In a predictable turn of events, The Bad Batch has formed up in its second season to become some of the best television Star Wars has on offer. (We’re certainly not talking Andor levels of thoughtfulness here, but it seems worth noting that I’ve been far more keen to switch on their latest episodes than The Mandalorian this season.) Though sometimes disjointed in its execution, The Bad Batch has taken on the job of showing what it’s like living under the first days of the Empire’s reign… which was obviously never going to be a cheery subject.
[Spoilers for S2 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch]
There are several threads of import making up the next sixteen-episode season: the departure of squad members, a change of heart in one of their own, difficulties in the Batch’s relationship with Cid, schemes around Kaminoan technology that need “test subjects,” the discovery of a safe haven, and an underlying current of dread as the remaining clone troopers are dealt with in the only way the Empire ever deals with anything. But we’re getting to know Clone Force 99 and their youngest recruit a lot better this time around, which means that when the story chooses to twist the knife, it hurts a lot more than it did last season.
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Some Desperate Glory
The sheer volume and variety that the series offers up on a weekly basis is one of its many secret sauces. This season we get a return of the Zillo Beast (as we should have counted on given Palpatine’s clear avarice following that spate of episode on Clone Wars), Héctor Elizondo, Ernie Hudson, and Ben Schwartz cameos, a proper look at the Kashyyk under-forest (which contains kinrath!), riot racing, ancient giant mecha beings, and a weird Oliver Twist-esque mining operation that needs dealing with stat. The show covers so much ground and types of action-adventure in so little time, it seems to be punching above its weight class on a regular basis by those terms alone. We also get a fantastic reveal by Emerie Karr (voiced by Keisha Castle-Hughes) this season to top things all off.
The show also continues to uphold the wisdom of the animated series in better understanding that Star Wars, in its ideal rendering, favors and relies on the visuals over all other factors in cinematic storytelling. There are frames of this show that look like gorgeous paintings, metaphorical images that sear, action sequences that put plenty of the most popular films and video games to shame. When the show chooses to focus in on its more serious plotlines, things get devastating in short order: basically every episode featuring the Batch’s former (I say “former”… a designation that’s certainly in dispute this season) sharpshooter Crosshair are meditations on isolation, dehumanization, and the horrifically mundane evil that the Empire perpetrates against any being it sees no use for. “The Outpost” in particular is a pared-down, heartbreaking short war film, featuring the very first person Crosshair manages to properly connect with after his break from Clone Force 99. The final minutes of that episode could easily bring a person to tears (and did, in my case).
Having said that, there are a few problems that need addressing, and I’m not sure they’re the sort that will get solved.
There’s a strange issue still at work here, being that it’s hard to believe The Bad Batch has decided what the core of its story is supposed to be. The Clone Wars had a specific time period and frame to work within, and Rebels was similarly situated as a lead-up to the events of the Original Trilogy. Andor is poised in much the same way to Rogue One, and Ahsoka already has a central goal in mind (the rescue of Ezra Bridger from the far reaches of the galaxy). Even The Mandalorian, for all that it’s content to wander aimlessly from week to week, seems to be moving toward the restoration of the Mandalorian people following their devastation by the Empire.
But The Bad Batch keeps doing the work of several shows at once—some weeks it’s an A-Team sendup, other weeks it’s about family and growth when a central purpose (fighting a war) has been erased, then there’s an overarching plot where the fate and freedom of the clone troopers come into question. The latter is the logical spoke to pin the story to, but it makes certain choices within the narrative puzzling as a result. For instance, the suggestion that the clones might settle down on refugee haven Pabu for the sake of Omega is a sweet thought, but one that any savvy viewer knows won’t work out longterm. So what is the character purpose in taking this question seriously? What does it do for the group to consider it? We’re not given clear answers, and unless the location does become a retirement plan at the end of the show (which, who knows, it might), the choice to consider it for so long feels like a weird misdirect.
At least we got more character development this season, but there, too, it feels like being cheated out of the full measure of the show’s potential. The majority of the season’s character work went toward developing Tech, the groups resident technician who does all their hacking, coding, analysis, and so forth. The depth given to Tech this season was moving to witness, particularly when the show went out of its way to clarify and offer some specificity around the character’s neurodivergence—he’s likely on the autism spectrum, though who knows what they call that in the Star Wars galaxy—and used that as a point to strengthen the bond between himself and Omega rather than weaken it. He even has a burgeoning crush on space pirate Wanda Sykes, a thing I didn’t realize I needed in my life until she appeared, and now I can never be without her again.
