First Impressions - Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 (2023)

After a year and a half, Star Wars: The Bad Batch has returned to Disney+ for its second season with its first two episodes. I watched the episodes and here are the things that I have taken from it. Spoilers for the first two episodes of the show. 

The Empire believe that The Bad Batch are dead

It is revealed at the beginning of the show that The Bad Batch has been doing jobs for Cid the last few months as The Empire are not hunting them. They are believed to have been killed on Kamino in the season one finale which has allowed them to live their lives somewhat. It seems like this will allow Clone Force 99 to go about their business away from The Empire for some of the show. 

The Clones are attempting to raid Count Dooku's vault 

A nice surprise and Easter egg is that the mission the crew are sent on leads to The Bad Batch to be sent to Sorreno in order to attempt to steal some of the riches from the now deceased Count Dooku. After watching Tales of The Jedi, it was nice to be reinforced just how bad Dooku becomes in The Clone Wars and how it impacts on the people of his home planet. 

The seeds are being planted for The Bad Batch to start their own Rebellion 

I think this was to be anticipated, but Echo in particular is very keen for The Bad Batch to start helping people. Now I must admit I am a bit sick of all the contradictions for the start of the Rebel Alliance. We have seen in Rebels, Solo, Andor & seemingly now The Bad Batch different rebellions being started and I just think it is a bit overplayed. I get why they are doing it but I am a bit hesitant on it. 

Rampart is looking to take out The Bad Batch

Vice Admiral Rampart is one of the big bads for The Bad Batch and he makes his return at the end of episode 2. He is having a discussion with the head Clone Trooper, when he finds out The Bad Batch is still alive. Due to the Clone's refusal to hide this fact, Rampart kills him. It seems like Rampart is going to get more time to shine and will probably use this information to use Crosshair. It is also interesting to see a clone refusing orders even though he still has his inhibitor chip and will probably lead to some more interesting stories. 

Overall

Overall, this is a solid start to the 2nd season of The Bad Batch. I don't think it is a real improvement on the first season but hopefully it gets better as the season progresses.