The Bad Batch Born Again
In “Kamino Lost” (The Bad Batch 1.16), the Bad Batch are trapped in the submerged wreckage of the cloning facilities on Kamino. More specifically, they find themselves trapped in Nala Se’s secret laboratory, where Omega was created and their mutations were enhanced. “Experimental Unit 99 began right here,” says Omega in “Return to Kamino” (The Bad Batch 1.15). To escape, the Batch must seal themselves inside the watertight cloning tubes in which they were grown and use them to float to the surface.
The symbolism of this sequence is pointedly evocative of rebirth. The destruction of Kamino marks the definitive end of the Clones’ old life as soldiers of the Republic. If the Bad Batch’s lives are not to end in the very place where they first began, they must reenter the womb-like tubes in which they once floated as embryos; then, momentarily helpless as babies, they must once again float through fluid to a new life. Their first birth was brought about by the Kaminoan cloner Nala Se; this second birth is assisted by the Kaminoan medical droid AZI, who guides the pods to the surface.
Moreover, it is significant that Hunter and Crosshair, the two members of the Batch most violently at odds during the confrontation on Kamino, share the same tube like a pair of twins while making their escape. It is a symbolic reminder that they share the same origin; as Omega tells Crosshair at the end of the episode, “You’re still their brother, Crosshair. You’re my brother, too.”
EXPLORE FURTHER…
GO DEEPER INTO THE ARCHIVES…
Concepts: birth / clones / life and death / siblings / water
READ MORE ABOUT…
Follow The Jedi Archives on…