Did this week's episode of The Bad Batch just hint at another Jedi in Star Wars? "Entombed" is filled with Easter eggs, and sees the titular gang (all played by Dee Bradley Baker) join newcomer pirate Phee Genoa (Wanda Sykes) in a treasure-hunting mission to the Kaldar Trinary system, after a few episodes of disillusionment with their frequent employer, Cid (Rhea Perlman). What they find, though, is not exactly a treasure, but something far more interesting. As they enter what at first seems to be your average adventure cave, the Batch soon finds they are pretty much out of their depth, with the stakes being high enough to mean the survival of entire villages and towns is in question.
The whole episode is heavy with references to '80s adventure classics, like The Goonies and the Indiana Jones franchise, from the imagery of abandoned temples and puzzles to Kevin Kiner's awesome score. As with many of these films, it all starts with Omega (Michelle Ang) finding a macguffin, a compass that is supposed to lead them to ancient goodies. They decide to go on this mission after Phee analyzes the compass, and discovers it leads to the treasure of the Skara Nal, supposed to be older than the Jedi. But how does Phee actually know all that?
Is Phee Genoa Hiding Something?
Phee was first introduced to us in the beginning of Season 2 of The Bad Batch as a business partner of Cid's, which, knowing the Trandoshan businesswoman, is not necessarily good, though. From then on, she became a regular at the bar in Ord Mantell, but never really engaged with the story to the point of being a part of it. She kept to herself, had some banter with some of the regulars, sometimes had some funny exchanges with Tech and Omega, but that was about it. Until now.
In "Entombed," she is the one who really dictates the pacing of the episode, which is a big deal for a newcomer like her after just a few episodes. As a pirate, we hear her stories that, according to Tech and Echo, change every time she tells them, and has always a good measure of artifacts namedropping for the sake of credibility. No one had ever heard of the Grand Pearl of Novak up until Phee mentioning it, but we take her word for it. She's a pirate, after all, she must have seen a lot of stuff, right?
But this time around, things are different. The compass that Omega and Wrecker bring back to Cid's immediately sparks her interest, like she knows exactly what it is. She shows it to her companion droid, MEL-221, and, bingo! It really was. So she leads the Batch to the Skara Nal, which is another name no one had heard before, just like the Grand Pearls of Novak, but this one we can actually see, so okay.
It's worth noting how confident Phee is in her knowledge about the Skara Nal, stating that it's much older than the Jedi. That's the kind of knowledge that doesn't just float around so easily, to the point of one being able to instant recognize artifacts and iconography. She seems so excited about the discovery that she almost gets a little too carried away, too. When they find the secret entrance to it, she makes a gesture with her hand (with the camera making a point of closing in on it), as if about to use the Force to remove a bunch of rocks out of the way, but quickly reconsiders and asks Wrecker for help. Pretty unusual.
What Is The Skara Nal?
Weirdly enough, what the Skara Nal actually is a giant four-legged mech. Star Wars is not new territory for that, as there are plenty of super weapons and giant starships to go around, but the Skara Nal does stand out. Tech analyzes the etchings on the walls and states they are at least a thousand years old, to which Phee replies that they are, in fact, much older, and lead to the entrance of Skara Nal and a treasure called The Heart of the Mountain (whose name is likely a reference to the Arkenstone in The Hobbit), a huge purple crystal.
Later on, though, we learn that Phee and the Batch will not be able to take the Heart of the Mountain with them, as it's the key that keeps the Skara Nal dormant. There's no evidence linking the Heart of the Mountain to the kyber crystals the Jedi use to power their lightsaber (and the Empire to power their Death Stars, too), especially since its function it to keep technology from activating, not the other way around. But it could be an early use of kyber we just haven't learned about it yet.
What's interesting is the design of the Skara Nal, both its outside appearance and its interior. Outside, it resembles the kind of technology used by the Zeffo in the game Jedi: Fallen Order. They are an ancient civilization of Force-sensitive beings that were present in many systems in the galaxy, including they eponymous home world and planets like Dathomir and Kashyyyk, both famous in Star Wars lore. That also wouldn't be the first connection between The Bad Batch and Jedi: Fallen Order, as one of the game's planets, Bracca, was already extremely important in Season 1 of the animated show.
The whole interior looks like a whole different thing, though, as the corridors and doorways look like a mix of Zeffo technology with the imagery of the World Between Worlds. That's a realm of the Force that exists outside reality, connecting the whole of space and time. Those who access it can travel to any time or place they wish, and it was desperately sought after by Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). In another animated series created by Dave Filoni, Star Wars Rebels, Palpatine even fights Jedi Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) and Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray) to gain access to this dimension.
So the connections between the Skara Nal and other kinds of Force-based societies and civilizations could go way deeper than just the Heart of the Mountain crystal. For someone like Phee Genoa, knowing about the general legend is not a surprise, since she was a pirate. We know from other corners of the Star Wars universe — especially the awesome Doctor Aphra comics — that these tend to be general knowledge in this line of work. What's impressive is how quickly Phee is able to identify it and work out how to access Skara Nal. Her introduction was strangely timely for the Batch, too, as they are slowly growing tired of working for Cid. It will be interesting to see where this new partnership will take Clone Force 99.