The Bad Batch: A somewhat sort of recap of Season 1

With season two of The Bad Batch right around the corner, I thought it would be good to look back on what happened in season one of the animated series. So here’s the basic rundown of what went down in, you know, my own way.

So first the basics, The Bad Batch is about a group of elite clones who premiered in Clone Wars season seven. They’re super special (TM) and have cool armor and archetypal personalities. Hunter is the Rambo leader, Wrecker is the lovable strong one, Tech is the genius nerdy one, Crosshair is the grumpy sniper who likes to start fights, and Echo is their newest member who is a friend of Captain Rex. Echo is a regular clone who actually has a personality and premiered in season one of Clone Wars in the episode “Rookies.” He was thought to be killed during season three, but they discovered he was alive in season seven where the rest of the Batch helped Rex rescue him. Because of Echo’s trauma and now being half cyborg, he decides to go with the Batch instead of staying with the 501st. Most of season one is them developing into actual characters, but only if your name is “Hunter.” Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get into this.

We open with our heroes living their best lives during the Clone Wars because they’re good at pew-pewing droids. They team up with a Jedi padawan Caleb Dume AKA a young Kanan Jarrus from Star Wars Rebels to fight in a battle. Caleb runs up to his master Depa Billaba and is like, “Look at these strange helpful men I found in the forest!”

And Depa is like, “Padawan, they’re clones, but next time remember your stranger danger because they could kill us. Luckily, we can trust our clone friends because surely nothing would EVER happen to the clones ever!”

But then Order 66 kicks off and they shoot Depa dead, and fans of the Kanan comic got real sad at the retconning. Don’t worry everyone! The Kanan comic is just the beginning of Dave Filoni’s changes in the years to come. You better hide now, Ahsoka novel! You’re next!

As Caleb runs away in terror, the Batch all stare in shock like, “WHAT IS HAPPENING!?” All except for Crosshair who shrugs and says, “Yeah, this is fine.”

Hunter and Crosshair head after Caleb, but the whole time Crosshair is like, “Yo Hunter! Good soldiers follow orders and stuff! Am I right!?”

And Hunter is like, “Uhhhhhh, you alright there, bro?”

And Crosshair is like, “Never better, bro! Let’s murder a child! WOOOO!”

Thankfully, Caleb briefly knocks out Crosshair leaving only Hunter to face him. Hunter is like, “Kid, we’re super confused and I have no idea why the Regs (regular clones) killed your master. Come with me and we’ll take you to safety.”

But Caleb is like, “NOPE! See you in Rebels, everybody! Bye!” and hops a waterfall to run away.

Crosshair moseys up after his light head trauma only for Hunter to lie and say he killed Caleb. But Crosshair doesn’t believe him and is all SUSPICIOUS of Hunter. They meet up with the rest of the Batch and head back to Tipoca City on Kamino.

Which is all weird. The clone home is changing quickly as apparently, the Clone Wars are over. The Batch gets called to the clone gym for an assembly where Palpatine comes on a screen and is like, “What’s up, idiots! I’m the Emperor now! Peace out, Republic and Jedi! Time for a Scarif Beach Party!”

The Batch is BIG confused because they were made to serve the Republic. To add to all of this, there’s a small girl following them around. She finally excitedly approaches them and waves, “Hi there! I’m Omega, and I’m here to be your friend and can you take me on all of your adventures because I don’t want to live on Kamino anymore and I have a mysterious past that will certainly NOT be a major plot point of the season wink wink!”

And the Batch, with no knowledge of how to be parents, are like, “Cool. Bye.” and leave her.

They get a breather to try and figure out what the heckin’ heck is going on in this new world. How can clones serve anyone but the Republic? And why are the regs acting all weird? But Crosshair is the only one who is like, “Yeah, I’m down for ALL OF THIS. Oh and Hunter, why didn’t you kill that Jedi kid? Not cool, man.”

They don’t really have time to dwell on all this because freaking Tarkin shows up. He’s all like, “Hello, Clone Plebs! I don’t like all of your individuality but you’re good at your jobs. So I’m going to send you out to stop some bad guys for me to test your loyalties. And it’s most certainly NOT going to be a trap or anything! Nope! No siree! Get on out there and serve your Empire! ‘Kay bye!”

During all of this, Echo is like, “Bros! Remember when I got blown up in Clone Wars and everyone thought I was dead? That Tarkin guy was there. Yeah, don’t trust him. He’s bad news and is a big fan of like genocides and stuff. No fun at parties.”

But they don’t have much of a choice so they head out to stop some so-called bad guys. But it turns out it’s Saw Gerrera and his crew! And the Batch is all like, “Wow! Saw Gerrera! We love you in Rogue One, Andor, Jedi: Fallen Order, and Rebels! But why were we sent to kill you and your group of civilians here?”

And Saw is all like, “Don’t be blind, clones. The Empire is bad news and we’re going to keep fighting them. You in?”

Crosshair is like, “Heck no! Good soldiers follow orders and we’re here to kill you! Hunter! Let’s do the war crime!”

