Let's Talk About THE CLONE WARS Season 7 Episode 1 - "The Bad Batch"

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long, but I finally watched the first episode of the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and it was fantastic. If you don’t want things to be spoiled, stop reading now. New episodes will be available on Disney+ every Friday.

This episode was a pretty good reintroduction to the series. It wasn’t too crazy in my opinion, but it wasn’t bland. I do wish they had done a brief recap of important events from previous seasons. I actually had to pause a few minutes in and double-check some of my facts so I could get on the same page. Anyway, on to what actually happened.

Rex and Cody talk to Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker about investigating the possibility of the Separatists learning the Clone’s tactics at an alarming rate which is leading to them being decimated. It turns out that Rex theorizes that somehow Echo survived the Citadel and is being used for this purpose. After all, many of Rex’s tactics he thought up with Echo. The catch is that Rex doesn’t tell this to the Jedi, but you can tell that Anakin suspects something. Maybe I should’ve rewatched season 6 because I feel like there’s something I’m forgetting that’s at play here.

Well, Cody calls in the Bad Batch to help them out. These are clones that have some genetic modifications. This raises the question of why more clones aren’t modified. It’s an interesting concept, but it does make you wonder. Also, it’s kinda cool to have the Bad Batch involved, but I can’t help feel their either going to betray everyone or they’ll be the ones betrayed. Nothing good is going to happen to them. Also, I want to take a moment to appreciate the voice work of Dee Bradley Baker. He voices the Clones and is absolutely amazing. He is able to give each of them a distinct voice and personality and keep them all straight. It’s incredible.

This episode mostly featured Rex and the Bad Batch trying to infiltrate a command center. This really made me think back to the game Republic Commando where you control a 4-person squad during the Clone Wars with a dash of Battlefront thrown in. Can we get another Republic Commando game? Anyway, they take an outpost before the command center and once they do take the command center, Rex and Tech get to the console and find that the algorithm that is able to predict their tactics is not a computer program, but a live signal. After another minute or so, it’s confirmed to Rex that Echo is still alive which means that’s what the mission is going to become. Heck, the next episode title is “A Distant Echo.”

I’m really excited that The Clone Wars is back and I can’t wait to watch the next episode. I think I need to go find some recap videos though to refresh my memory. What did you think of “The Bad Batch?”