Star Wars: The Bad Batch has been taking viewers on side adventures rather than focusing on the clones versus Rampart and the Empire, but finally this week we were treated to a main storyline episode.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 episode 7.
A Plot Against Rampart
The Bad Batch season two episode 7 starts off with two clones at a bar, discussing the orders they followed to destroy Kamino and wondering why everyone is believing Rampart’s lies. They are starting to second guess about their decision to stay with the Empire after Order 66, and it shows. One of the clones tells the other, who is named Slip, that he has sent a message to Rampart giving him the chance to come clean about the cover-up with the Senate, before he does it himself.
Outside the bar, Kade tries to convince Slip to help him out. He says they aren’t bad men, but what they did was wrong. Before he can go on, however, he is killed by an offscreen shot that viewers might suspect is Crosshair because we know him to be one of the best shots in the galaxy. However it seems to be someone else. Slip gets away and it is uncertain if he will stand against Rampart and the Empire or not.
A Split Senate
Back at the Senate, Admiral Rampart is proposing the Defense Recruitment Bill which will keep the Empire safe. They can no longer produce clones after Kamino was destroyed. The Senators are discussing and debating the Bill. It seems that it has been brought up many times, but continues to be tabled for another day, since there are many other pressing issues in the galaxy.
Senator Pamlo puts her foot down about this, even stating that the war is over and a costly military move like this is unnecessary. Others claim that the mid and outer rims are rife with insurgence and they need to be protected.
Fans will be thrilled to see Senator Organa come on screen, a fan favorite, and add in his two cents. He is not in favor of the Bill, and wishes to know what the Emperor thinks about the Bill, and ponders why he has not shown up to meetings recently. The Senate is told that the Emperor trusts their judgment.
It is being discussed that the clones will be discharged and dismissed, with a new army being created. The Senate is very split on things, but Admiral Rampart assures them that they plan to help the clones as they are phased out. In the end, the Bill is once again tabled for a later discussion.
Clones Coming To Terms With The Truth
Senator Riyo Chuchi meets with the clones, at that very same bar from the first scene, to discuss their needs. She explains that they will eventually be let go and so she wants to work on a pension plan to help set them up for better lives. They say that they would rather be out fighting the insurgence, but she points out that eventually, sooner than later, they will be too old to fight. And what then?
Slip meets up with her on the streets and tells her that Admiral Rampart is lying and cannot be trusted. He admits that Kamino was not destroyed by a storm, but that it was an attack that Rampart ordered. Chuchi doesn’t seem to believe him and asks why he would claim that, and Slip tells her that he was there. He says that anyone who was there on Kamino has ended up dead. He tells her his call numbers so that she can look up his records and says that she seems like one of the good ones.
When she next sees the Admiral, she asks him how he survived the storm, to which he replies he was at a training exercise offworld and if he had been on Kamino, more lives might have been saved. She pretends to believe him, stating that it was ‘a beyond tragic loss,' but it is clear to both viewers and Rampart that she has her doubts. This can’t be good for her.
A Secure Communication
After leaving Rampart’s office, Senator Chuchi is told she has a secure communication and is then met by Senator Organa. He tells her that in standing up for what is right, she caused quite a stir at the Senate meeting. She confesses she expected more pushback from Rampart, but that in her recent meeting with him he conceded to many of her requests for the clones.
She tells him that a clone disclosed to her that Rampart is covering up an attack on Kamino by claiming it was a storm. Her men are out looking for the clone, but so are Rampart’s. She finds him first and tries to convince him to speak to the Senate, promising that she can protect him.
Of course he saw Kade shot and killed right in front of him, so he is not too keen on believing that. She wants Rampart to be held accountable, especially since more than just the cloning facilities were wiped out, whole towns of innocent people were as well. She wants justice for them and is hopeful that Slip does too. He explains to her that she doesn’t need him. The evidence they need is on Rampart’s ship, and he saved a backup to the central system.
Captain Rex Is Back
But before he can finish his sentence, he is shot. Senator Chuchi’s guard goes shot for shot with the assassin while helping her escape. They end up running through a building and when she is nearly killed, fan favorite Captain Rex shows up and saves her. Slip had called him to help him get away from the Empire, however he is now dead along with Chuchi’s guards. She explains to him what was going on, and that she knows the real events of Kamino.
They open the assassin’s helmet after he's knocked out by Rex’s blast, and see that he is a clone. Rex says that he isn’t a trooper and they need to question him someplace hidden. He brings the man to a garage that his friends, who are gone for a while, own and starts to question him. He refuses to answer anything. He then tells Rex that he is a believer and that Rex is fighting the wrong battle, before killing himself.
Overall Thoughts
Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2 episode 7 might not even feature Clone Force 99, but it tells a very important part of the main storyline. Rampart is having to continue to fight to keep the fact that he lied hidden. Thanks to appearances by both Senator Organa and Captain Rex, fans will be over the moon, thrilled with what this episode delivers.
It is crazy to think that the best episodes so far this season have not even given us any of the Bad Batch members, but that seems to be how it is working out. With the next episode sure to be a continuation of this cliffhanger, we hope that Rex meets up with everyone's favorite defective clones to discuss these events, and what they should do next.
Rating: 9/10 SPECS
Star Wars: The Bad Batch drops new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
Tessa Smith owns MamasGeeky.com and is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic and a huge geek. Tessa has been in the Entertainment writing business for almost ten years and is a member of several Critics associations including the Critics Choice Association and the Greater Western New York Film Critics Association. She grew up watching movies, playing video games, and reading comic books -- and still loves all of those things. She proudly lets her geek flag fly and spreads the word that there is nothing wrong with being a geek.