It’s always a good time when new Star Wars content is released. The Bad Batch premiered the first three episodes to its third and final season on February 21st. The final season sees the return of Dee Bradley Baker as the members of The Bad Batch along with Michelle Ang as Omega. The show also sees the return of Jimmi Simpson as Dr. Hemlock, Keisha Castle-Hughes as Dr. Emerie Karr, and the legendary Ian McDiarmid lends his voice as Emperor Palpatine returns once again.
[Warning: Spoilers for the first three episodes of The Bad Batch season 3, along with previous seasons below.]
The show picks up almost immediately where it left off. The Bad Batch season 2 (review here) ended with the tragic presumed death of the beloved Bad Batch member Tech. Along with that, Dr. Hemlock finally accomplished his mission of capturing Omega. His motivations were revealed to be in order for Kaminoan scientist Nala Se to cooperate with Hemlock’s experiments.
Positive takeaways from the premiere of The Bad Batch season 3
The final season’s first episode, titled “Confined,”focuses entirely on Omega and her imprisonment at Mount Tantiss. This episode felt superior to episodes two and three for more than a few reasons. While the pace may not be hasty enough for some fans, the plot intricately weaves together the agendas of Omega, Crosshair, Hemlock, and Nala Se into an incredibly intriguing episode.
The growth Omega goes through here immediately makes it not only a highlight for this season, but a highlight for the entire show. It’s fair to say fans of The Bad Batch have been waiting for an episode with this level of composure and focus. From personal experience, I found myself losing interest at points throughout previous seasons due to some filler episodes. This episode doesn’t pack a punch in the conventional way, but it gives the audience an influx of information along with character growth, specifically focused on Omega.
It also delves a bit deeper into what Hemlock’s plans are at Mount Tantiss for Emperor Palpatine. I love the growing development of the story behind Emperor Palpatine being resurrected or brought back from the dead in The Rise of Skywalker. While this series obviously takes place nearly sixty years before those events, it is clearly helping to lay the groundwork for something that The Mandalorian has also picked up on, which is cloning. Episodes one and three successfully begin to pay off the two-season-long build up to what the plans are for the empire and cloning.
The second episode will be touched on further in the review, but I was fairly fond of episode three as well. Episode three serves as a direct follow-up to the premiere, as the second episode focuses on Hunter and Wrecker. Episode three is the classic escape episode, with Omega discovering that her blood is the key to the Empire’s cloning experiments.
Titled “Shadows of Tantiss”, this episode finally sees Omega and Crosshair unite and escape Mount Tantiss, while Emperor Palpatine pays a visit to see the progress on the cloning experiments. Overall, ending the three-episode-premiere with a narrow escape for both Omega and Crosshair makes sense and is a good way to leave us on a cliffhanger.
“Paths Unknown” is the weak point of the 3 episode premiere
There aren’t too many negatives to go over, as I feel that “Confined” and “Shadows of Tantiss” are among the strongest episodes in the history of The Bad Batch. Episode two, titled “Paths Unknown,” is where I begin to have some minor nitpicks.
Episode two is consistent with some previous seasons of the show, where the episode structure falls into a slow burn to achieve one minor goal. It feels like that type of episode structure should be done away with. The episode wasn’t necessarily boring, though, as it included some fun horror elements and an endearing rescue of some stranded cadets. While overall, they did get a step closer to finding Omega, it didn’t advance the plot as much as I would have hoped.
What the rest of the final season needs to accomplish is each episode should feel like a piece of the puzzle to the overall ending of the show. “Paths Unknown” didn’t have that feeling, and therefore I found myself waiting for the episode to be over so that I could get to episode three. I recall that the first two seasons struggled at parts with that same dynamic. The Clone Wars certainly had far too many filler episodes, but the highs of that series made every filler episode worth the watch. The Bad Batch has yet to reach those sorts of highs, outside of a few episodes.
The final season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch is streaming on Disney+
Overall, the three-episode-premiere of the final season of The Bad Batch was highly enjoyable and made me excited for what’s left to come. The dynamic established at Mount Tantiss was incredibly interesting, and I almost wish there was more time before Omega and Crosshair escaped so that we could continue to explore the storylines that were introduced there. Hopefully, the remaining episodes continue to provide the audience with a consistent storyline with strong writing, as there isn’t much time before the series winds down.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3 is now streaming on Disney+. Are you excited for the remainder of the final season of The Bad Batch? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus or on The Cosmic Circus Discord.
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