But Hunter is like, “No war crimes!” and ignores Crosshair pouting in the background. They realize there is a spy bot following them around and shoot it down. Turns out that Tarkin did not trust them and apparently just wanted the group to off his enemy in Saw. Tarkin is also aware there are five elite clones that he’s evaluating.

Out of nowhere, Tech is like, “Yeah, it’s us and Omega.” When the entire group stares blankly at him, Tech is like, “Guys! Echo is a reg! Tarkin must think he’s one of us, but he’s not. Therefore, it has to be Omega!”

And Hunter is like, “GASP! I feel my parent mode engaging! We must go back for her!”

Crosshair continues to be grumpy and passive-aggressive and does not like any of this.

Long story short, they return to Kamino to find out that Tarkin wants to arrest them all for not doing war crimes. He sticks them in jail to find that Omega is already there. She apparently got thrown in there for wanting to check out the Bad Batch’s room with her droid buddy AZI. Yes, the same AZI from the Fives arc in season six of Clone Wars. So, I GUESS visiting rooms is BAD now in the Empire so she’s imprisoned in the same cell as the Batch. In the words of Han Solo:

Convenient.

Also, Tarkin liked Crosshair’s enthusiasm for fascism so he takes Crosshair out of the cell for Nala Se, the lead Kamino scientist, to mess with the clone’s head and make him super evil. Put a pin in this point for the season finale.

Long story short, the rest of the Batch and Omega bust out of jail, get to the hangar, and suit up to take their ship and get the heckin’ heck out of there.

BUT OH NO! Crosshair shows up in Imperial armor and is like, “Muahahaha! I’m the leader now, Hunter! Join the Empire, and don’t listen to that little Omega girl! She’s trying to lead you down the path of righteousness! I’m gonna lead you down the path that rocks!”

And Hunter gasps, “You stole that line from The Emperor’s New Groove! A real leader makes up his own cool lines! Peace out, Crosshair!”

There’s a lot of pew pews as Crosshair fights his brothers. The rest of the Batch leave him behind and take Omega with them to start their new adventure as a weird clone family.

From here, it’s about 13 episodes of episodic adventures where the Batch have to learn how to parent Omega and also learn how to clean up their resumes because none of them ever had real jobs. But here are some of the other highlights:

There’s a new baddie in town named Vice Admiral Rampart and he’s put in charge of this thing called Project War-Mantle. Basically, this is phasing out the clones for human stormtroopers. He also kicks off assigning chain codes to all the citizens of the galaxy which is him pretty much going, “If you don’t have a chain code, good luck accessing your bank account or healthcare or traveling to see your grandma on Life Day or having any semblance of basic rights without one!” Also despite Tarkin’s thoughts, Rampart thinks Crosshair has a lot of use and gives the clone his own special team where Crosshair actually gets to go do war crimes. But this team doesn’t like Crosshair because they’re humans and he’s a clone so it’s all passive-aggressive. And Crosshair really wants to find the Batch to capture them, have them join the Empire, and prove he’s the bestest leader. Or maybe just kill them. It’s purposely unclear for this chunk of the season.

Meanwhile, the Batch meets a Trandoshan cantina owner named Cid who deals a lot in the black market. She’s the wise-cracking type that has a big ol’ soft spot for Omega. While she doesn’t initially care about the Batch, she ends up being one of their allies. Since the Batch, again, never held a real job in their life, she provides them with work as mercenaries where they do everything from rescuing a Separatist prime minister to being essentially UPS drivers to deliver a dude’s pet. Pet delivery actually happened twice in season one, so I guess that’s their expertise. Also to note she has two regulars in her bar named Bolo and Ketch. They don’t do much other than provide commentary and judgmental stares, but I love them. Also, Omega is getting trained up into being a full member of the Batch and is the best kid. She also gets a kick-butt energy bow and learns how to use it.

The other big storyline throughout the season is Rex finds the Batch and is like, “Hey guys, you gotta get those inhibitor chips out of your heads before one of you snaps and—Oops, never mind! Wrecker is now the Hulk for an episode.” He helps them remove their chips and is all like, “Guys, you should really join the Rebellion because stuff is really bad in the galaxy.” But Hunter decides to waffle about his choices for 13 episodes while Echo disagrees and wants to do more. Essentially it’s 13 episodes of Echo getting ignored and also being sold off as a droid for an episode which is pretty gross how this was played for a laugh.

Meanwhile, other clones like Gregor from Clone Wars and Rebels along with newcomer #HotHowzer are joining the ranks of clones who are starting to realize that this whole Empire thing is not what it’s cracked up to be. Some are breaking out of their programming or never fell for Order 66 in the first place like Cut Lawquane and aren’t pleased they’re getting replaced by normal humans. Also, Kamino isn’t making clones anymore. They’re shutting everything down and shipping out the leftover clones to unknown locations.

