The twelfth episode of The Bad Batch sees the show rapidly approaching its conclusion, leaving just enough time for what will probably be their last side quest.

After Omega was captured by the Imperials at the end of the last episode, the Batch need to find a way to locate Tantiss, and Crosshair thinks he might know someone who can help, except there are two big problems. Firstly, he’s a prisoner in an Imperial labour camp. Second, he’s none other than Admiral Rampart.

This former Imperial officer was a big villain in the first season of The Bad Batch, where he bombarded Tipoca City on Kamino, destroying all the cloning facilities there. When the incident came to the attention of the Senate, Palpatine placed all the blame on Rampart, even though he was acting under secret orders. With no evidence in his defence, Rampart was placed in a prison camp, and I never expected to be seeing him again in the series.

This is what can best be described as a fun episode, and as there are only three more to come after this, it’s unlikely we’ll get any more of this kind. There’s action, chases, and the kind of explosion-filled escapes the show does so well. As for moving the story forward, it doesn’t really. We get a couple of scenes of Omega on Tantiss, where she’s once again being subjected to experiments, but there’s not much interaction between her and Emerie Karr.

The Imperial adversaries in the episode are interesting, though, as they actually seem quite competent, rather than the cartoon villains Star Wars usually gives us. They use smart tactics and actually come close to stopping the Batch from escaping. One ahs to wonder why they aren’t doing something more useful than guarding prisoners.

This episode doesn’t really give much of an indication of how the finale will go down, except that a return to Tantiss is on the cards. Rampart doesn’t know its location, but believes he can somehow find a way back there. Whether or not there’ll be a big assault involving Rex and more clones isn’t clear, but there’s still everything to play for in the last few episodes as the story of Clone Force 99 is brought to a close, and considering the emotional end to season two, anything could happen.

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