We’re officially in the crux of Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3’s climax, and it’s the calm before the storm. By that, I mean an exposition-heavy episode as Omega (Michelle Ang) attempts to convince the children that they can escape Tantiss, while Clone Force 99 teams up with Admiral Rampart (Noshir Dalal) to go back to the planet in an attempt to save Omega and the Clones who are trapped in Royce Hemlock’s (Jimmi Simpson) facility.
In Tantiss, Omega tells the group of kids that she has escaped Tantiss before, though with the aid of Crosshair (Dee Bradley Baker), and says that it is possible to escape once more, which is what she plans to do. She begins to dig a hole in her cell walls, showing the possibility of escape to each inmate as they play a game while being observed by the doctors.
But that’s not the episode’s most important part, as it mostly focuses on The Bad Batch meeting with Echo (Dee Bradley Baker) to obtain coordinates that will allow them to travel into Tantiss. The Batch travels with Rampart on a stolen Imperial shuttle to a station outside Coruscant, where Echo will be able to find the coordinates that will lead them to Omega. However, the mission proves itself far more complicated than initially presented (though without a massive action scene usually present in the back half of each episode), with Echo unable to retrieve the coordinates in the Coruscant base.
Echo now plans to sneak into a science shuttle that will board for Tantiss, but the mission itself is dangerous, as it’s highly probable he will get caught to obtain the coordinates. Rampart, Hunter (Dee Bradley Baker), and Wrecker (Dee Bradley Baker) follow him close to the ship, as it’s about to jump for lightspeed. It’s the episode’s only legitimate ‘action sequence,’ where the tension runs at its highest. Will The Bad Batch make it to Tantiss without the Empire knowing? Unfortunately, Echo can’t get the coordinates, but he can disable the proximity sensors, which won’t allow the Empire to know that The Bad Batch are literally on their tail.
Once that happens, they’re off and the episode concludes. It’s certainly intriguing to see in which direction Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3 is going, and the show has more than improved itself since fully ditching Cid (Rhea Perlman). While there have been self-contained episodes that weren’t as strong as others, they’ve never detracted from the overall story and have since enhanced it, making it a more enjoyable – and complete – season of television than the first two.
Those who call me a “Star Wars hater” for being so critical of a franchise I love are having a hard time seeing me enjoy a season that has seemingly fixed everything wrong with its first two seasons and tells a far more compelling story in the process. Cameos are fine, as long as they accompany the story, which the filmmakers of this show finally understood. I fully expect a major Star Wars character to appear in one of the last episodes (only two left!) of Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3 to aid in the Clones. From the looks of the trailer, it should likely be Ventress (Nika Futterman). But how will they treat this element remains to be seen…
The thirteenth episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3 is now available to stream on Disney+.
