Spoilers Bad Batch Season 3 - February 21st

[JD]

I could see her making a surprise appearance in live action at some point, but I can't imagine them hiding her behind a false identity. And if they actually do use Keisha Castle-Hughes then they really can't get away with having her pretend to be someone else, since the moment she shows up everyone is going to know who she is.

 

[Josh Kelton]

Binge watched the first 9 episodes. Season 3 is a real step up. It's some of the best Star Wars since Andor. I'm glad they did away with the more kid friendly and stand alone episodes from previous seasons. Can't believe there are only 6 episodes left. The story feels too large to wrap up in that amount of time.

Good feedback from people that have seen most of the remaining episodes.
https://twitter.com/sw_holocron/status/1773524982351458608

We’ve seen the rest of The Bad Batch Season 3 (except the finale). The reveals are unexpected & exciting, the pacing is rapid, and Omega & Crosshair’s relationship continues to be the show’s heart. The Empire is perhaps more evil than they’ve ever been. What an excellent season.

 

[Set Harth]

kinda quiet around here right now...

 

[Tuskin38]

Those were some very dark episodes

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Not surprised Emerie is horrified by the treatment of children with high M-counts as merely specimens. What is surprising is that Hemlock was so easily persuaded to give Emerie full access as replacement for Nala Se. He clearly knows Emerie isn't nearly as coldhearted as he is. Maybe it's my own paranoid talking but it feels like he's playing a long con on her, even if he also underestimates the children's cognitive self-awareness.

Unfortunately, it was inevitable Omega would be recaptured. Still, it was a gut punch when she decided to surrender herself for the sake of Pabu. My heart wrenched when she carefully and methodically convinced Crosshair that it was their best option when he clearly didn't want to lose her. Mission or not, losing her again hurt him. And to make it even worse, neither Omega's planted tracker or Crosshair's targeted tracker worked.

At least the clone assassin left Pabu without fulfilling his treat of burning the island to the water. Hooray for small victories.

 

[cooleddie74]

So far this season has had 11 good or great episodes and not one borefest or clunker. This bodes well for the next four.

 

[Reverend]

Another great pair of episodes that continue to ratchet up the tension! No clear answers yet, but we do have a clear direction; back to Wayland!

Identity Crisis​

• Right out of the gate, they're yet again killing it with the establishing establishing shot scenery!
• New species design, or one of the newer background designs that I just don't recognise of-hand? Interesting detail; they seem to be wearing translated collars. I wonder if this was designed just for this, or if it's from something else we haven't seen yet? Seems odd to go that extra mile for characters that could have been from any number of already established species.
  
• Still curious what’s going on in that *other* mountain facility across the way. The storehouse, perhaps?
  
• Well that looks like ominous foreshadowing. Phase 2 X-Clone? The chamber it’s in seems similar to the ones in The Vault. I really hope that's not Tech in there. Either way it's clearly something they're going to have to fight before this is all over . . .
  
• Well, this is different from what we saw during Palpatine’s visit. Seems like the vault is more than we thought.
• Unlike the other part of the vault, this all looks brand-new. Makes sense, but I wonder how long he’s been collecting live subjects. Did they build this after the Mustafar facility was destroyed? Or was it here the whole time?
• Only three “specimens“ in a space clearly designed for nine. Low survival right, or difficulty in acquiring new HMC’s, or both? None of them look like any of the Inquisitors we’ve seen later in the timeline; I’m not sure if that bodes well, or ill for their fates.
  
• Indeed where do we think we are in the timeline? By my reckoning it should be at least two years since Order 66, yet these three still look old enough that they should have already been detected by the Jedi in infancy. I guess if they were from separatist worlds, then it might explain the seeming disparity since that potentially adds a good 3-5 years to the equation.
  
• New type of medical droid? Reminds me of the one clerk, robot in Wall-E.
• Confirmation that M-count cannot be cloned, and that their interest in Omega isn’t her count, but her blood's ability to bind donor M-count to cloned DNA. Just in case anyone was unclear on that point still!
  
