Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 14, "War-Mantle."
While Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1 has been an uneven ride, episode 14 does a lot to fix many fan complaints and prove just what the animated Star Wars show is capable of. Following on from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and overlapping with the end of the prequel trilogy, The Bad Batch is positioned in a tumultuous period for the universe, as the Empire cements its control over the galaxy and its many planets and people. Unfortunately, The Bad Batch season 1 has also been somewhat tumultuous itself.
It would be unfair to say that season 1 of the show has been as bad as its eponymous batch of clones, but it has proved to be inconsistent. Much like The Clone Wars before it, The Bad Batch has received various complaints for having a lot of filler episodes, as well as other criticisms for forcing in connections to the wider Star Wars lore and causing plenty of retcons along the way. At the same time, it's delivered some compelling character arcs and an intriguing look at the transition into Imperial rule, but those elements have rarely been built upon quite enough.
With Star Wars The Bad Batch nearing the end of season 1, thankfully the narrative is seemingly picking up some steam. Whereas The Bad Batch episode 13 was filler and felt underwhelming because of its place in the season, episode 14, "War-Mantle," very much drives things forward, and shows exactly what the series can be when firing on all cylinders. First and foremost, this is a story about Clone Force 99, as they head to the aid of an old friend of Captain Rex, CC-5576, aka Gregor. Each of the clones gets at least one moment to shine, including Echo - was has been by far the most overlooked and underused of the main group - helping to form the emotional backbone of the story and convince the team to do what's right. In contrast to some episodes that have been more concerned with other Star Wars characters or elements, this is a showcase for the titular team and how great they are both as individuals and even more so a collective.
As well as being a strong outing for Clone Force 99, "War-Mantle," (named after the Empire's Stormtrooper project, first teased in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) is also fascinating in terms of how it shows the rise of Imperial Stormtroopers, the end of Kamino, and different parts of the Empire coming together. It has the clones discovering that the new soldiers are recruits, the introduction of TK numbers, and the first Stormtrooper design, which is based on original Ralph McQuarrie concept art. It's very much storytelling that serves the worldbuilding of the larger Star Wars franchise, but importantly it is absolutely crucial to The Bad Batch's own narrative and themes at the same time, whereas it's too often been a case of putting the former over the latter.
That problem has also been evident in some of its Star Wars cameos. The Bad Batch has featured several familiar faces, from Rex to Hera Syndulla to a rancor belonging to Jabba the Hutt (though not necessarily the same one from Return of the Jedi). None of them have been terrible, but there has often been a sense of the cameos being misused; they're not quite big enough to be an event like, say, Ahsoka Tano in The Mandalorian, but also overshadow Clone Force 99, who have occasionally taken a back seat. "War-Mantle" uses Gregor (and Rex) perfectly, because the appearances make complete sense, and are used to drive forward both the story of the Empire and the Bad Batch's journey of self-discovery and attempts to do right. Combined with the use of Crosshair, a character who has been missing from episodes entirely at times but here gets some pivotal moments (and setup for more), then Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 14 is the installment where everything finally seems to come together.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch releases new episodes Fridays on Disney+.
