The Bad Batch Season 3 Review – One Last, Long Mission

My time with The Bad Batch has been just as much a “lesson” as it’s been an “experience.” This was a clone troop that was introduced in the last season of The Clone Wars, and apparently, Disney/Lucasfilm liked them enough to give them their own piece of Star Wars history. But as I write this The Bad Batch Season 3 Review, I can’t help but wonder…did they really need that piece of history?

To recap, at the end of Season 2, Clone Force 99 was betrayed by a “friend,” Omega was captured, and Tech died to save the rest of the squad. Now, the squad must try to find its way back to one another so that they can find peace…if that’s even an option for them, given how hard the Empire is hunting all of them.

Going straight to the bad stuff of The Bad Batch, the plot of this season was so basic it kind of hurt it. The first few episodes were about Hunter and Wrecker trying to get to Omega, while Omega and Crosshair had a reluctant team-up that led to them escaping on their own. They found each other, got caught again, and yet another breakout had to happen. I literally just summed up the entire fifteen-episode season in two sentences.

And that’s another problem with this season; it was 15 episodes, and it didn’t need to be. I usually criticize series, especially Disney+ series, for not taking the time to flesh out the plot and characters. But in this case, there was nothing to flesh out! Only one character really had an “arc,” and it was a small one at that. Not to mention, some of the episodes were truly filler and didn’t need to happen for the plot to continue.

The biggest example of that is with episode nine, “The Harbinger.” While I didn’t review it for Outerhaven, my biggest problem with Season 2 was the show’s attempt to connect the series to other Star Wars properties when it didn’t need to. And here, they did it with Asajj Ventress. She was the “big character addition” that we didn’t need. Her appearance was very much a “look, she’s here and a changed person” kind of story and nothing else. They literally wasted an episode on Omega trying to see if she was a Jedi, and then the lesson was, “You should get out of here before someone else finds you.”

Speaking of references that didn’t go anywhere, the “bad thing happening” with the Empire was that our villain Hemlock was working on Project Necromancer. If you know The Mandalorian and the Star Wars sequels, you’ll know this is what brings Palpatine back to life.

The problem? They don’t directly say that! They just reference it endlessly and then it literally gets blown up at the end. So, how did they bring it back? How did they find someone with Omega’s special blood type to ensure he could use the Force again? We don’t know! And we never find out, which just makes it all the more frustrating.

Just as frustrating was that despite having literally seasons and episodes dedicated to showing the “superior ability” of Clone Force 99, they really didn’t do much this season. Omega escaped twice on her own essentially, and in the “final battle,” the squad doesn’t even get into the enemy base until Omega’s caused all sorts of havoc on it!

Then, with Crosshair, his “injury” storyline ended in a weirdly muted way, where he loses his hand and then just uses the other one to make a key shot. That’s it? Really?

Even the show’s ending was muted. We get a flashforward where Omega is off to join the Rebellion because “they need pilots.” That’s literally the only reason we get, and then she’s gone. Is she okay? Did she survive? At what point in the Rebellion did she join? We get none of these answers, and that’s frustrating.

I know my The Bad Batch Season 3 Review has been incredibly negative up to this point, but I do feel the need to point all this stuff out because much of what we see in this final season is pointless, wrapped up too tightly, or we don’t get answers to questions they’re directly showing us.

Were there good parts? Of course, there were! The visual style is still tight, albeit something we’ve all seen before. They did get incredibly clever with some of the battles, including the ones in the final episodes, and many will be happy to see some of their favorite characters one last time.

But to circle back, I go back to the question, “Did The Bad Batch need this piece of Star Wars history?” My answer is…no. We didn’t get much from it, the characters aren’t referenced in future lore, and I’d argue it leaves many plot holes open that other series haven’t or won’t answer, including ones I didn’t mention because it would take even longer to write this review.

In the end, if you like the first two seasons of The Bad Batch, you likely will enjoy this final romp. But if you’re looking for something deep and meaningful to send Clone Force 99 off in a blaze of glory? You’re not getting that.