The Batch get a call from an old friend asking for a big favour.

After a fairly run of the mill outing last week, this week the gang are back firing on all cylinders. On their way to another mission for Syd, they are contacted out of the blue by Captain Rex, who has a favour to ask – one of his comrades is missing, and he needs our heroes to go do an extraction. After some internal debate, they agree to go and take a look.

And that’s where things get interesting. Turns out that this isn’t the straightforward extraction from a deserted planet they had hoped for – instead, it’s a dangerous mission involving infiltrating a top secret Imperial facility which has been established as part of the Empire’s next steps towards galactic domination.

It’s one of those episodes that could easily have phoned a lot in, focused as it mostly is on filling in bits of backstory to help further flesh out what happened between the prequel trilogy and the original Star Wars movies, but the genius of Filoni and co is in the execution. This is a real, believable world they’re building, full of compelling characters. Their struggles are interesting even if we have a vague idea of the inevitable ultimate destination.

Meanwhile, back on Kamino, the Prime Minister is aware that the usefulness of him and his fellow cloners has come to an end as far as the Empire is concerned, and starts trying to make preparations for their survival. But Admiral Rampart is not easily fooled.

The episode is full of tense, mature moments and a real sense of menace throughout, and doesn’t end the way that you might necessarily expect it to. As the credits start to roll, someone has been left in a very tight spot, and I can’t wait to see what the show does next week.

Verdict: Back on form and thoroughly entertaining. This is the definitely the show I was looking for! 9/10

Greg D. Smith