The sense of brotherhood prevalent among the Clones often contributes to some of the most poignant storylines in the universe of Star Wars, and the animated series Bad Batch was a prime examples. After three memorable seasons, the series finally came to an end with the final episode of the third season, and the emotional connection established with the eponymous team of Clones was done justice to in a befitting way.
Previously, held captive with other Force-sensitive children at the Imperial base of Mount Tantiss, Omega had discovered a way to escape from the vault through pneumatic shafts and was able to find a way to distract the security after locating a captive Zillo Beast inside the base. Evading capture, the Batch somehow make their way to the jungle of Tantiss, and Omega rightly guesses at their arrival. On the other hand, Echo managed to infiltrate the base and met Dr. Emerie Karr, who recognizes him from Omega’s account and wishes to help him rescue her. Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair manage to navigate their way through the jungle despite Hemlock anticipating their movement, and the former Imperial Vice Admiral Rampart gets captured. The action-packed series finale concludes the epic journey of the renegade enhanced Clones in an expected fashion, and staying true to the essence of the franchise itself, makes way for a new, hopeful future.
Spoilers Ahead
Did Omega manage to rescue the captive children?
As the episode begins, the Clone brothers, Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair, are seen heading towards the Imperial base through the jungle, and their previous altercation with the Dryax has left Wrecker a bit injured. With rescuing Omega being their utmost priority, the trio has to continue moving forward nonetheless.
The scene shifts to the Imperial base, where Hemlock meets a captive Rampart, and during their conversation, he gloats about Omega’s importance to the Emperor himself as a vital part of Project Necromancer, which has apparently made him indispensable to the Empire. Dr. Emerie Karr offers to take Echo to the vault as she finally renounces the Empire and seeks to make amends for her mistakes. On the other hand, realizing that now with her Clone brothers on Tantiss, it’s the perfect time to break free, she decides to initiate her escape plan, and with the help of the rest of the captive children, she easily takes care of two guards in the vault: a droid and the irritable Dr. Scalder. Reaching the lower part of the base, Omega manages to distract the stormtroopers by freeing the Zillo Beast, which causes significant havoc in the base, to draw the attention of the majority of the security. Fans who enjoyed “Clone Wars” will surely feel much satisfaction seeing the revenge of the Zillo Beast, as this version of the creature is the clone of the original last survivor of the same species who was killed by Imperial forces. Assisted by Emerie, Echo enters the vault in his Stormtrooper disguise, but they are surprised when they are notified by Hemlock about Omega’s escape. Learning about the Zillo Beast’s escape as well, Echo predicts it to be Omega’s handiwork and asks Emerie to take him to the point from where the Zillo Beast has escaped. Using the escape window provided by the Zillo Beast, Omega takes the captive children with her to escape from the base.
Did Omega Finally Reunite With Her Brothers?
With Tarkin breathing down his neck and double jeopardy in the form of Omega’s escape and the Zillo Beast’s rampage, Hemlock resorts to his final option and activates all the brainwashed covert Clone operatives, including the commando, who has been presented as a constant threat to the batch since the sixth episode of this season. Seeing the Zillo Beast’s rampage, the Clone brothers realize that Omega has managed to create a significant distraction, and they need to utilize this chance to maximum effect. Seeing Wrecker injured, Crosshair asks him and Hunter to stay behind, as he wants to infiltrate the base alone. Crosshair’s guilty conscience acts up as he states that Clone Force 99 ended with the death of Tech, and all he needs to do now is make amends for his past sins. However, Hunter and Wrecker protest vehemently, as they emphasize the importance of seeing the journey to its end together, with Wrecker mentioning that Tech knew the stakes involved, as they do now.
However, the Covert Clone operatives present a formidable challenge as they engage in a brutal battle with them and manage to incapacitate and capture all three of them. Tech notices this on his way to the vantage point, and he informs Omega about the situation as he reunites with Omega. Entrusting the captive children to Emerie and providing coordinates to a safe location, Omega and Tech decide to complete the mission by freeing the captive Clones and the Batch. Emerie provides Omega with her datapad to let her access the holding cells of the Clones, and using it, the duo manages to free the captive Clones, including others like Rampart and Nala Se.
However, unable to find the Batch members, Omega learns of the possibility of them being in Hemlock’s training room. Echo requests help from the Clone brethren for this one last battle, and showing an exemplary instance of Clone brotherhood, the captives agree to assist them in rescuing Hunter and co. Nala Se expresses her happiness after reuniting with Omega, but takes her leave to destroy every single piece of information regarding Project Necromancer, as she doesn’t want any more Kaminoan technology to be abused by the fascist Empire. The opportunist slime Rampart follows her and tries to coerce her to hand over the related information regarding the project, using which he will try to bargain his freedom from the Empire. Unbeknownst to him, Nala Se triggers an explosive, and just as he shoots Nala Se, she detonates the explosive, which kills both of them and also destroys everything related to Project Necromancer. Nala Se’s death was one of the most unexpected and tragic events of this season so far, with the only consolation being that, as Omega’s guardian, she was relieved at her final moments knowing that Omega was in good hands.
Echo leads the charge of the captive Clones to begin an assault on Hemlock’s training room, where Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair are being tortured by the vile scientist, who wishes to turn them into mindless covert operatives as well. Omega sneaks inside but gets eventually captured, but before that, she manages to free her brothers, who launch a devastating attack on the Covert operatives, killing all of them in the process. Hemlock tries to flee from Tantiss and takes Omega along with him in the hopes of saving his skin from the Empire, but Hunter and Crosshair stop him. In the final moment of the climactic battle, Crosshair manages to steady his aim at long last—rescuing Omega and shooting Hemlock to death in the process.
The captive Clones, Echo, Omega, and the members of the Batch successfully escape from Tantiss and reach Pabu, and right at the moment, Imperial forces led by Tarkin arrive at the dilapidated base of Tantiss. With Project Necromancer buried beyond recovery, Tarkin instructs his lackeys to concentrate their efforts on Project Stardust, a fancy name for the creation of Death Star, the iconic planet-obliterating superweapon that the Empire used during the events of “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.”
With the threat of the Empire hunting them down coming to an end with Hemlock’s death, Omega, rebel Clones, captive children, Emerie, and the rest of the team are seen spending their days in Pabu. Hunter mentions searching for the parents of the abducted children, and Echo advises Emerie to join rebel leaders like Senator Chuchi if she is indeed willing to continue the good fight. Omega and the rest of the batch finally have their lives to themselves, which they can utilize in any way they deem fit—now that they have freedom of choice and judgment. As the series ends, viewers see a fast-forward to the future as a grown-up Omega takes her leave from Pabu to join the rebels as a fighter and bids farewell to Batcher and an older Hunter.
With the beloved series coming to a bittersweet end, there is a future possibility teased by the ending, which hints at Omega’s adventures gaining focus in a new series, with many of her close associates making a return. Given how well the animated adaptations of the franchise are received by the fans, Dave Filoni might develop a solo series based on the unique Clone after all.
