Bad Batch Episodes 9-12 Review
Credit to: Disney and LucasfilmAlmost at the Finish Line
Welcome back to The Wolf Den! We’re almost there, y’all. Season 1 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch is almost complete! What a ride it’s been so far, I really can’t wait to find out how it all comes to a close. It’s been a great time so far, so I’m confident that this season is going out with a bang. If you’ve read my theory article on this series, we may have a lot to look forward to. It’s not confirmed though, so don’t hold me to it! Just a bunch of fun little potential theories, that’s all! Now, without any further to say, let’s just jump straight into it.
Episode 9: Bounty Lost
Guess who’s back? Cad Bane! Got worried we might have to wait another episode, but nope! Whew. Alright, enough geeking out. We start off on board the Marauder, the ship the Bad Batch always flies, where we see the crew getting tailed and shot at by a badly injured Crosshair, who’s flying an Imperial shuttle. He’s gunning after the crew with nothing but pure rage, since it is pretty much them who caused his injuries with the ion engine. Of course, the crew gets away after they jump to hyperspace, and Crosshair is of course upset about failing. We cut to Cad Bane’s brand new ship, a ship that we’ve seen in the scrapped Clone Wars concept art. We see an imprisoned Omega conversing with Bane’s droid assistant, Todo 360, using his leg as a little cane to walk along with. Suddenly, we see Bane himself climb down to the holding cell of his ship where Omega is, where Omega tries to threaten him with her friends. Obviously, that falls short, and Bane assures her that she’s not going anywhere. Later, we see the Kaminoans discussing Omega and the bounty on her. Lama Su prevents Nala Se, the only lighthearted cloner on Kamino, from retrieving Omega at Bane’s rendezvous point, and instead sends Taun We, a Kaminoan last seen in Attack of the Clones instead. We later cut to the Batch on the Marauder, trying to identify who shot Hunter and took Omega. Hunter points out Bane after seeing his face, and Tech gives both his brothers and us as the audience some insight as to why Omega is so valuable to the Kaminoans. In short, Omega is in fact a clone of Jango Fett, but more than that, she’s a pure, unmodified clone of him. As Tech points out, there’s only two clones that are like that: Omega and Alpha, otherwise known as the one and only Boba Fett. Now, if you’ve read my theory article, you’d probably guess that the Boba Fett name drop got me amped. I won’t dive into that too much, but definitely check out my theory article for this series when you get the chance. Later, we see Todo trying to fix his leg, which was shot off by Hunter during his duel against Cad Bane. Omega cleverly convinces Todo to free her as long as he fixes it for him. She does fix his leg, but she then deactivates him and looks for her comm device. We cut to Bane, who pulls the ship out of hyperspace. He flies into a cloudy, barren world, and lands on an abandoned facility, very reminiscent of Cloud City. This place is actually an old Kaminoan cloning facility, where they would experiment their cloning technology. He lands the ship and calls for Todo, who doesn’t respond. Bane heads to the prisoner area and sees the unconscious droid. After re-activating him and asking him where Omega was, Todo has a funny little “uh-oh” moment, realizing that she’s gone.
Omega runs off into the facility while making contact with her brothers. They receive her, and instruct her on what to do next. It’s ultimately futile, as Bane creeps up on her in the fog and grabs her, while smashing her comm device to the ground. A blaster shot goes off in the background, and Bane brings the handcuffed Omega to investigate. We see an end to the character of Taun We, as we see her dead on the floor, much to the dismay of Omega. She tries to help We, but Cad Bane informs her that there’s no help to give. Suddenly, we see none other than Fennec Shand with a blaster in hand, agreeing with Bane. The two interact, and Shand offers Bane a trade. The case of credits that Taun We had for Bane’s payment, in exchange for Omega. Before anything can happen, Todo sneaks up on Fennec and snatches the case, throwing her off guard. An awesome shootout begins between the two badasses, and Omega makes a run for it, going deeper into the facility to hide. Omega stumbles into a dark and grime-filled room, with a bunch of glass tanks in the middle, full of green liquid and floating bodies. The creatures inside seem to be earlier versions of the aliens that we’re familiar with, so the facility must be very, very old. Omega finds a control area, and manages to send out a signal for her brothers to receive. Fennec Shand casually walks into the room, trying to convince Omega that it’s safer to come along with her, because she knows what the Kaminoans want to do with her. Todo suddenly flies into the room, and is immediately knocked into one of the clone tanks by Fennec. Omega drops the tank onto Fennec, and makes another attempt to escape. To wrap up without giving away too much of this amazing scene, Omega manages to run from both Cad Bane and Fennec Shand while they fist fight, escaping on an escape pod, and is rescued by her brothers. Back on Fennec’s ship, we discover who the person is that hired her. It’s Nala Se, and she’s glad that Omega is away from Lama Su, safe with her brothers. End.
