The Clone Conspiracy / Truth and Consequences (The Bad Batch - S02E07&E08) - Animated Series

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"All those people gone because of what we did!" SPOILERS.

Some clones have a crisis of conscience

Your series has real issues if the only really good episodes are always the ones hardly or even not at all featuring any of your main cast. I talked about that previously in the Crosshair episode. But the 2-parter "The Clone Conspiracy / Truth and Consequences" once more highlights this severe shortcoming of The Bad Batch. The only episodes actually worth watching have been, so far, episodes that do not feature the main cast all that much. In "The Clone Conspiracy" the Bad Batch are not featured at all and in "Truth and Consequences" only in a sideplot and as part of a much larger ensemble cast featuring Rex, Bail Organa and Riyo Chuchi, a Pantoran senator who was a regular character in The Clone Wars and who makes her first appearance in The Bad Batch.

Senator Chuchi has concerns regarding the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill

The two-parter is about the transition from the clone army of the former Republic to all new Imperial stormtroopers. This was touched upon in The Bad Batch previously, but in this episode we learn how and why the clones were abandoned in favor of human troopers. And as expected it's all a ploy by Emperor Palpatine. Admiral Rampart proposes the new bill to transition to human troopers in the Imperial senate, but he is met with resistance by Riyo Chuchi who voices concerns over the fate of the clones and is opposed to the new bill, when she gets support by Bail Organa the vote is postponed for the time being, something Mas Amadda is very unhappy about and he reminds Rampart in a brief talk after the session that there will be consequences if the senate fails to vote for the bill.

Failure is not an option.... or else

But let's go back the very beginning of the episode when we learn that some clones at least feel very bad about the events on Kamino. Rampart, the Empire, have swept the whole incident under the rug and blame the destruction of the cities on Kamino on a natural disaster, but the clones who were with Rampart on his ship know better of course. One of the clones wants Rampart to admit the truth, or else he will release information. The clone gets assassinated of course, but his comrade Slide, who is with him, manages to escape when an assassin fires shots at him too.

Organa contacts Chuchi and informs her about the insurgencies across the galaxy and that she should be cautious

Chuchi, who is actually concerned about the well-being and fate of the clones goes to the bar where many clones, including Slide, hang out, she tries to convince them that she is there to help. Slide approaches her and tells her about the truth about Kamino. Chuchi then has an appointment with Rampart and he concedes to many of her demands regarding the clones and how they should be treated once they are retired. This is of course an apparent attempt by Rampart to appease the senator. Chuchi is then contacted by Bail Organa who sees a kindred spirit in her and talks about the insurgencies across the galaxy and the plans of Palpatine to raise a new army and how the two things coincide, not unlike when the separatists resulted in the forming of the clone army. Chuchi then orders her guards to track down Slide, because she wants to know more about this evidence about the attack on Kamino and she does manage to find him, but the assassin hired by Rampart is on their trail already, his orders are to eliminate both Slide and Chuchi. But he only manages to kill Slide. Chuchi is rescued by Rex who was on his way to get Slide off planet, but came a little bit too late for that.

Rex comes to the rescue

Chuchi learned from Slide, just before his death, that the logs of Rampart's Venator have the proof needed, but the Venator is currently undergoing a major refit in the Coruscant shipyards and is under lock. So they need a team of specialists who can retrieve the logs. And this is where in the second half of the two-part episode the Bad Batch eventually make their entrance.

Omega is amazed by the sight of Coruscant

A plan is devised: Chuchi wants to present the proof during the senate hearing to not only crush the recruitment bill, but to reveal that Rampart is a war criminal. it's up to the Bad Batch to get the logs. They leave Omega with Chuchi, because for once the series makes sense and have Omega not join the Bad Batch on yet another dangerous mission. In turn Chuchi shows Omega around for a bit, they also track down the former Kaminoan senator in hope she might help them, but she's not as helpful as expected, she shows little concern for the few remaining Kaminoans scattered across the galaxy. Chuchi learned about funds being siphoned off for some secret project and hopes the Kaminoan ex-senator can shed some light on this, she does reveal that Chuchi's suspicion, that Rampart diverted the funds, is true though. So the meeting is not entirely unfruitful.

The Bad Batch fight clone troopers on the bridge of Rampart's Venator

The Bad Batch meanwhile infiltrate Rampart's Venator and manage to retrieve the log, but of course not all goes according to plan, because they are exposed and attacked by troopers. But the Bad Batch manage to slip away by causing havoc when they activate the engines. They eventually use an escape pod to slip through the net.

