Star Wars: The Bad Batch “Aftermath” Review

Season 1 Episode 1 “The clones of The Bad Batch find themselves in a changing galaxy after The Clone Wars.”

What I Liked?

1. The episode begins with a battle in the Outer rim. We see some Clones pinned down with Jedi Master Depa Billaba, they are waiting for her Padawan to return with some reinforcements to help win this battle, her Padawan comes running in, and it’s no other than Caleb Dume, a young Kanan Jarrus, he brings in The Bad Batch who quickly turn the tide in the battle with Wrecker taking out four tanks. This is when we get to see the story of Kanan Jarrus play out in animation form, where the Clones turn on him and his master, slightly changed from the comics.

2. The Bad Batch see the “regs” executing Order 66, while they are shocked to see what is happening, Kanan Jarrus tries to escape, Hunter tells Echo and Tech to go speak to the reg about what is going on, he tells Wrecker to stop anyone from following while he and Crosshair go and search for Kanan, while Hunter is trying to speak to Kanan, Crosshair is trying to kill him because he has an inhibitor chip in his brain. Hunter tells Crosshair he’s killed Kanan even though he let him get away.

3. I absolutely loved seeing more stuff involving the Republic Army being transformed into the Galactic Empire. We get to see stuff that I’ve only read about like Palpatine and Tarkin pushing out the Clone Army for normal people, witnessing this in animation is so great to see.

4. We see The Bad Batch and Omega in the cafeteria when some regs talk smack to The Bad Batch, Omega throws some food off the Clone resulting in a widescale fight between The Bad Batch and the regs. We come to learn that in the Republic Army, The Bad Batch was considered to be “enhanced Clones” while in this newly formed Galactic Empire they are defects. It’s amazing to see just how much this order changed the Clone Army.

5. You can tell from the minute Admiral Tarkin is introduced in this episode that he doesn’t trust Clones or even The Bad Batch at all. He tests them in a battle sim, when The Bad Batch easily makes it through the battle sim, Tarkin switches to “live rounds” which results in Wrecker taking a couple of bullets and eventually the team defeating the droids.

6. While he still doesn’t fully trust them, especially with Crosshair giving a report of Hunter not actually killing Kanan, Tarkin sends the squad on a mission to take out a group of “insurgents”. When The Bad Batch arrives, they find out that there are children in the camp so Hunter Decides to get captured and speak with the leader, Saw Gerrera. He speaks with Hunter about the Galactic Empire being liars and just how much they lied to The Bad Batch.

7. The Bad Batch makes a plan to return to Kamino to rescue Omega because she’s in fact, one of them. When they return they are instantly captured by Tarkin for treason. They get thrown into the brig while Tarkin enhances the inhibitor chip inside of Crosshair.

What I Disliked?

Crosshair, it was shown in the trailer that he potentially turns on The Bad Batch, but actually seeing it happen in the episode was still impactful and it was hurtful that it happened. I am curious to see just how much of a threat he is to the remaining Bad Batch members.

Favorite Moment

The Bad Batch and Omega escape out of the brig, they go to find Crosshair but they go to the hanger to retrieve their gear first, when they get ready, the hanger doors open with Clones entering followed by Crosshair who has indeed turned on the group, he manages to shoot Wrecker and use him as bait, The Bad Batch are slowly making their way to their ship when Crosshair is locked onto Hunter’s head, but Crosshair’s gun is shot by Omega.

Standout Character

I have to give this to Hunter, right from the get-go he was a true leader, didn’t execute Order 66, tried to save Kanan Jarrus, and even turned on the Empire to save Omega as well as knowing that the Clones have turned. He knew the right thing to do.

The Verdict

What a start to the latest animated Star Wars series. This was absolutely beautiful. 70 minutes long and it felt like the perfect amount of time to showcase the beginning of the Galactic Empire. Seeing Tarkin start to push out the Clone Army was amazing and seeing Kanan Jarrus’ origin’s in animated form was incredible. The animation, voiceover, and story were all incredibly done well.

Rating: 10/10

Photo: Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 1 Episode 1