Bad Batch: Why The Empire Will Return To Kamino (Despite Its Destruction)

Kamino may have been destroyed by the Empire in Star Wars: The Bad Batch – but they will return. There is a sense in which Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1 should be seen as the official end of the Clone Wars, for the final episodes saw the destruction of the last remaining power from that era. The Empire evacuated Kamino’s cities, and then destroyed them in a planetary bombardment that resulted in their sinking beneath the waves. Admiral Rampart left to join the rest of the fleet, content with the havoc he had wrought.

And yet, for all that’s the case, Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 16 seemed surprisingly confident the Empire would return. In fact, the members of Clone Force 99 – who survived the Imperial bombardment by a combination of luck and good judgment – were keen to get off-world as quickly as possible, because they were sure Imperial scouts would soon arrive on the waterworld. Crosshair seemed equally certain this would happen, so much so he allowed the Bad Batch to leave him on a single remaining platform, stranding Crosshair on Kamino. Why was everybody so confident Imperial scouts would arrive on the scene?

It’s reasonable to assume the clone troopers were all aware of some sort of protocol surrounding military action, one that had been standard under the Republic and had been maintained by the Empire. This must require scouts to be sent out to evaluate the success of any military action, in order to ensure enemies truly have been dealt with and there are no potential threats remaining. Presumably that would have been standard operating procedure during the Clone Wars, when battlefields would have been littered with the husks of damaged but potentially still active Separatist battle droids, and the Empire simply carried it forward.

The oddity is that Admiral Rampart himself didn’t send out these scouts before departing the Kamino system, instead settling for being told the cities had been destroyed. It’s possible the scouts are a separate unit, kept apart from the main military group, and who arrive in the wake of military action in order to evaluate it. If that is the case, then they would likely have an additional role; a separate chain of command would mean they served as oversight for the Empire’s military leaders, reporting in on the success of their operation.

Ironically, in narrative terms the idea of Imperial scouts was probably thrown in simply to explain why the Bad Batch could leave Kamino without dooming Crosshair to dying on an abandoned waterworld. It allowed the episode to end with the two parties going their separate ways in a suitable dramatic fashion. But it also unwittingly sets up a sub-plot in which Admiral Rampart will probably get something of a dressing-down for failing to wait and see whether there were any survivors, because his premature departure gave the Bad Batch the opportunity to escape.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch will return for season 2 on Disney+.

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Thomas Bacon
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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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