The Bad Batch’s third and final season felt rushed to start with, getting through a few storylines I thought the whole season would be about, then settled into a nice groove leading to a great 50-minute finale. So once again I really enjoyed the show, as I tend to do with these Star Wars CG cartoons despite not being a fan of the animation style normally. Whether that’s due to how good the shows are or how much I like the Star Wars universe I can’t tell you, but either way: let’s take a look!
The first four episodes deal with Omega being imprisoned in Mount Tantiss alongside her clone brother Crosshair, who has all but given up on life in general. Omega befriends an innocent creature she dubs “Batcher” and even frees it despite the act resulting in her being treated more harshly by her clone sister Emerie and the head researcher Hemlock. While Episode 2 deals with Hunter and Wrecker trying to find Tantiss but only ending up on a planet full of deadly vines and a trio of Clone cadets that were left behind, Episode 3 ups the stakes as Emperor Palpatine himself arrives and wants an update from Hemlock on “Project Necromancer”, which requires a clone with a high “M-Count”, or Mediclorian count. So this is yet another thing trying to retroactively make Palpatine’s return in Episode IX make more sense, and hey, why not? Omega eventually manages to motivate Crosshair enough to breakout with her and the duo, alongside Batcher, manage to make it off-world and then later meet back up with Hunter and Wrecker. So no need for a rescue mission here, er, at least not yet…
The Batch reunited! … Well, apart from Tech, obviously…
Episode 5 is set on the same icy world where Crosshair finally turned his back on the Empire and sees the obvious story of Hunter having to come to trust Crosshair again get played out, and it was done really well. For the record Crosshair has a hand tremor now that’s making it hard for him to accurately shoot things, which is kind of his deal. As things go on it’s clear it’s not physical but actually mental after all the torture and hardships he endured on Tantiss, which is a good extra layer to the, in my opinion, standout character in the show. Episodes 6 and 7 deal with the Bad Batch being pursued by clone assassins and getting help from Rex and his crew to find out why Omega is so important to the Empire. They escape from the CX assassin trooper thanks to convincing Clone Commander Wolffe to let them go and that perhaps he is on the wrong side. Nice to see him back, given we know he’s one of the few lucky ones! Episode 8 is a heavily stand-alone story featuring the return of bounty hunter Shand as she recruits the Batch in exchange for their help collecting a bounty, and that leads into the great ninth episode where Asajj Ventress returns from the dead to tell the Bad Batch what an M-Count is and that presumably Omega has a high count, but after some training she doesn’t believe the clone is Force Sensitive and doesn’t know why the Empire would be so interested given how much they like to kill any remaining Jedi.
Asajj’s return was good fun, and possibly sets up a series for her down the line…?
Episode 10 is focused entirely on Emerie as she takes Nala Se’s place as head researcher and is therefore shown to the special lab where they’re keeping a bunch of Force Sensitive children hostage in order to take their blood and hope they can figure out some way of cloning mediclorians. It even includes a scene of her collecting a literal baby from Cad Bane to further experiment on, suffice it to say, Emerie begins to have doubts she’s on the right side. The next episode is where the proverbial shit hits the fan as clone assassin CX-2 manages to find the Batch’s island paradise planet of Pabu and the Empire soon invades en masse. Wrecker is KO’d, Hunter fails at securing a new craft after their ship is destroyed and Crosshair misses firing a tracker on CX-2’s ship after Omega gives herself up to save the people. So despite everything the season returns everything to the way it was at the start: Omega is a prisoner on Tantiss and its up to the Bad Batch to rescue her! Well, except Crosshair being on the good side again anyway. Episode 12 has the Batch find and rescue Rampart, the discredited Imperial as he should have knowledge of how to get to Tantiss, and sure enough with the help of Echo they all head off on their way to rescue Omega…
Once again hats off to the writers for maintaining a balance of fun show kids can watch and good show people of all ages can get into, especially the human drama behind everything despite the main characters all being clones!
Overall Thoughts:
Even in this still-frame Hemlock looks evil. That takes some doing!
The Bad Batch Season 3 was another fun and satisfying combination of good old fashioned adventure, fun character development and some nice continuity nods for fans. While a few episodes were a bit average-y the finale was built in such a way that I honestly believed pretty much any character could get killed off at any minute, which made for great viewing. I’ve got my fingers crossed for more great Star Wars cartoons in the future!
The first episode of the finale has the Bad Batch having to infiltrate Mt. Tantiss through its dangerous jungle with Rampart in for the ride, and while they do make it, Rampart is captured. Omega meanwhile not only figures out a way to escape with the other children, but also finds the rather massive Zillo Beast still held captive on the base and lets it lose, serving as a great distraction and as a method of creating a way out for her and a way in for the Bad Batch, though sadly the Batch are captured by a group of specially trained CX clones, with Crosshair getting his trembling hand cut off for good measure (that’s one way to stop a tremble, I guess!). Emerie and Echo soon meet up with each other and then with Omega and the former takes the children off world while Echo and Omega head back into the base because “no clone is left behind”.
The helpfully colour-coded CX troops.
As Hemlock tries to convert the Bad Batch into CX troopers Echo and Omega free all the prisoners, which not only included various clones (including Wolffe) but also Nala Se and Rampart, with the former heading to her lab to destroy all of her research and Kaminoan equipment to stop it from being used in the wrong way, something Rampart takes interest in. As Omega and Echo free the Bad Batch and fight off the special CX troopers Nala Se is cornered in her lab by Rampart, who tries to steal the data as a way of earning favour with the Emperor once again, but as soon as he kills Nala she drops the thermal detonator she was holding, destroying all her cloning data and equipment and killing Rampart for good measure (and thus stopping Emperor Palpatine from having perfect clones even several decades later). Hemlock cuffs himself to Omega and heads for his ship but he’s cut off by Hunter and Crosshair, with the later making the unlikely shot of breaking the cuffs leading to Hunter shooting Hemlock dead. Echo, Wolffe (who was pretty much the only surviving clone) and the Bad Batch head off world just as Moff Tarkin arrives, soon shutting down the facility and moving the funding to Project Stardust.
A happy ending! … Well, at least an ending where the main characters are all alive anyway…
We then get a good old fashioned everyone is okay scene on Pabu (as presumably the location of the planet was lost in the destruction on Tantiss / with Hemlock’s death so it’s now once again off Imperial radar) and everyone talks about what to do in their future now they have one and are free from war and imperial control. Much like Rebels we then get a flash-forward as a now adult Omega decides to head off and join the Rebel Alliance while an older Hunter gives her encouragement, even if he is still worried about her. It’s a satisfying end, and glad to see all three remaining Bad Batch members actually survive!