The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 11

Zillo-Morph

I have a friend who calls mixing your geek references “crossing the streams.” If you say the USS Enterprise-B went into hyperspace, you are crossing the streams. If you say “may the Force be with you” to a person dressed like Doctor Who, you are crossing the streams.

Episode 11 of The Bad Batch Season 2 crosses so many streams. Taking the Zillo Beast (a love letter to Godzilla from The Clone Wars) and transforming it into an Alien homage? That is a Russian nesting doll of nerd-dom. (I would suggest that this particular Alien reference, with its tall grass and Zillo-morph running into the forest, feels like it belongs in the under-appreciated Alien: Covenant.)

With this episode, you get an encapsulation of the throw-everything-at-the-wall energy of The Bad Batch. This feels very much like one more stand-alone episode of the series, designed to show off just how good the animators have gotten at lighting effects and provide a few thrills.

It also feels like another reward for long-time viewers of the Filoni-verse. This season we’ve seen Riyo Chuchi, Gungi, The Zillo Beast, Rex and Cody, and even the Martez sisters’ garage. Beyond the Filoni-verse we get to see Republic/Clone Commandos, outside the confines of a video game. It’s callback central in the post-war Clone Wars era.

Then, there is a surprising sleight-of-hand.