Star Wars: The Bad Batch concluded its illustrious three-season run on May 1 with a 50-minute finale aptly titled “The Cavalry Has Arrived.” Despite the Star Wars franchise delivering a number of underwhelming projects in the last 5 years or so, The Bad Batch has widely been hailed as a franchise high, setting the watermark for new films and TV outings to come. The season 3 finale brings the show to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion, allowing fans from across the galaxy far, far away to go back and examine the entire series as a whole.

So, now is as good a time as any to dive into the thrilling conclusion of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and examine what this means for the future of the Star Wars universe. As always, there will be heavy spoilers below, so please feel free to bookmark this page and return if you haven’t yet seen the final episode. Without any further preamble, let’s recap the events of the emotional finale, and examine where The Bad Batch fits into the overall franchise.

What Happens In ‘The Bad Batch’?

Over the course of 47 episodes, Star Wars: The Bad Batch bridges the gap between a number of main-line Star Wars films. The series mostly takes place during the Clone Wars conflicts, and centers on a team of genetic mutant clones originally introduced in the 2008 animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which also serves as the launching pad for live action Star Wars programming such as Ahsoka. The main team includes Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair, Tech, and Echo, all of whom are voiced by the legendary Dee Bradley Baker. These mutants, designated Clone Force 99, serve as a mercenary force during the early days of the empire, represented by the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

In the penultimate episode of the series, Clone Force 99’s Omega becomes captured by the Empire and held on a prison on Mount Tantiss, leaving the rest of the squad to come to her rescue. Luckily, Echo manages to make contact with a defector of the Empire, who agrees to help the squad stage a prison break. Heading into the explosive finale, each member of the team has embarked upon a quest to save their comrades and fight the Empire one last time, setting the stage for a deeply-emotional and climactic finale.

The Final Episode

“The Cavalry Has Arrived” wastes no time in its opening moments, offering a solemn black and white title card before diving directly into the action. The children within the facility at Mount Tantiss manage to free themselves from the experimentation lab and free the Zillo Beast, allowing the creature to destroy the facility in a rage, and creating a massive distraction for the Bad Batch to infiltrate the base. Echo manages to locate Omega, and the pair quickly get to work freeing the imprisoned Galactic Republic scientist Nala Se. Nala begins destroying the entire database of Mount Tantiss in order to undermine the Empire’s work, as the CX operatives guarding the facility have their hands full with the many freed prisoners.

One of the freed clones, Rampart, double-crosses Nala, and attempts to steal a copy of the Mount Tantiss data file as a bargaining chip to use against the Empire. The two fight it out, resulting in Nala Se making a grand sacrifice, killing Rampart and herself with a grenade, and successfully destroying the entire data network of the facility. Meanwhile, Hemlock Attempts to force the Bad Batch into switching sides, and serving as operatives under his command. After a brutal battle with Omega, Hunter, and Crosshair, Hemlock is killed, leaving the team to escape from the destroyed facility and retreat to Pabu.

What Happens to Omega After ‘The Bad Batch?’

As expected, the final moments of Star Wars: The Bad Batch lead directly into the events of other projects within the Star Wars canon. Grand Moff Tarkin closes the entire Tantiss operation and labels the venture a failure, before diverting funding for additional research into the preliminary construction of the Death Star. Empire defector Emerie joins Echo in his pursuit to save more defective clones cast aside after the war, while Omega and the rest of the gang settle down on Pabu for the foreseeable future. All in all, the series wraps up with a tight bow for the main cast, save for a few significant casualties in the name of peace across the galaxy.

The series ends with a teaser stinger which indicates Omega will join the rebel alliance to stop the Empire, many years after the events of The Bad Batch. She’s in luck, as Luke Skywalker and company will be joining the fight quite soon, with the intent to take down Darth Vader and put an end to the Empire for good. While it isn’t explicitly said in the series, it seems clear that Dave Filoni and other creative heads at Star Wars have more big plans to insert Omega into additional Star Wars projects in the future. After all, the character would only be 60-ish by the time the most recent trilogy kicks off, meaning she could still be of assistance in the fight against Kylo Ren.

Is Season 3 of ‘The Bad Batch’ the Final Season?

While the characters may very well continue showing up in future projects, series creator Dave Filoni has confirmed that the third season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch will be its last. Unlike many shows, which go on with no clear roadmap and stay past their welcome, Filoni had a distinct beginning, middle, and end in mind for this series, proving once again that he has an excellent grasp on what makes a successful Star Wars outing. For now, there are no confirmed plans to launch a sequel show, though the Star Wars canon is ever-expanding, with some characters returning to the franchise decades down the line to conclude their multi-series arcs.

In the end, Star Wars: The Bad Batch sets the scene for a major clone uprising, which could be the focus of its own series or feature film if the higher-ups at Disney would allow for it. For now, fans will just have to wait and see. Luckily, The Bad Batch ended with a thrilling conclusion that seems to be leaving fans fully satisfied.

The Bad Batch

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week