Rise of the Zillo Beast in The Bad Batch, Episode 11, “Metamorphosis”

REVIEW: Star Wars the Bad Batch Season 2 Episode 11, “Metamorphosis” by Darth Slobo

This week’s episode built off the hype of The Mandalorian premier. It delivered an exciting and suspenseful adventure that gave us more answers into a major plotline and creature from The Clone Wars animated series—the Zillo beast—while also connecting to the season finale from last season. This episode was an exciting blend of Alien meets Star Wars and set up many potential plotlines for the Bad Batch to tackle.

This episode gets 9 Zillo Beasts out of 10.

Stand out Scenes

Return of the Zillo Beast

We finally find out what the Emperor (Supreme Chancellor) was doing with the Zillo Beast at the time. The alien Beast with indestructible armored skin wreaked havoc on Coruscant during the clone wars, and after it was neutralized, Palpatine was very interested in its hide and destructive capabilities. We learn in this episode that Palpatine was developing clones of the Zillo beast to use as weapons for the Empire.

Inside Mount Tantiss

We finally get some insight into what is being done with the Empires Cloning experiments and glimpse the cloning facilities. This episode introduced a new big villain to fill the role that Admiral Rampart emptied. We also get some teases of the new cloning experiments that are being conducted inside Tantiss, which could potentially link to the cloning tanks we saw in the Mandalorian, as well as Snoke. But, we will have to wait to find out.

EPISODE OVERVIEW

We open with a mysterious wreckage floating towards a planet and a clone commando running through the dark vessel. We get serious “Alien” vibes as a creature pulls him up from above.

Back to MOUNT TANTISS, an Imperial escort arrives at the cloning facilities, where we are introduced to the new big villain, Doctor Hemlock. Doctor Hemlock visits Nala Se, who we find out has become an imperial prisoner. We also find that Nala Se has refused to cooperate with the Empire’s cloning experiments. We also hear that Emperor Palpatine is personally requesting specific cloning experiments, and we can only guess what he is talking about… Doctor Helmock is notified that the transportation of a critical asset has been disrupted and that there is only one other surviving Kaminoan, the former president.

Back to the Batch, we see them in a disagreement with Cid. Cid informs them of a cargo shipment gone wrong and potential loot. There is evident discontent with their relationship as Hunter hints at not going back, while Tech reminds them that severing ties with Cid could be problematic because she knows their background. The Batch finds the ship wreckage and begins searching the vessel for the cargo on board. They send Tech off to access the ship’s main logs and power, and they realize that something is very wrong as they see claw marks on the walls.

This episode has serious horror elements and themes, making it much more suspenseful and exciting!

Omega recognizes some of the hardware and technology on the ship as Kaminoan but doesn’t know specifically what kind it is because it is different from what she remembers on Tipoca City. We have a brief jump scare as Tech nervously watches his surroundings and a hidden droid pops out to warn of danger; then we cut back to see Wrecker observe some slime on the walls.

Finally, we see what the batch are up against! A lizard-like alien with an electric mouth. The alien is impervious to blaster fire and scurries off into the dark. As the lights turn on, and Wrecker, Hunter, and Omega search around the alien jumps back out and chases them to a power source. The alien absorbs the power and changes its form, hence the name of the episode: Metamorphosis.

The alien escapes the wreckage and heads toward a nearby village. Tech and Omega investigate the cloning experiments going on in the ship and discover its origin and genetic modifications. Hunter and Wrecker search for the alien as it finds a large power source to consume. As it gains power it continues to transform into…. THE ZILLO BEAST!

Finally, we see what happened to the beast that wreaked havoc on Coruscant in The Clone Wars and the Jedi cause the moral trouble. As the Zillo Beast makes its transformation and begins its destruction, the Empire arrives to collect its prized experiment. Hunter and Wrecker now work to outrun the Imperial Ships and Tech and Omega, extract the remaining data from the wrecked cloning vessel, and escape.

The Empire neutralizes the Zillo Beast and contains it in a new specialized medical tank, and the Batch escapes. The Empire rounds up all the people of the village who witnessed the Zillo beast in what can be assumed an attempt to keep their experiments a secret.

The Batch deduces that this cloning experiment is part of a larger Imperial Cloning operation and they decide to send their findings from the failed escape to Echo and Rex to see what they can find out about all of this.

The episode ends back on Tantiss, we see that the former Kaminoan President has been transported to the facility and informs Doctor Hemlock that the best way to get Nala Se’s cooperation with their cloning experiments is to use Omega as influence.