Confined / Paths Unknown / Shadows of Tantiss (The Bad Batch - S03E01, E02 & E03) - Animated Series

Discuss the latest Chapter! (Discussion)

"Omega, don't risk anything for me. I belong in here!" SPOILERS.

The humdrum of everyday life

Ten months after The Bad Batch season 2 concluded the third and final season has several loose plot threads to conclude. The fact we get the third season so soon after the previous one means that it was greenlit probably two years ago at the least, since production on animated shows takes a lot of time. I therefore believe that the showrunner knew well in advance that the third would also be the final season of the show, not just when Lucasfilm announced it in summer of 2023. Whether or not it was always the plan to just have three seasons of The Bad Batch remains unknown. Given what must be the show's pretty low ratings, if Rebels and Resistance are any indicator, I suppose the money spent on this series simply was not worth it. Season 2 was somewhat of a schizophrenic affair. Roughly half of the season was actually very good, I go so far and say it was some of the best Disney Star Wars ever, but the other half was unfortunately forgettable trash and a complete waste of time. So what about season 3? Well, the good news is that at least the first three episodes are not about treasure hunts, pod racing, doing odd jobs or anything of the like, they are entirely focused on the overall story and narrative, the bad news though: much of it was pretty inconsequential or forgettable even.

The tamed beast roams free

The first episode is all about Omega's life on the secret base where Hemlock is still working on Project Necromancer. We do not see the other clones at all, the only main characters featured are Omega and Crosshair. My issue with this episode is that nothing really happens. Ok, we learn a few things... Nala Se who is conducting experiments is destroying Omega's blood samples, to protect her. Omega can more or less freely wander around on the base, because it's the Empire, and befriends a lurker hound like any good Disney princess would and which she eventually manages to release into the wild. She also has time to have heart to heart chats with Crosshair who languishes in a prison cell, because, why not. Who cares that a child can wander around like that on the base and chat with an imprisoned friend, even though Crosshair insists that he is not really Omega's friend, but who is he kidding. My fundamental issue with the first episode, the entire arc of the show actually, is that for one I do not really care all that much about Omega to begin with. She's ok, but as a child her potential as a main character is pretty limited. My even bigger issue is that The Bad Batch tries to make sense of and legitimize the sequels. I have never been a fan of the clone plotlines in the EU and even less so in the sequels, beginning with the Timothy Zahn novels, knowing how it all ends I wonder what Palpatine's plan is anyway. So does he want his science team to create a clone body with a Midichlorian count that is at least as high as his, so he can transfer his mind and be immortal... or does he want his offspring to kill him so he can magically posess her (or his) body so he can be immortal that way? The former kind of makes sense, the latter makes me question the sanity of the Emperor (more like that of the writers of the sequels). But why bother with the cloning project when you can just posess your child? Also, wasn't that a plot thread in Dragon Age, the video game, where Morrigan was supposed to become a vessel for her mother's soul so she can live on forever in a young body? So The Bad Batch, instead of being its own thing, turns out to be a kind of prequel to The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian, because decades later the Imperial Remnant is still conducting cloning experiments, making me wonder why we need the same plot line yet again in The Bad Batch.

Hunter and Wrecker find an abandoned lab

The second episode is even less interesting than the first one. It's all about alien horror, once again (we've had that before), as Hunter and Wrecker, the only Bad Batch members we get to see in this episode, there is no Omega or Crosshair here and Fives is with Rex, find out the coordinates of Hemlock's lab. Only it turns out it's an abandoned facility that was bombarded from orbit and destroyed. The two find three surviving clone kids and while one of them helps Hunter and Wrecker to infiltrate the monster infested lab to get access to a console in the the hope it may have clues about where Hemlock went, the other two clones think about stealing the ship and abandoning everyone. But one common thread for all three episodes thus far is "loyalty". Omega is loyal to Crosshair, even if he pretends he's not loyal to her. Nala Se is loyal to Omega and tries her best to protect her. Hunter and Wrecker are loyal to Omega and the clone kids are ultimately impressed by that loyalty and decide not to abandon the others and while they do steal the ship, they commandeer it and fly it to the facility as the alien monsters threaten to overwhelm Hunter, Wrecker and the third kid. All is well in the end and Hunter found at least the name of a sector Hemlock disappared to. So the entire 25 minute episode was mostly just filler, even if it had somewhat of a purpose.

Like any good dictator Palpatine likes to inspect things

The third episode is certainly the most interesting one. Palpatine visits Hemlock's facility to get an overview of the progress they've made. Nale Se is ordered to be with Hemlock and Palpatine and Omega's adult clone sister Emerie is for a change ordered to conduct experiments with blood samples, meaning Nale Se can't dispose of Omega's sample. In this episode we learn that Hemlock and his team managed to create a stable clone... but the issue is the "M-count", so the Midichlorian count, it's insufficient, Hemlock (and Palpatine) needs it to be at least as high as that of the Emperor's. And this is where Omega comes in, for some reason her blood is special, it turns out if they use her to create the clone the Midichlorian count would be perfect. How that would endanger Omega is not explained, all they need to clone someone is just a cell, a blood sample would do, which they already have. But Star Wars and science have never really mixed. So it's best never to overthink these things.

