The Bad Batch Season 2 - The Outpost Episode Review

The Bad Batch is CRUSHING it lately! The latest episode, titled The Outpost, quickly became a new favorite episode of the series for me, once again centering on Crosshair and another new, great clone named Mayday.

Subscribe for more Star Wars videos every day!
Join this channel to get access to perks:

Mailing Address
Star Wars Explained
1227 Rockbridge Rd SW
Ste 208 PMB 264
Stone Mountain, GA 30087

[akyloren]

This was easily one of the best episodes of Star Wars animation ever. Absolutely incredible.

[reportedbooch]

Everytime Bad Batch introduces a new cool Clone, my heart instantly breaks because I know their ultimate fate: tragic death or disappearance.

[Mike-the-Jedi]

"We were good soldiers. We followed orders." is now one of my favorite lines in the SW universe based on all the times we've heard its counterpoint.

[McSomething]

One thing I noticed was that as soon as the last of the clones was gone, the outpost was fully reinforced.

[nathanarnette]

I don’t see maydays armor as intentional creative modifications more like necessities just for his armor to fit/maintain integrity. It’s literally falling apart because the Empire doesn’t care. They won’t even let him use let alone see the pristine new sets of armor he is guarding even if it would help him perform his job well cause it’s not for him it’s for their replacements.

[HumbleAshe]

The thing that hits me in this episode is that Crosshair feels genuine pain and sadness for the first time over Mayday’s struggle and death. And all of that boils over when he then lets out his anger by killing his lieutenant, probably his one true act of defiance since Order 66. All a sign that he is truly feeling emotions and his humanity again.

[Igor_the_Mad]

One thing I noticed: I thought Commander Mayday said that his unit had been on the planet for about a year guarding the equipment, but they expected reinforcements over 30 days ago. If that's the case, it gives us a great idea of the timeline of the series so far.

[BoyangSun]

Not treating a soldier who made it back to base is beyond insane. It's rage inducing.

[bottlely]

Reposting this from elsewhere.

I love how this episode brought out Crosshair's humanity. And Mayday's quote about respect referencing Rex's own from the TCW movie ("From my experience, respect is earned", "In my book, experience outranks everything") really plays into Crosshair's arc.

Cody was one of the few "regs" Crosshair had ever respected. After Crosshair executes Governor Tawni and the Empire occupies Desix, Cody goes AWOL and leaves Crosshair isolated - the regs don't want to associate with Crosshair, who sees himself as above all of them and will stay useful to the Empire. On top of being cut off from his squad, he's alone.

And then he meets Mayday. From the very beginning, Mayday offered him courtesy and a bit of warmth from a heater, to which Crosshair responds by reluctantly sharing his name. He witnesses Mayday's silent contempt for Lieutenant Nolan, who disrespects the clone commander despite being outranked and not even giving him a moment to mourn the deaths of his last squad-mates - similar to how Crosshair himself dismisses regular clones. Heck, Nolan probably got the rest of the clones killed during the raid with his inexperience.

Crosshair off-handedly makes the whole "dead weight" comment, yet Mayday chooses to save his life after he steps on the hidden mine. He seemed so reluctant to share the name of his unit, possibly fearing resentment. Based on Mayday's response, he may not even know what Clone Force 99 is, but even if he did, he only offered empathy - something Crosshair hasn't received in so long. If Mayday hadn't pushed Crosshair when the avalanche came down, he might have been thrown against the rock instead. It left Mayday as "dead-weight" in Crosshair's old terms and he asked him to leave him behind to save himself, but Crosshair didn't believe in that anymore.

Mayday earned Crosshair's respect without knowing it; certainly not for his fighting prowess, but his ingenuity, leadership, resourcefulness, and most of all, kindness.

And then Mayday died, giving up after Nolan refused to call for medical help. Nolan is no leader, and frankly, the amount of respect Crosshair gives him is far more than he deserved.

Crosshair is a different man now, and not just that he realised that he's just a tool to the Empire; he learnt to respect others not for their fighting ability, but as people. I just hope that he gets to have a happy ending of some kind

[gabrielhogue]

Insane episode, gotta be one of the best to date between rebels, clone wars and bad batch. Portraying the Empire perfectly for what they are and how they feel invincible all the way down the ranks

[userladyoumkd]

The atmosphere of this episode was great and the music when Mayday and Crosshair were trying to make their way through the blizzard was soooo good.

[fulcrum]

After the incredible episode, something about that ending was so terrifying. We've seen the empire do horrific things, but seeing Crosshair potentially moments before he forcibly loses his humanity again just after regaining it is something else

[Brandon.thebaby]

Crosshair’s determination to keep Commander Mayday alive was very similar to Keno’s determination to keep Ulaf alive until his sentence was over in Andor. It made me think of how similar Crosshair & Keno are in this situation, Kino believed in the Narkina 5 prison system, just like how Crosshair believes in the empire, even though they are both treated fairly poorly. Kino’s breaking point happened when Ulaf died, and Crosshair’s breaking point was when Mayday dies. It was a nice parallel to see.

[hobbricks_lego_man]

Thank you for discussing the symbolism of the ice vultures, I've been waiting for someone to cover that! Easily some of the most powerful visual storytelling of the series in my opinion.

[featgorgon]

the symbolism of crosshair looking up at the ice bird at the end and seeing the marauders outline made me emotional 😭

[badenhowell]

The downbeat music at the end of Crosshairs' story during the credits is a nice touch, but I think we can all agree it was good to see him finally break his loyalty to a cause that didn't deserve it.

[viperson]

I liked seeing the TK troopers give a “whatever” gesture as well as stopped whatever they were doing to go see the survivors. Just for the empire (Lt Nolan to butt in).

[filmobsessednerd]

When Crosshair killed that lieutenant I have never been more excited to see someone die in Star Wars👏🏻

The other champion of this episode is Kevin Kiner for his continued incredible music🙏🏻

Also RIP Mayday😢

[shaztalion]

After Nolan drops out of frame, the framing of the landscape behind crosshair gives him the silhouette of one of the ice vultures. There're two distinctive darker rocky outcroppings for his wings, and the ice vultures have a split tail feather look that's mirrored by his legs.

He does what needs to do to survive

[Skydrag.V]

Man, this one was so dark and depressing. It really gives you that time to reflect on Crosshair’s choices, and the utter mistreatment of the clones. I’m loving Crosshair’s storyline so much.