Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Truth and Consequences
February 8, 2023 4:28 AM - Season 2, Episode 8 - Subscribe

The Batch must use stealth to survive a risky mission.
posted by EndsOfInvention (15 comments total)
 
Why two episodes this week? Another one of the Emperor's sinister plots? Disney worried we needed to actually see the titular Batch?

That's Trace & Rafa's warehouse that Rex is using right?

Excellent Xanatos Gambit by the Emperor, either Rampart's plan works and the senate vote for a new army because Kamino was destroyed in a "natural disaster", or the plan is revealed and he blames the clones for being too obedient, meaning they need to be replaced.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:54 AM on February 8, 2023 [4 favorites]


Ian McDiarmid in all his creepy glory! I love how much fun he's plainly having with the character.

I'm genuinely suprised not to see Crosshair. He's the least likeable of the group and yet the most compelling. And speaking of the group...

Oh Echo, I have a bad feeling about this. But it's good to see the 501st bois together again. Fives would have loved this.
posted by orrnyereg at 5:58 AM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


Ian McDiarmid in all his creepy glory!

Oh that was him! For some reason I thought someone else did Palpatine's voice in the animated shows and I was like damn, this person has nailed the Emperor voice!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:40 AM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


I'm genuinely suprised not to see Crosshair.
Likewise! Like, wasn't the last time we saw him he was being sent to do Stuff on Coruscant?
Truly weird to me that he wasn't the assassin.
posted by coriolisdave at 1:23 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


Yeah, that garage seemed really familiar to me as well.

Not sure why the assassin wasn't Crosshair either, other than they needed only a temporary villain to thwart Rex and Chuchi, saving Crosshair for a possible redemption arc later in the series.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 11:23 PM on February 8, 2023 [2 favorites]


It does seem like they used a clone for a reason - they could have had some anonymous goon or bounty hunter, but they made a choice to use a clone when the whole plot was about disposing of the clones. Maybe to make a point that not all clones are rebellious?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 5:27 AM on February 9, 2023 [3 favorites]


There's speculation that the Kaminoan scientist (last seen in the Season 1 finale) is making more clones with even faster age acceleration. "Believer" could be one of those clones.
posted by orrnyereg at 6:31 AM on February 9, 2023 [1 favorite]


That's Trace & Rafa's warehouse that Rex is using right?

That was my guess.

And, yes, excellent Xanatos Gambit. Although TCW and its successor series did (and are doing) sterling work in redeeming the prequel trilogy, Palpatine's umpteenth-dimensional chess playing was the part that required no redemption, and this is a handy reminder. Almost makes you sorry for Admiral Milquetoast. (Almost.) And, since Palps is on the season poster, I think that he might recur in this season; maybe he'll be using Crosshair for part of that.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:02 AM on February 9, 2023


It does seem like they used a clone for a reason - they could have had some anonymous goon or bounty hunter, but they made a choice to use a clone when the whole plot was about disposing of the clones. Maybe to make a point that not all clones are rebellious?


One bit of speculation is that he's a proto-Dark Trooper (as later seen in Mando)
posted by coriolisdave at 7:29 PM on February 9, 2023 [2 favorites]


Ian McDiarmid just always brings that volume turned to 12 energy to his roles, regardless of the where or what or when. Even though I ended up really not liking Palpatine's presence in Rise of Skywalker, you can't help but love his scenes in it. Hee.

I continued to enjoy the lack of the Bad Batch in this episode, and even when they did come into the picture, they remained mostly just doing business. Not to mention, to a lesser degree, they tend to pale in comparison to Captain Rex.

The unknown clone assassin is definitely destined to play a role, or rather, more like him. The idea that he may be part of a Dark Trooper initiative is a tantalizing theory. For some reason, I had to turn on the captions to understand him saying "Believer," to Rex in the prior episode. It at least points to a new batch of Clones programmed to believe in the Empire above everything else, versus the Republic. The clones turned on the Jedi because they were programmed to see them as enemies of the Republic, so it makes sense that the danger of the Clones going forward is that they start to feel the same (by their own thought progression) of the Empire.

