Films and Fiction

Episode fifteen of The Bad Batch brings the animated show to a close. Clone Force 99 first saw action in season seven of The Clone Wars before branching out with a show of their own. Now, after three seasons, that show has ended, and there’s plenty going on in the final episode.

In the last episode, we see that the Batch have made it to Tantiss aboard a stolen shuttle, and Echo has managed to infiltrate the mountain disguised as a stormtrooper. This is where we pick up again, with the Batch making their way through the jungle, though their presence has been detected, making the whole mission a lot more difficult as they try to rescue Omega.

Luckily, she has a plan of her own, and uses the service tubes that transport samples to escape with the other children who are held in the vault. Scalder was much less of a problem than I’d expected and wasn’t really needed. A much more important inclusion is the clone Zillo Beast. Omega releases it into the base, where it quickly causes havoc in its rampage to escape.

Meanwhile, Echo and Emerie Karr infiltrate the lab. After subjecting Omega and the other kids to experiments for who knows how long, she’s finally decided to do the right thing and help with the escape.

The whole episode is suitably Bad Batch, with explosions, firefights, destruction, and deception. There are a few notable things though. For one, the whole force makes it out. After the finale of season two, that wasn’t guaranteed, and it makes it different to the endings of other animated Star Wars shows. Both The Clone Wars and Rebels ended in tragedy, but not this time. Crosshair does lose his hand, joining an elite group of characters who’ve suffered in the same way, but that’s all. I thought they might have killed Wrecker with the way they kept injuring him, and I wonder if this was a last minute change as he doesn’t do anything important in the last few scenes, or whether they were just building up the tension. Still, seeing a happy ending for a change is no bad thing.

I expected Crosshair would need to take a critical shot, and it’s amazing he managed to do it with his left hand. There’s also Rampart’s fate. He could have gone either way at a certain point, helping the Batch or trying to redeem himself to the Empire. Ultimately he chose the latter and paid for it. The big letdown is in CX2, the clone shadow. He seemed to be important in some way, but turned out to be another Marrok.

The ending opens up the possibility of a spin-off show. Personally I’d like to see something else, with new characters, but no doubt we’ll get to see Omega again some time. Rebels led to Ahsoka, so whether that will be in live-action or animation is still up for debate.

And that’s it. The story of Clone Force 99 is over. The series has had its ups and downs. It’s suffered from filler more than other shows, and lacked the emotional power of Rebels, but as an action-centered show, The Bad Batch has done its job well, and this feels like a satisfying way to end it. The clones deserve a chance at peace after spending their entire lives around war. Who knows where Omega’s story will take her, but the rest can enjoy their remaining years on Pabu.