– Spoiler Review –
With episodes “The Summit” and “Plan 99,” The Bad Batch season two finale is finally here, making for a thrilling, emotional, and sometimes surprising end which will have fans eager for its return.
While Clone Force 99 still isn’t sure going after Crosshair is their best course of action after learning he’s alive and a prisoner of the Empire now, as they can’t even be sure it isn’t a trap, they can’t pass up on a big lead: the mysterious Doctor Hemlock is set to attend a high-level summit on Tarkin’s Eriadu. If they can infiltrate the fortress where it’s being held, they can attach a homing beacon to his ship and locate not only where Crosshair is, but where all these clone prisoners are being taken. It’s a risky plan, they all know it, but they consider it worth it since it’s something all clones could get behind if it means helping all their brothers. Little do they know how risky the mission turns out to be…
As far as “The Summit” goes, the episode largely feels like business as usual at first, as Clone Force 99 has a mission, they go on said mission and make things up as they go to make the plan work, and encounter problems along the way. The problems in this episode and “Plan 99” have much larger consequences than ever before and much higher stakes, a feeling which permeates both episodes, thanks both to the previous episode pushing the season all towards these events but also the scale and scope of the threat before them. Their initial infiltration doesn’t go too badly, finding a way to sneak into the facility by attaching to a moving rail car ferrying people to and from Tarkin’s fortress meeting place. Omega steps up to sneak around the hanger to place the homing beacon on Hemlock’s ship after they figure out which one it is, Echo helping with a distraction and Wrecker crushing a little mouse droid, but something seems off as Hunter and Tech get further into the facility. They notice cameras are out and patrols are missing…right until Hunter locates a bomb. Who else is sneaking into the fortress and why are they trying to blow it up?
It doesn’t take long for the unsurprising, but still welcomed to see, answer to appear and explain themselves: Saw Gerrera is the culprit behind the bomb, which he hopes will take out the high-level Imperial leadership in a single blow. Hunter and Tech try to talk him out of the plan, telling him about their own plan and how attacking will both destroy their chance to locate their brothers, but also leave room for someone else to take the leaders’ places. He doesn’t care, eager to hit them where it hurts regardless the consequences, but the officer in charge of security has sent troopers their way and a battle erupts as the two groups try to escape. Saw and his team steal a ship and fly away, while Clone Force 99 jumps back on the rail train, only for the explosion from the bomb knocking out power to the rail system, leaving them stuck, while their homing beacon is destroyed when all the ships blow up.
As for the Imperials? They all survive unscathed, able to continue discussing their various secret projects for the Empire. We get a small glimpse of the conversation, mainly as they discuss Hemlock’s work with the clones. While it’s still not clear what Hemlock is doing with the clones, though the ending of the episode points towards something I think we’ve all been assuming, the way he’s talks about them as Imperial property and he can disappear them as he wishes draws a small bit of alarm from some of the surrounding Imperials, but Tarkin squashes their concerns and allows Hemlock to continue, even if he seems concerned about if the doctor can deliver or not. Also at the table? Hurst Romodi, who was most recently seen in Rogue One (played by Andy De la Tour, who returned to voice him here!) and some of the current canon comics. Barton Coburn, who was in The Clone Wars as the Admiral commanding the task force which rescued Tarkin from his imprisonment from the Citadel. And another face which was cool to see and unsurprising for the timeframe: Orson Krennic, voiced again by Ben Mendelsohn! He’s basically a cameo, only saying like two words, and gives the show a chance to mention “Project Stardust,” but it was still neat to have his involvement included. Either way, beyond the initial discussion we see little from the meeting, as the explosion and subsequent consequences pulls us away from the summit, but it’s an interesting little scene I hope we can get more of in a third season.
