The Bad Batch Spoiler Recap: Return to Kamino
Where was this energy all season?
Sure, part one of the season one finale “Return to Kamino” followed some long expected story beats, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I actually like it when Star Wars pays off what it sets up instead of yanking the rug out from under the audience then insisting that it’s “pretty fun” all the same.
For the first time, the show really and truly prioritized character over action. What a treat to see that the show was, at long last, going there. I have criticized The Bad Batch all season for teasing the big emotional beats then blowing right past them for the sake of spectacle, and while I stand by that assessment, I’m thankful that they finally found their footing enough to allow their characters the space to process their feelings.
The episode begins with Crosshair and Hunter en route to Kamino. Crosshair activates Hunter’s comm, to attract “his” squad, insisting that they’ll come rescue Hunter, even if it’s a trap. Though it’s clear the fallen Clone no longer considers himself a part of the Bad Batch, it’s obvious he still knows how they operate. The traces of bitterness detected when he refers to Hunter’s squad, thankfully do not go unaddressed either.
Back on Ord Mantell, the Batch is fixing up the Marauder and preparing to go back to Daro and find Hunter. A signal from his comm tells them that he is no longer where they left him, but is now back on Kamino. Acting in exactly the way Crosshair predicted, they set out to rescue him without a second thought.
We see a little of this deep dive into feelings when the Batch arrive on Kamino for their rescue mission, and Omega leads them in a secret way, taking an underwater tunnel to Nala Se’s secret lab. Omega sounds distraught enough at the death of her former caregiver that Echo actually asks if she’s alright, but she pushes her grief away. Though it is worth pointing out that she pushes her grief away because she’s not ready to deal. It’s not the show pushing the moment away so something can go boom. This is what I’ve been asking for all along.
Incidentally, when they arrive at the lab, Omega explains that this is where Clone Force 99 received their enhancements, and she was there to witness it when it happened. We’ve been saying it since we learned she’s an unaltered Clone, but here it is confirmed: Omega is older than the rest of the Bad Batch.
When Crosshair and Hunter arrive on Kamino, the latter immediately notices how empty Tipoca City is. Correctly deducing that the Empire is decommissioning Clones, and making the connection to what he learned on Daro, Hunter at long last tries appealing to his brother, telling him that the Empire will start to phase out Clones entirely. Crosshair, still under the impression this is a meritocracy, insists that won’t happen to the ones that matter.
Later, one of the new recruits expresses concern about Crosshair’s plan to apprehend the rest of the Batch. When Crosshair points out that the Batch don’t leave their own behind...most of the time, Hunter quickly counters that they didn’t have a choice. To which Crosshair replies “And I did?”
Hunter makes a further appeal, at long last telling Crosshair that his inhibitor chip is making him not act like himself. The moment is brushed past when the recruits notice that the Batch have arrived, but unlike how it might have been earlier in the season, this is a character beat that was put on pause, rather than shelved for somewhere down the line.
The Batch track Hunter to the old training grounds, which we first saw in the series premiere. They leave Omega behind in the underground staging area, telling her that if it goes wrong, to run back to the ship and call Rex. Naturally, when they arrive, it goes wrong immediately. But rather than listening, Omega activates the training droids to go up and lend a helping hand.
With the whole Batch - yes, Crosshair included - together again, things finally reach their boiling point. But unlike their earlier assumptions, Crosshair doesn’t actually want them dead. He wants to give them what he never got: a choice. He orders one of his soldiers to send Omega offworld somewhere, and asks the rest of the Batch to join him, and join the Empire.
When Hunter protests, saying they’re loyal to each other, not the Empire, Crosshair points out yet again, that they weren’t loyal to him. He clearly enjoys the sense of purpose he feels within the Empire, but has noticed, as the audience has, that his brothers didn’t seem to care he was gone. He was treated as their enemy, their antagonist, any time they encountered one another. A betrayal that must have hit him extra hard, considering he doesn’t even have an inhibitor chip regulating his behavior.
That’s right. Crosshair had his chip removed “some time ago”, but didn’t specify when exactly. Time moves so strangely in the show that I cannot say for sure, but if I had to guess I would place it at Bracca. If that’s the case, it would really add insult to injury, since that was the day Crosshair’s so-called brothers very nearly killed him without a second thought.
I will say, while I’m glad we finally reached this point, I cannot help but wish we’d hit these beats a little sooner. Not the culmination, of course. But Hunter mourning that his brother fell to the Empire sooner would have made this entire plot land harder than it did. And I have said time and time again that we needed more time with Crosshair overall. If you weren’t already invested in his redemption like I am, then I can’t imagine a single episode did much to convince you of anything.
By the time the droids Omega set up finally activate and enter the training ground, all the troopers are dead except for, of course, the Bad Batch. Crosshair killed them all with a single shot as a demonstration of his sincerity, then even joins his brothers in their fight to take down the droids. It was at this point that I couldn’t help but wish that we’d seen the Batch struggle more in combat without Crosshair, so that when he fought by their side once more they could feel complete again. Instead, he felt like a convenient ally rather than the missing fifth piece, fit neatly back into place.
Not to make this about Kylo Ren again, but when he turned on Snoke in the Throne room, and stopped fighting against Rey and fighting alongside her instead, the entire style of fighting shifted. The missing piece slid into place. Suddenly, they were not longer out of step, but fighting as one unit. This could have had that same potential, and yes there were emotional shades of it, except that Crosshair’s loss was never really felt on the battlefield. Removed from their location or not, he was still an integral part of the team.
With the droids all defeated, and the reveal that Crosshair no longer had his chip out in the open, the Batch find themselves at an impasse. At least, they do until Hunter at long last doesn’t wait for someone to encourage him to do the right thing, and takes the initiative for himself. He stuns Crosshair, takes his weapons, and gets Wrecker to carry their unconscious brother out of there.
What should have been a straightforward exit from Kamino, since the Imperials had all evacuated, instead turned into one of the more devastating moments of the series. With no one important left in Tipoca City, Tarkin orders Admiral Rampart to fire when ready.
And so Tipoca City burns and crumbles into the sea. A part of the Republic era burned away to make room for the Imperial era.
The implications for this are devastating, beyond us likely not getting a chance to see Kamino in live action again. The full-grown troopers were redeployed, but what did the Empire do to the children still on Kamino? The babies in the lab? Are we about to see a whole generation of rapidly aging Jango clones with no sense of purpose, or were they more likely just eliminated?
It’s unlikely we’ll get answers to this next week, and honestly I don’t want answers either. My hope for the season one finale is a near-exclusive focus on the Bad Batch, and on their fractured relationship with Crosshair, as well as an exploration of why Crosshair felt the need to distinguish himself by aligning with the Empire.
What did you think? Did you see the Crosshair twist coming? Are you sad to see Kamino go? And on that note, where are they going now? Join us for Bad Bitches on the Bad Batch, our biweekly livestream to dive in! And for more Star Wars discussion, don’t forget to subscribe to “Space Waffles”, our Star Wars focused podcast!
The Bad Batch is streaming now on Disney+ with new episodes every Friday.