REVIEW: ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch,’ Season 2 Episode 4 – “Faster”

The first three episodes of this season of The Bad Batch were chock-full of drama and overarching themes akin to Andor. The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4, “Faster,” takes a step back for a more fun and high-octane side mission. Directed by Brad Rau and written by Jennifer Corbet, the Batch is split as Tech, Wrecker, and Omega find themselves without Hunter and Echo for their security detail for Cid.

The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4 opens with Tech, Wrecker, and Omega sitting around Cid’s parlor. While Hunter and Echo are off on some kind of food delivery mission, the rest of the Batch has nothing to do but sit around and wait. Tech mentions that a food delivery mission is a misuse of Clone Force 99’s talents. This isn’t the first time this season that this notion has been brought up. In the season premiere, Echo believes that the Batch could be doing more to fight the Empire and Hunter begins to agree. It seems as if The Bad Batch is laying crumbs for the clone’s relationship with Cid to run its course if these kinds of missions continue.

This notion is further explored in The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4 as Cid takes Tech, Wrecker, and Omega to a never before seen world, Safa Toma, to serve as her security detail. On the desert planet Cid bets on riot racing, the newest form of racing seen in the Star Wars universe. Cid’s prize racer is TAY-0 played by Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation). TAY-0 is overly cocky and very quick with the quips making Schwartz the perfect acting to bring the character to life. TAY-0 is certainly a love-or-hate-him kind of character but it is fun to see a new droid that isn’t automatically the most loveable thing on the screen.

Cid is so confident in TAY-0 that she makes a side bet with an old accomplice, Grini Millegi played by Ernie Hudson (Ghostbuster). The imposing Dowutin’s size and presence make him the perfect antagonist for The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4 since he is not intimidated by Wrecker and Tech. After some banter (and revealing Cid’s full name as Ciddarin Scaleback) the first race of the episode commences. When their side bet doesn’t go Cid’s way thanks to some good old fashion cheating on the part of Millegi, it is up to Tech to save Cid from being taken by her old crime buddy in a double-or-nothing affair.

The biggest draw for The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4 is certainly the final race where Tech takes the wheel. Racing has always been a staple in Star Wars from swoop racing in the Knights of the Old Republic series to racing starfighters in Star Wars Resistance and of course podracing in The Phantom Menance. Riot racing mixes the best of all of those types of races into a Mario Kart kind of event. Modified speeders with shields and weapons, various obstacles on the track, and racers at the helm who aren’t afraid to wreck their competitors make for exciting sequences. Even spectating is dangerous and stray weapons fire peppers the crowds.

The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4 gives Tech the main focus this week. This continues the season’s trend of not just focusing on the relationship with Hunter and Omega. It allows for characters like Echo in the season premiere and Tech on Safa Toma to continue their own character arcs. We get to see that Tech’s intelligence and reasoning make him an excellent racer even when he does things that are not conventional in the riot racing world. However, it is the subtle lines of dialogue that he drops throughout the episode that provide the underlying themes of the episode.

It is no secret that Cid falls into that morally reprehensible type of character. Her past always seems to be coming up to bite her and it has been the Batch cleaning up her messes as of late. Tech is aware of this and makes a point to reference it throughout The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4. While TAY-0’s antics and the riot racing are fun, they feel like the next straw being added onto the bantha’s back for Clone Force 99. By the episode’s end, Cid still doesn’t feel any more or less trustworthy despite Omega’s and Tech’s saving her from an ill fate at the hands of Millegi.

While The Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 4 might not go down as the best episode of the season, there is plenty to love. Ernie Hudson’s and Ben Schwartz’s performances are fantastic. Riot racing is an exciting addition experience to the canon and one I hope to see in a video game someday. And it’s great to see Tech have time to shine. What separates itself from being just a filler episode is the subtle writing by Corbet which lays the groundwork for a potential falling out between the Batch and Ciddarin Scaleback.

The Batch Batch Season 2 Episode 4 is currently streaming exclusively on Disney+, with new episodes every Wednesday.