A side note I do want to mention is the Batch has a run-in with both Fennec Shand and Cad Bane. I’m bringing this up mostly because I wouldn’t be surprised if we see some crossover with The Book of Boba Fett somewhere down the line. I’ve written before how Boba Fett showing up at some point in The Bad Batch pretty much feels like a given, even if it’s not in season two. The same goes for Omega showing up in a season of The Book of Boba Fett. So it does need to be noted with two big players in the live-action show making an appearance in this one.

After tumbling about the galaxy for most of the season, everything comes to a head when a mission goes wrong and Hunter gets captured by the Empire. Crosshair shows up and kicks in the door yelling, “WHAT’S UP LOSER! Look who’s in charge now!”

But by this time, Hunter has been on sort of a character arc and is all like, “Regs are cool clones and the Empire is treating them wrong! We gotta stand together and fight back, I guess! I don’t know, man. I waffled around so much for 13 episodes that I guess this is my character development now.”

So Crosshair takes Hunter back to Kamino which is a ghost town now. He knows the rest of the Batch will come for Hunter, so he camps out with his human team who are still very passive-aggressive. One of them is super suspicious of Crosshair’s loyalties, but I cannot remember her name. Look, the show doesn’t give her a real name. If a series doesn’t care, then why should I?

What Crosshair doesn’t suspect is the Batch’s x-factor which is Omega. Since she was raised behind the scenes on Kamino, she knows where all the behind the scenes passages are. They land in Nala Se’s super secret laboratory to find that AZI is totally okay! Woo! And the droid joins their ranks to help them out. The group also finds out that Omega is actually their big sister and was there when the rest of the Batch was made so that’s a thing now.

The Batch sneaks up to the training grounds where Hunter is being held to confront Crosshair. It’s all tense. Kevin Kiner’s music is a bunch of anxious diddles. A tumbleweed rolls through.

And Crosshair murders his human group in one shot! Well, all except for the one very suspicious lady who gets the heckin’ heck out of there.

The Batch is all like, “DUDE! You just killed your team!”

And Crosshair is like, “I sure did! Now join the Empire with me and I’ll be your new leader!”

“NO! YOU JUST KILLED YOUR TEAM! Why would we ever want you to lead us!?” the Batch yell back at him. They then point out that Crosshair doesn’t have control over what he’s doing because of his inhibitor chip. They want to take it out of him.

But Crosshair is like, “Oh that thing? No, I had mine removed a while ago so I’ve been doing this war crime stuff all part of my own free will. I love having the free will to commit atrocities! Hey, do you guys hear the sounds of buildings exploding?”

That’s because the nameless lady on Crosshair’s team—okay, to be fair, I looked it up and her name is ES-02. Don’t act like you remembered it! ES-02 calls Rampart and is like, “So, Crosshair betrayed us and I’m flying out of here.”

And Rampart is like, “Awesome. Let’s make all the Prequel fans cry.” Giving a hearty ‘Muhahaha,’ Rampart makes a clone of all people blow up Tipoca City on Kamino to sink it into the ocean. Kevin Kiner’s music is beautiful. There’s a bunch of big pew pews. The city falls. It’s a big moment.

Which leaves the Batch going, “Kriff, kriff, KRIFF GET OUT OF THE CITY!”

Thanks to Omega, they get back through the secret underwater tunnels and briefly fight a giant turtle thing. Back in the lab, everyone is pretty pissed at Crosshair. Even Omega, who had a ton of sympathy for him in episode one, is like, “You disappoint your big sister.”

Which Crosshair is like, “Kid, I’ve literally known you in total for like two hours. I don’t care—Wait, big sister!?”

No one has time for feelings though! They gotta get out of the underwater building in the ocean. They come with a bonkers crazy plan that only they would come up with and ride some glass tube-like pods to the surface thanks to AZI guiding them… almost dying in the process and giving me Fives arc PTSD from Clone Wars all over again. There’s a tense moment where it looks like Crosshair might kill Omega, but he ends up saving both her and AZI.

They get back to the free parking platform where they left their ship and stare at the smoldering remains of their home. The Batch also offers Crosshair one last chance to come with them and leave the Empire. Surprisingly, Crosshair picks the Empire, not the Batch.

And Hunter is like, “The Empire?”

“Yep!” Crosshair confirms.

“The Empire that’s enslaving and brainwashing our clone brothers?”

“Yes.”

“The Empire that literally just left you for dead? You still want to fight with them?”

Crosshair bursts out, “Look, man! Your character arc is flimsy at best! Let me be somewhat of an antagonist for season two or else we don’t have the narrative internal lens of what the bad guys are doing! Who else is going to be there to meet Commander Cody, HUH!? Let me have this, Hunter! UGH! This is why you’re the WORST!”

And the Batch is like, “Okay, welp. Bye!” and they leave Crosshair behind. And Crosshair probably has a good cry over his life choices.

Which is where season one of The Bad Batch ends. Season two looks to be building on many of the noted storylines, so we’ll have to see where it goes. The show is back on January 4th, 2023 on Disney+ so check it out!