Of course Omega manages to escape

Anyway, Nala Se fears Emerie will discover that Omega is just the perfect specimen and tells her to make her escape, she is supposed to steal Nala Se's pad that can open doors (why would Hemlock give his kidnapped scientist a pad that can override things?). Omega does just that. She then makes her way to Crosshair and no one stops her or finds it odd that a kid is once again on her way to the holding cells. Security cameras, tracking wristbands etc do not seem to exist in Star Wars, so their security is more or less 19th century level tech, mostly non existent. Omega can convince Crosshair to join her, they quickly dispose of the two troopers guarding the cells, then the two make their way to the lurker hound kennels that have access to the outside world. But Emerie finds out Omega is the perfect specimen and goes to find her. When she sees that Omega is not in her room she goes to the kennels, where Omega spends much of her time. And there she surprises Crosshair and Omega, but she is stunned by a blaster, but not before she can raise the alarm, For some reason the ray shields protecting the exits are not raised all at once, but staggered. This has to be so Omega and Crosshair can escape. Omega has no real plan, much to the annoyance of Crosshair, but she wants to find a crashed shuttle (we see that in the first episode) and hopes its communication device still works, so she can contact Hunter. But it's not working... and the stormtroopers find them. But Omega manages to commandeer their shuttle and with the help of a tamed lurker hound (Omega is a Disney princess after all) that distracts the troopers just at the right time she and Crosshair manage to make their escape, but not before the tamed lurker hound also hops aboard. A few fighters are in pursuit and fire on the ship. But by then Emerie has informed Hemlock that Omega is the perfect clone they need for their project and Hemlock lets Omega go, vowing that with all the resources he has he will find her again. And that's it.

Someone really explain cloning in the Star Wars galaxy to me.

In the real world you need a few cells to clone something or someone. Nothing else. Since they already have a blood sample the question is why Omega is still needed. And if they need even more cells, for whatever reason, what speaks against getting the cells from Omega's dead body if they shoot down the ship? Now we also know for certain that Omega is Grogu 1.0. I know Lucas said "it all rhymes" but I find the lack of variety in the stories we get under Disney Star Wars disturbing. The Mandalorian is all about a bounty hunter protecting a child from the clutches of (ex) Imperial scientists who need Grogu for the cloning project... and The Bad Batch is all about ex soldiers / bounty hunters / treasure seekers protecting a child from the clutches of Imperial scientists who need Omega for the cloning project. I call that lazy and boring. But as I said earlier I never liked the cloning angle in Star Wars to begin with. Star Wars is so terrible at SciFi and science that the cloning angle simply does not fit and more often than not doesn't make any sense. Also, why is Omega perfect, but her older sister Emerie is not? Either she's a clone, a genetic twin, or she's not. Nothing makes sense here. The show also has never addressed the fundamental question why the Kaminoans created female quasi clones of Jango Fett to begin with. It makes no sense really either. At least we now have a good idea why Omega was created, she was part of the Imperial secret cloning project, so the first three episodes at least confirmed why Omega was created in the first place. But why female Jango clones exist? Is anyone's guess.

Overall I feel it's a good thing The Bad Batch is ending. The show had potential, but even though season 3 has not yet concluded I feel the series was ultimately pointless and superfluous. We have had clones in Rebels and learned what became of them. We have had the cloning project in The Mandalorian where Grogu is Omega 2.0 or Omega is Grogu 1.0, whatever you prefer. The series does not have its own identity. To use it as a vehicle to make sense of the silly The Rise of Skywalker and Snoke before that is unfortunate, it's also something that is a burden on The Mandalorian. When all roads lead to The Rise of Skywalker almost everything is inconsequential, why care about Andor, Mon Mothma or Luthen when we know their rebellion accomplished zero? Why care about the Imperial cloning project in The Bad Batch when in The Mandalorian they are still doing the same thing? Meaning Hemlock never succeeded. This also heavily implies Omega was never captured (this is Disney still). The Bad Batch should have been more about finding a new way of life in a galaxy under Imperial rule. Not yet again about getting involved with the proto rebellion and yet more cloning nonsense.

If you are ok with the cloning angle then the first three episodes were alright. But in my opinion the first two episodes should have been just one 30 minute episode with an A and B plot, so episodes 1 and 2 combined, neither plot needed an entire episode of its own. Especially the second episode felt mostly pointless, the first one was at least a bit more interesting and also had a psychological angle. The third episode makes for an entertaining prison break, even though it assumes, as usual, that Palpatine and with him the Empire went to the Dr Evil school of supervillains. Sure, it's a show for kids, but that doesn't mean it has to be simplistic and rely on stupid villains or nonexisting tech.

People who avoided The Bad Batch thus far will keep avoiding it, season 3 offers no counterarguments. Fans of the series will probably like the first batch of episodes. After the sporadic highs of season 2 I had hoped for more though, but sadly, it was mostly just standard fare and as I said, I find it perplexing that The Bad Batch mirrors so many of The Mandalorian's major plot points from the first two seasons. We've had all that before. Try something new.

If you are pressed for time just watch the third episode, the first two are basically non essential. Confined gets 2.5 holocrons from me, Paths Unknown 1.5 and Shadows of Tantiss 3.5 - all in all the 80 minute quasi movie receives an average score of 2.5: ok, but not essential.