This article contains spoilers from theStar Wars: The Bad Batchseason 2 finale.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch’s main characters have established a reputation for beating the odds, but the season 2 finale was a harsh reminder that the odds won’t always be in their favor. On Wednesday, Disney Plus premiered the finale in two parts. Season 2, episode 15, “The Summit” opens with the crew debating whether to respond to a distress call from Crosshair (Dee Bradley Baker). Hunter is afraid it might be a trap, but is ultimately swayed by his desire to rescue his brother. Plus, as Echo points out, completing the mission would give them a chance to track Dr. Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) from his location on Eriadu. This would be a great chance to learn more about the experiments he’s been running on disappearing clone troopers as part of the Advanced Science Division.
The crew makes their way to Raven’s Peak and infiltrates the base undetected. All goes relatively well until an expected run-in with the infamous Saw Gerrera (Andrew Kishino) in which he reveals his own plans to use detonators to completely destroy the base. This sets off a series of events that ultimately ends with the Bad Batch squaring off against stormtroopers in rail cars suspended above the planet’s surface. What follows in this mad dash toward safety still has fans reeling in shock.
RELATED:Star Wars: The Bad Batch Has ‘More Wiggle Room’ With Canon Than Other Shows
Season 2, episode 16, “Plan 99,” starts off simply enough. In fact, the way it begins isn’t unlike the hijinks-forward season 2 premiere. The crew has a plan involving stealth, and then it goes terribly awry. But this episode feels different, heavier. It’s like the show is trying to tell viewers something awful is about to happen, and they don’t realize it until Tech is hanging by a literal thread. After he makes his way out of the rail car to restore power, he’s heading back when an aerial bombardment knocks the back car off its rail and causes Tech to fall off the track.
Wrecker and Omega try to make their way to him, but their shifting weight compromises the stability of the entire rail car. Seeing no other way out, Tech enacts Plan 99 and sacrifices himself to give the others a chance for survival. It’s a pivotal moment in which Wrecker and Omega experience for the first time what it’s like to lose someone they love to the hands of death. Tech falls, and the rail car latches back onto the track and then speeds off to its final destination.
Like the season finale itself, the heartbreak of Tech’s death is split in two. Implicit in his use of Plan 99 to give the crew a chance of getting away is the idea that they had to sit down and create it in the first place. Who decided it was necessary? Was there a specific event that prompted its creation? Possibly, Tech just came to a logical conclusion considering the number of life-threatening situations they’d found themselves in over the years.
Even more tragic is the name itself: Plan 99. The Bad Batch was originally known as Clone Force 99 inhonor of veteran clone trooper 99, who gave his life protecting his brothers even after his own had been declared defective. It was a fitting callback, and one that left fans with many a misty eye over its importance. Like 99, Tech sacrificed himself for the people he loved and gave them a chance of survival they wouldn’t otherwise have had.
While Tech’s untimely death is a hard pill to swallow,The Bad Batchmight have been subtly alluding to it this whole season. He was receiving a lot more screen time, more plot lines centering his development, and even seemed on the cusp of receiving a love interest in the swashbuckling Phee (Wanda Sykes). Viewers familiar with storytelling techniques might have recognized that a sidelined character only receives that kind of sudden spotlight if they’re going to break bad or their time is up. Unfortunately for Tech, this was merely a countdown to his final moment.
Fortunately for his fans, though, they got to spend quality time with their awkward fave – whether he was standing pleasantly shocked in front of a crowd of cheering race fans, or haltingly explaining to Omega that just because he expresses himself differently doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel as deeply as she does. Some viewers have accused Tech of being a one-note character. He’s also been the go-to example of theshow’s whitewashing of clone troopersaside from Crosshair. Regardless, Tech has made an impact, and it will be interesting to see how the show goes on without him.
From its conception,The Bad Batchhas stuck pretty closely to its formulaic way of telling the story of Clone Force 99. Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Echo, and Omega have gotten into a wide array of dangerous situations in an episodic journey and come out (mostly) unscathed. Even when they’ve come into contact with those affected by the Galactic Empire, they’ve been able to remain untouched by its darker aspects. It’s with this reassurance that most fans went into the season 2 finale, and they clung to it even as Tech’s tragic end became more and more inevitable.
While the show has mostly been upbeat, season 2 hasn’t been afraid to finally have Clone Force 99 personally impacted by the darkness taking hold of the entire galaxy. Fans and critics ofStar Wars: The Bad Batchalike expected them to once again emerge victorious. They expected the story to do what it’s done up until this point, and make a way for them in an impossible situation. That was their implicit order to Clone Force 99. Like Tech said to Wrecker, though, “When have we ever followed orders?”
MORE:Star Wars: The Bad BatchMakes a New Clone Video Game a Necessity
