– Spoiler Review –
The beginning of the end (of season 1) is here in The Bad Batch’s “Return to Kamino,” a jam packed, fast-paced, emotionally filled, and surprising Part 1 to the season finale.
As far as Part 1 for a finale, “Return to Kamino” impressed on several different levels, as I was constantly taken aback by how much happened in it, and I would’ve assumed it was the true finale had I not known there wasn’t a second part. We get answers on Crosshair’s framing of the season’s events, the rescue of Hunter, the Empire’s final plans for Kamino, and a cliffhanger ending that would’ve sufficed for most shows until another season. Even more surprising was a short, but emotional coda to the clone’s lives that added a level of pathos I wasn’t expecting from the show, especially in the one part of a finale.
“Return to Kamino” wastes no time, as Tech, Wrecker, Echo, and Omega pick up Hunter’s comm signal, set off by Crosshair in hopes to draw them in, and they immediately chase after it to the watery clone homeworld of Kamino. I was expecting this episode to be one where they rounded up allies from throughout the season to rally an attack and rescue Hunter from Daro and the War-Mantle project, with the next one containing this episode’s events, but the emotional pull on viewers and the Batch themselves was too much for the writers and Crosshair to ignore, hence this trip to where this story all started. Omega’s relationship with Nala Se means she knows far more about the facility than what can be found in records by Tech, as she takes them to a secret landing pad in the ocean that’s connected to a large, underwater tube system, as a way to avoid walking directly into the obvious trap Crosshair has for them. They still head exactly where he wants them to, just as he planned, but at least for now their exit route remains obtuse. Throughout the episode, there are little moments between Hunter and Crosshair, paying off the promise at the end of “War-Mantle,” where these two would be stuck together, each one forced to listen to the other instead of glaring back at one another from the opposite side of a blaster barrel. Their conversations up until the whole team’s back together are an appetizer for a delicious, multi-plate meal that plays out between Crosshair and Hunter alongside the rest of the Batch.
Last week, I mentioned how it’s been a shame we haven’t had more time with Crosshair, to see his process with training or how he’s dealing after clashes against his former teammates, but I guess it would’ve ruined the cathartic feeling of seeing them all together again, actually trying to talk it through here. And it also would’ve prevented his reveal from being such a shocker of a moment, as Crosshair counters the argument Hunter makes that it’s all been the inhibitor chip’s doing by telling them he had his chip removed some time ago! Despite the shock of the moment, in the end more Crosshair screentime would’ve been a great thing as this might’ve hit harder, but it’s still a great surprise and recontextualizes their interactions throughout the season, though I feel like it would’ve helped as well if we had a better sense of how much time has passed to really put his independent decisions in focus. Looking back it’s now clear he removed the chip sometime after the burns suffered on Bracca (“Reunion”), the potential remnants of those injuries obfuscating the marks we see in “Devil’s Deal” as remnants of the burn, not from the removal, a sneaky way to hide the obvious by the creative team. Crosshair feels betrayed by the Batch, after they left him and have repeatedly not given him a chance since, but his loyalty, with or without the chip, remains to the Empire, to the point he hopes to reunite with his teammates under the new rule. Omega’s distraction halts further discussion, but the team unites under the onslaught of the droids in the training arena, taking them all out before Crosshair and Hunter have a face-off. Crosshair reveals his missing chip, how this is who he is now, but Hunter’s seen too much and changed enough to know there’s still hope for their comrade, winning the duel and stunning him. This has fascinating potential for the upcoming second season, and even in the second half of the finale, as the Batch’s journey to attempt rehabilitating Crosshair could be rife with emotional depth to add to every character as they each deal with him in their lives again.