Is this the last of Admiral Rampart? It would be a sudden and surprising end to his role in the series, so I'm curious if he won't show up later, but now in a more secret role elsewhere. Then again, if anything, Palpatine loves to tie up loose ends and Rampart's knowledge of what happened at Kamino is definitely a loose end. Palpatine's appearance at the end was beautifully animated and written. I was half expecting the Senate to erupt in democracy ending cheer a second time.

Something that was rather baffling was the lack of reaction by Senator Halle Burtoni to Omega's declaration that she was a clone from Kamino. Was it typical for other Kaminoans just making their own clones left and right beyond the knowledge of clones in leadership. Given Omega's age, I think she would have been in existence prior to the senator's fall from grace. Even if Omega was a top secret from the senator, that alone, you think would have left some kind of reaction or comment. Instead it's just a "shrug" type thing.

Echo leaving the team was also interesting. It was telegraphed earlier in the season (just like Tech's ability to fly the escape pod - see? No filler!), but then, Echo was always a late joiner to the team so to speak. He wasn't part of the original core. Does his absence open a spot for Crosshair to fill? Or does it signal a possible dissolution of the team as a whole? The latter doesn't seem as likely because Wrecker, Tech, and Hunter, haven't really voiced a concern about what they're doing other than opposing Echo.

This episode did emphasize that there were continuing insurgencies happening throughout the Empire in the wake of the Clone War. These are the seeds of the rebellion, but we're still about 15 years until the state of things in Andor and Rebels. It's hard to see the Bad Batch "joining" the rebellion at this stage because there isn't really a rebellion, so much as assisting and saving folks from the Empire as it finishes closing its iron grip on the galaxy.

The show definitely is definitely going to come to a head at the end of the season with something resolving the Clone Army. We've seen Cody go AWOL, the existence of the Clone Army being pretty much doomed at this point, and at least from Rampart's perspective, they are not something the Empire cares to worry about after their decommissioning. We know the galaxy is not crawling with ex-clone troopers by the time of the rebellion, so they have to go somewhere, or die trying. (FWIW, outside of the clones that pop up in Rebels, I think the only allusion to them in the Imperial area is a shot of an unhoused Clone in Kenobi or Andor (I can't remember which at the moment).



As I noted in the previous episode post, the episode guides are back! Here's the info for this episode:

-Disgraced Senator Halle Burtoni (Say it outloud for full effect) returns after being dismissed from the Senate in Season Two of the Clone Wars.

-Emperor Palpatine makes his first appearance in the show, and as noted above, continues to be voiced by the most excellent Ian McDiarmid.

-This was the first time "stormtrooper" is mentioned in the show.

(And as noted last time, this is the garage belonging to the Martez sisters.)
posted by Atreides at 7:56 AM on February 10, 2023 [1 favorite]


It's funny, I love Ian Abercrombie and Tim Curry's distinctive yet on-point renditions of Palpatine…but there's no mistaking McDiarmid and, as this ep very much demonstrates, no topping him.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 8:44 AM on February 12, 2023 [2 favorites]


but there's no ... topping (McDiarmid )

Aww I dunno, this image is pretty suggestive that he's a power bottom
posted by coriolisdave at 5:29 PM on February 12, 2023


Something that was rather baffling was the lack of reaction by Senator Halle Burtoni to Omega's declaration that she was a clone from Kamino.

In addition to being expert cloners, I reckon the Kaminoans are gifted poker players. The Senator could be filing that little tidbit away for future use to her advantage. (As an aside, I wish the BBs would integrate proper respect for operational security into Omega's training. Loose lips, kiddo.)

With all the talk of what "path" the group is going to take, in both last season and this, I wonder whether these are oblique references to The Path we saw in Kenobi? They just rescued a lost Jedi after all.
posted by orrnyereg at 12:54 PM on February 13, 2023 [1 favorite]


A More Civilised Age recently did a special RPG podcast episode where they play Andor-era rebels trying to contact a colony of surviving clonetroopers and it is killing me that they (probably) won't get to watching Bad Batch for a long time yet.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:44 AM on February 14, 2023 [3 favorites]


With all the talk of what "path" the group is going to take, in both last season and this, I wonder whether these are oblique references to The Path we saw in Kenobi? They just rescued a lost Jedi after all.

Huuuuuuh. I like that.
posted by Atreides at 10:40 AM on February 14, 2023


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