“The Bad Batch” – Season 2 [REVIEW]

After nearly a year and a half of waiting, the Bad Batch’s journey continues with a second season. The first season for me was somewhat mixed, but I was intrigued about where it would go. Now that The Empire has destroyed Kamino, it’s clear that the clone’s service has come to an end.

Now the series faces the big question: where does “The Batch” go from here? There is no war to fight, and their oaths to The Republic were betrayed when The Empire took its place. It was these transitional themes that this season has covered and in much better detail than in the first one.

State of the Galaxy

In the months since Kamino’s destruction, The empire has continued consolidating its control of the galaxy. Meanwhile, the bad batch continues their mercenary work for Sid, but their loyalties are tested by increasingly vain missions and a desire to help their fellow clone troopers who have fallen on hard times.

What makes this season appealing to me the most is further exploring this galaxy in the early stages of the empire.

Despite the war being officially over, low-level conflict still persists. Separatist holdouts still possess a thorn in the side of the empire.

We also continue the gradual exploitation of planet resources by the empire. In the season premiere, we see The Empire plunder Dooku’s palace of his fortune, which is now being appropriated for Imperial use. Other pro-separatist holdouts, however, become a plague on The Empire’s idea of order and stability.

In one episode, we get a full Crosshair-centric story where he and Commander Cody attempt to rescue an Imperial governor being held hostage by the previous head of state. We get moments straight out of the original Clone Wars series during the rescue. However, unlike the last war, Cody and Crosshair have to make ethically difficult choices, and theirs no Jedi to guide them. Cody attempts to be diplomatic, and Crosshair sees only orders to be executed without hesitation. 

Both of them slowly realize that the empire is not a society that values merit and brotherhood but rank and loyalty, which is the reality that all citizens face under this new Empire and, indeed, many real-world fascist regimes.

What’s This? Actual Politics?

One part that was becoming desperately missing from the new star wars was the lack of political context. The prequels have always been political thrillers that Disney’s lineup until recently chose to distance itself from. The most likely purpose was to make it more appealing to a younger audience. This, however, came at the expense of worldbuilding with regard to exploring the separatist worlds after the war.

Here we finally get to see it addressed in the two-part episodes where the senate is deliberating whether to build a new army as after the destruction of Kamino, its clear that there won’t be any new clones.

What’s more is that the clones that are still in the Republic Empire’s service wont be in fighting condition for too long anyways because of their accelerated aging. Clones age twice the rate of ordinary humans, meaning many of them would be well past their prime soon. Politicians have differing views of what to do with these troopers. 

The clones have no say in political affairs as many lawmakers consider clone troopers as military assets and not citizens. 

This, however, doesn’t stop senators from giving clone troopers a second chance. Pantoran Senator Chuci (a recurring CW character that’s become the new “Padme” figure) start to propose pensions for the veterans once they retire. Bail Organa, in contrast, wants to recruit them in his future rebel actions.

So a good portion of the debate focuses on the ethics behind what to with the clones now that the war is over.

In a surprise twist, the Emperor himself intervenes, seemingly on the side of the heroes arresting Admiral Rampart from command, but at the same time, twists the situation to his favor by convincing the senate to pass Rampart’s bill anyway because of the clones following such extreme orders without question. 

This scene brilliantly shows that even as a recluse hooded figure, Palpatine has lost non of his political skill. The fact that he uses the very arguments about the clones blindly following orders to their commanders, the very thing Palpatines uses to seize power is Hypracritical power that only a true politician can do. And it’s for these reasons that Palpatine continues to be Star Wars‘ number one villain. And the fact that Ian McDiarmid is reprising this role makes it all the more chilling.

A “Filler” Problem?

Filler has always been a problem in star wars animation, especially if they have an overarching narrative that keeps getting teased.

At 16 episodes you do have more time for episodes that don’t need to further the plot. However, we did not need to see the Batch go on a treasure hunt with Wanda Sykes (seriously what the point of her). Thankfully there were only 2 episodes that fit this category. The rest of the filler episodes do help expand on this galaxy and characters. 

The one that has been given the most depth is Tech. Indicating that he is somewhere on the autism spectrum. This comes to a head when Echo, for a time, parts ways with the squad – leaving Omega feeling confused, leaving her angry with Tech believing that he didn’t care enough about his brother’s departure. Tech responds, saying he’s always had those feelings; his mind simply works differently from other people’s. This leads to a serious heart-to-heart conversation about the state of their family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbkI4jOyCpc

Some episodes actually helped further some character growth, especially Tech. It’s clear that tech is somewhere on the neurological spectrum, but it’s not done in a way that inhibits his ability to fight or overcomplicate his plans to his teammates. It’s no wonder this serves as a subtle foreshadowing for the finale.

It’s clear that the writers looked at all the strengths and shortcomings of the previous season Of and concentrated on what worked and what didn’t. It is also a  nice touch to continue to use stun blasts when fighting other clones, as they know they are still fighting their brothers with no desire to kill brothers.

Other Clone Dilemmas

It’s clear that the programming the chip provided wasn’t built for long-term function, and it’s clearly exhibited through Commander Cody. Being one of the few clone characters from the films, we had an extended understanding of thanks to his introduction in Revenge of the Sith.

As the years go by, clone units have been tasked with the most pointless and dangerous missions one, they are the only units with combat experience, and the second are more cynical to weed out their numbers to e replenished by more obedient stormtroopers. They have been soldiers of war but never meant for occupation.

This leads to Crosshair’s own arc. As stated before, Crosshair is easily the most realistic villain in that he chose the empire because he believes in their ideology of strength and order is what the galaxy needs in this post-Jedi galexy.

Now he’s beginning to understand that no matter how loyal you are, he is still a disposable asset for the Empire, as exemplified in the snow episode where for the first time in this series, he tries to help another injured clone only for him to die from freezing. Eventually snapping, killing his commanding officer, help faptive he gets transferred to a secret facility.

Finale and “Plan 99”

At first, the show looked like the show was going to revolve around Admiral Rampart as the season’s main villain because of his simultaneous use of / disdain for the clone troopers. However, he was purged halfway through and instead replaced with Dr. Hemlock, who leads the Empire’s advanced science division.

At first, It looked as though this season was going to end with the batch rescuing their old squadmate, Crosshair. Because every episode ends with the squad getting away unscathed, it has led us as the audience to believe this season would end the same way.

As a result, we had no idea this finale would go down so hard. There was a feeling of a possible sacrifice, but many would have expected crosshair as that would be a perfect redemption. But instead, the big sacrifice is to Tech of all people.

There is still a possibility that Tech could still be alive. Characters in star wars rarely stay dead from falling, as we’ve seen before. This has been a recurring problem with the franchise as Disney star wars also has a habit of giving characters fake-out deaths. As a result, it’s harder to accept that Tech is dead at this time. However, considering how these scenes are played out, it would be a catastrophic copout if they brought back Tech now. 

“Plan 99” wasn’t just a squad number but a code name for sacrificing yourself for your team. Now with Omega captured and The Rest of the crew licking its wounds, this makes me more than ever excited for a third season.

Conclusion

Overall, Season 2 feels like a major improvement in so many ways, from the politics to the turmoil of the clones, and even giving Omega some real character development, which was really lacking in the first season.

With a third season now confirmed and that it will be the final season, it makes sense that this series feels like the beginning of the end.