The Bad Batch finally manage to track down the stolen Marauder, at an ipsium mine run by the greedy and tyrannical robber baron, Mokko. They promptly strong-arm the thief, a miner named Benni, into helping them steal it back.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Justified. While Mokko may have been exploiting the miners, he's also kept them dependent on him for so long that his leadership is all they've ever known, and that kind of psychological control is hard to shake off. Despite their anger at him, they're shown to be noticeably despondent at his death.
- Anti-Villain: Benni stole the Havoc Marauder, is willing to sell Gonky off for parts, and has to be forced into helping the Batch, but he's acting out of desperation, having been abused by Mokko's cruel business practices just like all the other miners. After Omega shows him some genuine kindness and reveals that Mokko's been lying about the mine's profits to hide his own massive embezzlement, he reveals the truth to everyone and rallies the other miners to rebel.
- Artificial Limbs: Mokko has a robotic arm.
- Artistic License – Biology: Mokko keeps the miners at near-starvation while diverting the profits to himself, pushing them to work harder with the promise of more food. From a productivity standpoint, this is counterproductive. Starving miners can't work as hard and thus output (and therefore profits) would be reduced. Being mostly kids who can't do the same hard labor as adults, this goes double.
- Artistic License – Economics: Mokko skimps on food and water to save money and keep the profit for himself. This simply isn't a sustainable practice; the miners shouldn't be able to keep the rhythm, let alone increase it, when they barely get to eat or drink. Lowering the food costs wouldn't compensate, it would even make things worse. At the very least, the mine's profits should be actually reduced, and more likely the mine would be downright in deficit. In actual human history, this business model only works if workers can be replaced, such as slave labor in the Spanish Empire American silver mines or Sovietic gulag coal mines, keeping the productivity at a relatively high level by compensating for worker attrition. In this case, the episode makes clear that no new worker has arrived since Mokko took over, and the planet is largely uninhabited. Mokko's labor force will only get smaller under the current system, and Mokko by all indications intends to stick around.
- Badass Boast: Wrecker delivers a good one, when it's pointed out that they're surrounded by ipsium that would explode due to blaster fire. And they make good on it, too!Wrecker: We don't miss.
- Bad Boss: Mokko forces his employees to work grueling hours in exchange for morsels of food while he gorges himself and keeps all the profits, all the while lying that the mine is barely breaking even to justify pushing them even harder. And when his miners turn on him, he orders his droids to injure them for their insolence, until the Bad Batch dispatch of them.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Benni decides to finally help out the Batch because Omega treated him with genuine kindness after she learns of his situation.
- Benevolent Boss: Drake is a much kinder boss than Mokko, promising that all profits will be shared and establishing set break times for meals.
- Blatant Lies: Mokko claims that he had to make sacrifices to the miners when in reality, he's been living like a king.
- Capitalism Is Bad: Mokko is, basically, a robber baron that employs lies and the threat of violence to exploit the miners and keep them in constant competition with each other, for his own profit.
- Chekhov's Gun: When they first enter the mine, Tech comments about the fact it has No OSHA Compliance — specifically, there's a narrow rope bridge directly over a lava pit. Mokko meets his demise at the end of the episode by accidentally falling off that very same bridge.
- Disney Villain Death: Mokko meets his end by falling from a great height into what appears to be a lava pit.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: With his gaslighting, his lies, his It's All About Me attitude, deliberately withholding food and water, turning an obviously good job (bringing in a stolen ship) into a bad job (are you trying to get me in trouble?), Mokko is just an abusive parent.
- The Dog Bites Back: Mokko's been running the miners underfed in order to keep them in line due to the restricted food rationing and rewards workers with full rations when they perform well, creating a rudimentary power struggle between them to keep them from turning on him. When his lie that the ipsium is degrading is uncovered, they quickly turn on him because they don't need to rely on him for food anymore.
- "Eureka!" Moment: While the Bad Batch try to repair a damaged speeder they've found, Tech mentions that it has just enough power to get them to the only other known settlement on the planet. The mention of "power" causes Omega to realize that Gonky is still on the ship, and while they can't track the Marauder directly since its transponder was disabled, they can trace the droid's signal.
- Everyone Has Standards: Drake, a member of Mokko's inner circle, enjoys the privileges of his position and has no problem mocking others, but when he sees the truth about Mokko's business practices, he's just as outraged as anyone else.
- Evil Cripple: Mokko has an artificial limb and walks with a cane, and is a robber baron who exploits the labor of his workers for his own profit.
- Evil Is Petty:
- Even with his treachery exposed, Mokko tries to have Omega killed out of spite, and tries to drag Benni to his doom (while Benni is trying to save him, no less).
- When Benni reminds him to give him his ration of water after his workday’s, Mokko seems to give him a whole canteen, before drinking a big part and leaving him the rest. Mokko controls the water, so he doesn’t need to take that of his workers. He doesn’t even save a few cents, since the water was consumed, it doesn’t matter if he or Benni drank it. But he knows Benni needs a drink. He has no other reason not to give him the whole canteen, other than to recall painfully that he runs the mine.
- Evil Power Vacuum: Benni mentions the mine was once run by the Techno Union during the Clone Wars until it was nationalized by the Empire after the war's end and Wat Tambor's death, with Mokko now in charge.
- Exact Words: When Benni notices how annoyed the Bad Batch are over seeing their ship in the middle of being stripped for parts, he quickly claims that all they told him to do was take them to the ship, not tell them what condition it was in.
- Fat Bastard: Mokko's noticeable heft makes it clear from the start that he's much more well-fed than any of his workers.