Out on the rails, Tech believes he has a solution for returning the power to the system, so the team covers him, first from a nearby cart, also stuck, opening its doors and stormtroopers start shooting at them, and later Tarkin’s orders bringing in air support. While Tech gets things running, his return to the cart is anything but smooth, as the air support is shaking the rails and derailing one half of their cart. Tech falls off, catching himself with the grapple hook, though attempts by Wrecker or anyone to save him threaten to take them all down with him and the other half of the rail cart. At first, I figured it would be another impossible situation the team overcomes, but the more the scene played out, the more I realized what was about to happen, though it didn’t lessen the impact when it did. The episode actually opened with a cute moment between Phee and Tech on Pabu, where he sheepishly tries to hide his feelings for her and she says without saying he needs to come back to her, and because of this I was already concerned for Tech’s life. Sure enough, instead of letting them get themselves killed just to save him, Tech puts the team above his own life, severing the rail cart’s connection to their half, causing him to plummet to Eriadu’s surface far, far below. It’s a devastating moment, as Tech certainly wasn’t on the expected chopping block list, considering all the character work he got in this second half of the season, so I felt a bit in a daze after he dies, Omega screaming for them to go back not helping my tears about to come out. The rail cart they are on comes to a crashing stop after Echo restarts it, leading to a sequence from Omega’s POV, all hazed out as Wrecker carries her, alongside Hunter and Echo covering them, back to the Marauder to escape, which sort of matched how I felt. I didn’t necessarily want any of Clone Force 99 to die, but at this point in the show, especially for such a dangerous mission in Imperial territory, it would’ve rang a little false for them to escape, again, unscathed. Death doesn’t automatically make the stakes go up, or is it necessary to do so, but here it felt appropriate, even if Tech seemed like the most unlikely choice, but of all the group who weren’t Hunter or Omega, he had the most screentime and character work, as I mentioned before, so he makes sense for the choice. It’ll be sad to see him go, especially knowing the potentially bright, happy future he might’ve found on Pabu, but it definitely raises the stakes for The Bad Batch going into its third season. At least it’s one of the ways the stakes have gone up…
When Omega awakes, as we hear before she passes out, the group decided to go to Cid despite all the animosity over the past few episodes. Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo have had time to mourn their fallen brother, but Omega still hasn’t accepted it yet, leading to another tear-inducing scene as Hunter helps her accept the truth of Tech’s death and how noble it was. Because of Tech’s actions, Hunter and Wrecker have decided they want to go back to Pabu and stop being soldiers, though instead of telling Omega that’s what she’s going to do as well, Hunter asks her instead. I love she got to choose here, but after losing one of their group, seeing how big a machine their fight is going up against, Omega agrees with them and wants to retire for now. I thought this wouldn’t be a bad place for the show to end, with the characters taking a break from their soldier, mission-based life, as the show had been setting up for them since “Pabu,” allowing maybe for a time jump or something to either end this season or to start the third, but the dream of Pabu vanishes very quickly. Wrecker quickly picks up on Cid’s extra shiftiness at the bar, as she informed the Imperials and they have arrived, jamming the comms, which is why Echo can’t call and warn them despite seeing the Imperial’s first. Wrecker’s taken and Hunter sends Omega to Echo…but she disobeys, overseeing Hunter going to rescue Wrecker and finding Hemlock and a bunch of clone commandos he can’t hope to fight alone. She watches as Hemlock talks Hunter into putting down his weapon, though he’s stalling to give Omega time to escape…only she hasn’t and when Hemlock begins to parade them out in the streets, she makes a stand. It’s clear she won’t go willingly with him to see Nala Se no matter what he offers, though her efforts don’t last long as clone commando Scorch arrives and knocks her out. Hemlock takes her away to his ship but the droid AZ, still hanging with Cid but was sneaking around with Omega, has brought Echo to the group and he helps them escape custody…though they are too late to stop Hemlock from getting away with Omega.
