This post contains major spoilers for the latest episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch.

With Omega captured by Cad Bane and Crosshair hot on their tail, Hunter and the rest of the Bad Batch have to make a number of difficult choices. The episode, however, follows the story of Omega in Cad Bane’s hands more closely, as well as the internal politics of Kamino, which grow more interesting than we could have realized. We learn that Prime Minister of Kamino, Lama Su, has hired Bane to capture Omega alive and directs Bane to meet on a planet called Bora Vio for the handoff. Bane complies, but runs into Fennec Shand, hired by another mysteriously interested party and the two face off. Both end up losing Omega, and she’s rescued by her found family, the Bad Batch.

Together again, the Batch and Omega jump to hyperspace, finding themselves once again on the run. But their eyes are wide open to the value of Omega.

Alpha and Omega

We learned a lot about Omega’s origins in this episode and the largest revelation is that she’s a pure genetic copy of Jango Fett. Codenamed Omega, there is only one other clone like her: Boba Fett. This makes Boba Fett her brother, and we learn that his codename was Alpha before he became known as Boba. She has pure Jango Fett DNA, which makes her valuable to the Kaminoans if they want to create more clones from Jango’s template.

But what purpose did she serve? This revelation raises more questions than it answers. Jango Fett asked for Boba as partial payment for his services as the clone template. Omega seems to be for a completely different purpose. And since she has no growth acceleration and obedience tampering, we can assume that she was created long after Boba. But why?

Over the course of the rest of the show, I expect we’ll get answers to these questions and see how it affects Boba Fett, if at all.

If she survives this era, along with the rest of the clones, that means there’s every chance the Bad Batch could show up later in The Book of Boba Fett with a badass Omega in her 30s in tow. Who knows if that’s the case, but it’s certainly a tantalizing possibility.

Taun We and the Kaminoans

Taun We, a Kaminoan working for the Prime Minister, appears in this episode and is sent to Bora Vio to make the handoff with Bane to retrieve Omega. Rena Owen, who played Taun We in Attack of the Clones, reprises her role to voice the character on The Bad Batch. This also gives us a look at her end, as it appears that Fennec Shand has murdered her off screen during the events of this episode.

Bora Vio, the planet where most of the action takes place in this episode, is a new planet in the Star Wars mythos. Located in the Lido system, it appears to be a cross between Kamino, with the familiar architecture of Kaminoan cloning facilities, and Cloud City on Bespin. This seems like an astute cost cutting measure from a producing standpoint. If they can reuse all the same sets they’d built for Kamino and just dirty them up and put them in a new exterior environment, they can do more extravagant and complicated things with the animation elsewhere.

The other thing this episode brings us are the cracks in the politics of Kamino. The Kaminoans have different agendas and we’re still learning what they are. What were they doing on their abandoned facility on Bora Vio? It looks like they were experimenting with Kaminoan cloning, rather than humans. More than that, what does Lama Su want with Omega’s genetic code and why is he willing to kill Omega for it? Where does Taun We stand and why is she so willing to follow those orders? And why did Nala Se, Kamino’s chief medical scientist, pay Fennec Shand to kill Taun We and save Omega’s life?

There are a lot of agendas at play here, and it’s almost as deliciously complicated as Game of Thrones.

The References

There were a couple references made in this episode worth pointing out. The first might be the most obvious: the Bad Batch refer to Bane’s part in the plot to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine. This refers to the four-part story arc on The Clone Wars that sees Obi-Wan Kenobi fake his own death to go undercover to infiltrate Dooku’s plot to capture Palpatine. Bane plays an integral role in all four of those episodes, culminating in the eighteenth episode of the fourth season, “Crisis on Naboo.”

The other, more interesting reference, comes in a small design quirk on Cad Bane’s character model. You’ll notice he has a new metal plate in his head. It’s been a while since we’ve seen him, so this could naturally be something that’s just an added detail meant to imply more story. But, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

As you can see in this un-produced story reel from an arc of The Clone Wars, Cad Bane and Boba Fett face off against each other in another old West-style duel. It shows them shooting each other in the head. Bane gives Boba Fett the blaster mark that gives his helmet a distinctive dent and Boba blasts Bane’s hat right off.

I assume the metal plate is there to imply that even though this episode went un-produced, the events are still largely counted as canon for the purposes of the story group and for Bane’s background. Will we ever see these episodes? We can only hope.

The Next Move

With Hunter and crew fully aware of Omega’s value and Cad Bane pissed off, it seems as though they’re going to have a much larger fight ahead of them. And with the Kaminoans jockeying with unlimited resources to catch her, things are only going to get worse for them.

We’ll see what their next move is next week on the tenth episode.

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