Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 3 Episode 15: The Cavalry Has Arrived
What is it ? : Omega rallies the force sensitive kids to create a distraction so they can escape, luring one of the scientists into the vault after reprogramming the medical droid on attendance to drug the scientist. They then enter the tunnels behind the walls and head for the area where Omega spotted the Zillo Beast being held.
Meanwhile Rampart has been captured, and Hemlock scolds him for working with traitors, while Rampart points out Hemlocks failure in having his secret base discovered, he also spots in a neighbouring cell Nala-Se.
Echo and Doctor Karr agree to work together to free the kids, and disguised as her Stormtrooper escort they head towards the Vault.
Outside the Batch discuss their next move, Crosshair suggests since he knows the layout of the base he enter alone, while Hunter and a heavily wounded Wrecker find a way of summoning Rex and his forces, Hunter refuses this saying that the Bad Batch sticks together, but Crosshair points out that they haven't been the Bad Batch since Tech died, but Hunter and Wrecker insist on trying.
Omega and the kids reach the Zillo Beast, and Omega frees it, and it begins fighting it's way through the base until it smashes it's way out of the hangar doors. They immediately begin climbing after it since they now have an exit.
Echo and Karr reach the vault only to discover Hemlock already there due to the escape of the kids, they overhear that the Zillo Beast has been released and Echo recognises it as something that Omega would do, so they head to where it has exited the base.
Hemlock is contacted by Tarkin who has heard of the security breaches and tells him that he will be arriving to assess the situation soon, so Hemlock activates the Clone Assassins as he knows the Batch will take advantage of the chaos caused by the Zillo Beast.
Outside the Batch sees the fighting and devastation caused by the Zillo Beast escaping and immediately head for the opening it has created, but they arrive and are met by the Clone Assassins who beat them in combat, disabling them and actually cutting Crosshairs hand off as he reaches for his weapon.
In the aftermath as the Batch are dragged off, Echo and Karr meet up with Omega and the kids, they find a ship and Karr and the kids leave as Echo gives them a rendezvous point, and Echo and Omega head to help their friends.
The Batch reawaken in conditioning pods, as Hemlock is going to recondition them into Clone Assassins, but with their abilities they will be the best. Hunter points out the conditioning failed on Crosshair, but Hemlock says he has refined the process and it will now work on defective clones.
Echo and Omega head to the prison block and free all the clones there, along with Rampart and Nala-Se. Echo tells them that he will understand if they just want to escape, but they have other brothers who need rescued, and a number of the clones agree to help. Nala-Se tells them that her research must be destroyed, and heads off to her laboratory to stop the Empire having access to Kaminoan secrets any longer, but Rampart follows her.
In the Lab, Rampart pulls a gun on her, and demands to know what Project Necromancer is, and off camera she tells him, but when he declares he's going to trade this for his freedom, she tells him that Kaminoan technology isn't his to trade and drops a Thermal Detonator as he guns her down, blowing him and the lab and all it's secrets to oblivion.
Omega sneaks into the conduits once more to observe and provide intelligence on Hemlock and the Batch, and sees that Hemlock is trying to condition them, so Echo and the Clones attack, but Hemlock gases them, knocking them all out except Echo in his Stormtrooper armor, but he is outnumbered and outskilled by the Clone Assassins and ends up being stabbed from behind.
Omega sneaks in to release the Batch and try to turn the battle, but she is spotted by a strangely observant Clone Assassin, who stops her after she frees only Wrecker. Wrecker frees his comrades, and they turn the battle, so Scorch, Hemlock flee with Omega as their captive.
Wrecker is too wounded, so he retreats along with the wounded Echo and the other recovering Clones, while Hunter and Crosshair pursue Hemlock. They find him outside summoning in a shuttle, but they blow it out of the sky, and they also shoot Scorch who stumbles and plummets from the landing platform into the jungle below. Hemlock holds Omega hostage, demanding they drop their weapons, but Crosshair using his no trembling off hand (as his other was severed) shoots Hemlock who also falls from the platform.
