Did 'The Bad Batch' Finale Give Us A Link To Palpatine's Return In The Sequel Trilogy?

Let's Take A Look

By Culture SlatePublished 3 years ago • 3 min read

Last week saw the first season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch come to a conclusion, and fans have had mixed reactions. One thing that is certain, however, is that the final scene of the finale teases mysterious cloning experimentation to come. And if you really look at the glimpses of cloning across the timeline from this point forward, it seems like this may be at least a small connection to Palpatine's return that plays into the sequel trilogy era.

Between this finale and The Rise of Skywalker, there is a little more than half a century of time. In that particular film, it is stated that Palpatine's return was the result of "Dark science. Cloning. Secrets only the Sith knew." At the time of the film's release, audiences were confused about how it all went down, but Star Wars has since seemingly been giving us a better idea of how things transpired. So let's delve into this chronologically, to make things simpler.

We know that Palpatine is very interested in cloning. On top of the creation of the clone army, there is also the dangling thread from The Clone Wars season 2 regarding Palpatine ordering a scientist to clone the deceased Zillo Beast. (My theory is that the Zillo Beast Kylo Ren fights in his Age of Resistance comic is the resulting clone, but let's stick to this earlier part of the timeline for now.) As such, it only makes sense that Palpatine would want to continue learning more about cloning, especially if it could help him live forever. At the end of The Bad Batch finale "Kamino Lost," we see the Kaminoan scientist Nala Se escorted to Mount Tantiss on the planet Weyland. (Sound familiar?) Here, she is greeted by an Imperial scientist wearing a uniform similar to that of Dr. Pershing in The Mandalorian. But we'll get there.

For now, let's fast forward from 19 BBY to 3 ABY, shortly after the events of The Empire Strikes Back. In the Darth Vader comics by Greg Pak, we see Vader discover his master's experiments on the Sith world Exegol. There is even a hand in a jar, which is seemingly implied to be the hand of Luke Skywalker. Cut to 4 ABY, when Vader seemingly kills Sidious on the second Death Star. With the destruction of the Emperor's body, his consciousness is transferred to his clone's body on Exegol. However, his clone body is too weak to contain him. Another clone of Palpatine lacking Force abilities would be made, and he would go on to father Rey.

But let's look away from Exegol for a moment. In 9 ABY, Dr. Pershing and remnants of the Empire seem to be doing bloodwork on Grogu. Later on, we see tanks containing bodies that look suspiciously similar to Snoke, a genetically engineered strandcast. Perhaps these are early attempts. We see that there are tanks of Snokes in The Rise of Skywalker, so there are definitely multiple attempts. With The Mandalorian and related shows set around 9 ABY, and with Grand Admiral Thrawn having been mentioned and expected to return in the Ahsoka series, it is expected that there will be a canonical reinterpretation of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy from Legends, which included Mount Tantiss, a mad Jedi clone named Joruus C'baoth, and a Luke Skywalker clone named Luuke Skywalker who was created via Luke's severed hand.

By 28 ABY, a successfully created Snoke is puppeteered by Palpatine and manages to lure Ben Solo to the dark side, after which he becomes Kylo Ren. And of course, we know that in 35 ABY, Kylo finally discovers Palpatine's lair on Exegol, getting glimpses of the experiments he has done.

So while these dark cloning threads seem to be happening in different locations, it feels like they all feed into Palpatine's overall desire to experiment with cloning to benefit his quest for eternal life. It is possible that perhaps some Imperials do cloning experiments without the instruction of Palpatine. We do not know the complete picture, but it sure feels like the franchise is filling in the gaps in what feels like an evolution of experimentation across the timeline.

Written By Steven Shinder

Source(s): Screen Rant

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