Honestly, I couldn’t ask more from this episode. This was just a solid, solid episode. I really enjoyed the fact that the Batch weren’t really the focus this time, rather, we got some bounty hunter goodness. Omega this time around was actually super enjoyable. I personally find her to just be an alright character, nothing too great, but she’s not bad either. She is a tad bit annoying, but nothing too bad. She showed a lot of emotion here, and really showed how smart she can be. This episode definitely did her justice. It’s always a pleasure to see Fennec, as I’ve been a massive fan of hers since she first popped up in The Mandalorian. I hope Boba Fett does in fact pop up in this series, just so we can see them interact in their younger age. Would be pretty cool to see their interest in one another. Cad Bane, can’t say much about him, since he always shines every time he’s popped up in The Clone Wars. I loved the shootouts, I loved the fist fighting, I loved the chases, I just loved this episode. Such a solid entry.
5 Out Of 5.
Episode 10: Common Ground
For this episode, we’re on the planet of Raxus, a planet that once aligned with the Separatist Alliance during the Clone War. Here we see hundreds, if not a couple thousand people gathered up in front of a massive building, with Imperial clones scattered around the area. The citizens are staring up at a level of the building, where we see an Imperial officer and the senator of Raxus, Senator Avi Singh, accompanied by two of his personal droids. The officer, named Captain Bragg, tries to make the Empire seem like saviors to all systems in the galaxy, even if the people on Raxus were Separatists. Through the crowd’s boos and heckling, she invites Senator Singh to speak, though we see him tell one of his droids how badly he doesn’t want to have his people be puppets for the Empire. He tells his droid, GS-8, to follow his instructions if anything happens to him. He takes the stage, and calms his citizens the moment they see him. He asks them to embrace the Empire, but begins to stutter. He realizes how wrong it is to accept Imperial occupation, and he quickly turns his speech into a speech against the Empire, much to his people’s approval. He’s quickly arrested by the clones, and we see the people try to flee as the Imperials actually deploy tanks to scare them and keep them in line. This scene really got to me, because not only do we see Separatists in a good light, but we see how awful the clones have become under the Empire. A shame. We cut to Singh’s droid, who sends a message out to anyone who can help free the senator. We cut to the Batch walking into Cid’s cantina, and she offers them the Raxus job. Hunter declines the job, not wanting Omega on a mission in area swarming with Imperials. The argument drags out a bit, and Hunter leaves Omega with Cid. Omega’s put on cleaning duty, and the crew takes off. Echo is especially annoyed about the mission, because he’s 100% against the Separatists, no matter what. He hates the job, and doubts that the information given will be valid. When they finally land on the planet, they’re met by GS-8, who informs them of the situation, and leads them to the city. Back in Cid’s cantina, we see poor little Omega upset by the fact that she couldn’t tag along. Cid eventually breaks by asking her what’s wrong, but after talking a bit too recklessly, Omega states that she’s only letting her stay there because Cid was being paid. Ouch.
