'The Bad Batch' S1, Ep. 14: Begun, the Storm Troopers Have

Like many Star Wars fans, I had a surge of nostalgia during my first viewing of Revenge of the Sith (really the first three viewings; I watched it in theatres three times in the first 24 hours). During the final act, the environment, the ship corridors, and even the uniforms and storm trooper armor started looking very familiar. I was incredibly giddy.

This week's episode of The Bad Batch, titled "War-Mantle," gave a lot of similar vibes. During a rescue mission, Clone Batch 99 infiltrates a hidden Imperial base. They start noticing oddities. The clone troopers are wearing different armor (the designs actually are original concepts for the storm troopers during the production of the original trilogy, so that was a nice touch). The troopers have a new designation of some sort (TK!). Heck, after they bust their target out of his prison cell, they steal a play from A New Hope's playbook by sneaking around Death Star-looking corridors. Even the music felt familiar. With the season nearing its end, it's a necessary shift reminding us that this story arc, to a certain degree, already has a known ending, and we eventually need to get to it. The remaining mystery, of course, surrounds the fate of our Clone Batch 99 troopers.

The biggest bit of "new" information was the confirmation that the storm troopers are not clones. Ever since Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars, Star Wars fans like myself, who overthink these things way too much, have been wondering why the Clones were such good shots when they were the good guys, and such bad shots as the Empire. We're continuing to see here the transition from clones to actual soldiers; at one point, Clone Batch 99 knocked out a small contingent of storm troopers, then took off one of their helmets. To their surprise, he did not look anything like them. They're beginning to see the Imperials' plan to sustain the Empire by replacing the clones. The Bad Batch's confusion felt genuine, which is probably how most of the galaxy feels during the Empire's quick ascent to take complete control after seemingly liberating the galaxy not too long before. Something I still think most Star Wars fans don't credit George Lucas enough for is how interesting and surprising the writing of the prequels was considering we already knew how everything was supposed to end. Like I said earlier, this episode had vibes similar to that aspect of Episode III.

Clone Troop 99 is rescuing a "reg" because they received a transmission from Rex that he was in trouble. But why go to so much trouble for one clone trooper? Because he's none other than Gregor, a clone trooper we've seen both in Clone Wars and Rebels. Gregor seemingly died in a huge firefight explosion in Clone Wars, but somehow he just randomly appeared later in Rebels (in Rebels, he aged more than I think he should have), which seemed ridiculous to me at the time. I guess it's fun to see him at a point in between, and I assume we'll get an idea of what he does between now and the moment we see him again in Rebels.

During the rescue mission, Hunter decides that Omega needs to stay on their ship, which was disappointing at first because I've been clamoring to see her utilize more of her talents and skills, which could further reveal who she really is. Well, as it turns out, we get to see that she has developed her flying skills a bit more as she needs to pick up the Bad Batch at the end of a tunnel leading outside the Imperial facility. As they're flying away, though, Hunter is knocked off the ship and takes a tumble (how he survives that gigantic fall is a complete crock, but whatever). Omega tries to get their team to turn back, but with Imperial fighters in pursuit, the rest of the Bad Batch decides to escape to hyperspace instead. I wonder if they're going to lead Omega down a similar path that Anakin took. Here is a young girl who is ready to risk her squad's lives to save other people in distress, as she's done a few times this season. But if Hunter doesn't survive, she may have a little bit of anger start to build up, much like after Anakin lost his mother, then Padme.

This may all be a moot point, because Hunter may end up surviving. He was captured, and Crosshair, his former squadmate, comes to his cell and opens the door. It seems bad at first, but this opens the door (no pun intended) for Crosshair to redeem himself and rejoin the good guys by helping Hunter.

Meanwhile, we got a full look at Kamino for the first time in what feels like a while, and the Empire now has full occupancy. Vice Admiral Rampart tells the Kaminoans their contracts are getting canceled, and now the Kaminoans feel the need to flee from their home planet just to survive. The ending of this story was a little frustrating. Rampart catches the Kaminoans organizing an escape, then decides he no longer needed Lama Su, the Prime Minister. A couple of troopers approached him, but the doors closed, so we didn't really see what happened to him. I assume the writers want us to think he's dead, but who knows. If he comes back out of nowhere later on, I won't be surprised. Rampart did decide to keep Nala Se since her background in science can come in handy. It's consistent with how scientists secretly drove the action of the Empire in The Mandalorian, and even, to a lesser degree, the "science" of bringing back Palpatine in Rise of Skywalker.

It's easy to take the CG work for granted, especially when portions of it are quick to pull me out of the moment and remind me that this is a cartoon show. But the shot when Clone Batch 99 flew in and landed on Daro - the metallic ship contrasting the lush green jungle - looked incredibly realistic. The Commando units with the glowing visors also looked really cool, similar to the video game Republic Commando. Daro was a beautiful-looking planet, too.

With only two episodes left, I'm losing hope in getting any grand story revelations, and I'm still expecting more cameos before the season is done, including Boba Fett. But as far as Omega goes, the stakes for her story slowly have diminished, so much so that, if there is actually a twist to her identity, it'll mostly serve as a setup for Season 2 (if there is a second season) or some other project rather than any meaningful conclusion to her story now. But who knows, maybe the writers will pull it off somehow.

Notes:

There was a very brief moment during the flying scene in the final act when their ship needed a quick ignition, and it sounds exactly like Anakin restarting the burning engine on his podracer in The Phantom Menace.

Between Gregor returning and Lama Su's non-death scene, I feel like Star Wars characters are following the path that superheroes take, where no one ever dies. Ever.

It was fitting that Hunter was the one who figured out how to track the reg that Rex asked them to rescue. He proved worthy of his name as his Boys Scout skills were on full display when he analyzed tracks and burned-off plants.