Just right after going on a two-episode detour to the Twi’leks home planet, The Bad Batch continues tumbling across the Star Wars galaxy for a thirteenth outing that takes them back to Ord Mantell where their good friend Cid seems to have run into a bit of a pickle.
Actually, make that a Pyke problem, because a gang of the Oba Diah natives from Clone Wars and Solo is partly to blame for the mess the Batch finds once they return to Cid’s Parlor. That and the fact that Cid has been forcibly removed from her position by Roland Durand, son of Isa Durand who’s out to prove himself as a capable crime boss in the eyes of his family.
All that said, this week’s “Infested” throws a bit of a curveball at fans because back in episode 10 it seemed that Omega’s Queen's Gambit-style chess play was enough to put an end to the Batch’s debt towards Cid. Instead, as the Batch lands on the planet they comment on missions the audience has never seen (like dealing with Gundarks), meaning they’re happy to make Ord Mantell their main base of operations to continue working with Cid rather than strictly for her.
Moving on from that, the Batch is briefed by Roland who tells them that Cid is no longer in charge seeing as he brought a good amount of firepower to take over, even now being quite fond of the Parlor’s mascot Ruby. As the Clone Force 99 gets ready to leave and has practically concluded they no longer have any business concerning Cid or her whereabouts, pure and innocent Omega is the only one who intercedes in favor of finding out what happened to Cid.
Luckily, Cid overhears the Batch’s conversation and gives everyone the rundown on how things turned sour with her former client, Roland. In order to reinstate Cid in her position, the Batch has to help her steal a spice shipment from Roland so that his failure will lead him to fall out of favor with the Pykes, which is apparently one of the worst fates one can suffer in the galaxy.
In the larger scope of things Cid’s problems show what the galaxy is slowly becoming under the Empire’s rule: while some planets highly regarded by the Empire’s interests get a swift forced occupation VIP treatment, others are simply left in a status of relative lawlessness where all kinds of Star Wars criminals can do their bidding.
Nevertheless, the Batch agrees to help Cid and they come up with a plan to sneak into her old office through some underground mining tunnels using some mine carts for a sequence that’s quite reminiscent of so many video games, and even Harry Potter’s Gringotts. It’s here when Cid informs the Batch that Ord Mantell’s tunnels have a bit of a bug problem, so stealth is of utmost importance.
The Batch makes it to Cid’s office to retrieve the spice crates using the Parlor’s best customers to create a diversion for them since apparently Roland is quite the animal lover and has really grown fond of Ruby. However, the Batch gets caught right when they’re escaping the heist scene and our stealth mission turns into a full-on mine cart chase that awakens the space critter hive.
Though the Batch successfully makes out of the tunnel they lose the spice crates and once they surface, they quickly find out Cid was not joking about the Pykes not being too happy with Roland’s failure, though it’s not like they’re thrilled to see their cargo lost thank to them. The Pykes are presented as all-threatening ruthless thugs nobody wants to mess with, so the Batch and Cid really don’t show much opposition when they take Omega hostage and send them back down to the tunnels.
This time the Batch takes a smarter approach sending Cid and Wrecker rappelling down the cave to retrieve the crates, although as expected things almost go wrong when nighttime falls, only before Tech "Goggles" saves the day with an improvised light bomb that clears the way for them to escape the infestation. While this unfolds, Omega bonds with Roland to find out he’s not such a bad guy after all.
Once delivered the Pyke honor their part of the deal and release Omega, but she’s still terrified of what they might do to Roland as punishment. The scene is incredibly well put together because it looks like this child is about to witness a beheading but instead Roland lives another day to tell the story of how he got one of his horns chopped off to finish the episode.
It's quite a coincidence that spice trade and contraband is at the heart of this episode, exactly one day after Dune dropped its full-length trailer, because it so happens that George Lucas himself has always recognized that the Dune novels were of huge influence to him when creating the Star Wars universe. Aside from that "Infested" continues building each character's personality in small ways, with references to things like Wrecker being afraid of heights, Cid's nicknames for every member of the Batch, or "Tiny" simply being quite empathic to Roland's quest for approval from his parents.
With only three episodes left it’s a mystery how much of that time The Bad Batch will spend working for Cid on Ord Mantell. After all, episode 12 foreshadowed a very angry Crosshair finally getting clearance to go after the Batch relentlessly and it’s really that moment fans must be aching to see now, rather than more routinary missions that do little to move the plot forward.
Regardless of that, even these sidelined episodes continue to be entertaining without dragging on the plot just for filler purposes, and that in itself is quite an accomplishment by Dave Filoni and Luscafilm.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch are available to stream every Friday on Disney Plus.