The Bad Batch series finale recap: Now THAT was a Star War!
This is it. We’re here—the finale episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. With almost an hour of running time, there’s a lot to get to. Let’s recap everything you might have missed in “The Calvary Has Arrived.”
Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead!
We open with absolutely gorgeous music from Kevin, Sean, and Deana Kiner, scoring the normal title sequences with a far more dire track. The episode opens with the Batch making their way to Mount Tantiss on foot in the jungle. Wrecker is still hurt from fighting off a humongous, vicious creature from the last episode.
Doctor Royce Hemlock goes to speak with the now-captured ex-Vice Admiral Rampart, who is in a cell. The two have a snooty villain contest. Hemlock waxes about his great works and how it’s beyond the understanding of normal people. Rampart is flat out telling him that the Emperor will not like that his super secret base has been found. It ends with Hemlock calling Rampart dispensable. Across the hall, he sees Nala Se in her cell.
Jumping to Emerie and Echo (still disguised as a stormtrooper), she’s getting nervous about him being discovered. Ever the cool-headed one, Echo continues his work, looking for records of the vault Omega is in. When Echo questions why she’s helping, Emerie admits that she was wrong about her work on Tantiss. She’s going to help get Echo into the Vault.
Omega is with the Force sensitive kids in the Vault, ready to enact her plan. They’re nervous about it, but what other choice do they have? While two of the kids distract the medical droid, Omega takes out its power with a tool she swiped and hid in a previous episode. They pull the droid into one of their rooms. But Dr. Scalder, who has become increasingly suspicious about Emerie, Omega, and the kids in the previous episodes, notices the children aren’t in the main area.
She arrives, looking for the other kids. Thankfully, Omega is a fast worker thanks to her training from Tech and Echo. She’s reprogrammed the droid, which sticks Scalder with a sedative and knocks her out instantly. Setting the droid to guard the door, Omega pries the panels off the wall in her room. They begin their climb in the elevator shafts and pipes of the base.
Things are getting worrisome back with the rest of the Batch, as Wrecker is really struggling with his injury. Inside the base, Emerie leads Echo into the Vault, giving her all the intel about how the Empire took the kids in the first place.
Too bad they just missed the kids, though Omega is putting her plan into action. She’s led them to where the Zillo Beast is being held. As the other kids wait in the vents, she sneaks towards the holding cell of the beast. However, Bayrn, the one baby among the Force sensitive kids, begins to cry. Stormtrooper head to check it out. Just as the kids are found, Omega drains the Zillo Beast’s watery cell, and the creature wakes up.
It's kaiju time, and the Zillo Beast rampages!
Emerie and Echo arrive at the Vault, finding it full of clone commandoes and Doctor Hemlock. They discover that Omega and the kids are gone. The room shakes, and Clone Commando Scorch tells the group about the escaped Zillo Beast. Hemlock tells Emerie to find Omega, adding, “Consider your fate now tied to hers.”
Alone, Echo is very proud of Omega because releasing the Zillo Beast is exactly what he would have done. Emerie and Echo go to find Omega and the kids.
The Zillo Beast begins to climb inside its high cell, looking for a way out.
Outside, Crosshair’s tremors are acting up the closer he gets to Tantiss. The more pressing concern is Wrecker, who is not doing good. Crosshair takes charge, giving Hunter and Wrecker the order to find a communication array to contact Rex. Crosshair will infiltrate the base himself. When they try to talk him out of it, he snaps back that “Clone Force 99 died with Tech!” He knows what’s in the mountain. “Omega needs you both. So, I’m doing this alone. It’s… It’s what I deserve.”
Hunter essentially tells him that Crosshair cannot go dying on them. Because Omega needs all of her family. They know the risks, so they’re doing this together.
Just then, they hear distant banging from the mountain as the Zillo Beast bursts out of the side of the base and flees into the jungle! Thanks to Omega's handiwork, they now have a way into the mountain.
Hemlock wants to set a trap for Clone Force 99. He wants to send shuttles after the Zillo Beast, purposely weakening the base's defenses (something that Scorch is not a fan of). This way, when the Batch tries to use that entry, they’ll be where Hemlock wants them.
He goes and activates four new CX clones, who are more droids than men at this point. All also have specialty weapons like shields, swords, etc., making them extra lethal.
As the Batch finally make it to the base, slipping into the side of the mountain where the Zillo escaped, they’re met by the CX clones and a squad of stormtroopers. Crosshair creates a distraction, shooting a thermal detonator and taking out an above bridge to crash on half of the squad. An Imperial shuttle swoops in, firing on the Batch. Hunter gets blown back and pinned under some wreckage. Wrecker hauls him out, but the CX clones are immediately on them.
As one pins down Crosshair, the CX clone cuts off Crosshair’s shooting hand.
With Echo and Emerie, they see the unconscious members of the Batch get rolled past on carts, now captured. Echo decides to prioritize finding the kids first before saving the others. Who they find right away in the science hanger, taking out a few guards in the process.
They get Emerie and the other kids on a shuttle. Echo gives Emerie coordinates, but he and Omega have to go save the rest of their brothers, including all the other clones. Emerie gives Omega her datapad to access all of the facilities. Echo and Omega head off to find the rest of the Batch as Emerie flies the kids to safety.
Hemlock has taken the rest of the Batch to his private cell, where CX clones are made. He’s torturing Hunter in the process. Hemlock brings up that he’s put Crosshair through this before and that they will all make fine operatives.
Hemlock is interrupted by a transmission from Governor Tarkin, forcing the doctor to leave his “work.”
