Review: ‘The Bad Batch’ Episodes 15 and 16 – ‘The Summit’ and ‘Plan 99’ Make for a Heartbreaking Finale
It would appear that season 2 of The Bad Batch was always intended to be the Empire Strikes Back middle point of the series. Not that the tone of this season has often matched the grim hopelessness one would expect from a story with such a role, but this two-part finale hits a real blow to the Bad Batch that I wasn’t expecting.
I was anticipating a nice and clean resolution to everyone’s arcs: Crosshair would get rescued, the Zillo Beast would be eliminated/freed from the Empire’s clutches, and Tech would get antsy and persuade Hunter to join the fight against the Empire. Retirement on Pabu would wait for one more season as the squad joined up with Rex and Echo. But in reality, not all of these arcs and plot points were resolved that cleanly, and some weren’t acknowledged at all.
This was a good finale in spite of all that, which speaks really well to the tension that ramps up further and further as the Bad Batch’s carefully laid plans start to go off the rails. Kevin Kiner’s music is beautiful, wonderfully complementing that tension and drawing tears from my eyes in all the right ways.
In the end, though, I felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness as I realized a lot of these threads would have to wait until next season to be resolved. Some fans may not care for this finale and how it subverts expectations, but we should always applaud storytellers for having the guts to take big swings, and I think this one did work, painful as it may feel. I certainly get the sense that season 3 will have a much darker tone than the first two, and it kills me that we likely have to wait around two years again to find out what happens next.
Spoilers ahead…
As I said up top, that did not go the way I thought it would. For the Bad Batch to not even reach Mount Tantiss was hugely surprising. You have to admire showrunner Jennifer Corbett for having the guts to tease the expected ending and then snatch it away from us so cruelly. For the first half of The Summit, everything was going to plan. The Bad Batch had managed to sneak into the Eriadu base without any issues, and while the tension ramped up as Omega placed the homing beacon on Hemlock’s shuttle, it all seemed relatively straightforward.
Then Saw Gerrera showed up and ruined everything.
The reveal was very well done, as the feeling that something else was going down turned into a realization that the Batch weren’t the only team to have infiltrated the base. I genuinely didn’t expect Saw to show up. Beyond his slightly gratuitous cameo in the first season’s premiere, there was no reason for him to interact with the Bad Batch again. But here he was, shoving a spanner into the works like always.
Seriously, has Saw Gerrera ever done anything other than be a minor annoyance to the Empire? His plan here ultimately doesn’t work. While Tarkin’s fortress is presumably ruined, the meeting room at the top of the base is well protected, and none of the high ranking officers are harmed; he failed in his goal to kill them (as an aside, I loved Director Krennic’s cameo here as he prepared to give Tarkin an update on Project Stardust; according to the credits, Ben Mendelsohn returned to the role).
I guess the point of Gerrera is to show that rebellions can’t be won simply by matching the Empire’s cruelty and destroying everything in sight. The one thing he did that actually hurt the Empire was to raise Jyn Erso, an act of love and not war (though his parenting style left a lot to be desired).
It was clear that Tech was right when he pointed out that in blowing up the base, they lost the chance to gain valuable intel, but Saw refused to listen, and neither party got anything worthwhile from their respective missions. Indeed, what happened instead was far worse: the Bad Batch ended up losing someone they loved.
Now, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Tech is in fact still alive and makes a return in season 3 somehow. We never saw his body, and that is the number 1 rule of cinema and TV after all. But it doesn’t change the fact that his sacrifice hit hard.
I didn’t think anything of it when he had that awkward conversation with Phee back on Pabu, but in hindsight it’s clear this was building up to his death, reminding us what was at stake for him. He died like a hero, literally sacrificing himself so that the rest of his family could survive without him, and denying himself the opportunity of love with Phee.
The most heartbreaking part of it was Omega’s reaction. She’d fallen out with Tech earlier in the season over her sadness at Echo leaving the team by choice, and boy am I glad they had that confrontation now. It only served to strengthen the bond between them, and watching her scream his name as he plummeted through the clouds was traumatizing.
The finale takes great care to process Omega’s initial grief. She’s so young that she still doesn’t understand the value of Tech’s action, and that in itself is really tough to watch. She can’t see past the fact that he’s gone, unable to focus on anything other than the loss itself.
Even with that surprising twist, I still went into Plan 99 expecting the Bad Batch to find a way to Mount Tantiss somehow. Ultimately, it just wasn’t meant to be. They fight their way off Eriadu and we get a very cool first-person perspective through Omega’s dazed eyes as they make a run for their shuttle. I also loved that Tarkin’s home planet made it into this story. The Grand Moff naturally has a very strong bond with his homeworld, and I recommend reading the Tarkin novel and issue #18 of the 2017 Darth Vader comic run to learn more about his harsh world.
At their lowest ebb, the Batch decide to seek refuge with Cid. This proves to be the moment that kills any idea of a rescue mission for Crosshair this season. We finally get a payoff for the subplot surrounding Cid, as we learn that she definitely can’t be trusted. Choosing self-preservation rather than helping the clones, she gives the Empire their location. It must be noted that she shows great remorse in doing so; she appears to feel a great deal of guilt for turning them in, which surprised me considering the threatening message she left them back in Pabu.
I’d forgotten all about Cid by this point, expecting that to be dealt with far earlier in the season. Instead, they let the payoff come in the worst way possible, leading to the eventual capture of Omega despite Hunter’s best efforts to keep her hidden. As Hemlock and his clone commando escort lead them through the city, she can’t help but try to rescue them, but she’s hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched.
Thankfully, Echo manages to free Hunter and Wrecker, and they flee the planet after Hemlock manages to leave and enter hyperspace with Omega in tow. The team is really at their lowest point here, with no way to chase after Omega.
We get to see Hemlock and Omega arrive on Mount Tantiss, greeted by Nala Se and Emerie Karr. Omega notices Crosshair, and it’s a testament to her empathy that she’s horrified to see him strapped down and unconscious, despite all his attempts to hunt her and her family down.
We don’t focus on Crosshair for long though, as the episode confirms that Emerie Karr is indeed closely related to the clones. As soon as we heard her New Zealand accent earlier in the season, I wondered if she had some connection to them; her face always did look similar to Omega’s, but the finale shines a light on the matter as she says they are “sisters”, seemingly confirming that Omega was not the first female clone of Jango Fett. We don’t get anything more than that, but it’s a tantalizing tease to mull over as we wait for season 3.
I can’t wait to see what comes next. I would expect the season 3 premiere will see Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo discover the location of Mount Tantiss and launch a successful rescue mission for Omega and Crosshair, but after this finale… who knows? It hurts to leave the Bad Batch at such a low point, and the probable two-year wait for season 3 will be agonizing.
What a show this has turned out to be.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
