Star Wars: The Bad Batch S3 Eps. 1-3 Review
If you’re a Star Wars fan and are sleeping on The Bad Batch, now’s the time to rethink that. Entering its third and final season with a dramatic three-part storyline, this continuation of Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars is proving as important as its predecessor. With Hunter and Wrecker still reeling from the loss of Tech and Omega’s capture, things look bleak for everyone. Thankfully, the show doesn’t drag the torment out for viewers by having Omega imprisoned all season. In an unexpected twist, though, the premiere reveals that Omega might have a more significant role in the franchise than anyone thought. A role so significant that it could tie The Bad Batch to The Rise of Skywalker and Sidious cheating death the first time.
Confined-Reminder of Why the Empire Sucks
The season premiere is a slow-burner that doesn’t even include the Bad Batch (though Hunter and Wrecker might be more appropriate.) Instead, it focuses on Omega’s life captive in Mount Tantiss. She wakes up, collects blood samples from captive Clones (including herself), takes them from Emerie (the other female Clone), gives them to Nala Se, and…you get the idea. The entire thing demonstrates one of the more subtle evils that the Empire brings to the Galaxy: mind-numbing, robotic routine. Doing the same thing daily wears down one’s spirit to the point where they’re not even people anymore. They’re just mindless cogs in the machine that is Sidious’ Empire!
Speaking of Sidious, this episode (and the third one) continues to drop hints at what Mount Tantiss is doing, but more on that later.
Despite how soul-crushingly strict Tantiss is for her, Omega doesn’t break. She defies her captors, from sneaking off to see Crosshair to keeping a makeshift doll to healing an injured guard animal. And then setting said animal free when the Imperials decide its friendly behavior makes it worth killing. Despite Hemlock calling Omega cruel for doing so and saying it won’t survive out there, Omega doesn’t buy it. And, much later, he’s proven wrong.
This first episode was a bold choice, not including the rest of the Bad Batch. However, it pays off by showing us that things are more manageable for Omega.
Paths Unknown-The Bad Batch Refusing to Give Up on Their Kin
Meanwhile, the Bad Batch, or Hunter and Wrecker, has been hunting down every lead to find Omega, and it shows. Their armor’s noticeably scratched up and worn out, symbolizing that they’re running themselves ragged, trying to find her. Plus, while they don’t say it outright, they’re both mourning the loss of Tech. Even if they expected to eventually die in battle one day, losing one of their brothers was still hard to go through.
What doesn’t help matters is that when they think they’ve got a lead on Omega, they don’t wait for Rex or Echo and head straight there. Their grief and guilt could get them killed. Thankfully, they headed to Hemlock’s base, but it was abandoned after experiments went wrong. Then, as if to remind us of the horrible fates awaiting most Clones if they stay in the Empire, they run into three Clone younglings, no older than Omega. They were moved off Kamino before the Empire destroyed Tipoca City, but instead of giving them more training, the Imps used them as guinea pigs. Now, only three are left: Mox, Stak, and Deke.
It shouldn’t have to be said by now, but The Bad Batch continues to hammer home how unfair the Clones’ lives tend to be after the Clone Wars. At best, they end up homeless or living off the grid. At worst, they’re used as fodder for the Empire. By the end of the episode, you will be thanking the Force for Hunter and Wrecker, saving them, and taking them to Pabu. Maybe one plot point for the final season will be the Bad Batch helping escaped Clones start new lives away from the Empire. Because after all they went through in the Clone Wars, they deserve it. You can’t even hold Order 66 against them at this point since they weren’t in control of their actions.
Shadows of Tantiss-The one Where Omega and Crosshair Escape
Anyone worried about having to wait most of the season for Omega and Crosshair to escape Mount Tantiss, don’t. In the third episode, Nala Se warns Omega that her life will be at risk if she stays at Mount Tantiss any longer. Thankfully, due to the training she’s got from her brothers, Omega and Crosshair manage to grab a shuttle and flee Wayland. And, to prove Hemlock wrong, the beast that Omega befriended survived and came back to help her. It’s a subtle nod to how the Empire and its descendants will one day fall at the hands of rebels with each other’s backs.
The real highlight of the episode is that it all but confirms what Mount Tantiss is for and ties to The Rise of Skywalker. Decades from now, Sidious will cheat death using a combination of cloning and Dark Side techniques. Mount Tantiss, which Sidious personally visits in this episode, is one part of his plans to do so. However, this episode and “Confined” reveal how truly depraved Sidious’s plans are. He’s testing the blood of captive Clones in the hopes of transferring the midichlorians, the microscopic lifeforms that connect one to the Force, to someone else’s blood. He’s trying to find a way to make someone Force-Sensitive artificially.
And guess which Clone’s blood ends up being the key? Omega. That does not bode well for her future.
Please Let them Live!
While we know that Sidious will ultimately cheat death, we still don’t know the exact details of how he did it. However, if Omega is the key to that, then The Bad Batch became one of the most essential shows in Star Wars history. It’s not only showing the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars. Now, it’s helping to fix the Sequel Trilogy and make it work with the rest of the franchise.
As someone who watched the Sequel Trilogy, I think Disney needs to do this.