Unfortunately, Tech makes a sacrifice play in the final episode of the season. It’s entirely possible he’s not dead—we suspiciously don’t hear anything about a body, though his goggles are recovered by the so-odious-he-strains-credulity Doctor Hemlock—but either way it’s a kind of cheat. We got to know Tech so well only to immediately lose him, or we got to know him only to lose him, but that doesn’t even count. Frankly, both of those tropes are the sort that television could stand to retire for a while, and if it turns out that Tech is truly dead… well, it doesn’t really seem fair to give neurodivergent fans such a valuable character key-in, and then literally drop him off a cliff.
There’s also Crosshair’s redemption arc to consider. While I’m a complete sucker for this kind of character turn (and there are plenty of place where it does work), it feels to me as though there was an error in its execution; we didn’t know Crosshair well enough as an audience for his betrayal to hit hard, and we still don’t know him well enough for his redemption to land as heavily as it should. Even doing a great deal of work in my own head, there’s so much we’re not told about his feelings and reasons for choosing the Empire over his little band of brothers, or his reasons for disillusionment in the other direction. This isn’t to say that the arc we’ve been presented with can’t work, but it does mean that the writers will need to do a lot of development on the backend of that plot in order to give it the emotional weight it needs… and I’m not sure that work will get done.
Fans always fill in the gaps on these things themselves (in fact, I’d go so far as to say that much of corporate-funded storytelling relies on this impulse), but it will be disappointing if Crosshair doesn’t get the attention that the story owes him in making this such an important arc. It seems a shame also that they couldn’t have allowed this turn more time in either direction—think how much more it would have hurt to lose Crosshair to the Empire after a full season rather than one episode, or what it would have meant to take another season to get him to come around. Of course, these shows never know how many seasons they’re going to get, but allowing for a real build would make the story a much sturdier beast.
It sounds like I’m full of complaints, but the truth is I only bring all these issues up because there’s so much to love in this show. When it hits its stride, it’s full of fun and pathos, wild and meaningful all at once. The animation is the best it’s ever been on any Star Wars series, and the characters are a wonderful funky little family of weirdos. They deserve the best; they should have it.
All of which is to say that I cannot wait for season three of The Bad Batch. I’m just incredibly nervous about what that season will actually bring us.
Emmet Asher-Perrin is firmly in the “Tech’s Not Dead” camp, in case that wasn’t clear. He better be back, give him back to me. You can bug them on Twitter and Tumblr, and read more of their work here and elsewhere.
I’m torn about Tech. On the one hand, I hate the overuse of fakeout character deaths, or deaths that get reversed by sci-fi or fantasy resurrections. It cheapens the emotional impact of death if the audience’s first reaction is not to feel the pain and grief that the characters feel, but to step back from the narrative and try to game out how the death was faked. So I prefer it when characters’ deaths are permanent and allowed to have genuine weight.
But on the other hand, I agree with everything you said about Tech. It’s been great to see such a positive portrayal of a neurodivergent character, to tell stories where his point of view is validated rather than requiring him to see the light and recognize that feewings are more important than intellect, like in most stories I’ve seen or read in my life (including much of Star Wars, as far back as “Use the Force, Luke”). And it would suck to have the first casualty of the main cast be the one representing a real-life minority group. So from that standpoint, I’m hoping Tech’s death was a fakeout.
“Even doing a great deal of work in my own head, there’s so much we’re not told about his feelings and reasons for choosing the Empire over his little band of brothers, or his reasons for disillusionment in the other direction.”
In the former case, the simplicity of it is kind of the point. Crosshair was raised to follow orders blindly, and that’s what he did, clinging to his unthinking loyalty after the others questioned theirs. Also, it kind of stands to reason that the team’s sniper, the one trained to specialize in coldly and premeditatedly killing people as a precise, calculated act, would be the most ruthless and rigid one.
I do think he came around a bit too suddenly, though. I thought the events of “The Outpost” would get him to finally question his blind loyalty, but I didn’t expect him to jump straight to shooting his superior. Although, again, it kind of figures that shooting someone would be the go-to move of someone designed to be a super-sniper.
