Is The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 5 connected to Fallen Order? We discuss the possible connection between the series and the game.
The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 5 brought a fun treasure hunt to the galaxy, with a hunt for a long-forgotten historical artifact buried on a long-forgotten planet. Many of the beats are reminiscent of Indiana Jones, with Kevin Kiner’s musical score alluding to the franchise. The tomb they find is full of booby traps and dangerous creatures and even culminates in the Bad Batch and Phee activating a giant mech.
Who built this mech appears to be new to Star Wars, and while that is a possibility, it’s also possible that the architects may already be known. In Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, players are introduced to the ancient race of the Zeffo, a species known for building complex tombs across the galaxy and using automatons to guard them. It’s possible they created this mech.
A seemingly new creature is also introduced in the episode, one that attacks the Bad Batch. This creature bears many similarities to one seen in Fallen Order on Dathomir, a Nydak.
Is The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 5 connected to Fallen Order?
What is the creature in episode 5 of The Bad Batch Season 2?
Roughly midway through the episode, the Bad Batch gets attacked and separated by a savage-looking creature, before they’re able to defeat it by throwing it out the top of the large mech they find themselves on. The creature is difficult to beat, with it being large and able to move about very fast and climb all over.
This creature looks very similar to a lesser or alpha Nydak, a semi-bipedal species that had extremely powerful forearms to get around terrain. It was highly agile, jumping about to catch prey off guard. The creature had spikes covering its skin and sharp claws, and its tough hide made it a tough foe. They were solitary creatures, and very aggressive. The alpha versions are much larger and considered more furious than the lesser versions.
First seen in Fallen Order in 2019, the Nydak lived on the planet Dathomir, amid the ruins of the planet where it was the apex predator. Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis would encounter the both alpha and lesser variants when visiting the planet to locate the Zeffo tomb of Kujet, and kill them.
It seems like the species is also found on one of the planets in the Kaldar Trinary System, which has had its surface razed and turned into ruins. It’s a similar surface to Dathomir, which makes it the perfect environment for a Nydak. It’s very aggressive towards the Bad Batch, seemingly unhappy the group has disturbed its peace.
Where does the mech in The Bad Batch Season 2 come from?
Once the group makes it to the heart of the mountain, Phee takes it out so the group can return with their treasure. Unfortunately, this activates a huge four-legged mech that shoots blasts of blue energy, that starts walking about the planet. The main question surrounding this development is who designed this massive mech and where it came from.
The episode doesn’t confirm how old the mech is, but it does give some vague hints. Tech says the etchings on the side of the temple are easily 1,000 years old, but Phee says that it’s old Skara Nal, a legend that traces back to the ancients, before the Jedi. Tech later says the minerals in the rock pre-date the Republic.
What all this means isn’t known. When Tech says it predates the Republic, it’s unclear if he means the Republic as a whole or a specific iteration of the Republic, for example, the High Republic or the Old Republic. Looking at the High Republic, it existed from at least 400 BBY, which would make it too modern for this mech. The Old Republic might be a better fit, as it existed from 25,000 BBY to 1,032 BBY, which means it could have been constructed during that period.
If Phee can be trusted, and this mech was created before the Jedi, it means that it would have been built before 25,000 BBY. The group that built this mech might have been introduced in Jedi Fallen Order, the Zeffo.
Did the Zeffo build the mech in episode 5 of The Bad Batch Season 2?
The Zeffo was a species that roamed the galaxy thousands of years before the Jedi or Republic. They left the planet Zeffo and visited Dathomir, Kashyyyk, and Bogano and constructed elaborate tombs with many puzzles, just like in this episode. They were force sensitive but fell to the dark side because of a corrupt leader called Kujet. Once Kujet died, what was left of their species journeyed off into the great unknown.
During Kujet’s reign, he killed many rebels fighting against his rule. It’s possible that this mech might have been a tool to do that, as the Zeffo were known to build other automata to guard their tombs (called Tomb Guardians). Their armor is similar looking to this mech, and they both fire beams of blue energy as their primary attack.
While we may never know who built this mech, the Zeffo seems like the most likely candidate.