• For a second there, the spurs made me think it was gonna be Boba . . . but then I remembered Cad Bane is standing in the exact same doorway in the trailer.
• I’m surprised they didn’t use a design of pram similar to Grogu's. This thing looks way bigger and bulkier. Perhaps that's the point? If it just looks like a cargo container instead of a pram, it’s all raise less suspicion accompanied by the likes of Bane?
  
• That seems like an overkill reaction for just one untrained, high M-count child slapping at a control panel. They are really afraid of losing control of them. Perhaps this is the real reason why they are using Clone Commandos here? They are better suited for handling Jedi then either regs or TK's?
  
• Tarkin is clearly not concerned with the budget; that’s just a pretext. No way they’re using even a fraction of the amount of resources that has already been dedicated to Project Stardust. He’s fishing for information, precisely because he doesn’t know what Project Necromancer is for. Palpatine doesn’t trust him with this, and that irks him. The likes of Tarkin always fear what they can't control.
  
• Do we think Sid survived? Or killed off screen? Either way, I doubt we'll be hearing from her again.
  
• I know I mentioned it before in previous episodes, but I really appreciate how much the Bad Batch is using space stations and moon bases on the show. It’s nice to see not everything must be so planet bound all the time.
• “Asking questions like that, you give away more than you think.” Not surprising that Bane instantly sees right through Karr's probing. She gave away her own ignorance of what she's doing.
  
• It’s a good question, though, how many have they been? We know of a handful during the clone wars, while the numbers of the “specimens“ implies at least 54 total. Not that Ban brought all of them in of course, but likely a good portion.
  
• Is it possible Karr didn’t understand the purpose of the doll until she saw the one with the new kid? She clearly never had a childhood of her own, so it's going to seem like an alien concept to her. She's clearly growing a conscience and empathy though.

Point of No Return​

• Second Moonbase ever in Star Wars! Nice to see them keeping up the unique environments.
• I feel like an alarm going off should’ve been a little harder to go unnoticed. Phee really needs to hook that thing up to her comlink or something!
• Do you think a super stealthy spy ship would have a less conspicuous design. That thing screams, "black ops". They should have ones that looks like a nondescript civilian shuttle for this kind of mission.
• So far as I can tell, this list of what I can assume is coordinates is just gibberish. (yes, I checked the aurebesh.) That said it does feel like it’s encrypted, but it’s not an obvious cipher. It would have to be a substitution cipher and I don’t have time to figure out the key just now!
• Omega leaving behind both Tech's goggles and Lula feels like a direct continuation of the conversation with Ventress. She is putting aside attachments, and moving forward. She’s already more Jedi and she realises.
• I wish we’d spent more time on Pabu to really show how much of a home this place and these people have become to Omega, but given the limitations of the show will have to settle for the implications alone.
• I don’t recall Gonky being this snarky, but it was certainly fun watching him bicker with Wrecker.
• Again with alarms are any useful if you haven’t be standing right in front of them!
  
• For those wondering, the display says "target tracking" and "cloaking initiated". I guess a ship that small does have a cloaking device! Yes, I know, smaller cloaked ships have been shown before, plus what constitutes "cloaking" in Star Wars can range from altering/obscuring transponder codes, to actual invisible ships!
  
• You think after Ventress sneaking in the exact same cave, they would’ve left behind some sort of early warning system. I suppose since they intended to leave straight away, they didn’t think they'd be there long enough for it to matter?
• I love that Wrecker dives for Gonky first, then jumps into the water.
• RIP, the Marauder. We’re really past the point of no return now!
• I actually like that Hunters crazy plan actually failed; it was a heroic attempt, but the plan was a desperate one to begin with; even if he'd gotten control of it, there's still a Star Destroyer parked overhead. They're simply out-numbered and outmatched here. It helps if the heroes aren't always hyper-competent and unbeatable. I feel like there's been a deliberate effort to scale back of the Batch's capabilities given how OP they seemed in TCW. It's very needed in order to make the drama credible.
• The X-Clone shooting. The Imperial pilot is ice cold. Better him than Hunter tough of course!
  
