The Bad Batch ended its first season by concluding the Clone Era with Kamino’s destruction. And with that world’s destruction, the Imperial Era truly begins. This was the story of the first season all along. War Mantle was Vice Admiral Rampart’s project to convert the remaining clones to Imperial deployment and destroy the facilities of Tipoca City.
Why? Because as long as the clone facilities existed, any rebel group or outsider could make use of the Kamino’s largest export against them. But as we see at the end, the Empire isn’t through with cloning.
The Bad Batch Season 1 Finale Highlights
There are several aspects of the final episode of the Bad Batch that I want to go over. Most of it is a reiteration of what we’ve seen before. However, this contributes to an overall picture of what to expect for The Bad Batch season 2.
The Clones Aren’t Happy About Firing on Kamino
This isn’t exactly surprise. Throughout the the Bad Batch first season, we’ve seen that while clones are ultimately controlled by a chip’s directives, it does not mean they feel fine with it.
Alternatively, given people’s tendency in real life to follow orders of someone in a uniform or white lab coat, it’s not as if a chip is even necessary to force people to do something they don’t want.
The Milgram experiments provide examples of this. Whether the clones’ chips are active or not, it may have no bearing on their ultimate actions to comply with orders and fire on their home world.
Still, one wonders if Vice Admiral Rampart’s decision to use clone officers to fire on their home world will come back to haunt him. Conscripts would have be less averse to destroying a civilization that has no significance to them. Forcing the clones to destroy it is a cruelty that has no point and can backfire disastrously.
All Cities on Kamino are Destroyed
There had been some debate online as to whether only Tipoca City was destroyed or all of Kamino’s cities. This episode confirms that all cities have been fired upon and sunk into the world’s seas.
This series has made the destruction of Kamino seem bloodless. Tipoca City was devoid of Kaminoans and clones when it was fired upon. However, it is unlikely Kamino was evacuated planet-wide. Also, given that Geonosis will also undergo a similar “sterilization” after the Death Star is complete, it’s clear that the Empire wants most Kaminoans and their knowledge they held eradicated from the public.
The Bad Batch Season 1 Finale Confirms Omega is the Older Sister of the Brothers
I have talked at length about this in previous blog posts. I recommend reading “Is Omega the Mother of the Bad Batch” if you haven’t already. There have been clues the entire season that Omega was at the very least, the elder sister of the Bad Batch. In episode 1, she behaves as if she knows the Bad Batch personally. Most of the Bad Batch doesn’t remember her, but Hunter acts as if she’s vaguely familiar.
Omega is visibly 10 to 12 years old, and we already know what her brother Boba Fett, the Alpha looks like at this point. He is visibly a few years older than her at the end of the Clone Wars series.
Hera is also written as 14 years old in character art models for her. Omega looks younger than her.
The Bad Batch themselves look to be in their 30s. Since Omega remembers them, and was confirmed to not have age acceleration this means she is older and knew them when she was at least 5.
Again, there were clues of this the entire season, but Tech openly states it in the finale. This means the Bad Batch is younger for their age than earlier clone models. I will write more on this for a future blog post. They may be no more than 7 years old, yet look in their 30s.
Crosshair’s chip is irrelevant
One of my favorite moments of this finale is Wrecker pointing out that Crosshair never tried to return to them. But more importantly, Tech points out that Crosshair was always stubborn and “unyielding”. Recently, showrunners have confirmed that Crosshair does not have his chip.
While questions remain on when the chip was removed, it is ultimately not relevant to his decisions. This doesn’t mean the chip does not inform them. Crosshair is hurt that his brothers did not return to get him, and believes they should be more forgiving of him, realizing the chip did control his actions somewhat. However, his decisions after the chip’s removal are his own.
Crosshair is certainly different after Bracca. Before then, he ordered Omega to be killed and sought to fire on his brothers. But after Bracca, Crosshair misses firing on them. He protects Omega twice.
However, Wrecker and Hunter react with fear when Crosshair fires his bolt to save Omega and AZI-3 from drowning. That fear is what motivates Crosshair to not go with his brothers. If they don’t trust him, he doesn’t want to be with them.
In addition to that, Crosshair does believe in the Empire. He has always obeyed authority and considered it his purpose. He is a weapon for others. Purpose gives him security and he can’t envision a life without that. The Empire was strong. The Empire won. Ergo, he follow the Empire and obeys them. Either he does not realize, nor care that the Empire would discard him in a heartbeat.
In order for Crosshair to come back, he will need to be completely and utterly disillusioned by them. In turn, his brothers will need to regain trust of him.
What will The Bad Batch Season 2 Look Like?
The Next Season of the Bad Batch will have 3 Points of View
The first season had 4 points of view. The main POV is the Bad Batch with Omega. The second POV was Crosshair with Rampart and other members of the military part of the Empire. The third POV was Nala Se and the Kaminoans. The final POV was from an outsider’s point of view, Hera.
I think the second season will follow the same format. The season one finale ends with 3 points of view that will inform the direction of next season. The Bad Batch will be the primary one, of course. They will likely continue to work with Cid, but I think they will meet with Rex again as well.
The second point of view will be Crosshair training his squad and working with the military part of the Empire. I think here is where he will slowly become uneasy with the Empire.
The third point of view is the most interesting to me. It will be Nala Se and her work on Weyland and Mount Tantiss. She is the only Kaminoan of Tipoca City that has survived, and it is for her cloning work.
We see at the end of Season 1 of the Bad Batch, that Nala Se has been assigned to the forested mountains to start cloning for the Empire. The medical officer that greets her looks similar to Dr. Pershing of the Mandalorian and already she is wearing the clothing of that team.
Nala Se will likely meet Palpatine again
The Empire isn’t too interested in clone soldiers at this time. The only person interested in cloning is the Emperor himself. I think Nala Se will meet Emperor Palpatine again, and learn at least some of his intentions. We already know from Revenge of the Sith that Palpatine seeks immortality. Obi-wan Kenobi and lava have destroyed Anakin Skywalker’s body. Palpatine still wants to possess a body.
And if you pay attention to the music that plays when Nala Se approaches the medical officer at the end of the finale episode, you can hear part of Rey’s theme.
That’s what Nala Se’s story will incorporate–Palpatine’s long term plan to create the perfect host.
I will write more on Nala Se’s research later.
There will be a time jump
Recently the Bad Batch show runners spoke with StarWars.com to speak a little about the future of The Bad Batch. They confirmed there will be a time jump. I don’t think it will be more than 2 or 3 years, personally.
But I hope that means Omega will be old enough to get armor. I think she may either try to use the white armor in Cid’s parlor, or better yet she will take the helmet that Boba Fett is wearing at this time. At the end of the Clone Wars, Boba Fett has a helmet that looks remarkably like the helmets of the Bad Batch. I can see him giving her that helmet while he continues to reconstruct his father Jango’s own helmet.
I also think we will see Isa Durant, the mother of Roland Durant. She wasn’t name dropped for no reason.
Overall, this was a fantastic first season to Star Wars The Bad Batch. It’s the best first season of any Star Wars cartoon I’ve seen so far and I look forward to the story’s direction.