Summary
The Bad Batch Season 3 gets off to a solid start in a triple-bill that adds some context to Project Necromancer and reveals Omega’s significance.
In its three-part premiere on Disney+, Season 3 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch has continued to become one of the most vital corners of the canon, knitting together multiple disparate timelines and movies. Episode 2 is the only one of the three debuting installments to feature the remaining members of Clone Force 99, Hunter and Wrecker. Episodes 1 and 3 focus instead on Omega, Crosshair, and the wider Star Wars continuity, adding more flesh to the mysterious Project Necromancer and Omega’s potential significance in the Emperor’s ongoing efforts to preserve his life and his Empire.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 Episodes 1, 2, and 3 Recap
In the Season 2 finale, Omega was taken to Mount Tantiss, a secret Imperial cloning facility run by the sinister Dr. Hemlock, who is spearheading the Empire’s efforts to perfect Force-sensitive cloning. Crosshair is also imprisoned there, while Tech is dead and Hunter and Wrecker are out looking for clues as to the base’s location. This is where Episode 1 picks up.
With Omega a captive, she’s being closely monitored by her “sister”, Emerie, while Nala Se makes every effort she can to cover up Omega’s real significance. This is a reveal that spans all three episodes, but it’s fairly obvious – Omega is the only clone who can accept Midi-chlorians and thus become Force-sensitive. In other words, she’s integral to cloning Palpatine.
What is Project Necromancer?
Viewers were able to deduce during the previous season that Project Necromancer is the effort to clone Emperor Palpatine, which we know to be ultimately successful after he cropped up again in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. However, The Bad Batch is set during the “Dark Times” of the Empire immediately following the Clone Wars, which in timeline terms is a good while before Episode IX. So, these are Palpatine’s earliest efforts at cloning himself, and while it seems like the writing is on the wall in terms of how he eventually succeeds, he could come up with another solution in the intervening years that doesn’t involve Omega.
Mount Tantiss is the facility dedicated to bringing Project Necromancer to fruition, mostly by experimenting on Kaminoan clones with the reluctant help of Nala Se. The experiments involve injecting the clones with Midi-chlorians, though none thus far have been able to accept them, including Crosshair. The fact that Nala Se made such an effort to destroy Omega’s genetic samples suggests that she already knew Omega was compatible, which also suggests that she was created for precisely this purpose – or something close to it, anyway.
What does this mean for the rest of Star Wars?
I mentioned at the top that The Bad Batch essentially ties all the eras of Star Wars together. We know that these experiments are the beginning of Palpatine’s eventual return after being “killed” by Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi. But it also helps to contextualize what the Imperial Shadow Council is up to during the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Our first mention of Project Necromancer was in fact in The Mandalorian Season 3 Episode 7. If the project is still ongoing at that point, then Clone Force 99 must stop the Emperor from exploiting Omega. What will happen to her, though? And is she going to become Force-sensitive in the meantime?
How does The Bad Batch Season 3 Episode 3 end?
The Season 3 premiere ends with Omega and Crosshair escaping Mount Tantiss together. Crosshair is physically declining, rejecting the Midi-chlorians, and Omega doesn’t yet know what’s so significant about her DNA that Nala Se kept destroying her samples. However, Hemlock and Emerie now know – as a matter of fact, it’s Hemlock who allows Omega and Crosshair to escape, since he needs to keep Omega alive for the project to be a success. However, after Palpatine’s personal visit to Mount Tantiss in Episode 3, he now has all of the Empire’s resources at his disposal to ensure that Omega is found and re-captured.
Meanwhile, Hunter and Wrecker are closing in on Mount Tantiss themselves. Will they run into Omega and Crosshair before that? Or are we going to have a few more episodes keeping them apart? Time will tell.
What did you think of The Bad Batch Season 3 Episodes 1-3? Let us know in the comments.
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