The second season of the Bad Batch has been a bit of a roller coaster, but after witnessing the two-episode finale, the season does feel justified for the narrative goal posts it moved forward, while also keeping fans on the dark with others to keep interest high.
Below you will find our deep dive breakdown of the finale, complete with Easter eggs, references, a review, and of course the best moments.
Script
Hey now fans of depressing Star Wars cartoon season finales, let’s take a deep dive into the Bad Batch pool to put Season 2 to bed, but first, SPOILERS and stuff. Ready go!
Starting with this episode’s nods to past and future Star Wars we returned to Eriadu, a planet first featured in Rogue One, and we learned during this timeline Tarkin has himself a slick little fortress there. Raxus also gets mentioned, which is a planet from the clone wars and other star Wars series including The Bad Batch.
This technician sports a familiar helmet, the same worn by Death Star gunners.
How cool was it seeing the Commander version of Krennic who also dropped a Project Star Dust mention and was voiced by Ben Mendelson, the actor who plays him in Rogue One. It’s also notable that he and Tarkin almost seem cordial at this stage, so they weren’t always sniping each other in front of other officers.
Hurst Romodi was also in this meeting, and he dates all the way forward to A New Hope, where he is present for Vader’s choke out moment. He was also featured in Rogue One and many other Star Wars mediums.
Saw G. also made a reappearance, calling back his meeting with the Batch from the Season 1 premiere. He continues showcase why he became too unstable for the Rebel Alliance, which forms many many years later.
Finally, we got what has to be the next evolution of an Imperial walker en route to the AT-STs featured in the OG trilogy.
Alright, review time!
Like the other back-to back release episodes this season, the two-part finale offered up near constant tension and anxiety as our heroes were foiled at almost every turn. In fact, the finale is the best arc from this season thanks to the plot points it expanded upon and a nice little confirmed speculated twist, but more so by providing an Empire Strikes Back vibe by having the good guys lose, and their futures left in jeopardy.
Some fans may not appreciate the major cliffhanger this season left for them to chew on for an undetermined amount of time, but I personally find it refreshing. Far too often in sci-fi and fantasy in general, it’s a given that the good guys and girls will win, no matter how dire their situation is. Their Plot armor is strong if you will, so it’s appreciated when creatives go for a gut punch, and actually leave the good team in a state of disarray. Again, it’s hard not to draw parallels to Empire.
To further cement this finale’s high-quality feel, the team opted to kill off a main in Tech. Now, we didn’t see a body, so one has to think there’s still a chance, but even if that trope comes true, the moment still hit hard thanks to the character growth we’ve witnessed with brown eyes since he and Omega escaped that mine together.
He was built up to be more of a real person and the writers purposefully had him and Omega bond this season, which in turn made his sacrifice hit for real. I definitely poured one out for Tech and shed a lone tear, and that’s thanks to how he was written this season. Without his development, his sacrifice doesn’t hit the same way.
While many predictions didn’t come true, and many questions are left unanswered, the mega cliffhanger having Bad Batch S2 finale stands out thanks to the fact that we all have so much to think about and look forward to in Season 3. Not knowing how everything wraps up is refreshing, and I personally feel even more intrigued about returning to the Bad Batch for a third round.
Now for the top moments!
We gotta start with Tarkin’s staff meeting. This is the type of lore that I love. Watching and listening to some of the most awful officers in the Empire was a treat. We got insights into how the Empire was considering Galactic Unification. Krennic and Romodi made an appearance with the former even dropping some Star Dust love. Heck, they even talked about how to deal with a potential clone revolt, clone rights, and the emperor’s push for cloning himself. The whole scene was an Imperial treat.
Up next, is Saw’s surprise. It’s always cool to see characters pop up from other series and film, but in particular, this reveal only helped to reinforce that Saw has always been on the edge of resistance, and willing to get in the mud with the empire regardless of the fallout. He essentially caused Tech’s death, and while his plan to take out the worst of the worst made sense, his close minded focus on hitting the Empire regardless of the outcomes led to another messy outcome with no real benefit to those wanting to fight for their freedoms.
Ok, we have to talk about Tech. While his death has been flagged all season thanks to his focused character growth and the last chat with his lady love before they left, seeing him sacrifice still hit me in my Star Wars gut. Tech really has come a long way this season, especially with Omega, so seeing him do what had to be done to keep her safe for a few more moments was touching, and if he is really dead, he earned a hero’s death.
Finally, the cliffhanger end takes the last spot, mainly for the fact that the season ended in despair, which almost never happens, but also for the twist that Emerie is a clone. Now we called that out on our show previously, so it was nice to get confirmation, but more importantly it opens up a whole new lane of speculation us fanboys and girls can have in between seasons. Is she the fifth modified clone we heard about in Season 1? Why is she with Hemlock and helping him experiment on her brothers? Is she an accelerated version of Omega like Rex and regs were of Jango’s male clones? What is her endgame? See, it’s fun, so a great little scene to end this roller coaster of a season.
Nick and I will talk more about the finale on next week’s episode of the SWTS, so don’t forget to tune into the Star Wars Time Show on a weekly basis via our podcast platforms or via YouTube if you prefer the livestream angle.