The Batch and the droid finally reach the city, and are near the building where the Imperials are holding Senator Singh. They sneak their way through the area, finally reaching the front entrance. There’s a funny little scene here where they use GS-8 as a distraction, pushing her out into the open for two clones to see her. She starts mouthing off, but gets startled when they start chasing her. They’re knocked out by the Batch, and the crew moves into the building. A bit later in this scene, GS-8 takes it upon herself to become a distraction once more, likely excited about being able to help. The Batch uses her distraction to stun the clones guarding the room where the senator is held. Back in Cid’s cantina, we see Cid and the usual two aliens playing a classic Star Wars game of holochess. Holo-chess? Holochess? I’m a massive fan, but I’m not sure if that game needs to be hyphenated. Anyways, we see Cid on the losing side, but Omega actually offers some strategic help, beating both of the aliens. The funny aliens get angry at one another, and decide to take it outside. Cid actually offers Omega some cash if she wins some games for her, but Omega actually raises her price, wanting a pretty big cut of the money. Nice one, Omega. Back on Raxus, the Batch moves in to infiltrate the once protected room, stun the clones and Captain Bragg (who was about to torture Singh into compliance), and free the shaken senator. The Imperials nearby are alerted, and the crew rushes out with the senator and GS-8. I won’t give too much away for this sequence, because you all really need to enjoy it yourselves, it’s so good and genuinely funny. To wrap it up a bit, the Batch successfully escapes with the senator and his droid, delivering them to Cid. Before they deliver the two, they notice a bunch of commotion outside of Cid’s parlor. When they get downstairs to investigate, they see Omega getting cheered on by the crowd, beating yet another player at holo-chess (I’ll stick with the hyphen). Omega runs to her brothers, and Cid clears out the bar. Hunter scolds her a bit too harshly for bringing attention onto herself, and Cid informs him that she actually paid off their debt. When the Batch, Cid, and the senator and his droid leave to head to Cid’s office, Hunter eases up, asking if Omega really paid off the debt. Innocent Omega says she just wanted to be helpful, and Hunter actually promises that if she can beat him at the game, then she won’t get left behind ever again. End.
This was yet another super successful episode for me, and I’m sure most of you would agree. We got some super solid action, some super funny dialogue, some really interesting insight into just how smart Omega is, and most importantly… we got our favorite two cantina aliens back. I gotta look up their names, I absolutely love them. They’re my favorite background characters now for sure. Anyways! This was just a great episode, and I really did have such a good time with it!
5 Out of 5.
Episode 11: Devil’s Deal
For this episode, we’re on the Twi’lek planet of Ryloth, an extremely popular planet in the Star Wars canon. Here, we see the Twi’leks protesting the Imperials in front of a massive building, which is host to the greedy Senator Orn Free Ta, a character mostly seen in The Clone Wars, Vice Admiral Rampart, and a super cool looking clone named Captain Howzer. Amongst these characters, is the Twi’lek resistance fighter, General Cham Syndulla and his wife, Eleni. Senator Taa walks out onto the balcony of the building, in an effort to reassure the crowd that the Empire will finally bring peace to the war-torn Ryloth, but the people aren’t having it. It’s only until Cham himself makes a speech, ensuring the citizens that the Empire was what they’ve always wanted, and without the help of the old Republic’s clones, they wouldn’t be free, and the crowd finally budges. Underneath the balcony is Crosshair and his squad, watching the crowd for any danger. He sees a group of freedom fighters slowly walk away, as the crowd cheers for Cham. We cut to a new Imperial refinery, recently built on Ryloth. Behind a few rocks on a distant rocky hill, is none other than the droid Chopper from Star Wars: Rebels, but he’s not alone. Suddenly, a young Hera Syndulla from the same series pokes her head out, and she carefully spies on the refinery for anything suspicious. She gets a bit frustrated when she can’t find anything out of the ordinary, and decides to rest her head as she moves her hand in the air to pretend she’s flying with the birds, cause, y’know, she wants to be a pilot. It’s cute. Anyways, she and Chopper gets caught spying by a couple of clones, and are escorted to her parents, Cham and Eleni. Eleni shakes her head as she speaks to an old freedom fighter companion of theirs, Gobi Glie. Howzer escorts Hera to Cham, and actually doesn’t report the event. Gobi and Cham argue over Hera spying for him, and Gobi assures Cham that the Imperials are up to something. We cut to a room with Rampart and Senator Taa discussing Cham Syndulla. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Taa, he and Cham were huge enemies, due to Taa’s greedy obsessions and Cham’s unwillingness to allow Taa to exploit the people. Taa explains to Rampart that he’s a problem, and Crosshair, who has a bad burn on the side of his now shaven head, chimes in to say that Gobi is the real issue. A bit later, we see Cham and Eleni conversing with Rampart, and it becomes more and more apparent that the refinery is a bit suspicious. We cut to Hera, Gobi, and another freedom fighter loading a ship of theirs with some cargo, and Gobi actually lets Hera fly, though he doesn’t let her do takeoffs or landings just yet, as he wants her to watch and learn those abilities. Unfortunately, Crosshair was spying on them, and reports in that Gobi’s ship has headed off-world.
