The Bad Batch find themselves in a tight spot once again in this week’s episode, “Cornered.”

We come back to the titular group as they’re making a supply run on Pandora. Their situation seems dire as they don’t have the parts to trade so that they can get the credits they need. Things become even more alarming when Omega wanders from the group and gets lost in the large city. A simple in and out turns into a chase on the streets as the Bad Batch races to find Omega as she’s being hunted by bounty hunter Fennec Shand, who was hired to track down Omega for unknown employers. I know right, another Star Wars story where the main leads have to protect a child from bounty hunters and the Empire.

The first half of this episode is mainly focused on the group being forced to find ways to get the food and fuel they need. While that doesn’t seem like much, the plot does pick up significantly when Fennec Shand shows up. Despite this, there are a few things to enjoy in the first half. For one, some of the character interactions do get a laugh out of me. Wrecker and Tech have some good lines, and even some of the situations these characters are placed in are enjoyable to watch. One example being how Echo is disguised as a droid so that he can pretend to be sold off to get the group the credits they need. It may sound odd, but I did get some enjoyment out of these scenes.

The biggest part of this episode is hands down Fennec Shand, even bringing back Ming-Na-Wen to voice the character. Even though this character is coming off the heels of fellow Star Wars show “The Mandalorian,” it’s nice to finally see this character given more focus and play a major role in this story. Even though we don’t know much about her background or her life during this time period, the writers still give her enough personality to where you understand what she’s about. It also helps that, unlike most familiar characters who show up where you need to have some background on who they are, I feel that fans can watch this fine as it doesn’t reveal anything fans don’t already know about the character. I feel like some of the best moments are when Omega gets lost and Fennec comes in and pretends to help her find her group. While you enjoy seeing these two characters interact, you still feel suspenseful as you’re seeing this naive child interacting with this character who clearly has ulterior motives. 

The episode then turns into a chase on multiple fronts with all the characters running through the streets, in the sewers, on top of buildings, the typical chase setup. It eventually leads to a speeder chase throughout the city which did give me “Attack of the Clones” vibes as it had a familiar chase scene. While the episode does end on a happy note, it still leaves things open enough to where you can read into them. Like why was Fennec after Omega? Who hired her? And who wants to get their hands on this character? Questions like this do add more to the plot as the story seems to be kicking into high gear with multiple forces coming into play.

This episode does a good job at creating a suspenseful situation while also bringing another character into the fold. The story seems to be picking up speed as new enemies seem to be popping up in unexpected places. Let’s see how the titular group takes things from here.

Rating: 5 / 5 Spinnaker Sails.

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