which was his problem with her, or, and this is what I'm leaning toward, maybe she's just inherently a small-timer and is hard-pressed to come up with the relatively pathetic scores that she's given the Beebs up until now. Her bar never seems to be busy and she can't get a rescue out to them on Mining Planet sooner than they can get themselves out. If she either gets killed, it will probably be because of Doc Hemlock (what a name!) looking for Omega, and whether or not she gives them up or not, she'll probably either die or have to go to ground.
- Speaking of the Doc and his crew, I think that the scientists are clones, and that the whole purpose of Hemlock's operations is to investigate cloning humans for other purposes, even if they're going to go with recruits for the stormtroopers.
- ... Is Omega unmodified other than gender? Have we learned that? No, we have not. I still think that she's got something going on other than simply being leverage over the Kaminoan scientist.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:20 PM on March 2, 2023 [1 favorite]
There is definitely something about Omega. She, like Boba, was also not given the rapid aging gene, but that's all we know. I expect we will find out by the end of this season.
posted by Atreides at 7:36 AM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Atreides at 7:36 AM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
I agree that those two scientists are probably clones. I think, besides the Kiwi accent, their glasses were very reminiscent of the glasses that Tech wears.
posted by sleeping bear at 8:21 AM on March 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by sleeping bear at 8:21 AM on March 3, 2023 [3 favorites]
I thought maybe their glasses were made by Meta, Microsoft, or Google, as I am sure those companies would help put the fascist in fascist empire.
posted by oldnumberseven at 10:16 PM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by oldnumberseven at 10:16 PM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
According to those who received screeners, this week's episode ("The Outpost") is supposed to be the best of the season. With Crosshair again, FINALLY.
posted by orrnyereg at 6:31 AM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by orrnyereg at 6:31 AM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Not that it matters, but doesn’t it take tremendous amounts of energy to create mass? Wouldn’t that creature consume huge amounts of energy while growing at an imperceptibly slow rate?
posted by snofoam at 9:15 AM on March 7, 2023
posted by snofoam at 9:15 AM on March 7, 2023
It used the Force.
posted by Atreides at 10:08 AM on March 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Atreides at 10:08 AM on March 7, 2023 [1 favorite]
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I was 100% Team Zillo for the CW episodes and am still a cheerleader of that poor guy. He just wants to be left alone! I got the impression that they're keeping multiple Zillos, at Tantiss or wherever that ship was coming from, or both. My inner nihilist hopes that there are, and that at some point they are freed to start dishing out chaos.
Speaking of Tantiss, what's the deal with the two women working there? Are they supposed to be mind controlled or something? Why do they wear those strange glasses but the male scientist doesn't?
Wrecker was particularly amusing in this episode. Making faces at Cid, waving around that boom-stick, doing that baffled-cat head tilt at the growing lizard, comforting a horrified Omega.
posted by orrnyereg at 8:01 AM on March 2, 2023 [2 favorites]