– Spoiler Review –
“Unfinished Business” finishes the business of the Bad Batch arc for the final season of The Clone Wars with a rousing, and somewhat emotional, ending.
Bringing things back to where we all started in this arc, now Echo’s back with the Republic and not feeding Admiral Trench their tactics above Anaxes, Mace Windu, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Captain Rex, and the Bad Batch agree to let the newly rescued trooper help them defeat Trench and the Separatists once and for all. Of course the question on mostly everyone’s mind is if Echo can be trusted, considering the length of his captivity, they still don’t quite know what Wat Tambor did to him, and he’s even passed most tests they’ve run on him. Rex doesn’t have much concern however, choosing to believe in his rescued comrade rather than doubt him, hoping that’ll help him recover and feel himself, to some degree, again. Like Padmé told him earlier this arc, Anakin has Rex’s back when he sticks up for Echo, and it’s enough for everyone to trust him despite them not knowing exactly what he’s transmitting to throw Trench off. It’s no real surprise Echo ends up being trustworthy, and everyone’s mistrust for him doesn’t seem heartfelt enough and more of people looking to place blame just in case things go bad, so it was hard to ever really buy into any character mistrusting Echo and it made it feel unnecessary to even have those doubts in the episode. However, I’m happy to have Echo get a storyline where his actions bring him back into the fold and able to give the Republic a win, as it also validates Rex’s actions with sticking his neck out and committing to rescuing Echo.
Which is what makes the (new) ending hurt so good! In the story reel version, the clones, including Bad Batch, get medals for their service and it’s hip-hip-hooray from the rest of the men at Anaxes. In the finished version, there is no medal ceremony, but rather a more important, character focused scene of Echo finding out where he belongs after everything. Hunter, Bad Batch’s leader, offers Echo a spot with them, in case he’s feeling like an outcast with the rest of the clones, and while he’s hesitant at first, Rex tells him he should go where he feels like he most belongs. As Rex says this, he turns around, some confidence in his face as he holds out hope his friend will stay with him, but as silence from Echo grows, a look of pain flashes across Rex’s normally stern face, as he realizes his friend is choosing the Bad Batch and how his words probably spurned him on to take the option. Ready with his stern face again, happy his friend will feel comfortable with the outcasts of Bad Batch, Rex turns around and receives a salute from Echo and his new friends. Anakin and Rex have learned a lot from one another, but if there’s one thing we all will hope Rex had taught Anakin was how to let people go, as he so ably demonstrates here.
When “Unfinished Business” wasn’t busy with its character moments, there was a lot of action throughout. The Jedi action picked up quite a bit as Windu and Kenobi got into the fray, though I loved and appreciated Mace’s little speech to the droids, showing how tired and bored with the fighting the Jedi Master must be at this point of the war. His time with the bomb in the bowels of Anaxes didn’t have much tension, considering we all know when he’ll die, but it was solid exercise in trust with the questionable Echo and the final number in the de-arming sequence came from an interesting place. Anakin doesn’t hold back when he confronts the wily Admiral Trench (still to this day my favorite Separatist General), letting his anger boil to the service to get Mace the final code number, and while killing Trench happens more out of self-defense, his actions leading up to it almost ensure Trench might try something desperate. His anger felt a little excessive, but it was an effective show of how it’s boiling inside of him, just looking for a way out, and how this war, manipulated by Palpatine to go on as long as possible, has affected him more and more.
On the clone front, Bad Batch’s Wrecker and Crosshair showed off some fun skills, as Wrecker decimates several battle droids by hand in a small hallway, ending with one droid quaking in fear, while Crosshair finds a way to top the performance by placing reflective dots around the hallways behind him, letting his bolt bounce around and defeat all the droids behind them with a single shot. Wrecker unofficially wins though, getting to blow up Trench’s flagship with the self-destruction button Anakin steals. Wrecker was my favorite from the original release of these episodes and he’s still my favorite of the Batch, even if that’s dwindled a little regardless.
Here are a few other things:
- As always, the episode guide is up and full of little details, concept art, and the like!
- Out of all the differences between story reel and finished episode, leaving out the detail that Wat Tambor doesn’t tell Trench about Echo’s rescue due to being scared of the spider-like General is strange: it feels much odder in the episode for Tambor not to share the information with Trench at all, so any small explanation would’ve prevented any confusion.
- With “Unfinished Business,” we have 4 of the 12 final episodes out of the way. The next 4 deal with some of Ahsoka’s time trying to live a post-Jedi Order life, and the final 4 detail the oft mentioned and teased Siege of Mandalore!
“Unfinished Business” wraps up the Bad Batch arc of The Clone Wars’ final season in style, while still managing some good character moments within.
+ Rex letting Echo go
+ Echo’s decision and getting trusted again
+ Jedi and clones shine in action packed endings
– Lacking some Tambor/Trench context
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
THE CLONE WARS REVIEWS
Season Seven: Ep. 1 “The Bad Batch” | Ep. 2 “A Distant Echo” | Ep. 3 “On the Wings of Keeradaks”
Legacy Impressions: Crystal Crisis | The Bad Batch