Reunited they head for the shuttles and flee Tantiss, just as an Imperial Star Destroyer with escorting Venators arrive.
Later Tarkin is told that Hemlock is dead, the subjects escaped and the data lost, so he declares Tantiss is to be shutdown and all resources redirected to Project Starlight.
On Pabu, the Batch sit together, watching the Clones settling in with the villagers and the younger clones already there. Echo waves to them as he boards a ship and leaves, and the rest sit under the trees their mission finally over.
Years Later: an older Omega heads into the caves below Pabu, Hunter is waiting for her telling her that he wasn't going to let her slip away. She tells him that the Rebellion needs pilots and she is going to lend a hand, but he says that his job is to protect her. She tells him, that he, Wrecker and Crosshair have done that, that they kept her safe, but now she needs to help others, and asks him to look after Batcher. She boards the ship and flies off into the sky towards her destiny.
High Points : So it's an extended episode and is action almost all the way through, so is pretty thrilling for it's full run time, and the characters get a fairly happy ending.
Low Points : So the Bad Batch gets a happy ending, even though the series never seemed set up for that. And that happy ending makes no sense either, they settle down on Pabu, a planet the Empire knows they took up hiding on, so definitely isn't a secret hiding place for them to spend a decade or so living peacefully on.
The episode itself also chickens out of a couple of plot points, which makes me think there was heavy rewriting when they became aware this was going to be the final episode.
For example they make a big point about calling for Rex, which makes sense as he needs to team up with Wolffe for the events of Rebels, but they don't call Rex, so that plot point is left hanging.
They make a massive point about Hemlock knowing now how to reprogram Defective Clones, and that the loyalty Clones show each other is their weakness. Setting up for the Clone Assassin which captures Omega turning out to be a reprogrammed Tech, and his loyalty to his sister and brothers overcoming the programming.
They make heavy hints that if they all go into Tantiss, they'll not all survive, but they do. Especially as they've left Wrecker massively wounded, so it makes sense for him to save the day at the expense of his life.
After all the effort capturing, cloning and storing the Zillo Beast, led by Palpatine himself, it escapes and the Empire just leaves it roaming the countryside of Tantiss.
We know that something terrible happens with the Clones to lead to Rex, Wolffe and Gregor taking up hiding from the Empire, avoiding the Rebellion. And this was a chance to show us that, but nope.
And the cop out from revealing exactly what Project Necromancer is, Echo accesses the computers so perhaps knows what it is, but we specifically have Nala-Se explaining it to Rampart, but cut away so he knows (and dies with the knowledge) but we don't.
All season we've been seeing loads and loads of Clone Commando's. More Clone Commandos than we ever knew existed, providing a real and solid threat as these are well trained and capable troopers, and as I just said, there's loads of them. But in this episode they defeat Scorch, but every other Clone Commando seems to have taken the day off as they're not seen in the final battle. Where did they go?
So what do you really think ? : It's a massively disappointing ending to The Bad Batch, leaving so many plot threads hanging. But even despite that, it's not even satisfying in bringing the series to an ending. In Rebels we got minor characters from throughout the series all coming together. But here we don't even get Phee turning up to help, never mind a resolution or even a redemption for Cid's betrayal.
Final Words : It's too happy an ending for the series, at this point the Empire should be all but unbeatable, crushing those before it with it's might and crushing the dreams of freedom or rebellion. At best the series should have ended with the Batch defeated and unable to fight, on the run forever, Hunter and a one handed Crosshair protecting Omega, with Echo, Wrecker and Tech all dead. The Clones in the prison should have been slaughtered with Rex and his team fighting alongside the Batch, and this is the horror and death of his brothers which leads to him giving up the fight and going into hiding.
The Bad Batch shouldn't have had a happy ending, it should have had an ending where they survived, and were lucky to have done that. Omega gets to grow up free, cared for by a couple of her brothers,
Sad ending to what overall was a decent show, it feels cobbled together, rushed and disorganised. Leading me to think this wasn't the end they wanted, but the ending they had time for.
Score : 6.5/10
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