*Warning: the following article contains spoilers for episodes fifteen and sixteen of Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 2*
Man…what a disappointment. The finale of Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 2 had one job: have Clone Force 99 (Dee Bradley Baker) go on a rescue mission to find Crosshair and fly off to Pabu with the “new hope” of a better future. Granted, it wouldn’t have been a terribly exciting ending, so you should kill off one character as a surprising and emotionally gripping moment to hook audiences until the end.
Read: ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 2’ Episode Fourteen Review: “Tipping Point”
It does kill off one character in a surprisingly emotional moment. Tech detaches a railcar and sacrifices himself to save the batch from instant death. Clone Force 99 has tracked the whereabouts of Dr. Royce Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) on a summit in Eriadu with Grand Moff Tarkin (Stephen Stanton). There, they see that the base has already been attacked by Rebels, including Saw Gerrera (Andrew Kishino), who has infiltrated the summit to kill high-ranking Imperial officers and blow up the facility.
That would be the first part of the episode, but it ends with The Bad Batch stuck on a railcar, with a choice between imminent death or Tech’s sacrifice. After that poignant moment, you would think the Batch would follow Hemlock to Mount Tantiss, but no. They return to Ord Mantell to get patched up, and Cid (Rhea Perlman) betrays them to the Empire. Ok, fine, but you now have the opportunity to wrap everything up right then and there.
The Empire kidnaps Omega (Michelle Ang) in a rather anticlimactic climax, bringing her to Mount Tantiss with Nala Se (Gwendoline Yeo). In a facility, she sees Crosshair recovering from his injuries and wants him taken off the machine he is on. However, Omega meets Emerie Karr (Keisha Castle-Hughes), who reveals herself to be…her sister! Cut to black. Wait for season 3 if it ever arrives. Why do this? Why think of doing this? If there’s anything else you need to learn is that the ending of any television season must wrap up all loose ends while also leaving slight breadcrumbs that would hint at another season.
The blueprint was there. For a while, the finale followed that blueprint. But at the last second, they decide to subvert expectations and give a rather unsatisfying end to an otherwise lousy season. It frustrated me so much that I completely ignored the fact that Ben Mendelsohn briefly cameos as Orson Krennic in the early days of what the Empire calls the “Star Dust project.” That’s interesting, but the episode focuses on elements no one cares about and instead sets up an event that no one wants to see.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 2 had a chance to wrap things up somewhat nicely and leave the door open for a potential third season. Now, should the show be canceled, we’ll never find out how the core story ends. It’s honestly the most eye-rolling thing you could ever do. In this unstable era of streaming entertainment, there should be a moratorium on cliffhanger endings, especially if you’re not guaranteed to return for a third season.
I’ll say this: I don’t want Star Wars: The Bad Batch to return. I don’t care if we’re not going to see the show culminate into something grandiose because the ENTIRE SEASON kept teasing that something was coming, only for it not to arrive. It’s best not to move forward with the show and start developing compelling animated ventures for Star Wars, like Visions, which I await its second volume with great anticipation.
✯½
All episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch are now streaming on Disney+.
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