When The Bad Batch was first announced, it was on the heels of the ‘final’ season of The Clone Wars having aired. I will freely admit I was not a huge fan of the arc of the group during that show and, as a result, I was not super excited about the series.
It is therefore something of a pleasant surprise that I found myself so very anxious to see the beginning of the end of Season 1 of The Bad Batch. As a show, it has been exciting, the main plot line has been interesting and compelling. Of course, there have been episodes that have been poor. I wish the series had been around 12 episodes rather than 16. However, for the main bulk of the series, it has been superb.
As we enter the start of the finale, Hunter has been captured and is being moved to Kamino by former team-mate Crosshair. There is then a wonderful segment where he activates Hunters communicator, knowing full well that it will lead the rest of the Batch to come in to rescue Hunter. Of course, since Crosshair is making this happen, it is a trap. The beautiful part is that the rest of the Batch know full well that it’s a trap and they don’t hesitate for a second to go after their comrade.
The more subtle part of this is the father/daughter relationship between Hunter and Omega. At the start of the series, once he had liberated Omega from Kamino, he promised her that she would never have to return. It was clear from that dialogue that, of course, she would have to at some point. The fact that she fully understands and embraces this responsibility without any hesitation, any ego or any fear was a beautiful insight to how her character has grown.
The episode plays out largely as you would expect with the Batch arriving, utilising Omega’s knowledge of hidden pathways in order to make it to Hunter and the breakout begins. For most series, this would be fun to watch in itself. But the way that Filoni and his crew also balance this against the Empire’s plans to destroy Kamino is beautifully executed in its brutality. Just a few, haunting images of deserted canteens and clone pods are all it takes to make the ultimate barrage of destruction hit home in an extremely effective way.
The relationship between Hunter and Crosshair is at the core of this episode and the other, beautiful trick that Filoni and the writers play upon us is how neither are truly “good” or “evil”. Yes, of course, Crosshair was shown in the first episode having his inhibitor chip turned up to 11 leaving him devoid of free thought but equally, the rest of the Batch made no attempt to go back for him. The revelation that Crosshair then subsequently had his chip removed is therefore shocking, yet understandable. He has been betrayed by his brothers and left to find new purpose in his life. Equally, Hunter loved his brother but the risks involved in going back for him were just too great. There are no winners or losers here.
My only complaint about this episode was the duration of it. 23 minutes disappeared in a flash and I just found myself then willing next Friday into existence. Job done Dave Filoni! You could have the final episode being nothing but Hunter and Crosshair grumpily staring at each other for 20 minutes and I would still consider this series a triumph!