I had a suspicion Omega would find herself in Hemlock’s clutches by the end of the episode, but it was still surprising to see regardless. Hunter and Wrecker aren’t going to retire on Pabu after she’s taken, instead vowing to dedicate every minute of their remaining existence to locating her, which is quite the exciting premise for the third season. It means they won’t be doing their own thing and taking side missions anymore and will probably be embedded within Echo and Rex’s group and their efforts, resulting in missions with more meaning behind them and connected to the larger plot of the era, maybe even putting them eventually in sight of the growing rebellion. I love this potential, as while this has been a stronger season overall, and many of the diversions fun, it’s felt like it could be more, especially with episodes where Clone Force 99 isn’t even the focus showing us what’s going in the larger galaxy ended up being so riveting. I’ve been curious if season three will be the last and this sort of premise lends itself to what could be the show’s biggest yet, which wouldn’t sound bad for a final season, but now, if they can tap into the potential like we’ve seen throughout season two, I might be more hopefully there’s another season after the next one.
Regardless, the episode ends with Omega delivered to Mount Tantiss on Wayland, seeing Nala Se is truly alive like Hemlock told her and the Kaminoan learning how Hemlock plans to use Omega against her if she doesn’t cooperate. The young clone finds herself left in a dark, ominous room, where several clones are strapped to tables, green vats littering the walls, and she finds Crosshair. Emerie Karr, the scientist who tried to warn Crosshair during his escape attempt and seemed sympathetic towards him over the excessive torture, approaches her and reveals something a lot of fans have been guessing, both a bit from her looks though mainly due to the choice of voice actress, Keisha Castle-Hughes, a New Zealander like Omega’s Michelle Ang: Emerie is Omega’s sister, another clone. Why is she helping the Empire? Was she giving the advanced aging or is she like Omega, having aged naturally, meaning she’s been around longer? How many more female clones are there? Will they ever address if this means they are transgender? This brings in tons of questions and another mystery to piece together in the next season. But one thing seems clear but isn’t outright confirmed just yet: the green vats, with the bodies floating in them, certainly seem like a link to the same green, body-filled vats as seen in The Mandalorian’s second season, part of Gideon’s scientific efforts, which many people assumed were hints linking to Emperor Palpatine’s plans for cloning, leading to Snoke and his return in the sequel trilogy. Considering Hemlock iterates a few times throughout the episode his machinations with the clones are very important to the Emperor, emphasis on the Emperor and not saying Empire, it seems all these theories might just be correct.
Here are a few other things:
- My biggest hope for season three, finally, actually doing SOMETHING in regards to the situation presented by the Unwhitewash The Bad Batch campaign. You can read more up on the campaign via their Carrd, and this great article on Gizmodo, but it’s simply pointing out how the special clones of a character played by a Māori actor are whiter than any other clone, unintentionally implying superiority and uniqueness are inherent in those who are white versus their darker-skinned brethren. I find it hard to cover this show without mentioning it each episode, as not acknowledging it would be ignoring the problem.
- Fans were already anticipating The Bad Batch panel at Celebration Europe, but this finale, and the potential for them to drop some teases for the next season, should make it quite the event to see!
The Bad Batch’s “The Summit” and “Plan 99” create a thrilling and emotional season two finale, with plenty of potential for the show’s next season to pick up and run with.
+ Emotional yet fitting end for Tech
+ All the potential for the next season
+ Mystery of Emerie and what they are really doing on Tantiss
+ Great pacing
– Unwhitewash the Bad Batch
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
THE BAD BATCH REVIEWS
Season Two: 1.1/1.2 Spoils of War & Ruins of War | 1.3 The Solitary Clone | 1.4 Faster | 1.5 Entombed | 1.6 Tribe | 1.7/1.8 The Clone Conspiracy & Truth and Consequences | 1.9 The Crossing | 1. 10 Retrieval | 1.11 Metamorphosis | 1.12 The Outpost | 1.13 Pabu (by Katie) | 1.14 Tipping Point
Season One: 1.1 Aftermath | 1.2 Cut and Run | 1.3 Replacements | 1.4 Cornered | 1.5 Rampage | 1.6 Decommissioned | 1.7 Battle Scars | 1.8 Reunion | 1.9 Bounty Lost | 1.10 Common Ground | 1.11 Devil’s Deal | 1.12 Rescue on Ryloth | 1.13 Infested | 1.14 War-Mantle | 1.15 Return to Kamino | 1.16 Kamino Lost