The Star Wars: Bad Batch finale brings the Bad Batch home as the Empire erases what happened in Kamino’s clone headquarters. Team villain Crosshair has been abandoned by the Empire he wanted to serve, forcing him to help his former allies while obscuring his motives and never fully turning trustworthy. Meanwhile, Omega’s love for her little family and her desire to help others gets her into trouble. Episode 16, “Kamino Lost,” is an action-heavy episode with, of course, a stringer for season two. (Disney announced that season two will start in 2022.)
Why did Crosshair save Omega?
A lot of “Kamino Lost” hinges on Crosshair’s decisions. Will the modified clone rejoin the Bad Batch? Based on episode 16, it’s hard to be sure. After all, his decision to walk away from his former team of his own volition (as opposed to following orders from the Empire) is the season’s major cliffhanger. He says he removed his inhibitor chip, which would have made him blindly loyal to the Empire. But that might be a lie. After all, the scarring from his accident with a starship engine in the junk field covers up where a scar from the surgery to remove the chip would have been. But we can understand some of his motivations based on what he says in the episode. Crosshair berates Hunter for taking the time to save him, asking “What have you done?” Hunter fires back, “If you want to stay here and die, that’s your call.” He seems to value the team in his own way, saying “All those missions together, and you threw it away.” He also argues that Hunter’s more ethical methods simply didn’t work: “They’re all going to die here because of your failed leadership.” His plan: “The Empire will control the entire galaxy, and I will be a part of it.” Throughout, Omega has demonstrated that she still cares about Crosshair. After all, he’s still one of her brothers, the only people she really feels close to. And she sees why he acts the way he does, asking “You never liked it on Kamino, did you?” Maybe this conversation made him warm up to her, even though he didn’t say so out loud. From the lingering loss at the Bad Batch’s old quarters and their ship, he’s having some second thoughts. Or maybe letting her drown was just a shade too far, even for a killer. It’s also possible that Crosshair didn’t have his inhibitor chip removed and that it’s malfunctioning, fighting against his modifications. Is that what it means when he holds his head as if he’s in pain? Or is he just thinking hard about a difficult conversation? This still isn’t entirely confirmed. But it does seem like Crosshair has a shred of kindness left, expending at least a little effort to save a person he doesn’t seem to like.
Why did Hunter let Crosshair go?
Crosshair saving Omega goes a long way in Hunter’s estimation. But in the end, he lets his brother leave the team of his own volition out of a sense of fairness. “You offered us a choice,” Hunter says. “This is yours.” Hunter lets Crosshair go because he’s a decent person who believes in choice. But the two of them still don’t see eye-to-eye. In particular, Crosshair truly believes the Empire will do good by him. “All you’ll ever be to them is a number,” Hunter says to try to fight back against this. He truly believes that the Bad Batchers are best together and under their own command. Hunter has never been welcome even among his own clone brothers, so he has a good reason to think the clones who do understand each others’ quirks need to stick together. He’s also essentially a kinder person; remember back in the season opener where the major difference between him and Crosshair was that Crosshair was okay with going to war against civilians.
What is Nala Se doing?
The Chief Medical Scientist for all of Kamino, Nala Se is the closest thing the clones have to a mother. Most of them weren’t raised directly by her like Omega was, but she seems to have a soft spot for the girl and the rest of the Bad Batch. After all, she let them escape in the season premier. It was quite a surprise when, despite knowing she wasn’t fully loyal, the Empire kept her around. But it makes sense: she’s the galaxy’s foremost expert on cloning. They’ve just stolen the competition’s most valuable asset and then destroyed the evidence of her ever working anywhere else. So, what’s next for her? The medical facility the Imperial troopers deliver her to is a brand new place. We can’t really gain any clues about it from the setting except that Imperial bases are never exactly hotspots for love and peace. She’s joined by a new character credited as Medical Officer, who is wearing what the recent canon has identified as an Imperial scientist officer’s uniform. Several characters in Moff Gideon’s cloning project for the Imperial Remnant in The Mandalorian have worn a variant of this costume. So has Galen Erso, Jyn Erso’s father and one of the architects of the Death Star, in Rogue One.
