The Bad Batch’s ship is stolen…

We’re back with the clones for these two episodes but the impact of the last episode is here, loud and clear. Without spoiling that, it means that for the clones their relationships are being reordered and rethought.

What’s perhaps most powerful in this pair of linked episodes is an exploration of neuro-divergence that takes place in a series of exchanges between Omega and Tech.

Tech could be seen as a stereotypical closed in nerd and, certainly at the point of his introduction in The Clone Wars, this was exactly how he presented. Over the course of The Bad Batch all the clones have been fleshed out but Tech has received some of the most careful and tender writing.

Here he gets to explain exactly how he processes emotion, how he knows he’s different but that he’s also certain he doesn’t feel any less intensely than someone like Omega for whom emotions are worn on her sleeve.

It’s a lovely corrective to the idea that there’s one right way of processing emotion or, indeed, of expressing it in different situations. Must we always cry at death and loss? Must we always share in the same feelings to show we understand one another?

Tech has the words to gently remind us that we all navigate the world differently and that is OK. He also, because he’s an adult and Omega is a child, is shown as being mature enough to help someone else understand this when it is his difference they should be trying to understand but can’t because of the intensity of their own feelings.

As a piece of representation both of neuro-divergence and also what it means to be in community and accepting of one another it’s fantastic writing and appears completely naturally within the context of the story.

From these small moments something powerful comes because the clones are faced with seeking help from a community of children, like Omega, but who suffer under the violent, abusive rule of a Fagin-like character.

In many ways the ending is never in doubt but the delivery is excellent and surprising.

The Bad Batch is focused on the impact of oppression and particularly the rise and triumph of fascism. Yet within this lens it does not forget how the actions of ordinary people can mitigate that suffering and also offer hope for fascism’s eventual and inevitable decline – a point Tech remarks upon at the end of the two-episode arc. It is a wonderful counterpoint to the episodes dealing with the end of the clone army, focusing on how everyone can make a difference even if few of us are positioned to engage with the momentous stuff.

Verdict: From our point of view we know the Empire falls but we also know there’s many years and much suffering to come and this long arc of hope is tinged with such sadness.

The Bad Batch is doing a fantastic job of tapping into those feelings.

Rating? 9 plates of food out of 10.

Stewart Hotston