The second episode of The Bad Batch, “Cut and Run,” sees our heroes searching out a clone deserter to find out how to survive after the Republic’s war is over and the Empire’s has begun. Naturally, it proves difficult for all parties involved to gain their footing in a galaxy changing so quickly. There are not a lot of wink-nudge Star Wars references in this one. Instead it’s an episode that brings back some familiar characters and creatures. Here’s what we spotted: “Cut” is presumably his nickname from the clone corps. He’s abandoned his given number and taken his wife’s last name to further express his individuality. Cut’s wife Suu, and her children Jek and Shaeeah, all previously appeared in “The Deserter” as well. Her kids are half-human, which was more obvious in The Clone Wars when they had speckles of tan skin. Official material generally implies they aren’t Cut’s biological kids. Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!
The Planet Saleucami
– The planet Saleucami, which is located in Sector J-19 (or the Suolriep Sector), first appeared in the aforementioned episode of The Clone Wars, “The Deserter.” – The little creatures running around the planet’s surface are nunas, essentially space turkeys. They first appeared in The Phantom Menace, and have since been in the background of multiple animated shows and other material. Nuna meat is also one of the in-universe substitutions for Earth food when it comes to Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge vendors, standing in for turkey. – The farm is menaced by a predator called the nexu, which first appeared as a CGI creature in Attack of the Clones‘ gladiator arena battle. Nexus are aggressive and opportunistic carnivores. – There’s also a quick glimpse of a Rodian, a species that has appeared in a ton of Star Wars media since their first representative, Greedo, menaced Han Solo in A New Hope. – Being hassled by the stormtroopers is a classic cantina alien, a big-jowled Snivvian. Other aliens that started out in the cantina and appear in this episode include the Bith and Gotal. – Various background droids include the R-series of astromechs (like R2-D2), wrecked battle droids from the Separatist army, and the ubiquitous GNK-series power droid first seen in A New Hope.
The Empire
– The man ushering in the Empire in the hologram announcement is Vice Admiral Rampart, a human Imperial officer. This is his first appearance. – While many ships in the Imperial era used tractor beams, the impound vessel in this episode uses a force field to pick up its unfortunate unregistered prey. It’s officially called a clone impound vessel. – The Imperial forces have transitioned over to the type of stormtrooper armor seen in the Original Trilogy, with its skull-shaped helmet with prominent vents at the bottom instead of the more Mandalorian T-visor-derived clone helmets. The Bad Batch provides new information: they were created by the Empire, with the Republic apparently allowing travel with less identification or a different form of identification required. However, it was implied in The Mandalorian that chain codes had been in common use for a long time, since at some point Boba Fett acquired one.
