Bad Batch Episodes 7 & 8 Are What The Series Should Have Been All Along

That was how you portray the Bad Batch. The latest two episodes of the Bad Batch were the best episodes involving the squad to date as they actually faced the consequences of their choices, while also dealing with the encroaching Empire.

Like I said in the intro, this is what Dave Filoni should have done with the Bad Batch from the very start of the season.

I know I’m in the minority with my criticisms of the show, but the severe overreliance on the side missions with Cid have really killed my interest in what looked to be a unique insight into the post-Republic universe.

Having the Bad Batch essentially ignore their clone brothers and their struggle with the Empire (having a few skirmishes is not confronting the Empire) in 75% of the episodes released thus far in Season 2 was always going to fail with people like me as it meant the Bad Batch were not growing as characters.

Prior to the latest two episodes, there wasn’t a single member of the Bad Batch squad who had fundamentally changed since the premiere episode of Season 1.

Hunter was still the stoic, boring leader, Wrecker was still the over-the-top destruction guy, Tech was still the hyper-focuses, aloof genius, Echo was be used as a 3rd wheel, and Omega was still an extremely naive little girl, despite nearly seeing the horrors of the galaxy on multiple occasions.

Simply put, the way the Cid episodes were structed meant that the Bad Batch were aways running around completing superficial side missions (they never get rich enough to stop doing the missions as Cid promised in the trailer) that stifled the character growth they got when dealing with Crosshair, their fellow clone brothers, and the Empire.

Episodes 8 and 9 corrected that.

Completing ignoring Cid (with Wrecker even saying that he was sick and tired of taking order from her), the last two episodes dealt with the destruction of Kamino by Admiral Rampart as he tried to force a New Military Spending Bill through the Senate that would decommission the Clone Army completely.

Or, in other words, replace the clones with stormtroopers…which would mean the unemployment, homelessness, and cruel discarding of the millions of clones still in the Galactic Army.

I loved how this was essentially a political/spy thriller as Senator Riyo Chuchi, the very same senator who first appeared in the Pantora arc from The Clone Wars, and a clone informant, Slip, tried to evade Rampart’s assassins to deliver the report about Kamino to the senate in order to save the Clone Army from being cast aside.

I always thought that Chuchi was criminally and Pantora itself were criminally underused in the main series as the episodes with the Talz people were some of my favorites. Needless to say, I was happy that Chuchi made a reappearance…as did Captain Rex.

Yup, Captain Rex made his return to the series as he saved Chuchi from Rampart’s assassins after Slip’s murder, enlisted and helped the Bad Batch sneak aboard Rampart’s venator and steal the ship logs/data regarding the attack, and then ensured its delivery to Chuchi, Bail Organa, and former senator Halle Burtoni, one of the last living Kaminoans, as they revealed the truth behind the destruction of Kamino and Tipoca City (the senate originally believed it was destroyed in a catastrophic storm).

Sounds like an ordinary Clone Wars episode that would end in Admiral Rampart’s downfall and the restoration of the Clones’ place in the Empire, right? Well, that’s where this episode really did it for me as even though Rampart was taken down by Chuchi and the Bad Batch, their actions directly helped Emperor Palpatine achieve his plans.

Making a surprise appearance in the senate (it was revealed that Palpatine became less and less interested in the politics of the Empire), Palpatine used this information to insinuate that the clones who carried out this attack were barbarous and ruthless, showing that the rest of the army was also too robotic and dangerous to keep around.

Thus, he rallied the senate to pass the New Military Spending bill (which was obviously Palpatine’s brainchild all along), got the funding to replace the clones with stormtroopers, and secured the destruction of the clones’ way of life as we know it. So, the Bad Batch essentially doomed their misguided brothers to a life of poverty, homelessness, purposeless, and a vilified existence, even though they “told the truth” to the senate.

In the end, the passing of the New Military Spending Bill caused Echo to leave the Bad Batch, much to the despair of Omega, and join up with his old commander Captain Rex, Bail Organa, Riyo Chuchi, and the rest of the early Rebellion as he couldn’t stand by and watch his fellow brothers fall into desolation as he had after his capture during The Citadel arc.

This was easily the best episode that revolved around the Bad Batch as their rash actions finally didn’t result in “things going their way”. Outcomes like this are the only way the Bad Batch and Omega can grow as characters and evolve in the new universe they find themselves.

That’s why I’m giving Episode 7 and 8 both a 9.5/10, respectively.

Please, Dave Filoni, give us more episodes like these ones.

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

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

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