There are spoilers in this The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 11 recap titled “Metamorphosis”.
The third season debut of The Mandalorian rightfully overshadowed this week’s The Bad Batch episode, which is virtually a creature feature. And it’s a beast we’ve already seen, the Zillo Beast from a Clone Wars episode when Palpatine intended to use the Republic army’s unbreakable skin. Although in the middle of a very average season, this outing for Clone Force 99 is still pretty good thanks to the introduction of a rather menacing new character, some old ones that were sidelined, and the tight suspense of the episode.
The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 11 Recap
The old characters are Nala Se and Lama Su, the Kaminoans who oversaw the cloning procedures, while the new one is Doctor Hemlock. The second season of The Bad Batch continues to focus on the purpose and future of the clones under the new Empire, which serves to create a more narrative thread in the backdrop of what would otherwise be a monster-of-the-week episode.
Nevertheless the most of it is still a creature trait. Cid is responsible for Clone Force 99’s being near the monster once more. Yet, since she abandoned them during their previous assignment, their relationship has grown somewhat tight, and cutting it off would be risky given how much she knows about them. The squad is thus coerced into looking at what ultimately turns out to be a Kaminoan research vessel.
This episode’s alien-inspired ambiance is a refreshing change of pace, and it’s admirable how the main plot is connected to Kamino’s devastation, the Empire’s future goals, some of the Zillo Beast research that was suggested in The Clone Wars, and so on and so forth. This gives Metamorphosis the peculiar distinction of feeling both highly unique and like a cog in a much larger machine, informed by choices and concepts from elsewhere, all at the same time. That’s kind of the idea of this expansive multimedia storytelling approach, and Bad Batch has seemed sufficiently frequently cut off from the larger mythos for this to feel novel.
The familiarity of the Zillo Beast lessens some of the surprise, making the Zillo Beast‘s development to enormous sizes after consuming energy seem natural rather than unexpected. That is why the Imperial conspiracy is so important; Clone Force 99 not only defeated the creature but also started to figure out the Empire’s plans, which gave Metamorphosis much more structure and significance than it would have had if it had been merely a fortuitous meeting. Also, it seems as though we should be paying close attention as we proceed to the debut of Doctor Hemlock.