Review: “Rampage” jostles the formula of Star Wars: The Bad Batch

The fifth episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch shakes up the formula a bit by focusing on different characters, which was long overdue.

After weeks of disappointment, the fifth installment of Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a slight improvement and shows the potential of the series. In “Rampage,” the Bad Batch travels to Ord Mantell to find an ex-Republic informant. In exchange for intel on the mysterious Fennec Shand, Cid, the informant, asks the squad to rescue a kid named Muchi. However, while attempting the rescue, the team gets into trouble, leaving Omega to save the day.

“Rampage” is Omega’s episode as she finally feels like a full-fledged member of the squad. In the episode’s opening minutes, Tech gives her Crosshair’s old comm device so she can easily communicate with the rest of them on missions.

While we’ve seen her relationships with Hunter and Wrecker grow, we see more of Omega’s relationship with Echo in this episode. It’s always great to see more of him since he was one of my favorite characters in The Clone Wars, but unfortunately he’s been sidelined in recent outings. In “Rampage,” Echo looks out for Omega, protects her, and follows her lead when she rescues the team. I’m looking forward to seeing more of their dynamic and watching Omega and Tech’s relationship grow.

With each passing episode, we see Omega starting to learn how to adapt to new situations. She sneakily evades the slave traders when they infiltrate their ship, and she uses her wits to release the rancor to attack the Bad Batch’s captors. We also see her “gift” in action again when she identifies Cid when the others can’t.

This is also the first episode since the pilot where it feels like the Bad Batch is working together to complete their mission. After Omega rescues the squad, they devise a plan to rescue the other prisoners and capture Muchi. Echo and Omega take the freed prisoners and send them on their way while the other three take on the rancor.

It was also great to see Wrecker’s strength on display, since he too has also been sidelined since the pilot. We get another scene where he complains about a headache. This worries me, especially since his inhibitor chip is acting up. We’ll see where this storyline goes.

Despite the more ensemble feel, this episode still doesn’t do a great job of juggling its cast, as Tech and Hunter are on the bench while we get more scenes of Echo and Wrecker. While this is a great shakeup from the usual formula, I still prefer to see the focus on all of them instead of two or three at a time. This change is nice, but it only goes so far.

The animation continues to be a highlight in these episodes. The detail is gorgeous, but one shot, in particular was stunning: When the group arrives on Ord Mantell, there is a brief establishing shot of the city, and it would look great as a desktop background. That’s how amazing it looked.

The episode does get a bit fan service-y toward the end, as we learn the rancor belongs to Bib Fortuna and Jabba the Hutt. The episode tries to play off Fortuna’s cameo as a mystery, but it wasn’t difficult to piece together.

Overall, “Rampage” is a nice change of pace even if it switched up only minor things and didn’t really balance the characters all that well. But it was fun to see the continuing adventures of Omega and her older brothers. I am starting to warm up to this show, and if it continues to switch up its stale formula, it’ll jump from a below-average Star Wars series to a great one.

Grade: B+

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