Star Wars the Bad Batch Season 1 Episode 12, Rescue on Ryloth has finally been released,
and as you can probably guess from the title, we return to the home of the Twi’lek People,
Ryloth.
The episode has some cool little connections to the other tv shows, and hints at something
absolutely massive for the Clone Troopers of the empire., So, lets break down everything
that went down in the episode, and how they will affect the series going into the final
4 episodes . And make sure you’re subscribed for more awesome Star Wars lore content.
So the story begins back on Ryloth, where Hera’s parents Eleni and Cham Syndulla,
as well as other members of the Ryloth resistance movement have been arrested after the “attempted
assasinatino of Orn Free Taa, who’s serving as the senator of the planet.
Obviously, Cham Syndulla never pulled the trigger on Orn Free Taa, and it was instead
Crosshair, but the Empire will never pass up a good opportunity to throw their enemies
in the brig.
Following this, Rampart demands that Hera’s mother reveal the location of her daughter,
but she refuses, leading Rampart to order Captain Howzer to arrest anyone who sympathizes
with the Twi’Lek resistance and the Syndullas.
Unlike most other Clone Troopers after Order 66, Howzer speaks up against this order, warning
Rampart that they have no reason to arrest these innocent people, but Rampart is happy
to make up and excuse to do it.
This is again showing a much higher level of independence in Captain Howzer, possibly
hinting that he was one of the Clones who resisted Order 66, as Rex told us on Bracca.
It could be that Howzer’s chip is damaged, or even that all of the inhibitor chips are
starting to wear off now that we’re quite a few weeks past Order 66.
Howzer then again speaks up, knowing that the blaster bolt that hit Orn Free Taa certainly
didn’t come from Cham Syndulla, but Rampart isn’t having it and tells his captain to
leave the thinking to him…
Yet another sign that Howzer is not far from flipping.
Following this, Chopper and Hera overhear Crosshair and his elite squad, and realize
that they will scour every inch of the planet until they find her, so she knows she must
send out a transmission, for someone to come and save her.
As a result, she sends a holo message to the Bad Batch, who argue if it really is smart
to save someone they just met, but eventually Omega convinces them to head to Ryloth.
After this, The Bad Batch arrive on the planet and rush to Cham Syndulla’s old resistance
base, where Hera is hiding out, trying to avoid detection by the Empire.
The young Twi’lek is terrified at the situation, and the Bad Batch not sure whether or not
to help out because they don’t fully know the situation, eventually they give in and
agree to give it a look.
While scouting the situation out, Omega is shocked to learn that wherever the batch happen
to be in the Galaxy, they always come face to face with Crosshair every time.
Either way, a probe droid quickly finds their location and reports it to Crosshair, which
of course puts them in severe danger, leading the Batch to Flee back to cham’s secret
base.
Back at the imperial headquarters in the capital, Howzer again shows his rebellious nature by
warning Rampart that they can’t keep rounding up innocent protestors, or they will incite
an uprising very soon…
Of course he’s completely right and we know from the Canon books and later Star Wars:
Rebels that this does happen, but for a Clone post order 66 to say it tells you that something
is different with Howzer’s chip.
Back with the Bad Batch, Herra is crying next to Chopper because the Bad Batch refuse to
help save her family, and she asks Omega why she trusts the Bad Batch so much.
Omega responds by telling Hera that they are her brothers, which shocks the young twi’lek
and brings her a little bit of sadness.
Now this is an awesome connection to Star Wars Rebels because we know thanks to Thrawn’s
incredible deductive skills and fondness for Art, that Hera had a brother who died when
he was quite young.
Thrawn was able to determine this by looking Hera’s Kalikori, which is a traditional
Twi’Lek heir loom.
After that, Howzer shows his most major act of defiance yet, by offering to protect the
young Hera if Cham and Eleni will hand over her location.
Obviously they don’t trust Howzer after this whole situation, so they don’t immediately
hand over her location, but Howzer clearly has good in his heart during this moment.
While this is happening, Chopper is sent into the front lines and brutally murders a fellow
astromech, before scomping into the nearby computer system, hoping to disable the Canons
that are defending the capital.
Chopper is quickly caught, meaning Hera and Omega must go in to help him.