• I wonder if the whole point of Crosshair's "shaky hand" subplot this season was done mostly to sell this moment where he misses the shot for the tracker. Pre-season would have made that shot, no question.
• That final breath says a lot about Omega. She's calm and centred, even though she knows where she's headed and the chances of escaping a second time are very slim. Ventress what right in that being a Jedi isn't in the blood, it's in the training; and whether Omega realises it or not, she's being very much a Jedi in this moment.
• Not that I think she'll be using the force or anything (I think Karr will be the one to leak the coordinates) but Omega continues to mature and incorporate everything she's learned on her travels.

 

[Christopher]

It's fascinating how willing this show is to do entire episodes in which its title characters never appear. That's quite rare.

 

[Turtletrekker]

• Confirmation that M-count cannot be cloned, and that their interest in America isn’t her count...

Autocorrect fail or voice text fail?

 

[Reverend]

Autocorrect fail or voice text fail?

The latter. And I'd corrected that exact error one other place too. Must have missed this one!

 

[Turtletrekker]

The latter. And I'd corrected that exact error one other place too. Must have missed this one!

I immediately thought of America Chavez and her ability to cross between universes.

Confirmed! Star Wars characters to appear in Secret Wars!

 

[valkyrie013]

That was cool.
Animation really is the best Star Wars..

 

[JD]

These two episodes were fantastic.
It was nice to get a focus on Emery, and use her as our POV for getting a deeper look into what is going on with Project Necromancer.
Damn, Hemlock really is a heartless bastard, and it's nice to see that Emery really isn't.
So is the idea to use Omega's blood as a way to give Clones the ability to have a higher M Count, but not to actually give them the M word?
It's always nice to see Phee.
So two weeks in a row we've had people hide ships in that same cave. They might want to do something to keep that from happening again.
The brutality of the Empire's invasion of Pabu really shows just how desperate they are to get Omega back.
I missed, did the Troopers take Omega's coms away?
Wow, this one really did not get well for The Batch, their ship got destroyed, Pabu is under Imperial control, and both of their plans totally imploded.

 

[Finn]

I was wondering where Grogu was at that point, when they revealed that they had force-sensitive children, who would have been brought to the Jedi if it wasn't for the Empire...

Also, why does Omega's blood have this characteristic? I'm thinking the Kaminoians had more secrets, perhaps more clones that we haven't seen or heard about.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I was wondering where Grogu was at that point...

Probably still with Kelleran Beq.

 

[Christopher]

So is the idea to use Omega's blood as a way to give Clones the ability to have a higher M Count, but not to actually give them the M word?

Yeah, it's sort of a catalyst, a "binding agent," I think they called it.

So two weeks in a row we've had people hide ships in that same cave. They might want to do something to keep that from happening again.

I had the same thought. "Someone should install an alarm in there."

The brutality of the Empire's invasion of Pabu really shows just how desperate they are to get Omega back.

I doubt most of the invaders had any idea of Omega's importance. They're just fascist thugs who don't need an excuse to bully and terrorize people.

I missed, did the Troopers take Omega's coms away?

Yes, searching her for trackers was the first thing they did after she surrendered.

Wow, this one really did not get well for The Batch, their ship got destroyed, Pabu is under Imperial control, and both of their plans totally imploded.

I love it that when Wrecker saw the bomb, the first thing he did was to shield the Gonk droid. I didn't think they considered it anything more than a walking battery, but he got himself injured protecting it.

Also, why does Omega's blood have this characteristic?

I was wondering more why Emerie's doesn't.

 

[JD]

I doubt most of the invaders had any idea of Omega's importance. They're just fascist thugs who don't need an excuse to bully and terrorize people.

Oh I know that, I just meant that they would send such a huge force and let them take things so far, just to find one kid.

 

[Finn]

I was wondering more why Emerie's doesn't.

Yeah, meaning they were quite deliberate in creating those two.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's weird, this show and the franchise in general certainly have no shortage of dark moments, but for some reason, I found Cad Bane kidnapping the cute alien baby to be a really haunting moment as is the thought of how devastated the mother will be when she wakes up and realizes her child is gone.

I say weird because this is the same franchise which has shown children being slaughtered yet that never phased me.

 

[Christopher]

as is the thought of how devastated the mother will be when she wakes up and realizes her child is gone.

I assumed Bane killed the mother.