Curate, connect, and discover
Forgive me if these thoughts are less coherent than usually, I'm pretty freaking tired atm. Thoughts are as much in order as I can manage.
Firstly, this episode was a much needed, lower emotionally charged break from the last...seven episodes of the season. The thing about stories is that they can't be running at warp 9 the entire time. It will burn your audience out. Heck, I'm at a lower energy, transitiatory part of my long fic. So yeah, this episode didn't cause the emotional damage and stress that the last 7 did, but that's a good thing.
Omega has the neurodivergent ✨️leg jiggle✨️
Poor dear needs a hug and for someone to free the Tantiss clones.
PHEE MY QUEEN
Crosshair's face when Omega says 'liberator of ancient wonders' I love him.
Okay, I know that a lot of people are upset about Phee not being more emotional about Tech. I've got a few thoughts on that. My expectations going into the scene with her was that she wasn't going to be mentioning Tech. So when she did, I was really happy. She doesn't need to bring him up in the conversation, but she does.
So let's dive a little deeper into this. There are only two people who have brought up Tech without any prompting so far: Echo and Phee. Omega only mentions him when it's a direct answer to Crosshair's question. Hunter, Crosshair, and Wrecker have not mentioned him once by name. Now, I think this is because Echo and Phee have both known loss and know better how to handle it. The rest of the Batch hasn't, before Tech. We have watched practically all of Echo's loss, but not Phee's. However, we know that Pabu is a place for refugees, which Phee likely is. She's lost at least a home, if not family and friends. Add on top of that Phee is just in general a world wide person, and I think we can assume that she's someone who's got a more healthy way of processing grief than our emotionally stunted soldiers.
Something that you do with people that you've loved and lost is remember them. That's what I see Phee doing here. She's managed to process her grief in the last 4 months, and she's keeping the memory of someone she cared about alive by mentioning him in conversation.
So yeah. I liked that scene and it warmed my Tech/Phee loving heart.
Anyways,
Oooooh Fennec!!!
I love Crosshair not knowing anything but it also makes me sad.
Hunter: try to get Crosshair to get his hand looked at
Omega: what do you mean 'try'
Thoughts on Crosshair and Omega scenes:
What did my poor boy go through????
Poor man is probably resisting the idea that it's in his head because he already HAD a thing in his head that ruined his life
Omega: you don't like anything
Crosshair: true
Your honor I would die for them. Also I find his 'true' to be a little sad (and adorable)
OMG THEY'RE MEDITATING (and they have somehow stolen YET ANOTHER thing from my fic, this time before I've even gotten past the concept stage)
Omega: you missed a lot
Crosshair: I know
He's thinking of Tech in that moment.
Oh my gosh her hand on his and how he lets her move his hand THEY ARE TRYING TO KILL ME.
The Bad Batch says take care of your mental
Thoughts about Space Everglades:
I really loved Wrecker this episode. He really got to shine. He has the most banter with Fennec, he gets to do his demo thing, he freaking curb stomps space alligators, and he's the MVP in getting the bug man. It was really nice. Also, 'YOU HEARD ME!!!!' Let Wrecker go feral.
Bro, I really liked the bar music. I like seeing more of the music that plays in universe.
Wrecker and Hunter are definitely having flashbacks to Cid this entire episode. Except Fennec gives them more intel.
Fennec is a delight as always.
My prediction to who she's selling them out to? Ventress. And I don't think Ventress' intentions are bad.
So yeah, a solid episode! I'm honestly probably going to leave a lot of the star wars subreddits just to avoid everyone and their dog complaining about filler. Which this was NOT.
And as the next episode is called the Harbinger, I feel like this might be one of our last breaths before the plunge and everything goes sideways.
Oh, and in case you forgot. Tech lives ❤️