The Short Take:
Another fun “adventure of the week” episode that digs into lesser known ancient Star Wars lore. It’s very Indiana Jones.
Image Credit: Star Wars News Net
[SPOILER WARNING: Do not venture into this dark cave if you have not seen this episode. I will also discuss the plot of Issues #26-30 of the 2015 Star Wars Marvel comics by Jason Aaron.]
The Long Take:
To quote Dr. Jones, “We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and X never, ever marks the spot.” Cryptic circular compasses, on the other hand, are a good bet.
This week’s episode featured a fun treasure hunt, full of puzzles and booby-trap-laden peril. The Indiana Jones comp is undeniable, and is just one in a slew of homages or references we’ve been in getting in Lucasfilm stories lately — namely Andor and Willow. This jaunt through an ancient ruin actually reminded me a lot of the LucasArts point and click adventure game from 1995 called The Dig, which is basically Indiana Jones in space. It has lots of runes and markings that you have to line up, and, as all great point and click adventures demand, you had to put different objects together to make things happen.
Image Credit: Classic Reload
I saw The Bad Batch doing this all episode. Especially Omega. It was always very satisfying to see her take the compass-like object and reveal glowing markings invisible to the naked eye. We didn’t necessarily need to be reminded of how bright and intuitive she is, but I like that the series has maintained that consistency — that she’s noticeably more perceptive than everyone else.
I found it hilarious that Omega thinks Phee is the coolest; at one point she even tries to imitate the pirate — ahem, I mean treasure hunter’s — body language. The way Phee so quickly and open-heartedly recognizes Omega’s talent and encourages her to pursue adventure with reckless abandon creates an interesting foil for Hunter. I wonder if his dad instincts will make him realize that Phee is potentially a bad influence on Omega during this formative period of her life. I would place Phee in between the trying his best Indiana Jones and the morally bankrupt Doctor Aphra (an archaeologist who has thus far only appeared in Marvel Comics). Her high tolerance for risk tolerance, cavalier attitude, and moderate self-centeredness do worry me.
Image Credit: Nerds and Beyond
The treasure hunt isn’t only a fun way to showcase Omega’s sharp mind; it explores and expands on Star Wars lore in mysterious and scintillating ways. The second Phee says that they’re searching for an ancient relic called “The Heart of the Mountain,” I did a double take. I’d heard that phrase in Star Wars before, in a run of Marvel comics in 2015, starting with issue #26 of the main Star Wars title, written at the time by Jason Aaron. These five issues take a break from the main plot and, through a frame narrative of Luke reading Obi-Wan Kenobi’s diaries, chronicle “Yoda’s secret war” in the Vagadarr system, before the Clone Wars.
Yoda encounters a blue stone that allows those in possession of it to temporarily gain Force powers. The inhabitants on the planet mine the stone from what they call “The Heart of the Mountain.” And, unsurprisingly, the precious resource leads to a war that Yoda must mediate. I don’t think the “heart” in the comics could be the same artifact in this episode because Phee and The Batch go to the Kaldar Trinary system rather than the Vagadarr system. But it’s very likely that this “heart” is made of the same Force-imbued blue stone that Yoda encounters.
Image Credit: Star Wars News Net
Just as Phee does with the “Heart of the Mountain” in this episode of The Bad Batch, characters in these comics attribute the mystical blue, living stone to “The Ancient Ones,” who predate The Jedi. That’s the most mysterious and fascinating aspect of this from a lore expansion perspective. The blue stone, as far as I can tell, seems to be different than kyber crystals. And maybe more powerful, since one hunk of it can apparently power a giant four-legged mech Kaiju that can obliterate its surroundings with lasers.
Image Credit: Wookieepedia
I immediately wanted to know more about who made this thing and where it came from. Who built that giant mech? And why? What were its creators originally trying to destroy? Why did someone hide the giant mech here and create all the booby traps, presumably in order to prevent anyone else from using it? I’m not necessarily expecting answers to any of these questions this season, or even in this series. But I like that they’re out there and that another Star Wars story could potentially answer them. Beyond the blue stone comprising The Heart of the Mountain, not much of this Indiana Jones-esque temple seemed familiar to me. And that’s super exciting for me as a Star Wars fan. I felt similarly about another ancient being, The Bendu in Rebels. He seemed to operate outside of the Jedi/Sith, Light Side/Dark Side binary; I’d never seen anything like him in Star Wars before, and I wanted to know more about him and his backstory.
Image Credit: Coming Soon . Net
The juiciest question, perhaps, surrounds the episode’s title, “Entombed.” Who exactly is entombed here? The Ancient Ones? Another race who came after them? Did some kind of war or disaster strike so an entire civilization got wiped out and is entombed here? Or did another group discover the Ancient Ones entombed and then destroyed the planet by abusing their blue stone-powered technology? If I get carried away, I might say that the title is more metaphorical, referring to The Bad Batch. By working for Cid and now pursuing these treasures, are they trapped, burying who they really are beneath this mercenary lifestyle.
I’ve already seen some predictable concerns online about this episode, about how “yet another” contained adventure may reflect a lack of direction for the season as a whole. I’m not seeing it that way at all. This outing with Phee, along with comments that members of Clone Force 99 make about how they are now 0 for 2 with treasure hunts, shows how The Batch may be heading down the wrong path. It feels like we’re approaching a breaking point at which they’re going to have to decide whether or not they want to continue this way or find some greater purpose in The Galaxy. So the random nature of these one-off adventures is deliberate because it reflects how these clones have lost their way and find themselves wandering aimlessly.
Image Credit: Slash Film
I expect that in a few episodes something will light a fuse and spark a major change for this team, this family. I think the evocation of Indiana Jones and therefore Harrison Ford and therefore Han Solo (maybe not necessarily in that order) reflects a similar inner conflict that iconic character faced in the Original Trilogy. George Lucas once described Han Solo as “A loner who realizes the importance of being part of a group and helping for the common good.” Will The Bad Batch continue to be loners, or will they become part of a bigger group like The Rebellion and help for the common good, or, as Echo said in the premiere, for “others out there who need our help”?
I had vaguely recalled that the "Yoda's secret war" arc talked about ancient beings, but didn't catch the direct connection through the "Heart of the Mountain" phrasing. Good pull! It makes me wonder if every mountain with such a heart has giant mech guardians inside it...
Speaking of: if I'm reading the events of the episode correctly, it isn't that the relatively small hunk of blue stone powers the mech; it actually has the power incapacitate it. The mech is docile until the hunk is removed...and then explodes in a wave of feedback trying to shut down after it's re-inserted in its port (for lack of a better term). Very intriguing...part of me wants the show to veer off into Ancient One lore and the other would enjoy if this just remains on the margins of Star Wars storytelling, a delightful mystery for fans to contemplate in the same way the Republic, the Senate, the spice mines of Kessel, etc all were when only the original movie existed.
Hi Jen - great review. I agree with your observation about the nature of these seemingly self-contained adventures. My thought is that the writers and showrunners are playing the long game even with these episodes - each reveals something new about the characters (such as Tech in "Faster" and Omega in this outing) and are most likely layering in some plot elements that will become even more revealing in retrospect by the end of the season. I look forward to the rest of Season 2 (hope we get a season 3!) and your reviews.