Omega and Echo are not idle, getting into the prison area. They free the clone prisoners as well as Nala Se and Rampart. They arm the clones with the blasters they picked up and could carry along the way. They don’t see the Batch among the prisoners, so they must be in Hemlock’s conditioning room. Rampart wants to leave them behind. Echo says clones don’t leave their brothers behind, giving a rousing speech. Several clones volunteer to help him and Omega save the rest of the Batch. They split their new squad between getting out the injured and going after the team for one more fight.
Not before Nala Se pulls Omega to the side. The Kaminoan cannot let what she knows about cloning fall into the Emperor’s hands again. The only way Omega can be free is if Hemlock is gone and the science databanks are wiped. Nala Se says her goodbyes to Omega, as this is the scientist’s own personal mission to do. Omega gives Nala Se the datapad from Emerie.
However, Rampart is clearly not on board with any of this “save all the clones” stuff, so he chooses to go his own way. He follows Nala Se, taking a blaster of his own from a fallen trooper.
Meanwhile, Tarkin has heard all about the Zillo Beast getting out of Tantiss. Emperor Palpatine is not happy with Hemlock. Tarkin is on his way to Mount Tantiss to see the operation himself.
Back with Omega and Echo, she slips into the vents again to get to the elevator shafts that run all through the mountain. Her goal is to get to where the rest of the Batch is being held so she can relay what’s happening to Echo. That way, they don’t walk into a trap.
Nala Se gets to the science lab, having picked up a detonator along the way. She finds Omega’s file. Just as she prepares to delete it, Rampart appears with a blaster. However, he wants to know what the Emperor is up to in Mount Tantiss. As he’s looking, Nala Se secretly starts the thermal detonator behind her back.
Omega gets to Hemlock’s vault in the vent and has eyes on the rest of the Batch. She asks Echo to give a big enough distraction so she can free the others. Echo and his team burst in there, immediately met by the CX clones… who start decimating Echo’s men.
Omega slips into the main area, where one CX clone is still guarding it. She is able to get one of Wrecker's arm guards off before the CX trooper grabs her. Hemlock arrives and releases gas in the chamber below where Echo and his men are.
Meanwhile, Rampart has copied all of Project Necromancer onto a datapad to use a bargaining chip to get out of there. Nala Se says her work will never belong to him or the Empire ever again. As Hemlock shoots her, she drops the thermal detonator, killing Rampart, his hubris, and destroying all the data about Omega and Project Necromancer.
Fun fact: This is why they’re still working on Project Necromancer in The Mandalorian, because Nala Se's knowledge is now destroyed.
Thanks to his stormtrooper helmet, Echo is safe from the gas. Though, it’s him vs the three other CX clones, as all of his men have passed out. They overwhelm Echo, and he’s also captured. Scorch runs in, telling Hemlock the main lab has been destroyed and it's time for the villain to go.
Just then, Wrecker breaks out of his hold and starts a brawl in the room. Omega frees Hunter and Crosshair, but Hemlock slaps a pair of binders on her. Her hand is in one, and his hand is in the other. Along with Scorch, he drags her from the room.
Wrecker tells Hunter to “Get the kid,” and he tackles the CX trooper out of the upper room, crashing into the floor below where Echo is. As they battle the remaining CX clones, Hunter and Crosshair take off after Omega despite being horrifically injured. The last of the CX clones are down, but so is Wrecker. His injuries are worse, and he’s not doing good at all.
Hemlock drags Omega to a launch area where a shuttle is waiting. The outside location pounds with rain as lightning and thunder crack the sky. Hemlock calls his private shuttle…
Which is immediately shot out of the air thanks to Crosshair. They take out Scorch, so it’s just Hunter and Crosshair versus Hemlock, holding Omega as a human shield. However, Omega knows Hemlock needs her alive. He can’t hurt her.
She pulls out the hidden tool she’s had this whole time. Hunter tells Crosshair to shoot the binders, but he no longer has his shooting hand. Hunter tells him to trust Omega.
Crosshair lines up the shot…
And Omega stabs Hemlock in the leg! Crosshair shoots apart their binders, freeing Omega. Hunter then opens fire on Hemlock, killing the villain once and for all. Omega runs back to her brothers, hugging them both. Now, it’s time to get the others and get out of there. They meet with Echo, Wrecker, and the other clone prisoners to flee Mount Tantiss.
Just in time too, because Tarkin has arrived with three Star Destroyers. They lower over Mount Tantiss and begin their investigation. None of Hemlock’s research was salvageable. Tarkin orders the destruction of the base and shifts the funding to Project Stardust.
Friendly reminder: Project Stardust is the Death Star.
On Pabu, the Force sensitive children and clones are safe as Emerie and Echo watch over them. She says that none of the clones ever had a normal childhood. Their lives have never been their own. Echo smiles and adds, “Until now,” meaning they are free to do what they want.
He’s going to Pantora to help get the clones settled in other places. He says that Senator Riyo Chuchi would love to know what Emerie has to share. Emerie agrees to go meet with Chuchi.
Omega sits with Hunter, and she notes that her and the Force sensitive kids are finally safe with Hemlock gone. Rex and Hunter are working to find the other kids families. They wave goodbye to Echo and see him off. Wrecker and Crosshair, having recovered from their injuries, join them.
Now, the Batch and all the clones they helped are free to do whatever they want and choose their own paths.
Several years later, a figure walks out of the darkness and into the caves of Pabu. A ship is waiting. It’s Omega, clearly older now. Hunter and Batcher are waiting for her in the darkness, along with Gonk. Hunter now had grey in his hair and beard.
Omega wants to join the Rebellion as a pilot. She says that he has fought enough. It’s her turn. Her fight.
They hug, and Omega tells him to look after the rest of the squad while she’s gone. And of course, Batcher too. Along with Gonk and Tech’s goggles on the dash, she powers up her ship and leaves to start her next adventure with Hunter's well wishes behind her.
This is where Star Wars: The Bad Batch comes to a close.