In another double-episode release, The Bad Batch season 3 ventures further into the unknown. With tones darker than any episode we’ve seen before, “Identity Crisis” and “Point of No Return” are Star Wars storytelling at its most painful best.
The rest of this article contains spoilers for episodes 310 and 311 of The Bad Batch.
Across its three seasons, The Bad Batch has made a point of only releasing episodes together when the episodes in question complete each other better together than apart. This is especially true for “Identity Crisis” and “Point of No Return”, though perhaps not in an immediately obvious way.
While “Identity Crisis” follows Dr Emerie Karr’s experiences on Tantiss in the wake of Omega and Crosshair’s escape, “Point of No Return” explores a turning point for the Batch, and for Omega especially. Though they each focus on different aspects of season 3’s storyline, there is a sturdy thread that ties them together: the importance of choices.
The Vault
In episode 309, Asajj Ventress tells the Batch “the Empire is more dangerous than you could possibly fathom.” “Identity Crisis” gives merit to her claims in what is perhaps one of the darkest turns of this series.
This episode leaves the Batch behind completely (a first for this season) to more fully and plainly explain what’s happening in Dr Hemlock’s lab. Most importantly, this episode finally takes us beyond the laser-guarded entrance of the Vault and confirms exactly why Omega is so important to Project Necromancer.
A room we’ve only ever seen Hemlock, Nala Se, and Palpatine venture in and out of, the vault holds the most prized specimens of Project Necromancer. Specimens we now know to be young, Force-sensitive children. Confined to this cold, sterile observation room (not unlike the rooms in Kamino’s Tipoca City), the children have no choice but to consent to daily tests and examinations.
As heart-breaking as their confinement is, the ways in which they wind up in this place are in some respects even worse.
In a sub-plot that focuses on Cad Bane collecting an M-count bounty, we learn how deeply the Empire has already ingrained itself into civilian lives. Bane doesn’t have to work very hard to find his bounty — a Force-sensitive child even younger than those we see already in the Vault — because a civilian gives the child up for a mere handful of credits.
With the Empire demonizing Jedi across the galaxy and encouraging greed over morality, this horrifying betrayal isn’t new to the Star Wars world. Even so, the Empire ripping children from their parents and subjecting them to endless experimentation never gets easier to witness.
This is a lesson Emerie comes to learn well.
That Kind of Power
The focus of “Identity Crisis”, Emerie finds herself at a crossroad of choices. Her new position as chief medical scientist allows her a higher clearance, including access to the vault, the contents of which she previously did not know about. Though we’ve seen Emerie’s internal conflict slowly rise to the surface since her interactions with Crosshair in season 2, this episode is where we finally see that conflict start to take over.
“Why children?” Emerie asks as Hemlock introduces her to the three young Force-sensitives in the vault. “Are there not adults that could serve this purpose?”
Hemlock responds with a chilling “children are easier to attain and more agreeable to the subjugations.
“They’re unaware,” he says as a droid takes the blood of a little girl, “of why they’re here and what they possess.”
As Emerie learns more about the children and even earns the trust of a small Iktotchi girl, Eva, she continues to question everything. And her questions lead her straight to Nala Se.
In a chilling scene between the two scientists, we learn just a bit more about Emerie’s past.
“They’re children, like I was,” Emerie says, a hint of disbelief in her voice. “Was your plan to discard them, too?”
It is here where we see once again the stark similarities between the way the Kaminoans raised the clones, including Emerie, and the way Hemlock and his scientists are experimenting on the Force-sensitive children. It’s a similarity Emerie has finally recognised herself.
But will she do anything about it?
Nala Se asks her as much, as she forces Emerie to reckon with her role in Hemlock’s plans.
“I did what I could,” the Kaminoan says, resigned to the choices she herself has made. “Now they will look to you. What will you do, Emerie?”
The Harbinger’s Wake
For her part, Omega has never been in more danger than she is in “Point of No Return”. With “Identity Crisis” absolutely confirming that Omega’s blood is the key to recreating high M-count levels in genetic material, there is no chance the Empire will let her get away. While this has been the case for most of season 3, what has changed in the interim is Omega’s understanding of how her proximity to those around her can and has put them in danger.
For a young girl who was willing to sacrifice herself for her brothers before she knew just how much the Empire needed her, this is a responsibility that weighs heavy on her shoulders. Now, with this circle of care extending to encompass the entire island on Pabu, that fear is even more tangible.