Omega returning home hit her harder than even she seemed to expect, as taking the secretive tube system brings up lots of memories for her. And then they emerge into their collective birthspace, where we find out Omega saw them grown and their mutations enhanced before they were sent away to be with the rest of the clones (besides Echo, of course), her loneliness since even more clear than from the season opener. She’s had a sense of belonging with them long before they even knew she existed and that they’ve meshed so well together and have become such a tight-knit group stems from their shared past. When the rest of the Batch springs Crosshair’s trap, she doesn’t follow their orders to call for Rex, rather looking for a solution right away, which leads her and AZ to awakening the training droids and sending them up. It’s a little late, as Crosshair already took down the special forces troopers in the room with them to help make his case to his comrades, but it works out in a different way as it helps unite the Batch for the briefest of moments, a call back to “Aftermath” and the training room sequence there. Hunter apologizing for Omega’s return to Kamino after she hugs him surprised me, as I kind of forgot about it, but she responds she’d have done the same for him, only highlighting how important she is to Hunter and the team’s growth.
In “War-Mantle,” the Empire looked to be cleaning house at Tipoca City after cancelling all their contracts with the Kaminoans and by the start of “Return to Kamino,” it’s clear those preparations are basically finished, as the facility, already stark, bright, plain, is now empty, devoid of any life, making the sterilized hallways feel even more detached and clinical. And then we see what the Empire has planned for the facility, now that cloning is no longer their plans for the future: Vice Admiral Rampart, per Tarkin’s orders, opens fire on the city to bury it in the ocean! Just before the barrage starts, we’re treated to a series of shots of the facility, from the Batch’s now empty and personality-less room, the empty mess hall, and the clone-less tubes that once were constantly filled with new troopers and I did not expect it to elicit an emotional response like it did, as for the Bad Batch, and all the clones we’ve been fans of since The Clone Wars began, it comments on what’s being destroyed: their homes, their past, and their future, as it will never again be filled with another of their kind. The days of the clones are over, full stop, and the Empire ensures it by stealing away Nala Se for their own nefarious purposes, purging the data from the facility so it’s not hanging around to be discovered, like the one Omega, Cad Bane, and Fennec Shand all were on in “Bounty Lost,” and by pummeling it to the depths of the planet’s ocean. And for me watching, it did feel like a goodbye to these locations and more stories in them, as it made it clear Kamino and its part in the story was over, but it won’t be the end of the clones’ story at least, considering this show will continue to follow what the Batch does next for at least one more season. Well…that’s assuming they all manage to make it out of Tipoca City, as their route to their ship is cut off by the bombardment and the last thing we see before the screen fades to black is the city tumble into the ocean. How do they get out of this alive? Will all of them make it out? If this is the cliffhanger for the FIRST half of the finale, I can only imagine what they have in store for us in the second half next week!
Here are a few other things:
- Yesterday, just ahead of the premiere of “Return to Kamino,” The Bad Batch returning for a second season in 2022 was officially announced and part of me almost wishes they waited, considering how this episode ends, otherwise I’d have doubted their survival even more!
- The water animation is really top notched these days, from the waves and water dispersing from the rising platform or the resulting waves as the city tumbles into the ocean. I was also delighted by Omega’s wet hair, as I don’t think they’ve ever really brought such detail to wet hair before in Star Wars animation that it stood out to me. And the sequences of shots of the empty city, with the quiet, calm score over them, were some of my favorite moments of the episode…it was truly the calm before the storm, the storm of the Empire’s guns that is. Speaking of the score, the Kiner family continues their excellent work, from bringing back the Batch’s theme when they all unite or bringing back an Attack of the Clones theme during its Kamino scene was pure brilliance.
- Gregor dropped off with Cid, and therefore not joining the remaining Batch, was a little disappointing but emotionally it makes sense it’s only the core Batch here now when confronting Crosshair. Though there’s still one episode left for any allies to maybe help….
“Return to Kamino” goes further and farther than expected for an opening half of a season finale and I’m eager to see how The Bad Batch decides to end before we’re stuck waiting for its return next year.
+ Crosshair’s surprise
+ The Batch coming together again, briefly
+ Emotional destruction
– NO, SERIOUSLY NOW THAT’S WHERE YOU END THIS HALF?!
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 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