REVIEW: ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Episode 10 — “Common Ground”

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 10 takes a bit of a breather after the events of the past two episodes, even though this episode has a great premise it doesn’t fully explore. “Common Ground” finds the Batch (Dee Bradley Baker) being hired to liberate Senator Avi Singh (Alexander Siddig) on the planet Raxus. The one problem: Raxus was the homeworld of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, which doesn’t sit right with Echo. Meanwhile, fearing that more bounty hunters will come after her, Hunter benches Omega (Michelle Ang) which leads to a surprising bond with Cid (Rhea Perlman).

After “Reunion” and “Bounty Lost” laid bare the secrets driving the series, it’s not that surprising that the following episode would want to pump the breaks. Though the revelations are still fresh in the characters and viewers’ minds, especially with Hunter’s increased fear over Omega’s safety, “Common Ground” serves as a reminder that not every episode of a television series needs to be a world-shaking event; you have a well-paced and highly entertaining action-adventure story which is nice.

And the conflict the episode presents is also an intriguing one. The Batch was literally grown to fight the Separatists and their droid armies, and Echo suffered at their hands during the Clone Wars. For them to help a Separatist literally goes against their programming, yet they do it anyway since they know the real threat is the Empire. Singh also rebels against the Empire in his own ways, refusing to go along with their propaganda and even sending his personal droid DS-8 to recruit the Batch. As a Star Trek fan, I also appreciate that Siddig-who played Dr. Julian Bashir on Deep Space Nine-had a prominent role in this episode.

The episode also features a decent side plot where Omega shows off her tactical skills, helping Cid with a game of holochess. Star Wars, to me, has worked wonders when pairing characters who you wouldn’t normally see together such as Chewbacca and C-3PO or anyone with Hondo Ohsaka and this is no different. Cid even has a frank discussion with Omega about proving to Hunter that she can be useful-which Omega actually puts to use! Omega has slowly grown as a character thanks to Ang’s performance and her ability to roll with the various hardships that the Batch encounters; I feel like her strategy skills will come in handy if Cad Bane or other threats return.

Where the episode falls flat for me is the execution of its central premise. While it’s admittedly fun to see the Batch executing a smash and grab mission, I feel like there could have been a bit more drama introduced into the proceedings. Echo, in particular, has an ax to grind with the Separatists considering they turned him into a half-machine and forced him to run their war plans; this could have been a great opportunity for him to learn that he and Singh share a common hatred of the Empire. If there’s one issue with the series, it’s that Hunter and Wrecker have gotten the lion’s share of character development while Echo and Tech are mostly regulated to the background. I understand that the former clones’ bond with Omega drives the emotional plot but the series is called “The Bad Batch” for a reason; it wouldn’t hurt to share the limelight.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 10 is a solid standalone episode, though it could have wrung more emotion out of its premise. With six more episodes left in the series, I hope that those episodes contain stories that give the other members of the Batch their time in the spotlight.

New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch will be available to stream Fridays on Disney+.