Last week, the Bad Batch was able to retrieve their ship, The Marauder helping the miners to free themselves from crime lord Mokko. You can read the full recap here. In “Metamorphosis,” the squad is on a new scavenging mission for Cid.
Warning: Spoilers for “Metamorphosis” below!
A mysterious cargo
A mysterious ship is stranded in space. We can hear screams in the distance, and a commando clone trooper is running from danger. He is grabbed and killed off-screen by the creature. Meanwhile, on Mount Tantiss, Doctor Royce Hemlock arrives at the Imperial facility to meet prisoner Nala Se. He tells her that he is sad that someone as gifted as her doesn’t want to help the Empire to make the galaxy better. Due to the destruction of Kamino, the scientist is not keen to help her. He regrets what happened on Kamino but tells her that her research is still intact. Nala Se doesn’t want to help the Emperor and achieve his goals. Hemlock threatens the Kaminoan with repercussions if she doesn’t help them. Hemlock’s assistant informs him they lost communication with a transport. He orders a search and asks her to transfer the Kaminoan former Prime Minister to the facility.
On the Marauder, Cid tries to convince the squad to do a recovery mission. She doesn’t seem to understand why they are mad at her after their mission in the mine. She proposes to send them to recover cargo on a downed ship. The clones are reluctant at first but finally accept when the Trandoshan offers fifty percent of the profits. The tension between the clones and Cid is palpable. Later, Tech says they should do this last mission and then sever their ties with her even if it could be dangerous for them.
They arrive on the planet. The transport has crashed nearby a village. Tech thinks they should be able to transport the cargo easily. They board the crashed ship. Due to the damages, Tech deduces the crew is probably dead. Omega is still hopeful they are inside. They start exploring the empty ship. Wrecker finds an electrostaff. Traces of the walls suggest something not human is responsible for the damages. The clones separate, with Tech going alone to the bridge to get the power restored. Omega is worried about him going alone.
Experiment gone wrong
On the bridge, Tech is able to restore the power while the others continue to explore the ship. They find traces of a containment unit in a lab. Omega recognizes the equipment is Kaminoans, even if the cloning configuration is different than the one she saw in Tipoca City.
Tech finds a droid and tries to get some answers, but without success. In the lab, the clones are still trying to find some answers and wonder what they were trying to contain. Hunter says it is still on board. Something is dripping from the ceiling, and they realize the creature is watching them. Omega wants to know what it is, and Hunter tells her to back away slowly. The creature seems like it wants to attack them, and the clones shoot at it in defense. The creature is now hiding while the power is restored in the lab. Suddenly, they are attacked again. They warn Tech to get out of the ship and run. Tech stumbles upon the creature feeding off the energy. To escape, Tech blasts the energy source. It triggers an explosion, and the creature escapes the ship.
A village in danger
The creature is headed in direction of the village. Hunter says they need to neutralize it since they let it out. Wrecker wants to know how since their weapons are useless. Tech, rather insensitively, remarks the creature is probably not hungry since it ate the crew. Omega is horrified. Hunter tells Tech to access the ship’s files to determine what kind of species it is. Omega proposes to help since she knows Kaminoan technology well. Wrecker and Hunter follow the creature to the village in the Marauder. They localize the beast and start to shoot at it without success.
Meanwhile, Tech and Omega are trying to find some information. Omega says Nala Se didn’t let her learn about some of her experiments. The creature is approaching the village and goes directly to feed off a generator. Tech finds data about the creature and discover it has modified armor plating, which explains why weapons are useless against it. The species is feeding off the energy and will grow much bigger.
On the ship, Hunter is contacted by Tech, who tells him the creature is a Zillo Beast like the one who attacked Coruscant during the war. It needs to be stopped before it reaches the power grid. Meanwhile, Imperials ships arrive in view of the planet. The Zillo Beast is absorbing power and growing larger. The Imperials start to chase the Marauder, and Hunter warns Tech and Omega that they have to leave. Tech refuses to leave without having downloaded all the data. The Imperials are encircling the Beast while Tech and Omega run from the fallen ship. The Imperials are successful in capturing the Zillo, and they take it on their ship. Clone Commando land on the planet to control the population. Tech and Omega are able to join the others on the Marauder, and they leave the planet.
The Zillo Beast is put under stasis, and the population is taken hostage by the Imperials. Back on the Marauder, Tech is analyzing the data and reveals the Empire cloned the Zillo Beast. They want to weaponize the creature’s abilities. Tech thinks the Empire destroyed Kamino to control cloning. Hunter tells him to send the data to Echo and Rex.
At the Imperial facility, Hemlock is informed that the creature has been secured and that the Prime Minister has arrived. They start to discuss how to get Nala Se to cooperate. In exchange for his freedom, the former Prime Minister tells Hemlock he must locate Omega if he wants to control Nala Se.
A new episode of The Bad Batch is released weekly on Disney+! Stay tuned on Nerds and Beyond for more recaps.
