This week’s double episode drop officially concludes “Star Wars: The Bad Batch” Season 2. It also ends Disney’s insane release schedule of double “Star Wars” episodes (“Bad Batch” overlapped with new “The Mandalorian” Season 3 episodes). Spoilers ahead.
Picking up where we left off, the Bad Batch (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) and Omega (Michelle Ang) are trying to infiltrate an imperial facility in order to attach a homing beacon to the ship of Dr. Royce Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) in order to find out where he’s holding Crosshair. A summit is being held at the mountain-based facility, which is only accessible by future monorail. Also in attendance is Admiral Tarkin (Stephen Stanton).
Everything goes well until they run into the rebel insurgent Saw Gererra (Andrew Kishino), who wants to level the base. The Bad Batch bicker with him, which gives away their location, causing all parties to retreat. But Gererra sets off the explosives he has already planted, which ends up stranding the Bad Batch midway through he monorail.
Heavy spoilers ahead.
This leads to the presumed death of Tech, who finds himself on the wrecked half of the car they’re on. He initiates “Plan 99,” in which he puts the team above himself in an apparent sacrifice. Yet because it is foggy, we don’t see his fate or body; his survival is possible, though its odds are slim.
Injured, the remaining Bad Batch take Omega back to Ord Mantell where the droid AZI-3 (Ben Diskin) can heal her at Cid’s (Rhea Perlman) parlor. Since their mining mission, the Bad Batch had previously cut contact with Cid, and the relationship is not so easily mended.
More spoilers for Episode 16 ahead.
As has been expected, Cid sells them out, and Dr. Hemlock collects Omega. He also comes very close to capturing Hunter and Wrecker, but Echo bails them out. We end the episode with the Bad Batch at their lowest point with one mission in front of them: Find and rescue Omega and Crosshair, making their family whole.
These final two episodes had less than what I was expecting out of the series. I expected Omega’s capture, but I thought it would come at the hands of Crosshair, who I still suspect is slated to become a series-one darktrooper, in which he will be outfitted with cybernetic implants and his free will will be removed. This season has the Bad Batch experience loss after loss, first through missions, then through the temporary loss of Echo, and now with the dual losses of Omega and Tech. It’s the series “Empire Strikes Back,” setting up Season 3 as its “Return of the Jedi” installment — but not before it serves us hearty helpings of filler episodes, as both “Bad Batch” seasons have.
This is not the best “Star Wars” finale I’ve seen, but it also didin’t completely let me down. I’m not a huge fan of Episode 16’s cliffhangers, but I’m also happy that the show is finally going somewhere after it has gotten more than its fair share of random side missions that sometimes connected to the season’s overall arc.
As a whole, this show needs to find its focus. Its 16-episode format does not benefit it; it would run much smoother at a slimmed-down eight.
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” Season 2: Episode 15 “The Summit” gets a 7/10
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” Season 2: Episode 16 “Plan 99” gets an 8/10
“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” Season 2 gets an overall 7/10
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