This was a terrific! I really enjoyed all of the Senate stuff here and in the previous episode. Rex, Bail and the other Senator coming back from the Clone Wars was a nice touch of storytelling.
It's amazing to think of how elaborate Palpatine's planning was. He was so far ahead of everyone. Handing out Ls left and right until Luke came of age lol.
This might be a cartoon but it pretty much has shown us the Genocide of Kamino and what the aftermath caused for the rest of the Galaxy.
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season now.
Those were by far the two best episodes of the season and maybe even of the show.
We all knew what the outcome of this story would be, there was no other way. But seeing it now, how it all transpired, was phantastic. Palpatine was ahead of the curve all the time. He always has a contingency plan. I wonder what will happen to Rampart now, because I doubt we've seen the last of him.
Once again Bad Batch is best when it’s not focused on the Batch, and Echo leaving almost seems like an admission of that and defeat that he never really fit in the structure. The Palpatine twist is excellent, from his arrival to the performance. Bad Batch is an occasional anthology galaxy spanning series trapped in a formulaic adventure of the week A Team esque show, but the glimpses of the former make it worth it.
Just like from the very beginning, Emperor Palpatine was several steps ahead. We're finally seeing how the Clones went away, and ushered in the Imperial Stormtrooper.
Even with the way he looks here, you can’t deny that Palpatine has charisma.
Another amazing episode. Loved the senate scenes and especially the Emperor‘s appearance.
So, the Ramart act is realized... through the actions revealing the attack on Kamino. Oh, I love all those plots and plans within plans. There's a reason Palpatine came into power - granted, he might have manipulated minds right and left, but he also had a talent for politics, for knowing his opponents.
Echo's leaving the batch and joining Rex - I hope that means more episodes about Rex's mission to liberate the clones. Honestly, the whole batch should just leave Omega at some safe place and join Rex - she's the only thing that's preventing them from doing that in the first place. Her naivety is annoying.
On a sidenote. Why doesn't Rampart recognize Omega? And why doesn't she even know that Coruscant is the capital of the empire (and the late republic)?
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-02-08T23:27:05Z
[7.7/10] It didn’t hit me until Bail Organa said, “Follow the money,” that this is The Bad Batch’s riff on All the President's Men. Omega and Senator Chuchi are a little different from Woodward and Bernstein, but the sense of them working contacts and interviewing people and enlisting allies to (nigh-literally) find out where the bodies are buried does feel of a piece with the William Goldman-penned classic in its muckraking spirit.
To that end, I like the structure of this one. In order to make her allegations against Rampart stick, Senator Chuchi wants to secure both someone willing to speak out against him and hard evidence that it was him, not a storm, that destroyed Kamino. Omega and Chuchi go after the former by playing diplomatic back channels, and the rest of the Bad Batch + Rex go after the latter, making for a nice divide in the narrative.
Granted, some of this seems foolish. The script puts a fig leaf on how dangerous it is for the Bad Batch to even be in Coruscant, as Rex explains the stakes for all clones that make the risk worth it. But it’s weird to put Omega so close to people like Rampart, let alone the Kaminoan senator from The Clone Wars, who presumably might have something to say about this unique member of the clones.
Still, the political work they do is interesting, and watching Omega learn about the scope of the Senate, the lack of clone representation, and the thorny realm of politics is worth the conceit in my book. I particularly like how following the money leads her to the former Kaminoan senator, who confirms that Rampart’s been diverting funds unlawfully, but requires an earnest and angry plea from Omega about the needs of the clones to be convinced to speak out.
Once again, that's my favorite part of this. It’s shocking to Omega, as it should be, that the clones aren’t represented in the senate, and that some citizens consider them military hardware rather than people. The fight to treat them as human beings worthy of the same rights as anyone is a noble one, and amid all the political theater and backstabbing, I like that there’s a moral cause at the center of this one.
The Bad Batch mission is less heady, but still cool. It’s more a throwback to classic adventures, which I can appreciate as well. The mission to infiltrate Rampart’s venator while it’s being refitted in the Imperial shipyards is a unique setup. Adding in Rex is always welcome. And there’s nice touches here, from Wrecker still having some fear of heights, to the team sneaking aboard by rewiring a droid transport, to Tech launching them out of danger using an escape pod. There’s not nearly as much depth to the “retrieve Clone Trooper Slip’s backup data” mission as to the rest of the episode, but it’s well-done action and excitement, which is worth something too.
The subversion it leads to is great though. Our heroes have won! Halle Burtoni speaks out to the legislative body! They get the backup data to the floor of the senate just in time for Senator Chuchi to reveal footage of Rampart’s ship destroying Kamino and creating quite a stir. Rampart himself gets arrested. The good guys succeed! The day is won!
Only, here comes Palpatine. I gotta admit, it’s a thrill every time Ian McDiarmid shows back up to play the Emperor again. But more than anything, I like how his arrival pulls the rug out from under our heroes. He throws Rampart under the bus. But he also points to the tragedy on Kamino as a sign that the clone troopers are flawed, for their willingness to execute such terrible orders unquestioningly, paving the way for him to pass the stormtrooper bill he’s been masterminding behind the scenes anyway. Yet again, as Rex puts it, he’s several steps ahead of everyone else.
There’s power in that idea, that telling the truth, doing the right thing, doesn’t always work out just because. Bad actors still bend the system and the facts to their own ends. Ironically, there’s the ring of truth to the observation, something that gives our heroes’ actions meaning, even if it doesn’t lead to the outcome they want. (And my new theory is that the endgame for Omega is to make her a Senator and activist who fights for clone rights having learned these lessons throughout the galaxy.)
The only thing left is Echo choosing to go with Rex and help in his efforts to extricate rogue clones from harm’s way. It makes sense from a narrative perspective, since he and Tech occupy similar spaces and it felt like he got the short shrift last season for that reason. More to the point, it explains why he received some long-awaited character development this season, being a bigger part of the action tan he was previously so as to get the juice out of the character before he left. I’m curious about where the ensemble goes from here, and as an exit, Echo choosing to go with Rex to help fight the good fight is well set up based on what we’ve heard and seen from him this year.
All-in-all, another winner of an episode with some big deal moves and surprising developments.