About A 1/3 Of The Way In, Bad Batch Season 2 Is Rudderless

It seems I was right to be worried about Season 2. The Bad Batch has been a rudderless, unorganized show after a great beginning episode, and the first third of Season 2 has sadly been more of the same.

This was my biggest fear going into the season:  Season 2 would just be the squad meandering around the galaxy on inconsequential, meaningless side quests that would have no bearing on their greater quest to escape the Empire.

Or, well, what I think is their greater quest as the show has expertly and masterfully managed to formulate 21 episodes of television that has no obvious overarching plot to tie everything together.

In truth, there is what I believe to be the main plot of escaping the Empire as runaway clones, which was showcased in less than half the episodes in Season 1 and none so far in Season 2, and then there are the side quest episodes involving Cid and her painfully boring cronies.

What made the Clone Wars work so well was that the characters, such as the Jedi, clones, Republicans, Separatists, regular citizens, members of alternative factions, etc., would embark on overarching, cohesive 3-4 episode arcs that would see meaningful character and relationship growth, as well as the occasional death to beloved side characters.

Of course, with the show focusing on Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Captain Rex of the 501st Clone Legion, there never was going to be any major character deaths as you’d see in a drama as all of these characters were alive by the beginning of Episode 4: A New Hope (which takes place long after the Clone Wars).

Nevertheless, like I said, the character growth of Rex becoming more of a person and breaking out of his clone-ingrained obedience to the Jedi and the Republic (and eventually the Sith and Empire), Ahsoka maturing from a whinny, arrogant, obnoxious teenage padawan into a great Jedi Knight, Obi-Wan Kenobi developing into the wise Jedi Master we saw in A New Hope, and Anakin regressing from a heroic Jedi Knight into the emotionally driven, psychotic Sith lord Darth Vader was what made The Clone Wars the greatest Star Wars show ever.

Sure, episode arcs going “side quests” to worlds like Mandalore (in the early seasons), Mortis, Korriban, Dathomir, Serenno, etc. and focusing on “side characters” like Yoda, Asajj Ventress, Darth Maul, Duchess Satine, Mother Talzin and The Nightsisters, Commander Cody and the 201st Clone Legion, young Boba Fett, the Domino Squad, etc. was not overtly needed to tell the story of the Clone Wars, but they enriched it immeasurably.

Without these arcs away from the main characters, the Clone Wars would not be a tenth of as good of a show. That’s how wonderful and immersive the stories, character development, and character interactions with the greater Star Wars universe was during the brief times away from the main four heroes.

The Bad Batch has none of that charm.

Aside from Echo, who’s character arc peaked in The Clone Wars, the entire squad (including Omega) has yet to develop past the initial introductions we got of them in Season 7 of The Clone Wars. Hunter is still emotionally bland and uninspiring, Tech is still just the “smart” guy, Wrecker is still the “strong” guy, and Omega is still the “naive little girl” archetype.

Despite 21 episodes of these characters being together, none of them have changed in one of the most repressive and historically important times in the Star Wars galaxy’s history. That’s unforgivable in terms of storytelling.

The clones should have far more reservations and conflicting feelings about fighting their former brothers, even though they were treated as outcasts most of the time, and the government that literally created them while Omega should be growing out of her naivety as she faces the “real world”, so to speak.

Yet, none of that has happened as we’ve just been force fed the same garbage Cid side mission over and over again, which contibute nothing to the character’s growth.

Whether it’s pod racing as we saw in Episode 4, stealing Imperial treasure in the premiere episodes, or going after an ancient relic in the latest addition to the show in Episode 5, the plot, gravity, and outcome of each episode has been the same thing: Cid tells the Bad Batch to retrieve/do X, the Bad Batch reluctantly goes to do X, but nearly dies and comes back empty handed, Cid scolds the Bad Batch for not achieving X and the episode ends.

Rinse and repeat.

Perhaps I’d feel a little different if Cid was some badass, backstabbing, rouge that oozed charisma and confidence, but she is one of the dumbest buffoons ever put in an animated Star Wars show. And the new “expert” treasure hunter/Indiana Jones rip-off, Phee Genoa, is even stupider.

The entire Bad Batch should have been killed in this week’s episode as they blindly followed Phee into a millennium old ruin, tinkered and messed with the ruins’ central controls, unleashed a goliath machine that spat out a devastating energy blast, and then somehow survived the machine’s crash 100+ foot descent to the ground after they were able to shut it down.

And all of this was because Phee wanted to get “The Heart of the Mountain” treasure, which had no later impact on the show as it was melted and destroyed in the process of turning off the machine.

You see why I have such an issue with the Bad Batch?

Thankfully, the show has not forgotten about Crosshair and the actual ramifications the clones now have in the Empire as they are being systematically phased out and replaced with Stormtroopers. Episode 3’s story with Commander Cody and Crosshair coming to terms with the results of their “decision” (they were brainwashed) to follow Order 66 as the Empire represses the Jedi-less galaxy was fantastic and easily the best episode of the series to date.

If only the entire series was like Episode 3…

Nonetheless, this 1/3 of the season review is getting rather long, so I’ll wrap it up by giving the first 5 episodes of Bad Batch Season 2 a 6.5/10. And that’s mainly because of Episode 3’s brilliance.

There’s still time for the Bad Batch to get its act together and produce a harrowing tale, but I fear the chances of that happening are becoming smaller by the day.

Images Source: Featured Image: (Star Wars/Disney) (Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (Star Wars/Disney) (Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)

In Text Image 2: (Star Wars/Disney) (Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube)