By George & Josh Bate
The hunt for Omega is on in the latest episode of The Bad Batch’s final season “Juggernaut.” Check out all of the easter eggs and hidden details we noticed in The Bad Batch – Season 3, Episode 12 “Juggernaut” below.
Crosshair’s hand shakes once again in this episode when discussing Tantiss. This further demonstrates the posttraumatic stress Crosshair is under after suffering at the hands of Hemlock. Speaking of the hands of Hemlock, the evil Imperial doctor often holds his hand just like Crosshair does in this shot.
Crosshair reveals to Wrecker and Hunter that he has an idea to find Tantiss Base: retrieve the coordinates from former Imperial Admiral Rampart. Crosshair and Rampart have history together as the two served the Empire side-by-side in The Bad Batch Seasons 1 and 2.
Phee remarks to Crosshair, “Any friend of Brown Eyes is a friend of mine.” Brown Eyes is the nickname Phee gave Tech last season. It’s touching to see acknowledgment of Phee’s enduring affection toward Tech as both she (and the audience) continue to grieve his loss.
Rampart makes an unexpected return to the series. Voiced again by Noshir Dalal, Rampart was the primary antagonist for Season 1 of The Bad Batch before he took the blame for the Empire’s destruction of Tipoca City in Season 2. Since then, he has been made to work in an Imperial labor camp.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an Imperial labor camp before. An adult Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story works at a similar camp, this time on the planet Wobani, before she is broken out by rebels.
Like the labor camp depicted in Rogue One, the labor camp in “Juggernaut” transports prisoners around using a Juggernaut turbo tank. A model of these armored vehicles – the HAVw A6 Juggernauts – were first seen in Revenge of the Sith when they were used by Republic forces in the Battle of Kashyyyk. Since then, they’ve appeared in various episodes of The Clone Wars, the novel Brotherhood by Mike Chen, the video game Star Wars Battlefront II. The model in this episode of The Bad Batch appears to be a HCVw A9 turbo tank, which has been seen in previous episodes of The Bad Batch and Rogue One.
Rampart is being held on the planet Erebus, which is a new location in Star Wars. Erebus in Greek mythology is the personification of darkness, a physical location characterized by darkness on the way to Hades in the underworld.
Rampart works at the Imperial labor camp with an Ugnaught. This species first appeared in The Empire Strikes Back as laborers on Cloud City. Notable Ugnaughts in Star Wars include Kuiil in The Mandalorian and Melch in Star Wars Rebels. Unlike Kuiil, however, the Ugnaught with Rampart does not appear to know Basic.
While Rampart is working in the mine, the sounds in the background are the same ones from the Geonosis droid factory in Attack of the Clones.
Crosshair mentions Plan 55 to Wrecker. We haven’t seen this specific plan yet, but the phrasing of Plan 55 gets us thinking about Plan 99, which saw Tech sacrifice himself for the team in the Season 2 finale.
The framing of Crosshair and Wrecker entering the turbo tank and finding Rampart is very similar to the framing of Melshi and other rebels boarding a turbo tank to rescue Jyn Erso in Rogue One.
“Juggernaut” mirrors the plot of Chapter 15: The Believer from The Mandalorian Season 2. In both episodes, the respective crews hijack a turbo tank at a similar Imperial labor camp.
Some of the Imperial engineers at the labor camp where the same uniforms as the engineers on the Death Star in A New Hope.
After rescuing Rampart, the battle that ensues between the Bad Batch and Imperial forces is one that was featured in the first trailer for The Bad Batch Season 3. Interesting that something so far along in the season (in episode 12) was featured in early promotional footage.
Back on Tantiss, more is revealed about what Hemlock is up to with Project Necromancer. Emerie Karr says that Omega’s blood yielded a favorable M-count replication, suggesting once again that the Empire’s plan is to create a Force sensitive / high M-count clone body. Hemlock remarks that experiments to do so have failed so far, with M-count degrading over time. However, Hemlock says that they’ve found success when combining Omega’s sample with one of their other M-count specimens, further suggesting Omega is vital to the Empire’s plans. As we understand, the goal of Project Necromancer is to create a high M-count / Force sensitive clone body for Palpatine to transfer his consciousness / essence into, essentially allowing him to achieve immortality.
Check out our spoiler review and breakdown of The Bad Batch – Season 3, Episode 12 “Juggernaut” below: