The latest ‘Bad Batch’ will feel familiar to fans of ‘The Mandalorian’

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Star Wars, when done well, is like a symphony: every small part is somehow a restatement of the larger themes at play in that world. In episode two of The Bad Batch, “Cut and Run,” we find echoes of The Mandalorian, Solo, and The Phantom Menace. Children and guardians stand at the threshold of a farewell, while the watchful eyes of empire ensure that such a goodbye will be final.

Here, Omega, the young clone child introduced in the show’s premiere, is being asked to say farewell to the Bad Batch, who just rescued her from the Imperial occupation on Kamino. Lucky for us, things don’t quite go as planned, but it’s interesting to see this episode in conversation with the larger saga—and what some consider to be its original sin.

How can you watch ‘The Bad Batch’?

In order to watch The Bad Batch, you need to subscribe to Disney+, the platform that serves as the online home for all things Star Wars. You can watch Disney+ using streaming devices, desktop browsers, a wide range of mobile devices, smart TVs, and video-game consoles.

A subscription to Disney+ costs $7.99 per month or $79.99 for the full year, though you can save by signing up for the Disney Bundle with ESPN+ and Hulu, which gives you access to all three streaming services for just $13.99 a month.

Sign up for Disney+ starting at $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year

What happens in this episode of ‘The Bad Batch’?

After their departure from Kamino, Hunter and the rest of the Batch set a course for Saleucami, a planet mentioned in Revenge of the Sith and later seen in the animated Clone Wars series. This quiet little backwater has fallen into the hands of the Empire, but it’s notable for being the home of a former clone trooper named Cut (Dee Bradley Baker), a deserter who left the war behind, took a wife, and settled down to raise a family.

That’s not the kind of thing that usually works out in George Lucas’s universe. Anakin Skywalker’s emancipation from child slavery meant leaving his mom behind and devoting himself to a doomed religion; as a man, his wife’s pregnancy led them both to ruin. Han, Leia, and Ben Solo knew nothing of normalcy. Star Wars is a beautiful, rich tapestry of stories, but families—and especially mothers—rarely get a happy ending. Hunter sees Cut and his wife, Suu (Cara Pifko), as a perfect fit for Omega, who deserves a loving home.

In “Cut and Run,” Hunter assumes the father-figure role of The Mandalorian’s Din Djarin (“Mando”), and Omega—whose purpose within the Emperor’s grand design is still a mystery—has, like Grogu, become the child who needs to be looked after. Hunter thinks he knows what’s best for her, just as Mando did in 2019’s “Sanctuary,” the fourth episode of that show.

War’s no place for an innocent kid. But Star Wars often shows otherwise because of its roots in the Campbellian hero’s journey; it’s about accepting the sword of destiny, entering the trials of adolescence, and preparing for the scary realities of adulthood. In The Bad Batch, all of these characters are facing down that great and terrible sense of the unknown—the belly of the whale—as they meet a future where they’ve been made obsolete. They’re soldiers without a war. The Empire has no need for a clone army when they can simply enlist soldiers, cheaper and more readily available.

Hunter and Tech devise a clever plan here, involving an impounded shuttle and the interstellar equivalent of five phony passports, but it wouldn’t be Star Wars without plans going awry. Blasterfire leads to improvisation, Wrecker punches an astromech droid in the head, and Omega doesn’t leave with Cut and Suu after all.

But both the girl and Hunter gain some valuable lessons in this 26-minute episode. Omega discovers the youth she’s been denied, learning to play a simple game of catch with the two Twi’lek children who almost became her adoptive siblings. And Hunter comes to realize that, naive adolescent or not, it’s up to Omega to decide where she belongs.

The girl’s future is her own, and she’s still got time to figure it out.

Watch ‘The Bad Batch’ on Disney+

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This article originally appeared on Reviewed: The Bad Batch season one, episode two recap: Cut and Run