A marked improvement over its predecessor; the second season of The Bad Batch has clearly learned from the mistakes of its past, offering deeper characterisation for its main cast and a better overarching story whilst capitalising on the immense worldbuilding potential of the series’ premise. However, it isn’t perfect by any means – not all of the character writing hits the mark, and in some aspects it feels even more neglectful than before, not to mention that you can expect further filler episodes to waste time that could’ve been better spent on developing the more underappreciated elements of the script; altogether holding the show back from anything more than a state of perpetual mediocrity.

As you might remember (and if not, you can read my review here!), I wasn’t all that fond of The Bad Batch coming out of its premiere season – in spite of a good start and a setting that was ripe for interesting stories and worldbuilding, the show instead coughed up a series of frustratingly unmemorable “adventure of the week” style episodes with a paltry, drip-fed overarching story, while offering next to nothing in terms of meaningful characterisation for its main cast. It wasn’t offensively bad, but as the weeks ticked by it quickly became apparent that the show was being crushed under the weight of its own unrelenting inadequacy, but with a second season already seeming inevitable before its eventual confirmation, all I could do was hope that The Bad Batch may yet find redemption.

Spoilers ahead!

Well, it certainly seems like my prayers were answered to some degree – The Bad Batch Season Two picks up more or less where the last season left off, with the team (now sporting a new look) still running odd jobs for their employer Cid to pay off their debts and keep their heads above water. It does mean that the first half of the season is largely caught up in another litany of unmemorable one-shot stories, and I for one am still adamant that this show would work much better with a continuous, linear narrative, but I could at least appreciate how these episodes were used to spotlight characters beyond just Hunter and Omega, as well as the various pop culture inspirations some of these “adventure of the week”-type episodes made use of. Still, it softens the blow further to see the show striving to make up for one of Season One’s biggest failures, with a few episodes that finally give us a real look at how the regular Clones react to the rapidly changing world of The Bad Batch‘s place in Star Wars canon, and their fast-spreading disillusionment with the Empire. It all comes to a head in a midseason finale of sorts, as the squad are tasked with recovering the ship log of their nemesis, Admiral Rampart, so they can help to expose the Empire’s crimes against the Clones in front of the Senate, and all seems to be going to plan – until the intervention of Emperor Palpatine himself allows the Empire to spin the evidence against the Clones, and make the final stride to phase them out in favour of conscripted Stormtroopers, which not only makes for a nice twist, but also feels like a perfect use of the Emperor for that cameo role.

The midseason turning point pulls Echo away from the team, as well as setting off the second arc of the overarching story that begins to answer many of the lingering questions left by The Bad Batch‘s first season, and even The Clone Wars, as the remaining members of Clone Force 99 uncover the mystery of the Empire’s “Advanced Sciences Division” and their nefarious plans that span from early attempts to clone the Emperor to harvesting the hide of the Zillo Beast – a surprising but welcomed resurgence for a thirteen year-old unfinished plot thread. A couple of the intermittent episodes feel like they serve a purpose too, as the team severs ties with an increasingly careless Cid and find themselves a new home on the lush tropical world of Pabu, whilst the team’s turncoat member Crosshair finally sets out on his redemption arc; turning on the Empire and refusing to betray his old friends when captured. Every story thread more or less converges with a three-part finale that sends the team, now re-joined by Echo, on a mission to infiltrate an Imperial Military Summit that will allow them to mount a rescue for the captive Crosshair, but things once again don’t go to plan. In fact, their mission ends in total disaster with the death of original team member Tech and Omega winding up captured by the Advanced Sciences Division, proving that this really is The Bad Batch‘s take on The Empire Strikes Back, so while this season’s plot isn’t perfect by any means, a solid overarching story that plays on the show’s strengths certainly leaves it a long step ahead of Season One, and with a satisfying cliffhanger and plenty of plot material to draw on, I’m actually excited to see where the show might go next.

As much as the quality of its story might have improved, let’s not forget that The Bad Batch‘s first season also suffered heavily from poorly written characters with almost nothing to them beyond superficial personality traits. Squad leader Hunter hasn’t really changed in that regard unfortunately – as much as it might be nice to see him take a backseat to some of the other characters here and there, he’s still the team’s resident action man for the majority of the season, and outside of a hardly-touched upon desire to find his companions a better home, he still lacks any sort of tangible motivation beyond “keep the team going” that leaves him feeling increasingly bland as a protagonist. The same can be said for Omega, who, like Hunter, still has a much longer time in the spotlight compared to other characters, but between a desire to be more involved with the team and learn new skills, as well as later acclimating to the possibility of a more normal childhood, there is more of an attempt to give Omega some much-needed depth – attempt being the key word here, as for one it doesn’t always hit the mark, and for another there still isn’t any sort of real throughline for her character emerging in the story. Nevertheless, I can at least commend the fact that the writers tried to create a characterisation for Hunter and Omega, which is more than can be said for the show’s resident comic relief, Wrecker, who continues to become even more insufferable and unfunny than he was in Season One. At this point I’m not even sure if the idea of giving him any sort of meaningful qualities has crossed the writers minds at all, with not one indication suggesting as much across the entire sixteen-episode season.

Still, that’s not to say there haven’t been any improvements on the character side of things – Echo was undoubtedly the first season’s weakest character; being a complete black hole of personality who served little purpose beyond opening doors or scanning computers – a role that he already shared with original team member Tech. Now, he quickly skyrockets to become one of The Bad Batch‘s most interesting characters, thanks to a frequently voiced desire for the team to help out those under the Empire’s foot across the galaxy, particularly his Clone brothers, and it’s that noble heart that informs his decision to part ways with the team and join up with Captain Rex midway through the season. There’s a clear effort to do something a little more interesting with Tech as well, as he’s often confronted with the consequences of his own emotional illiteracy, which slowly begins to lift across the back half of the season. There’s even hints of a romance subplot starting to blossom, but it’s a little puzzling for the show to choose him as the first member of the team to be killed off, so unless his death was a fakeout, it cuts short all of his character development way before any sort of conclusion. It’s Crosshair who sees the best transformation across Season Two, as the increasing disdain shown for the Clones by the Empire stokes at the doubt in his mind, ultimately culminating in his murder of a commanding officer who cruelly refuses medical treatment to a fellow Clone, and setting him up for a fully fledged redemption arc in the future. As much as it might still be sorely lacking in some areas, I still have to say that The Bad Batch has certainly grown beyond its initial mistakes when it comes to its characters.

Still, that improvement has yet to be enough to make anything good of this show so far, but I think Season Two has set The Bad Batch up for success in future seasons, so long as the writers work hard to address their shortcomings and take advantage of the potential this season has garnered. The show still brings to bear the same satisfactory production quality set out by the first season, and its stars certainly give it their best with their voice work, but sadly without a further commitment to improvement in its writing that could afford it the high note it so desperately needs to end on, The Bad Batch will more than likely fade away into obscurity in the coming years; remembered for being nothing more than an unsatisfactory attempt to milk The Clone Wars for all its worth.

5/10