The Bad Batch exposes worker exploitation in the Star Wars universe in “Retrieval”

The latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, “Retrieval,” picks up with the crew still stranded on the planet waiting for Cid to pick them up. Omega realizes that the droid Gonky was still on their ship the Marauder when it was stolen, and Tech has her try to triangulate his position. Omega figures out that Gonky and the ship are still on the planet and begin searching.

Gonky is still on the Marauder, which was stolen by a kid named Benni in the previous episode. Benni seems to work for a guy named Mokko. The Bad Batch catch up with Benni and demand their ship back, but he says he can’t go against Mokko. They don’t give him a choice, so he ends up taking them to the Marauder. However, the hyper drive has already been stripped and they need to get a ray shield deactivated to fly the ship out.

Omega goes undercover with Benni to get to the control room and deactivate the shield. We find out that Mokko has an entire group of young teenagers stealing stuff for him in exchange for food, and he only gives a single bowl of soup for everyone except the top earner for the month. Benni thought he would get a full bowl of soup for stealing the Marauder, but the top earner always seems to be a kid named Drake.

Benni and Omega make their way to the control room where Benni vents his frustration at never being the top earner, even after stealing the Bad Batch’s ship. He is so desperate for Mokko’s approval that he doesn’t even realize how little Mokko cares for his “workers,” and how Mokko is blatantly lying to them about not having any food. Benni doesn’t want to leave though because this life is all he knows. Benni also tells Omega how it seems nice that the rest of the Bad Batch treats her as one of their own. She shares some of her food with him since he didn’t get any of the soup.

Mokko exploits child laborers on a new episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch

While trying looking for the shield controls, Omega comes across Mokko’s ipsium records. Mokko had been lying to his workers about the ipsium being degraded, telling them that they will find a better source if they kept working. The records show the ipsium is pure, and that Mokko has been making a ton of money while the workers get next to nothing.

Benni sells out Omega and Mokko shows up in the control room to take her hostage. There’s a big showdown on a bridge over a pool of lava (of course), where the crew confronts Mokko, but he has one of his droids ready to throw Omega into the lava. At the last minute, Benni shows up and calls out Mokko for lying and making them work with little pay while he takes all the profit. Drake sees the proof and the rest of the workers turn on Mokko. He orders his droid to throw Omega in the lava but Hunter uses a grappling hook to catch her mid-air.

After Omega is safe, Wrecker and Tech take out Mokko’s remaining droids while the rest of the kids swarm their boss. He trips over the railing and tries to take Benni down with him, but he falls in alone. The crew gets their ship back and Benni returns all of their gear. The workers plan on sharing the profits and food from now on and Benni also tells the Bad Batch  he owes them a favor if they ever need anything stolen in the future.

The episode closes with Omega telling Tech that she’s worried about the bad people out there, as there are more threats than just the Empire. Tech reassures her that there are also good guys out there as well.

Verdict

While nothing significant truly happened in this episode, “Retrieval” told an interesting standalone story about the harsh treatment of workers. I wasn’t really expecting to see this on an episode of The Bad Batch, but it was intriguing. Themes of greed, power and manipulation ran throughout the episode, all of it set against a Temple of Doom-esque backdrop; the only thing missing was the alligators at the bottom of the pit Mokko was thrown into. The crew also made a new friend in Benni and got the Marauder back. Yay.

Episode Grade: B-

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