Star Wars: The Bad Batch - Episode Three review

Have you ever wondered why the human soldiers in the Galactic Empire supported the Empire and even went along in the cases when the Imperial Forces did horrible things?

 

“Star Wars: The Bad Batch” answers those questions without treating the regular, everyday human soldiers as villains.

In Episode Three, titled “Replacements,” Hunter, Omega and the Bad Batch are low on supplies and food, forcing them to ration.

They are still getting used to have the kid Omega onboard their ship.

Tech is also building a device to test the effectiveness of their inhibitor chips, making sure that they don’t end up like Crosshair and lose their individualism and free will.

On top of that, their ship is having problems and they need to repair it.

The damages are severe, forcing their ship to be thrown out of hyperspace and crash land on a barren rock moon.

Meanwhile on Kamino, Crosshair is undergoing more procedures to enhance his inhibitor chip by Governor Tarkin and the Kaminoans.

An Imperial Officer named Rampart, who is in charge of the Empire’s chain code initiative, is reporting to Tarkin about the progress of Project War Mantle.

As Rampart explains to Tarkin, Project War Mantle is designed to create elite military soldiers made up of real people (non-Clones) in order to help maintain the Empire’s control of the galaxy.

Crosshair has been assigned to train and lead these squads. 

As the Bad Batch repairs their ship, they discover there are dragon-like creatures on the moon, chasing damage to the ships.

The creatures then steal the capacitor from the ship.

Without the capacitor, Hunter and the others can’t leave the moon.

Hunter takes it upon himself to retrieve the capacitor while the others continue repairing the ship. Begrudgingly, he agrees to let Omega go with him.

After Hunter gets injured, Omega goes by herself to successfully retrieve the capacitor. Thus, she proves her effectiveness and resourcefulness as a member of the Bad Batch team, especially to Hunter. He is impressed by her.

In a touching moment, Wrecker builds Omega her very own room so that she has a place to sleep in. It is another piece that makes her feel like a real person since it’s her first room.

On Kamino, the four conscripted human soldiers in Project War Mantle undergo tests on their abilities. They each have their own reasons for joining the Empire, including more food and steady pay. Their lives have improved more under the empire than they did during the Republic. Some even wonder why they are fighting now that the war is over.

These soldiers show some of the good things that the Empire has done. The Empire has given them more opportunities to improve their lives in positive ways.

Rampart believes the project will help strengthen the Empire through volunteer soldiers. He thinks regular soldiers will be more loyal to the Empire compared to the Clones. 

Tarkin sends the team, led by Crosshair, to Onderon to eliminate Saw Gerrera’s forces, hoping that they will succeed in what the Bad Batch refused to do.

The human team attacks a squad of Gerrera’s troops as they are attempting to board a shuttle and meet up with Gerrera. They successfully take out Gettera’s men, but Crosshair orders them to execute civilians among the group.

One of the soldiers refuses to follow Crosshair’s orders because the enemies were eliminated and these are civilians.

As a result, Crosshair shoots and kills the human man, coldly stating that “good soldiers follow orders.” The other three are then forced to execute the civilians, knowing they will be killed if they don’t comply.

This situation proves how Crosshair and the Clones with inhibitor chops have no morals and will blindly follow orders, even against non-combatants.

It also shows why Imperial Stormtroopers would follow orders, no matter how terrible. They knew that if they disobeyed orders or stepped out of line, they could be executed or face imprisoned for their actions.

Tarkin is pleased with the mission and promotes Rampart to admiral. He leaves Rampart in charge of the project so that when the time comes, their human troopers will replace the Clones as the Empire’s main military force.

Until then, the Empire will still use the Clone troopers.

The Kaminoans fear that if Rampart is successful, conscripted soldiers will make the Clones obsolete, especially since conscripted soldiers will cost less money than producing more clones. This will cut off the Kaminoans’ profits from the Empire, especially since their supplies of Jango Fett’s DNA used to make the Clones are degrading. As a result, they conspire against the Empire in order to create a superior clone from the members of the Bad Batch.