Emperor Palpatine joins the senate session

The Bad Batch hand over the logs to Rex, who hurries to the senate and then gives them to Omega. She reaches Bail Organa just in time for him to hand over the logs to Chuchi, who has been addressing the senate for a while now, grilling Rampart, but she needs the evidence of course. With the evidence in hand she plays a recording of the attack on Kamino. This causes quite some uproar, resulting in an appearance by Palpatine. Palpatine, his usual scheming self, feigns his indignation and has Rampart arrested. But he then goes on and says that it's quite concerning how the clones blindly followed orders and that it would be better for the Empire if the army had human troopers, not clones. And thus the defense recruitment bill gets passed after all, giving Chuchi and Organa a bitter sweet pyrrhic victory. It turns out Palpatine had meant for them to uncover Rampart's schemes all along, since this would help him convince the senate that it's better to retire the clone army.

Rampart gets arrested for his crimes

However, the story is not quite finished yet, because when it's time to leave Coruscant again The Bad Batch actually has a surprise in store for once: without much (or any really) foreshadowing Echo decides to leave the Bad Batch and to join Rex instead. He feels it's the right thing to do and I cannot blame him. If the choice is playing Space FedEx for Cid or helping Rex with a just cause then the choice is very, very easy. Omega is of course very shocked about all this, but Echo promises that he will return eventually.

Echo no longer wants to play Space FedEx for Cid and leaves the Bad Batch - at least for now

And with that it's probably back to normal procedure next week. Unless The Bad Batch will actually shift gears after this two-parter. The episodes had everything you want: a smart plot for a change, political intrigue, and a very strong and likable main character with Riyo Chuchi, voiced by none other than Jennifer Hale (she also voiced Chuchi in The Clone Wars). The good thing about her, other than being smart and with her heart in the right place, is, that her fate is unknown, i.e. she does not have plot armor. So when the assassin was after her and Slide it was not immediately evident that she will survive. There was some actual suspense this time. It was also refreshing not to follow the Bad Batch on some random pointless fetch quest or treasure hunt. I really don't understand why the showrunner Jennifer Corbett decided on this direction for the show. The Crosshair episode and the two-parter today prove that The Bad Batch can have episodes with actual plot and meaning, not just random action.

It was also good to see Admiral Rampart again, the cool and calculating psychopath. The episode once more points out though how the Empire does not reward loyalty. For Palpatine everyone is just a pawn, even Darth Vader or Count Dooku. So a lowly Admiral like Rampart is of course mere cannon fodder too, a useful fool, who believes he is important. Seeing how Palpatine once again sacrifices one of his pawns was quite delightful, Rampart had it coming. Now the real question is if Rampart will actually languish in some prison or if the arrest was more for show. We will see. Either way Rampart's career is over.

It's sad that we will probably not see Riyo Chuchi again in The Bad Batch, I found her to be a very likable heroine and a series about a group of senators opposing the Empire very early in the days of Imperial regime could have been a lot more interesting than what we have with The Bad Batch. Riyo Chuchi and Bail Organa could have made for a good team in a series focused on political intrigue and the Imperial Senate, turning The Bad Batch into a quasi prequel for Andor maybe. But this is not what we have, we have The Bad Batch, a bunch of 1980s action hero tropes who are delivery boys. It's actually very frustrating to see that the writers can absolutely come up with good plots and compelling characters (Chuchi is returning from The Clone Wars of course) but then we have to see how they waste our time week after week with pointless adventures that mean nothing. Now that we have reached the halfway point of the second season only three episodes have been actually good. The other five episodes are skip material no one needs to watch. Ever. And this is just sad.

What else: it was good to see the senate again. It seems Lucasfilm and the creatives working for Lucasfilm have finally learned that the prequels were not disliked by some because of the political intrigue or senate scenes, but for bad dialogue, Jar Jar and some bad acting. In a way The Bad Batch forgot about being a show for kids and instead made something for adults, which is a weird tonal shift. We go from podracing and silly treasure hunts to a complex plot about a valiant senator, the fate of the clones who are all people after all, not just tools, clones who have a crisis of conscience and a scheming Palpatine in the background who will win no matter what Riyo Chuchi manages to uncover or not.

If you have avoided The Bad Batch thus far, I would say check out the two-parter. It's absolutely worth your time and it is the closest we get thus far to classic The Clone Wars. It's not your typical The Bad Batch content, it feels like an entirely different show, much more in tune with its prequel, The Clone Wars. We have to wait for next week to see if any of the things seen today will have an impact on future episodes and whether or not we finally leave all the Cid nonsense and FedEx delivery episodes behind us. Until then I think of what could have been... a post Clone Wars series featuring Riyo Chuchi, Bail Organa, Rex and the Bad Batch clones as the muscle, who try to uncover Palpatine's secrets and form the earliest of earliest rebel cells who want to fight back. The episodes prove that the showrunner and head writer Jennifer Corbett can pull it off (the episodes themselves were written by other people, but the showrunner provides the guidelines and overarching plot, the writers then flesh out those things). Why doesn't she do it all the time then?