The Twi’lek crew arrives on a barren moon, with the galaxy clear as day in the background. We find out they’re meeting a contact for more weapons, since the Empire has taken all of the weapons on Ryloth. The contact is actually the Bad Batch, and it’s Cid who sent them on this weapons supply run. Here, we see Hunter give permission for Hera and Omega to explore the Marauder. We see a nice little friendship form as they talk about the experiences of flying. It’s really nice to see, and it kills time very nicely. The delivery is officially complete, and the Batch takes off as Hera and Omega wave goodbye to one another. When the Twi’leks return to Ryloth, they’re tailed by an Imperial ship, and when they trade to evade it, Crosshair hits a crazy accurate shot inside their engine, forcing them to crash land. They’re swarmed by Imperials and gunships, and they’re put under arrest. Thankfully, one of Cham’s people were spying in on the whole event, so they inform him of the incident. Cham being Cham, he immediately kicks into military mode, and Cham, Eleni, and Chopper head out to intercept the Imperials and their daughter and friends. The freedom fighters hide around the area the transport is driving through, and they take out some clones defending the vehicle. Inside the tank, Senator Taa is freaking out, knowing it was Syndulla, and commands Captain Howzer to take them out when he can. Howzer actually reluctantly obeys, looking a little unsure of the command. Syndulla and his forces make short work of the Imperials and cut off their reinforcements. Rampart, who’s also in the tank, commands that they surrender, much to Taa’s dismay. Hera runs to her mother, and Cham is nooot happy with Taa. He has them all exit the vehicle, and actually holds Taa at gunpoint. Eleni and Howzer talk some sense into Cham, and he lowers his blaster, but it doesn’t matter. Ramparts looks off in the distance, nods his head, and Crosshair actually shoots Senator Taa in the head. Suddenly, the area is swarmed with reinforcements, and Eleni has Chopper take Hera out of the area. Rampart frames Cham for the “attempted” assassination of Orn Free Taa, and they’re all arrested, though Hera and Chopper manage to get away thankfully. End of episode.
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. My only complaint was that it was a bit slow, but that’s nothing too major. It was great to be back on Ryloth and see Cham Syndulla. We’ve never seen Hera’s mother in person, so it was really great to get to know her, and she’s a super interesting character. She supports her husband and her people, and she’s extremely loving of their daughter. So is Cham, but the way they interact with Hera is affectionate in two unique ways. I loved seeing them with each other for the first time, it really was a great thing to see. Hera and Chopper were also amazing to see, I was so surprised to see them, and I’m glad we did. We’ve already seen Kanan (Caleb, if you prefer) in the first episode of the series as a Padawan, but now we have Hera and Chopper as two more Rebels characters. This series has continued to prove how well it treats characters, both new to Star Wars and old, and that makes me so happy… all we need is Boba Fett and this’ll be the greatest series of all time- anyways, it was a great entry, minus the slight pacing problem!
