The Bad Batch returns with a darker, deeper second season
The series has now become essential Star Wars storytelling.
There are no fewer than a dozen moments throughout the amazing second season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch that will make viewers immediately think of Revenge of the Sith, the moody and dark finale to George Lucas’ prequel trilogy. While The Bad Batch never gets as heartbreakingly tragic as that film did, it should give you the idea of the type of tone and territory being explored in the season’s 16 episodes. (Press were shown the first 14.) This isn’t quite a depiction of the Empire at the height of their powers, rather the messy, lawless transition from a democracy to a dictatorship.
The group of Clone Force 99 – Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo (all voiced by the brilliant Dee Bradley Baker) and Omega (Michelle Ang) – aren’t as on-the-run in this, erm, batch of episodes as they were throughout the series’ first season. After all, the Empire thinks the group all perished after the destruction of Kamino in the season 1 finale. But we do see the group understand both how quickly the Empire is beginning to rule the galaxy with an iron fist and how other groups looking to take advantage of the situation are wielding their own power over helpless individuals.
The season is split fairly evenly between stand-alone episodes that see the Batch venture to various posts in the galaxy on missions for their employer Cid (Rhea Perlman) or other side adventures and episodes that further the bigger picture of the goings-on in the Empire. This includes peeks into what’s going on in the Senate at this period in the Star Warstimeline, a look at the transition from Clone Troopers to Stormtroopers that we know will eventually happen. And yes, there is major advancement into the overarching plot thread that may or may not stretch into The Mandalorian and possibly beyond. (That’s a discussion for another time and with both series running concurrently throughout the entirety of March, that seems like a good time to pick the conversation back up.)
The writers – led by the brilliant Jennifer Corbett – make sure to give each of the Batch enough character moments, no easy feat in a series with basically five lead characters. Omega of course is front and center and grows in both in her capabilities in battle and her overall role in the group. Most exciting to me was two underserved characters in season 1 get some of the spotlight in season 2. We learn a little bit more on what makes the analytical and practical Tech tick and we see Echo struggle with his loyalties to his own group and to his Clone brethren across the galaxy. His journey is one of the most fascinating and rewarding of the season.
If you’ve seen the trailer, you know that a few familiar faces from Star Wars past show up as well. Commander Cody returns for season’s third episode. Wookiee padawan Gungi has survived Order 66 and joins the crew for an episode as well. And (extreme Mon Mothma voice), most important of all, we’ve learned the Emperor himself will appear too. It never gets old hearing Ian McDiarmid chew scenery as the ultimate villain. Despite these cameos, the season is squarely focused on the Bad Batch themselves.
That includes Crosshair, the villain of season 1 and former 99’er-turned lackey for the Empire. He isn’t a large part of the first half of the season, but his importance grows as the season moves along. He even gets his own showcase episode – “The Outpost” – which may be one of the single best episodes of Star Wars television produced to date.
The animation for the season is a major step forward for Lucasfilm Animation. Beginning with The Clone Wars, each season and series that followed has perfected the medium more and more and we have reached the peak with season 2 of The Bad Batch. Some establishing shots could easily be part of a live-action production and the battles and set pieces feel grander and weightier than ever before. Dave Filoni gets a lot of the credit for the incredible work produced by the animation division – and deservedly so. But it’s time to give the rest of the team some shine as well. That starts with Athena Yvette Portillo who started on Clone Wars and is now the Vice President of Animation Production at Lucasfilm. Two others that need a major tip of the hat are animation director Keith Kellogg and cinematography, lighting and VFX director Joel Aaron. These three have been producing and creating some of the most important Star Wars stories for 15 years. Their work is unparalleled. That also goes for Kevin Kiner, a man who has written more Star Wars music than even the great John Williams and does his best work in this season. There is a music cue at the end of the season’s third episode that sent a shiver up my spine.
Even more so than season 1, The Bad Batch feel like essential Star Wars storytelling. This series is filling in major gaps in the franchise’s overall narrative and telling stories in a time period that has largely gone unexplored. But more than that, it has given us a group of compelling characters to structure these stories around. Bring on season 3.