The Bad Batch S3 E15 Breakdown: “The Cavalry Has Arrived” Brings Everything to its End
The Bad Batch’s story is finally over. So who are the winners? Do they succeed? And do any of our favorite clones ever get a happy ending?
The series finale of The Bad Batch is finally here. And after a long, bumpy road, we’re left with more answers than loose ends and an ending that was overall very satisfying.
Spoiler Warning! If you haven’t watched this week’s episodes of The Bad Batch, read on at your own risk.
Omega’s Escape
Last week we saw Omega in the planning stages of her escape plan, but we learned very little about what she saw in the walls and what her plans were. But it turns out that these plans were a total brick-on-the-gas-pedal, throw-everything-at-the-wall, total-scorched-Earth sort of approach. There wasn’t anything that she didn’t do. And it made for a series of scenes that reminded me of previous Star Wars scenes in the best ways.
We remmeber the Zillo Beast from its appearances in The Clone Wars. But finding and releasing the other clones, only to have them join the fight without question reminded me of the rally to break out in Andie, and the lighting and tone of Hemlock’s training and reprogramming room were incredibly reminiscent of Han being carbonited in Empire Strikes Back.
Omega’s breakout involves capturing and reprogramming the Imperial security Droid, using it to drug the guard on duty at the Vault, and then sneaking all of the kids out through the walls. Once they were out of their little enclosure, she released the Zillo Beast that was being kept under the Tantiss base for some reason, allowing it to create mayhem and split the imperial troops’ attention even further.
It’s a good plan and one that the batch all selectively recognizes as her handwork right away. And they’re all proud.
Will we ever see the Zillo Beast again or does it how just wander Mount Tantiss, ruining the ecosystem and being a menace? Who knows. Good luck, Zillo Beast.
The Batch’s Rescue
Meanwhile, the Batch is having a mixed bag of a mission. Echo has been found out by Dr. Karr. But she’s ready to defect and help him help the kids escape. So the two of them are following along behind Omega’s (and the Zillo Beast’s) trail of destruction before Dr. Karr and the kids escape on a shuttle.
But Wrecker, Crosshair, and Hunter are a little worse for the wear. Between injuries and difficult firefight, they have to work for every inch forward.
The result is their eventual capture by Hemlock and a trip to his ‘training room’ where he attempts to brainwash them.
Hemlock makes a comment that Crosshair had resisted this before but he’d found more effective ways since… And this was when I was SURE Tech would be coming back as one of Hemlock’s special super soldiers. But he didn’t.
Tech doesn’t come back at all. Ever. And on the one hand, it’s cool that this show has stakes- characters aren’t always protected by plot armor. But in the other, come on! I was really hoping for a grand—even if a little tragic—return like Echo had.
Hemlock’s Research Up in Flames
On their way to rescue Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair, Omega and Echo free all of the mostly-clone prisoners on Tantiss. Also along with them is Nala Se, with whom Omega has a very sweet reunion.
Nala Se doesn’t want the Empire to keep her cloning data and heads to the lab destroy everything, but is followed by Rampart. He seemingly things that retrieving all of this will allow him to leverage some forgiveness from the Emperor, but Nala Se isn’t interested in the secrets to cloning being in anyone’s hand but the Kaminoans and instead blows the entire lab, herself, and Rampart up.
This is seemingly the end of the Empire’s attempts to clone the Emperor… For now at least. We know that by the time of the New Republic, imperial remnants are trying to figure out force cloning again. And by the time of the sequel movies, a clone of the Emperor sort of exists in Snoke. If Nala Se hadn’t done this, there would likely have been a much more successful Emperor clone much earlier. This likely resulted in a seamless transition of power from one Palpatine to the next after the events of Return of the Jedi.
The Juxtaposition of Rampart and Dr. Karr
The difference between Rampart and Dr. Karr, in this episode especially, are striking.
After being betrayed by the Empire and broken out of jail by the Bad Batch, Rampart looks for any opportunity to return to Imperial service and get back into their good graces. He saw mountains of evidence that he may have been playing for the bad guys, and chose to return, despite them not wanting him.
Meanwhile, Dr. Karr’s character arc this season quickly brought her around on everything Imperial. Echo didn’t even ask her for help- she offered. At great risk to herself.
And That Brings Us to the Present
After the fighting and the destruction of the Tantiss base, Tarkin was unimpressed in a way that only Tarkin could be. If he’s coming to visit you know it’s about to be bad news. Either your project is getting defunded or your planet is being blown up, but it’s almost never good.
In this case, he saw a vast waste of money and instead ordered Project Necromancer funds to be used on Project Stardust. You know, the Deathstar.
But that means that the search for Force-sensitive kids was less aggressive and nobody was looking for the Batch or Omega and they were finally able to live their peaceful lives on Pabu.
Which they do. The show flashes about ten years into the future, and we see a now-adult Omega prepping the shuttle for departure. Hunter sees her off, halfheartedly trying to talk her into staying. But Omega tells him that the Rebellion needs good pilots and she feels this is her battle to fight too.
There’s something bittersweet in knowing that the reason we never see the Batch pop up later is because they’re peacefully growing old on an island somewhere. This is truly the last chapter in their story, but it’s the last chapter they deserve.
And maybe we’ll see an adult Omega in a pilot jumpsuit at some point!
What did you think of The Bad Batch‘s series finale? Will you be on the lookout for Rebel-pilot-Omega in future Star Wars titles? Were you also a little mad that Tech didn’t somehow come back? Let us know in the comments!
May the Force be with you, adventurers!