Anyway, I was thinking about how SW has both live-action and animated shows coexisting, and wondering what leads them to decide which format to make which show in. And after a moment, I realized the obvious: The Bad Batch has to be animated because it would be impractical to shoot a whole live-action series where most of the characters were played by Temuera Morrison. (Well, that, and it’s a spinoff of characters from a previous animated show.)
I definitely echo (no pun intended) a lot of what CLB said regarding Tech. Sadly, I had already called it in a cynical way several episodes ago as it felt like they were building up his character specifically for this gut punch. Which I agree kind of cheapens some of the aspect of getting a really great ND character (I deeply love Tech and he was my favorite even in the first season). I loved his scene with Omega in the cave where they talk about family and feelings so much, especially because the narrative allows him to be the way he is. Of course, like in any relationship, there are times he needs to adjust how he interacts with people, but the others also have to accept who HE is.
Part of me does wonder if he could be alive though (even though I also really hate death fakeouts, and we already got one with Echo in TCW) – he falls into fog so we don’t really see what happens after that. The fact that Hemlock has his goggles at all means they went out of their way to recover a body…not that they couldn’t experiment on a dead body, but it does kinda beg the question. Even more devastatingly, they might be pulling a ‘Winter Soldier’ on us.
And from a narrative perspective – the fact that they DIDN”T actually full resolve his arc with Phee makes me wonder if there is going to be more to it later. Of course, that could also be the point – that he never said goodbye, and that’s that.
There’s a bunch of other stuff I could say – I love kicking around this timeline, and it IS interesting to see some of the throughline to some of the cloning storylines in the Mandalorian (and the eventual sequels). I’m really interested to know Omega’s fate in the grand scheme of things. I have enjoyed watching Rex, Cody and Crosshairs deal in their own way with the Empire (some hints of the Traviss novels dealing with how dirty the Clones were done), getting hints of what is to come with Saw, the Empire, the Rebellion, clone rights (definitely lends some weight to that scene of the clone veteran in Kenobi) and all of that.
There are definitely a few episodes I felt were a bit dull/could skip, but even some of the ‘filler’ episodes I enjoyed simply for character building/world building. There are definitely times I enjoyed it over the Mandalorian (and vice versa) but they really complement each other well, I think.
Also – Kiner’s scores seem to get better each season! (And I loved the little nod to Jyn’s theme in this past finale…first time I think that Giacchino’s work got quoted elsewhere!)
I have enjoyed Bad Batch from the very first episode. It has some serious stuff going on, but also a lot of fun side quests, like battling the Zillo Beast, and that giant robot from a lost civilization. There are just enough characters to make things interesting, but not so many that they are hard to keep track of. And their adventures are in a part of the Star Wars timeline that is relatively unexplored.
The S2 finale was full of twists and turns, and had me on the edge of my seat. Count me among those who think Tech is not dead. I’m pretty sure his goggles have an integral visual recorder, and contain clues that will help the gang reunite with him. And maybe even clues to the location of the cloning lab in Mount Tantis. They need to rescue Omega so the Empire can’t do to her whatever they have done to her creepily compliant sister.
@2/Lisamarie: “And from a narrative perspective – the fact that they DIDN”T actually full resolve his arc with Phee makes me wonder if there is going to be more to it later. Of course, that could also be the point – that he never said goodbye, and that’s that.”
I had the same thought. The lack of closure with Phee is very suggestive that Tech’s story isn’t over yet.
Unfortunately, it’s hard for me to care about that storyline, because I really cannot stand Wanda Sykes’s voice, which makes it very hard for me to like her character.
Anyway, about Emerie Karr turning out to be an older female clone… The fact that she had a New Zealand accent should not have been a clue to that revelation, yet somehow it was. Are accents genetic in the Star Wars universe?
@@.-@ – heh, I don’t think so. But maybe Emerie grew up among the other clones? But I’m realizing Omega then shouldn’t have one since she (as far as I know) didn’t actuall associate with the clones at all as she was a secret and that would have applied to Emerie as well (who might even be younger than Omega when you think about it). She should sound more like a Kaminoan, I guess. But who knows how the ‘accelerated learning’ works, maybe it’s all electronic/digital and somehow based off of Jango’s voice?
