‘The Clone Wars’: The Bad Batch Say Their Goodbyes and Anakin Gets a Little Darker in “Unfinished Business” — Review
[Spoiler alert: Spoilers ahead for The Clone Wars Season 7]
The final season of The Clone Wars was highly anticipated for a reason. The series puts this time period in focus unlike the movies were ever able to do and deepens the characters. Even though the last episode was one of the weaker ones this season doesn’t mean much when it’s still enjoyable in the series as a whole. And Episode 4, “Unfinished Business,” proved The Clone Wars is able to make up for it and deliver a great final episode to this Bad Batch arc.
Echo needs to earn the Bad Batch’s trust, which makes sense
Like we said last week, Episode 3 was a little too action-heavy with not enough depth. It’s not typical of The Clone Wars to neglect their characters, but they did need that mission to move the arc along. And “Unfinished Business” was the perfect balance between the two. It had awesome action scenes, but also really got into the conflicts between these characters.
The tagline at the beginning of the episode read, “Trust placed in another is trust earned.” Mace Windu points out that they’re losing Anaxes to the Separatists, which can’t happen in order for the Republic to have a good hold on this part of the war. But now that they have Echo back, the Separatists lost their secret weapon in counterattacking the clones. Plus, Echo has unparalleled access to the enemy’s data bank.
However, the trust that soldiers need to have with each other isn’t quite there for Echo and the members of Clone Force 99. Even though he’s an asset because of his knowledge, they’re very cautious of how much they can trust him because of where he’s been and who’s been using his mind all this time. Rex is determined not to lose faith in his brother, but Hunter and Tech make valid points.
Anakin’s anger and Dark Side tendencies come out to play
But, luckily, Echo isn’t a pawn of the Separatists still and is able to help the Republic fleet gain control of the ship. Echo does have a mishap and gives away their location, which stalls Windu’s effort in disarming a massive bomb. Anakin Skywalker goes to find Trench to get the codes himself, and things get interesting.
Throughout The Clone Wars, especially in the later seasons, Anakin’s darker tendencies — the hate, fear, and anger Yoda constantly saw in the movies — grow. There are so many times where you can see Anakin’s path to the Dark Side, whether in different moments or in his actions. And this season, in particular, has a big task of showing that final bridge between the Anakin we’ve grown to love on the show, and the one that becomes Darth Vader at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
Already, we can see that in Episode 4. When Anakin goes to Trench for the codes, he easily destroys his bodyguards. When Anakin tries to talk it out of him, Trench doesn’t give in because Anakin’s only a Jedi, a peacekeeper. He wouldn’t hurt him. But that’s where Trench is wrong.
The anger and frustration bursts out and Anakin cuts off three of Trench’s arms. Then, when Trench tries one last time to escape, Anakin fully kills him with a lightsaber through the chest. And with a smirk, no less. Some might overlook this since Trench is a villain. But killing someone, no matter who it is, is not the Jedi way. We see Anakin struggle with his in Episode III before he beheads Count Dooku. That Dark Side in Ani is only going to grow as we loom closer to the end.
This episode delivers on the great fun of blowing up droids while keeping characters at the forefront
As stated above, this episode is better than the previous one. It takes that action and high-stakes that Episode 3 had and adds much more dialogue and character conversations that flesh out a fuller episode.
Not to mention, the droid humor is back. When Wrecker is bulldozing his way through the droids, and one is visibly shaking, the line “I honestly feel bad for those droids” is perfection. Or the fight between Wrecker and Crosshair over their number of kills is hilarious. It’s also reminiscent of when Anakin and Ahsoka did the same thing in Season 1 of The Clone Wars. And let’s not forget Wrecker’s first and only tears over being able to blow up the Separatist fleet. Amazing.
Rex rescued his brother, but the trauma Echo had faced changed who he was. He felt much more connected to this mutated band of clones than he would anywhere else, and Rex has to let him go. There was a somber yet touching moment between Echo, the Bad Batch, and Rex as this arc came to an end. But my final thoughts? Now that his arc is officially over, we need Ahsoka now. Chop chop!