- Foil: Mokko to the Bad Batch in terms of leadership in regard to children. The Bad Batch treat Omega like an equal and pick up on her shortcomings while Mokko is a Bad Boss who lies and misleads his workers while keeping everything for himself.
- Foreshadowing:
- Benni is noticeably surprised to see a ration bar on the Marauder and scarfs it down like it's the first food he's had in days, hinting at what kind of life he and the miners have been living under Mokko.
- When Benni asks for his water rations, Mokko produces a water bottle and proceeds to drink most of it in front of Benni before handing him the remnants, mirroring the eventual reveal that he's been keeping the mine's profits for himself and lying about its success to keep the miners impoverished by claiming the ipsium is degraded. The massive feast we see Mokko indulging in before revealing the miners' tally is even less subtle.
- Hunter warns Omega to not let Benni out of her sight. Sure enough, the moment she turns her back to him, Benni triggers an alarm.
- Hate Sink: Mokko, of course. The only villain of Season 2 so far who has absolutely no redeeming qualities, or an "I was obeying to an higher level" justification. Even Rampart, who was selfish and driven by his own interest, partially acted because he was rightfully scared of what would happen if he didn't obey the Emperor.
- Heel–Face Turn: Drake had no problem kissing up to Mokko and doing his bidding, while everybody is treated like crap. Once the truth has been found out, he and everyone revolt against him. With Mokko’s death, Drake takes over the operation, and he’s a much better boss than Mokko is.
- Hope Springs Eternal: Omega points out at the end that there are countless more like Mokko across the galaxy, doing things as he did. Tech concedes the point, but he also points out that there are countless more like them, hinting that there will be always someone there to stop the "Mokkos".
- Immediate Sequel: To the previous episode.
- Jabba Table Manners: The feast Mokko indulges in shows he's an absolute pig when it comes to eating.
- Idiot Ball: Despite knowing that Benni isn't 100% trustworthy, Omega turns her back on him while she gets the shield frequency; Benni ends up triggering an alarm, though in the long run, this leads to Mokko's crimes being exposed and him being overthrown.
- Karmic Death: Mokko threatens to drop Omega into the lava to make the Batch stand down, and goes through with it when his secret is revealed. He in turn dies the same way when he loses his balance on the rope bridge.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Mokko's been mistreating his workers since he took over the mine, but the reveal of his embezzling is the straw that breaks the camel's back, and they turn on him en masse.
- Mugging the Monster: Benni stole the Marauder thinking that its owners were just some unobservant miners, not highly trained and skilled commandos. He was lucky that the Bad Batch were more interested in getting their ship back than in getting revenge.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Omega gives Benni her ration bar for helping the team — unaware that he's just triggered an alarm, which he already feels bad about. Having her show genuine kindness to him clearly doesn't make him feel any better about himself.
- Outrun the Fireball: The only covert entrance into the mine is through an exhaust tower which vents every minute. Though that is plenty of time for Hunter to rappel down, things are complicated by a droid entering the tower to run a check, which leaves Hunter hanging just out of sight as the next cycle rapidly approaches. He manages to wrestle his way past the droid, letting it be consumed by the exhaust while he just barely escapes into the corridor.
- Properly Paranoid: When Mokko sees that Benni stole a heavily modified military shuttle, he quickly deduces that the original owners probably aren't simple miners or prospectors, and orders it stripped of parts and disposed of immediately before they come looking for it. Sure enough, the Bad Batch show up on his doorstep soon after.
- Revenge Before Reason: While Benni tries to save him, Mokko decides to try dragging him down with him instead of allowing himself to be saved. This ends up knocking Mokko off-balance and sends him falling to his death.
- Save the Villain: Benni tries to save Mokko when he is hanging from the bridge, but Mokko's spiteful attempt to drag Benni with him ends that idea.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Mokko. He swings at the miners with his cane, throws himself off-balance, and ends up falling off the side of the catwalk to his death.
- Take My Hand!: Benni tries this with Mokko when he falls off the catwalk, but Mokko just tries to drag him down too.
- Taking You with Me:
- When Mokko orders Omega thrown into the lava, Omega clings to the droid and uses the catwalk as leverage to drag it into the pit with her. This buys time for Hunter to grapple up to the catwalk so he can catch her mid-fall, while also eliminating an adversary that might have foiled said rescue attempt otherwise.
- Mokko's clumsy attempt at fighting the miners leaves him hanging off the side of the catwalk. When Benni tries to pull him up, Mokko snarls, "You never should've crossed me, kid" and tries to pull him off the catwalk as well. It doesn't work, and Mokko tumbles to his death.
- Too Dumb to Live: Mokko thought it was a good idea to pull a Taking You with Me or to try and cast Benni into the pit when he was completely at the mercy of Benni and the other boys who just turned on him. The other boys immediately save Benni, leaving Mokko to do nothing but squirm until he falls to his death.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Tech is shown to be more patient and understanding towards Omega, after he recognized the negative effect his contrasting personality was having with her in the previous episode. He takes the time to genuinely console her that there are plenty in the galaxy who are heroic like them, something he probably wouldn't have done in the prior episode.
- Villainous Glutton: Mokko has been having elaborate feasts using the profits from the mine, and even tells his droid to wait as he's not done eating yet.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To Oliver Twist, with Benni as Oliver, and Mokko as Fagin and Bill Sykes.
- Would Hurt a Child: Mokko threatens Omega's life to get Tech and Wrecker to stand down. Once he's exposed as a liar and doomed anyway, he orders her thrown to her death out of spite and tries to pull a Taking You with Me on Benni as well.