I don’t know, I’m just grasping at straws, when the answer is that it’s likely just a stylistic/artistic choice. FWIW I guessed Emerie might be a clone right away for that very reason, even though I knew it didn’t make logical sense.
For all the shows short comings I still enjoyed it a great deal more than The Mandalorian. It has a better understanding of the social politics of the clones and the fallout of the Empire, than The Mandalorian has about the New Republic. This makes Favreau’s show feels like it’s treading a lot of dead air at the moment. Jon Favreau (much like J.J Abrams) does not seem like he knows how to do any sensible political story telling outside the Rebellion and Empire duality or has any functional political imagination on what the New Republic should be. Which ironically does make The Bad Batch feel like the more grown-up show here.
@2/Lisamarie Totally agree on Kevin Kiner’s and his two sons work. This should be said more.
There is something terribly wrong with that character’s left elbow. Makes my skin crawl just looking at it.
@@.-@, @5: To be technical about it, there is certainly a distinct difference, though, between Omega and Emerie’s accents and those of the other clones. There’s lots of small, subtle examples, but it’s particularly bugged me since the introduction of Omega that nobody she meets (including all those brother clones) ever defers to her pronunciation of her own name. Emerie is the first person (that I’ve noticed, at least) who says “Omega” in the same way that Omega does.
I know it seems like a nitpick point, but it has always come off to me as a microaggression (even if truly unintended on the part of any of the folks involved).
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I’m puzzled what to speculate about Tech’s survival/not, though. Surely the creepy cloning director would have been able to better leverage the conversation about the Bad Batch’s surrender if he revealed that Tech was alive and in his custody. I definitely miss him already! (although to be honest, I missed Crosshair from the moment he split from the Batch over O-66, and have been waiting and waiting for him to return to his family ever since!)
@8/madmarie: Yeah, that’s right, isn’t it? Michelle Ang and Keisha Castle-Hughes use the Commonwealth pronunciation of “OH-mee-guh” (same as the Doctor Who villain Omega), while Dee Bradley Baker is an American faking a Kiwi accent, so he uses the American pronunciation of “oh-MEH-guh.” I’ve just started to notice that within the past few weeks.
But to be fair, it’s not just Omega’s name. Ang pronounces “Tech” and “Wrecker” in a very Kiwi way, sounding like “Tick” and “Rikka” to my American ears, while Baker’s characters give the vowel something closer to the American value.
“Surely the creepy cloning director would have been able to better leverage the conversation about the Bad Batch’s surrender if he revealed that Tech was alive and in his custody.”
Then it could be that Tech survived some other way and escaped. Maybe Phee followed the Batch and caught him when he fell. Or he climbed into the falling tram wreckage and MacGyvered together a jetpack. Or he got rescued by a passing giant bird creature. Or… took advantage of a very fortuitous updraft? Discovered a hitherto-unsuspected Force sensitivity? Determined how to throw himself at the ground and miss?
I don’t know, it would be kind of fun to watch Star Wars: Orphan Black, and given they tend to be helmeted a lot, Temuera could pull a Pedro Pascal and just provide the voice(s) most of the time. And regarding being a spinoff of characters from a previous animated show, we are already getting Ahsoka. (Not that I’m actually advocating for the series to go live-action, but it could be done.)
@10/northman: But Morrison couldn’t play the Clone Force 99 characters who are variations on Jango’s physical template, like the big, burly Wrecker or the lean-faced Tech and Crosshair. Also, it’s been a couple of decades since the prequels, so he’s a bit old for it. So they’d have to be largely digital alterations of him anyway. Simpler just to do it in pure CGI.
His age is definitely an issue given the timeline, though for Force 99, they might be able to get away with casting people with similar looks that more closely match the variations rather than doing CGI versions of Morrison. Granted it is just idle speculation since it definitely won’t happen for a series, but still a fun concept to consider.
I struggle with how much meta-context to bring to Star Wars. Or meta-sophistication might be a better way to put it. There are really bright talented people working on the show, but there is a box the suits need the show to fit into. I see a lot of depth in this show but I question sometimes how much of that is me seeing a depth that wasn’t intended.
But.
