‘The Bad Batch’ finale is a 2-part (surprise) tear-jerker

The premiere season of the “Star Wars: Clone Wars” spin-off “The Bad Batch” has had all the ups and downs one would expect from an animated series.

There were action-packed episodes that rocked from start to finish and some that felt like filler until we got to the next story beat. We spent 16 weeks with Clone Force 99, battling through the galaxy with Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, Echo and adopted sidekick Omega as they worked to blend into a new cloneless Empire. Their adventures and missions worked to procure necessary funds and evade the ever-looming Crosshair, their former teammate turned baddie who worked with the Imperial forces to track them down.

While their missions took them all across the galaxy, ultimately our story ended where it began: back on Kamino where they were all created. Given everything they dealt with and overcame during this season, I was still very pleasantly surprised how emotional the two-part finale was to watch! Discussing finales is always difficult to avoid spoilers, but I can say it was tense, stressful and pulled on the heart strings.

Where we will go from here is anyone’s guess, but we certainly have a different trajectory than when we started with the execution of Order 66. Clones have been replaced by TK-soldiers, what SW fans will recognize as stormtrooper IDs from the original trilogy. We’re also seeing the rise of new Imperial generals and commanders, which will lead us to characters such as Admiral Thrawn, Grand Moth Tarken and other recognizable baddies. Also, the final scene ties directly into the plot of “Rise of Skywalker,” which was pretty impressive to see a massive plot hole explained!

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