Summary
“Common Ground” sends the Bad Batch on a mission that might alter their perspectives, while Omega makes herself useful.
This recap of Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1, episode 10, “Common Ground”, contains spoilers.
In last week’s episode, the Bad Batch and Omega escaped the clutches of Cad Bane and the Kaminoans with a little help from Fennec Shand and her sympathetic (also Kaminoan) employer. “Common Ground” opens elsewhere, though, with Senator Avi Singh standing up for the unlawfully occupied people of Raxus against Imperial control — heroic self-sacrifice, essentially, since he’s immediately taken away by the Stormtroopers while his droid, GS-8, scurries off under his instruction. But GS-8 is able to get a request for assistance out to… someone.
Clone Force 99, meanwhile, are back on Ord Mantell, enjoying the Mantell Mix and keeping a low profile. But Cid, as ever, has a job for them. They’re to break Avi Singh out of his captivity, though they’re reluctant since Raxus was the former centre of Separatist government, and you know how the clones feel about the Separatists. For safety’s sake, they decide to leave Omega behind in Cid’s care, which seems ill-advised and which Omega doesn’t take well anyway. But being part of the squad means following orders.
While the Bad Batch meets with Cid’s client, GS-8, Cid attempts to bond with a sulky Omega, which makes for two distinct halves to The Bad Batch episode 10. It’s a nice change since usually Clone Force 99 are forced to rescue Omega or at least drag her along with them (Wrecker even assumes she’s present at one point, just out of habit); here we get to see them on an actual mission but without the easy, built-in stakes of Omega being imperilled. We also get to see another side of Cid and indeed Omega herself, who is still grappling with the idea of her own usefulness after a lifetime of being treated as an assembly-line product.
Omega quickly realizes her usefulness in strategizing dejarik matches, so Cid immediately enlists her to win a few games for the house, for a split that Omega negotiates up to 60%. She’s learning! The Bad Batch, meanwhile, spring Singh from captivity and hijack an Imperial walker in a nifty little sequence that leads to the destruction of another tank. This is solid action with a hefty dollop of character since it shows how well-oiled Clone Force 99 are as a unit. Visually it’s great, too. The lumbering walkers feel big and dangerous, and the effects — giant bolts of plasma, licking flames, etc. — look lovely. During the escape, Singh has a crisis of conscience when it comes to leaving his people behind, and the clones get to see another side of Separatist leaders — most of them have their peoples’ best interests at heart.
When the Bad Batch returns to Ord Mantell, they find a crowd has gathered around dejarik champion Omega, who is being lovingly held by Cid. Hunter is annoyed that this is kind of the opposite of keeping a low profile, as instructed, but Cid immediately leaps to the defence of her new friend. Omega has made enough money to pay off the group’s debts. The Bad Batch season 1, episode 10 ends with Hunter proposing one more game of dejarik between him and Omega — if she wins, which one must assume she will, then she won’t be sitting out on any more missions.