I think the lack of direction for the Batch is the core of the series. They are in a galaxy that no longer needs them with a set of skills whose purpose no longer exists. They are living out of context. It’s very different from Clone Wars or Rebels as it doesn’t slot nicely into the larger Star Wars narrative. It’s a more personal story.
All that would be enough to drive the series even without the addition of Omega. But the adult clones are now in a parental role and it’s a relationship they never experienced themselves. On a superficial level putting Omega in perilous situations would seem either highly irresponsible or just something to handwave in an action show meant to appeal to young people. But for me it makes perfect sense in context—how can dads whose only life experience is as a soldier nurture a young person? By training them and integrating them into the squad. Something Pabu underlined for me was that Hunter realizes that on some level they’re failing Omega. You can be the best parent you can be and still come up short.
Omega herself is just terrific this season. She’s very different from Ahsoka or Ezra. Ahsoka always had this righteous confidence and Ezra’s story was more about maturing than it was about growing up. His was really a redemption story—ne’er do well becomes hero.
Omega is in an abnormal situation for someone her age and she has absolutely no idea. While they are protective of her, to a large extent the rest of the Batch treat her as a full member of the crew. And parts of that are really enabling and positive. But when Echo leaves to the adults it’s just a reassignment but to Omega it’s a divorce. When Tech dies it’s a shock for the adults but it’s something they are accustomed to. For Omega it’s the death of a parent. And she’s in a family where ‘divorce’ and death are just part of normal life for the adults. The grand adventure she see’s herself on has implications and consequences that she’s having to come to terms with this season. And “that’s life” might be the best support her dads can provide.
Something the season finale set up that I’m really excited to see next season is an opportunity for Omega to evaluate what sort of person she wants be when she grows up. She’s a naturally sympathetic character but we’ve seen raised-by-pirates characters in fiction before and there’s a logical outcome where she grows up to be a nasty piece of work. I mean, it’s not going to happen but I think it’s a legitimate issue for the show to consider.
I will be extremely disappointed if Tech isn’t dead. He’s such a great character that his loss is a real gut punch for the audience. If it had been Wrecker we’d have gotten some graveside tears but it would not have been a shakeup the way losing Tech is. And if we buy into what I said about Omega’s journey, having Tech die to then just get better undermines a lot. One of the most significant decisions a show can make is how much plot armor the characters are wearing. A show where characters are under real threat is much more exciting for me. I suspect Tech merch isn’t the cash cow Grogu merch is so fingers crossed that this choice sticks.
I tend not to think too deeply about Star Wars in general and animated Star Wars in particular, so I haven’t really been watching this show with a critical eye. I’ve just been enjoying it. I think this season is one of the strongest for animated Star Wars. As for Tech, I one hundred percent think he’s alive. If he isn’t, I will be incredibly disappointed, since they went out of their way to make him the most interesting of the adult clones this season. Of course, they might have done that just to make his death more impactful, but I doubt it.
Another reason that I hope Tech is still alive, despite my usual dislike for the fakeout-death trope, is that the core cast is too small without him. Although I guess that could be balanced out if Crosshair and Echo rejoin the squad.
As usual, great review. I agree completely that the show feels without overall arc and that many episodes felt not exactly fillers but completely disengaged of the Cross hair or Tech arcs and there could be more time invested in that than this random quests.
Tech grew a lot for me and I will miss him if he is actually dead (great exit line though).
I never really cared about Crosshair but his episode was really good
I still find Omega as a character and her voice annoying. I still think she is their mother more than their sister, biologically speaking
Pirate Wanda Sykes, I love it!
@16/palindrome310: “I still think she is their mother more than their sister, biologically speaking”
Biologically, she’s a modified clone of Jango Fett just like them, so she’s genetically their twin sibling. Unless you mean that her biological/chronological age is greater than theirs, since she was alive to see their creation. But that would make her their older sister, not their mother.
So, which episodes thread the overarching plot?
@18/Julio: “So, which episodes thread the overarching plot?”
Most of them do. There are several important plot and character threads that are developed in different episodes over the course of the season, and some of the episodes with standalone plots lay important character foundations that pay off later. I’d say episodes 4, 5, and 6 are the least essential, but at least 4 and 5 lay significant character groundwork, and episode 6 is notable as a visit to the Wookiee homeworld.