After this, Hera and Omega take off in the nearby shuttle, and because Gobi never lets
Hera do takeoffs, she has a very shaky takeoff.
Nevertheless, Hera gets the ship into the air, and begins tearing the nearby imperial
refinery to shreds with ease, while the rest of the Batch start taking down the other canons
around the capital.
Wrecker is having the time of his life, while the Clones on the ground are in sheer panic
as they call in reinforcements from all around Ryloth.
Meanwhile, the Batch manage to bust Cham, Eleni, Gobi and the others out of prison and
they soon come face to face with riot shielded Clone Troopers, as well as crosshair, parched
above them.
These riot shields are similar to the ones used by the Coruscant Riot troopers from the
Clone Wars series, and this is pretty much one of the standard use cases for these troopers.
Following this, Howzer rushes in to help out the escaping Rebel fighters and warns them
that if they exit through the way door right beside them, they will be instantly caught
and probably executed by Crosshair and his men.
Cham is again hesitant to believe Howzer, but finally the Clone Captain gets through
and pledges himself to fight against imperial occupation on Ryloth, knowing that he should
have said something sooner.
As the huge doors open, Crosshair and his men don’t see the Bad Batch and the Ryloth
Rebellion, but instead Howzer.
The brave trooper then gives a heartfelt speech to his brothers, warning them that they shouldn’t
stand for this unjust imperial occupation, and should rise up.
A few of the troopers toss their shields aside and agree with Howzer, but not enough do,
so the Elite Squad and the other troopers round their own brothers up and arrest them
all for treason.
This event finally puts the nail in the coffin that the inhibitor chips are actually wearing
off on most of the Clone Troopers, and they are starting to think freely and independently
again.
Or it could be occurring only in Howzer’s men, stationed on Ryloth.
This now squarely points at a large uprising happening on Kamino for the final episodes
of the series, as more and more troopers regain their free will.
On top of that, I think it’s pretty clear that the rebellion on Kamino will be the reason
why the Empire transitioned away from Clone Troopers so quickly in the new Canon, as we
know that they were largely out of service by 1 year after Revenge of the Sith.
Following that, Eleni syndulla tries to pay the Bad Batch the amount that Hera promised
the bad batch earlier, but they don’t accept the fee and instead tell Cham and the others
that they really should keep it, because with the fight they’re about to enter, they’ll
need it.
And the fight that they are about to enter is the Free Ryloth movement, which quickly
becomes a constant thorn in the Empire’s side all the way through to Star Wars Rebels,
where we see that Cham is still fighting alongside Gobi.
Unfortunately, Hera’s mother is dead by that point in the timeline, which causes Cham
to go deeper into the fight for Ryloth, while looking out for his daughter left.
This eventually causes a rift between the Two, which sends Hera off Ryloth to become
a Rebel, while Cham remains in the fight.
After that, Hera kneels down in the same way that Leia did, as well as Bail Organa did
in Rebels, to Give Omega some hope that they will see eachother in the future.
She then thanks Omega for having belief in her, and tells her to watch out for her brothers,
because they need it.
Back at the Imperial Refinery, Admiral Rampart is furious at what has just gone down, and
admits that he has badly underestimated the Bad batch, and is bitter that they are fighting
against the Empire rather than for them.
And to end the episode off, Crosshair requests permission from Admiral rampart to hunt the
members of the Bad Batch down, before spending a moment contemplating what he really wants
to do with them.
The last time we saw any sort of contemplation from crosshair came all the way back in episode
3 when he had a moment of reflection in his barracks with the new elite squad.
So we’ll have to wait and see next week whether or not Crosshair will still be hostile
towards his brothers, or whether or not something happened to his chip when he was burned, causing
him to possibly feel some empathy towards them.
Either way, we’re coming towards the end of the season and barrelling towards a Kamino
rebellion, which is bound to end in heartbreak for at least one of the Clone Troopers.
So that is my full breakdown for Star Wars the Bad Batch season 1 episode 12, Rescue
on Ryloth, showing us how Hera Syndulla broke her family out of prison to Star the Free
Ryloth Movement.
Thanks so much for watching, really hope you enjoyed the video.
Cheers guys, hope to see you in the next one!