"The Bad Batch Ep. 16: Kamino Lost"
"The Bad Batch Ep. 16: Kamino Lost" written by Jennifer Corbett, directed by Saul Ruiz
First off, AZI-3 cracks me up. After him, a stunned Crosshair, and Omega get separated from the group in a compartment that is quickly flooding, the droid says to Omega, "if you do not vacate this compartment, you will soon perish, and I will be left here on my own!" He's so anxious that he forgets his primary mission objective of making sure Omega makes it out alive and can't help but worry about his own safety. Poor thing!
As I said, we continue to delve into Crosshair's psyche, both overtly and subtly. For example, Tech makes a great assessment of Crosshair's attitude in this awkward situation of working "together" with the family you believed abandoned you to escape a horrific demise. He calls his brother "severe and unyielding," saying that this is his nature and nothing can be done to change it. Omega makes the same assessment later in the episode. See below for where I point out the subtle moments.
There's also a totally weird bit that is so weird it's perfectly Star Wars. Once they arrive at Nala Se's private lab again, they see that the tunnel up ahead (that leads to the Havoc Marauder) is completely out of commission. Echo suggests using the glass "medical capsules" (long tubular containers in which the Bad Batch and Omega all were grown) as essentially powerless submarines to get to the surface (see below). Seeing this in action is so ridiculous that it's brilliant.
And here's where it gets emotional. Omega's capsule gets stuck under some debris and plummets back down, but AZI-3 comes to the rescue, using every last bit of his remaining power to get her out from under the debris. As he says, "I have completed my objective." (see him powered down below) All her brothers are safely at the surface when AZI-3 shorts out. Omega, not about to leave a friend behind, busts through her medical capsule into the surrounding water and heads straight for her droid friend. Everyone's freaking out including the viewer, thinking any number of bad thoughts about potential outcomes of the situation. Hunter says that he's going in after her, but Crosshair raises his blaster and focuses on aiming to...??...shoot a cable at AZI-3 so he can bring both the droid and the girl up to the surface. Much to the surprise of everyone involved. Regardless, of his kind act, Crosshair still sides with the Empire and stays behind as the rest of his brothers escape. Omega can't leave without first thanking Crosshair for saving AZI-3 and he responds with, "Consider us even." Now this follows a conversation in which Hunter says that they can be on different sides and still not be enemies. So I wonder if being even means that there's no more bad blood, or if they're starting from Square 1. This second possibility meaning that Crosshair will hold off unless his brother's commit an act against the Empire. Guess, we'll just have to see if he continues to play a role in Season 2!...
This is where I thought it was the end. It would have honestly been a decent ending for a one season show (I am NOT saying I'm not over the moon about a second season). Basically there was a big finale event, everyone came out the other side, and a decision to part ways was made--a fairly nice and tidy package. But then...we get more and my mind started exploding! We get eyes on a mysterious, forested, Imperial-occupied planet (see below) and discover that this is where Nala Se (the chief Kaminoan scientist) is being taken. The woman who greets her is wearing none other than the same outfit as Dr. Pershing from "The Mandalorian" tv show (see below). What the what?!? And then it all quickly fell into place for me--it's all for Palpatine!!! Dr. Pershing wanted Grogu's midi-chlorians...right?? And the chief Kaminoan cloning scientist is in their employee. They brought on Nala Se to work the problem of what to do when Palpatine dies. And Grogu's midi-chlorians are part of figuring out a way to make the then dead Palpatine's clones viably Force-powerful. Okay, granted, this is all conjecture on my part, but it makes PERFECT SENSE!! They wanted to unfold the story of how Palpatine resurrected instead of giving us the answer as exposition in a movie. They wanted it to be truly cinematic by spreading the story out over multiple media. Now maybe I'm giving Filoni too much credit...but, nah, I don't think I am.
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Trivia:
-The large sea creature that attacks the Batch as they try to escape the crashed main structure through the transparent underwater tube system is called a "Kamino sea creature" according to Wookieepedia. Haha, we'll get it's name eventually.
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If I had to choose one word for this first season, it would be "WOW"! I have continued to be impressed with the directions they have taken this show and the connections they have made with other media. You can tell just how deeply the creators care about the story and that makes it so much better.
I'll leave with an interesting comparison that a friend shared with me today. Alderaan and Hosnian Prime were both loaded down with people when they were destroyed and we didn't bat an eye (until Kaz witnessed the destruction of Hosnian Prime in the "Resistance" tv show, that brought me to my knees). But an abandoned cloning facility gets destroyed and we're boohooing like crazy. It's really not that strange if you think about it though. We spent 7 seasons getting to know the clones that were born here. We spent 7 seasons watching them grow mentally and emotionally into unique individuals. We spent 7 seasons loving these characters and THEIR home is now gone. That is absolutely a well-earned sucker punch.
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