‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ – Everything We Saw in Season 2 Episode 5
This week the Bad Batch turn a treasure hunt into an opportunity for us to learn a little more bout the history of ancient force users.
The fifth episode of Season two of The Bad Batch doesn’t have any many direct and obvious Easter eggs as some other Star Wars shows we’ve seen. But what we did get is far more cryptic and interesting than the obvious audience nods and references we’re used to seeing. Let’s take a look at what this episode was, what it showed us, and how this may hint at the future (and past) of Star Wars.
In order to break down these Easter eggs, we will have to spoil large portions of this episode. If you haven’t watched yet, proceed at your own risk.
Lots of Indiana Jones References
This was a treasure hunt episode. Omega finds a star compass while searching the junkyard for a ship compressor with Wrecker. It’s always the compressor, huh?
They bring the haul back to Phee and she is pretty excited to see the compass, promising a grand adventure complete with treasure. And Omega is, of course, completely taken by the idea of a good old fashion treasure hunt. The rest of the batch isn’t sold, but Omega is everyone’s favorite little sister and they seem functionally incapable of saying no to her; so everyone plus Phee is off to the Kaldar Trinary System to hunt treasure.
From the flow and major beats of the episode to the puzzles and traps they have to get through, to the score, this episode seems designed to make us think of Indiana Jones. And appropriately, what they find probably should be in a museum.
Nothing Phee Mentions Has Shown Up in Star Wars Before
Throughout the episode, Phee is regaling anybody who will listen with her heroic tales of adventure. But nothing she’s mentioned has shown up in Star Wars lore before. That doesn’t mean that none of it is real within the canon, just that we haven’t seen it. But Tech is probably spot on when he says that large portions of her story change every time she tells them. If you’re looking for Easter eggs in Phee’s stories, you may be disappointed; she seems to be the ultimate teller of big-fish stories.
Older Than Jedi?
When the crew arrives at the Kaldar Trinary System the planet is almost entirely void of life and very old. According to Tech hand Phee, possibly even older than the Jedi. While that seems unlikely at first glance, we’ve met things older than the Jedi before in Clone Wars and Rebels.
The Mortis Gods, for example. They are the Father, Brother, and Sister and show up as physical representations of the light side, dark side, and balance of the force. And then there was Bendu. This force-sensitive giant slumbered on Atollon until awoken by Kanan Jarrus. he is ancient and, like The Father, represents the balance of the force. And finally, the Prime Jedi existed about 25,000 BBY and was the first to establish the Jedi Order.
It’s impossible to know for certain exactly how old this planet’s treasures are. But it’s not impossible for them to be upwards of 25,000 years old compared to the Batch.
Giant Crystal
Once they make it to the heart of the mountain to find the treasure, they discover a giant ancient crystal. And the moment they disrupt the crystal the mountain activates into a giant weapon of some time.
Again, Indiana Jones.
A Force-adjacent mountain with a glowing crystal in the middle seems like a Kyber Crystal to me. But it points to something much more interesting than that. An unfinished episode of The Clone Wars verified ancient Sith super weapons. There’s no way of knowing if this place was Jedi or Sith or something different-but-related, but the power-up sequence is very similar to another mountain-to-weapon scene on Malachor in Rebels.
And, y’know, the Death Star, which is also powered by Kyber Crystals.
Robot Beast
When the crystal is removed from the mountain a humongous robot comes out to play, and it frankly looks like quite a few botobeasts we’ve seen throughout Star Wars. First up is the Zillo Beast. This semi-sentient creature is classified as a reptile but always looks a little mechanical to me. But what’s most interesting is that their hide is impervious to Lightsabers. They’re also fairly large at 97 meters in length.
But I was also reminded of the Tomb Guardians from Jedi Fallen Order. These ancient automatons were made by the Zeffo to defend sacred tombs and crypts from intruders. But whether this beast was placed there as some sort of a watchdog or a weapon is impossible to know.