And, it turns out, for good reason.
We learn that the mysterious CX trooper who fought Crosshair in episode 307 never stopped tracking the Batch. After interrogating the Batch’s former ally-turned-traitor Cid and stealing coordinates from pirate Phee Genoa, the CX trooper arrives on Pabu just as the Batch are planning to leave.
In a poetic parallel that Star Wars is so well known for, he lands his ship in the exact same spot Ventress landed hers. This CX trooper is, in fact, what follows in the harbinger’s wake.
The resulting destruction is made all the more painful after seeing Omega tell her friend Lyana that “Pabu was the first place that ever felt like a home.”
Just as her blood is the key to Project Necromancer’s success, these words are the key to every choice Omega makes from that point forward.
The Bigger Mission
As she watches Imperial soldiers bring all of Pabu to its knees just so they can find her, Omega makes a decision that has been a long time coming.
“Our only choice is to let them catch me,” she tells a distressed Crosshair. “I can’t let the people here suffer because of me.”
This has been the crux of Omega’s character since almost the time we met her. Throughout all of season 1, she worries about the stress she’s putting on her brothers by inserting herself into their lives. In season 2, we see her wonder if she’s keeping the boys from doing what they really want and, in the end, we see her willing to give herself up to Hemlock for just the chance at saving Hunter and Wrecker.
Season 3 has only increased that drive in her. Especially now that she knows there are more clones who need rescued.
When Crosshair questions Omega’s plan to both save Pabu and lead the Batch to Tantiss by sacrificing herself, she turns his words from episode 301 back on him.
“Focus on the bigger mission, Crosshair,” she says, a knowing, mischievous glint in her eye. “I’m just a small part of it.”
Crosshair is still doubtful, likely because Omega has become much more than ‘a small part’ of his own personal mission. But then his little big sister reminds him, “It’s my choice.”
If there’s one thing Crosshair understands more than anything, it’s allowing someone the freedom of making their own choices. Denied his own for so long, he won’t do the same to his sister.
Omega’s active choice to sacrifice herself even for those she doesn’t know stands in stark contrast to Emerie’s own hesitancy to stand up for the children she sees every day. In many ways, this juxtaposition between Omega and Emerie reflects what we’ve seen of their clone trooper brothers throughout this series. From Cody and Crosshair to Howzer and Wolffe, every clone we’ve met has had to make a choice about who they want to be.
What bigger mission do they see? Where will their loyalties lie? What, as Cody says to Crosshair in episode 203, decisions will they have to live with, at the end of it all?
Balance
The careful balance of hope versus despair is something The Bad Batch has always done extraordinarily well. And, despite their overall morose and dark tones, these two episodes are no different.
At the end of “Identity Crisis”, we see that has Emerie held on to Omega’s straw Lula doll and that she gives it to Eva as a means of comforting the little girl. It might be a small gesture, but it’s a consistent one. This is perhaps not what Nala Se meant when she asked Emerie what she would do with her power, but maybe it’s a step. Maybe there is hope for this wayward clone after all.
As with their choices, this is somewhat contrasted on Omega’s side of the story. “Point of No Return” is full of false-hope moments, and Omega’s plan is perhaps the biggest and most important of them all. On the surface, it’s a solid plan with a red herring that should guarantee their success. For all intents and purposes, this should be a plan of hope. The break the Batch needs to find Tantiss and rescue everyone. But when Crosshair fails to land a tracking beacon on the ship carrying Omega, leading to a scene so visually similar to the end of season 2 when Hunter fails to reach Hemlock’s ship in time, despair settles deep. For the sniper and for us.
But this wouldn’t be Star Wars if they left on us on a completely hopeless note.
Hope
The biggest difference between Omega’s kidnapping in the season 2 finale and her sacrifice in “Point of No Return” is that she knows what she is walking into this time. She knows what her bigger mission is. And, based on the shift we see in Emerie in “Identity Crisis”, she might not have to do it alone.
If there’s one thing we should have learned about Omega these past few years, it’s that she isn’t a liability. She’s an asset. She carries in her all the lessons of everyone she has ever met. She carries in her the determination of a girl who refuses to be used. These might be dark times, but Omega has always been a light.
Maybe our challenge now is not to wallow in the darkness, but to sit back and wait for her to shine.
New episodes of The Bad Batch air every Wednesday at 3am (EST) / 12am (PST) on Disney+.
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