4.75 Out Of 5.
Episode 12: Rescue on Ryloth
With this twelfth entry, there’s now only four more episodes to go! I’m so excited to see what happens, but let me slow down for a moment and wrap this good old article up with this final section. For this episode, we start off seeing the immediate results of Cham and family’s capture. Vice Admiral Rampart actually berates Cham as he sits in his prison cell with his wife and allies. Rampart actually tries to entice the family to tell him where Hera is, but that obviously fails. As Rampart walks away, Howzer stands still, staring into the cell with guilt. We later see Howzer and Rampart disagree on the orders to arrest all of those who sympathize with Cham. Howzer actually notes that the blast that killed Taa didn’t come from Cham and his forces, but Rampart forces him to just follow out his orders. As the two walk away, Chopper comes into sight, and he’s spying on the area while Hera communicates with him and scopes out her own home, being searched by Imperials. We cut to the Batch receiving a transmission from Hera, asking Omega to return to Ryloth, so they may save her parents. Omega and her brothers argue about the severity of the situation, but they do ultimately go meet Hera at a disclosed landing area. They meet an upset Hera and Chopper, and she pleads with the crew to help her free her parents. Hunter reluctantly agrees to at least scope out the area, promising nothing. We cut to a scene with Twi’leks reluctantly listening to Rampart give a speech from the same balcony as the last episode. He’s lying about Taa’s assassination “attempt”, and throws the blame on Cham, but nobody seems to exactly trust his word. On a nearby cliff in the canyons, we see Chopper playing the audio of Rampart’s speech for the crew and Hera to hear. He continues to lie, and Hera confirms that what he’s saying isn’t what happened that night. They also notice their old teammate and brother, Crosshair, dealing with the crowd with his new Imperial squad. Suddenly, we see a creeping probe droid spying on them for the Empire, but Hunter senses it. From the droid’s point of view, Hunter is nowhere to be found, until he suddenly jumps on top of the droid’s head, stabbing it in the eye as it crashes to the ground near his team. Sensing how bad the situation is, they fall back. Crosshair is alerted of the probe droid’s data, and sees his old team.
We cut to Hera and the Batch talking about the situation, and Hunter declines Hera’s job, though he offers her transportation off-world. Omega is extremely upset by this, and goes to comfort Hera. We see an argument between Howzer and Rampart, discussing what they should do next. Crosshair informs Rampart of the Batch’s presence, and tries to convince him of how dangerous they are. Rampart offers to replace him, noting how he and his squad have failed to settle the situation. Angrily, Crosshair walks away, after he and Howzer have an intense staring match. Back at the landing area, Omega and Hera formulate a plot on how to convince Hunter, while Howzer tries to convince Cham and Eleni to tell him where Hera is so he may protect her. They don’t trust him of course, and Howzer walks away sad, and disappointed. On the Marauder, Hera and Omega explain their plan to the crew, which is to attack the refinery to divert troops away from where Cham and Eleni are, disable its defenses, and save Hera’s parents. I’ll skip over the scene as to not give too much away, but of course the plan works, but something extremely interesting happens. Howzer himself actually helps to free Cham and his fellow prisoners, and tells the Batch and the Twi’leks where to escape. They all flee, but Howzer stays behind, knowing what’s waiting outside. As the door outside opens, we see Crosshair in a sniping position, while a few dozen clones take aim at Howzer. Howzer, instead of trying to fight, actually gives a fantastic speech about how wrong it is that they’re supporting this evil Empire, and not only does he himself resist his inhibitor chip, but so do quite a few of his clone comrades. They’re all arrested by the clones who were unfazed, and Crosshair is not happy. At all. Back with the crew and Hera’s parents, we see the characters exchange goodbyes. Hera and Omega exchange their last goodbyes, and Hera lets Omega know that they’ll see each other again while showing her gratitude with a hug. Hera, Chopper, Cham and Eleni walk inside their ship, and fly off. Back with Rampart and Crosshair, Rampart admits how he underestimated the Batch. Crosshair asks for permission to personally hunt them down, and he’s given a solid “granted”. End of episode.
This episode was yet another strong entry, but it did also suffer a pacing issue. I can’t fault anyone for it, because every series needs some filler, but this episode didn’t really have much to offer. The fighting was great, and seeing Howzer realize what’s right was just amazing, so there was at least that. I really can’t wait to see what happens when Crosshair and his brothers reunite, but all we can do is wait for now. Not a bad episode.
4 Out of 5.
Final Thoughts
It just feels like this series gets better and better with time. Omega has developed quite a bit since we’ve first seen her, and the dynamic between the core characters has turned into a bit of a family dynamic, which is very enjoyable to see. There’s a lot going for this show, so hopefully when I write the finale article for this series, it’ll end on a high note. But, we’ll see how it goes! What did you all think? Did you enjoy this review and these episodes? Let me know on the official Instagram and Twitter pages! This has been The Wolf Den!
