The Bad Batch Ties This Season's Threads Together, Setting The Stage For The Final Showdown

Spoilers for "The Bad Batch" Season 2 Episode 14 – "Tipping Point" follow.

As the Bad Batch (Dee Bradley Baker) continues to hide out on Pabu — both from the Empire and from Cid (Rhea Perlman) — the rest of the galaxy moves on. This episode begins with a number of arrested clones, including one named Howzer, being transported by the Empire to parts unknown. Captain Rex, Echo, and their crew of renegade clones have a different idea and liberate them by force. In the process, they get a fragment of data from the ship's computer that could lead them in the right direction, but they need someone incredibly talented to decode the information, so Echo makes arrangements to meet with Tech and the rest of the Bad Batch on Pabu.

Meanwhile, at the Imperial Advanced Science Division facility at Mount Tantiss, Dr. Royce Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) begins torturing Crosshair, hoping to get information out of him that might lead to the capture of Omega. Crosshair isn't talking, though, and he makes a bid to escape. Unfortunately, the torture has made him weak and he can't effect a proper getawa. He's captured after getting a fragment of a message out to his old brothers, but then he's taken back into custody and the cycle starts all over again.

Back on Pabu, Tech is able to get some of the data retrieved and discovers quite a lot about the Advanced Science Division, but not why they're abducting clones are where they're located.

This episode starts to bring all of the threads of the season together, as we head into next week's two-part finale.

There were a few things in this episode that tied back to things we talked about in previous episodes. Senator Chuchi made another appearance — the first since the mid-season two-part episode. She first appeared on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and now appears to be financing (or at least supporting) Captain Rex's mission to rescue the mistreated Clones scattered across the galaxy.

Another is Governor Tarkin, known best for his role in "A New Hope," coming back to the show, albeit briefly. Tarkin seems to be the chief architect pulling the strings to ensure that the Clones are no longer a part of the Imperial military and are replaced by much cheaper conscripts and he doubles down on that in this episode.

A planet that got name-dropped — the site of the rescue mission that kicked the episode off — was Balmorra. It's been mentioned here and there in the current canon, although it had a lot of backstory in the Legends of "Star Wars." It was a factory world out in the Colonies region of the galaxy. In a tie-in book, Maz Kanata noted that it was home to an outlaw garage. In the old canon, it featured prominently in everything from the "Knights of the Old Republic" all the way to the "Fate of the Jedi" series at the end of the Legends timeline.

It's interesting to see how Kevin Kiner and his team are working to make this show feel like "Star Wars", but still far enough from the classic themes of the original movies to make it feel like we're still marching in that direction but we aren't there yet. This felt particularly up front with hints of the Imperial themes used at the beginning of the episode, giving you a subtle hint of the future.

My favorite nod in this episode to other aspects of "Star Wars" comes in the form of Omega's training as a pilot. There's a moment when Tech is training her and tells her to go into a dive, but she gets a bit gleeful as Tech chides her to pull up. It felt very much like that moment on Coruscant with Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Attack of the Clones".

Little nods like this are perfect reminders that the makers of these shows are fans of "Star Wars" and keep all of this continuity consistent in order to give us the most exciting experience possible.