There are a few things to keep an eye out for when it comes to this episode. The first and most prominent are the new looks for the Stormtroopers. These look like the very early Ralph McQuarrie Stormtrooper designs from the days before “A New Hope” came out. It’s fascinating that the clones on Barton-4 are guarding crates of this armor, too. The Empire has been planning on this switch, at least covertly, for at least that long, which makes one wonder exactly how far ahead Palpatine manipulates things.
As we look at the surface of Barton-4, we’re treated to a much more sophisticated snowy landscape than we’ve seen in the previous iterations of animation coming from Lucasfilm. Think back to episodes like “Trespass”, taking place on the moon of Orto Plutonia, and look at what they’ve accomplished here in this episode. It’s impressive how far these shows have come. They were art before, but now they’re a masterpiece in every frame. The work of Joel Aron and his team doing this is unsurpassed.
There might be a reference in the clone named Veetch. It’s a similar spelling and the same pronunciation as Tom Veitch, who was a longtime contributor to the “Star Wars” mythos, going all the way back to the 1991 “Star Wars: Dark Empire” comic books and the original “Tales of the Jedi.”
There are a lot of classic war movie tropes in this episode to watch out for, too. There are situations that hearken to everything from “Lawrence of Arabia” to “The Dirty Dozen.” There’s a deep sense of injustice in this episode and it permeates every aspect of the storytelling.
Visually, there are even touchstones to John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” given the remote, icy outpost.
The last thing to call out here in the episode is a line Mayday has to Lieutenant Nolan. “In my experience, respect is something to be earned,” which is something the clones tell Ahsoka in “The Clone Wars” and is a common thing among them, regardless of where they came from. It’s also interesting to watch Crosshair’s reaction to this exchange. The gears are continuing to turn for the last holdout of the Bad Batch, and it’s thanks to moments like this.
