Warning: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch.

Cameos keep coming in the second season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, but in a franchise-altering series, we’ve just witnessed the biggest one. Although the trailer for the series heralded the return of Palpatine, the fact that he’s appeared in everything from The Jedi Chronicles to Obi-Wan Kenobi means it wasn’t exactly a surprise. Even so, the Emperor has changed the galaxy far, far away, forever.

The last few episodes take us back to Coruscant, with Senator Riyo Chuchi returning from her arc in The Clone Wars and fighting to give the clone troops the rights they deserve. It seems that Chuchi, Clone Force 99 and Captain Rex have exposed Admiral Rampart’s lies, but a last-minute appearance by Palpatine seals the clones’ future.

Bad consignment just doomed the clones

The two-part episode centers on Rampart trying to push through his Defense Recruiting Bill, which he would phase out the clones and establish the stormtroopers recruits that fans know from George Lucas’ original trilogy. Episode 3 introduced Ralph McQuarrie’s classic Stormtroopers made famous in A New Hope (1977), and while it was hinted that the end of the Grand Army of the Republic was near, we weren’t there yet.

The second season has alluded to an increasing number of clones breaking free of their inhibitor chips and they realize they have been fighting on the wrong side after Order 66. The season one finale featured the destruction of Kamino, as Emperor Palpatine’s Empire attempted to bury the Clone Army. In The Bad Batch, this leads to the return of Captain Rex, who rebelled against his orders and saved Ahsoka Tano.

Just as Chuchi and La remita mal reveal the evidence that Rampart was behind the attack on Tipoca City, Emperor Palpatine returns, emerging from the bowels of the Senate. Much like Palpatine painted the Jedi Order as overbearing villains in Revenge of the Sith, he manages to link Rampart and the clones to Kamino as part of his grand plan to get the DRB approved.

Bail Organa is one of the Senators opposing the DRB, along with Chuchi and Tynnra Pamlo from Rogue One. However, when Palpatine suggests the clones can’t be trusted, it’s the beginning of the end. Throwing Rampart to the lions, Chuchi and The Bad Batch watch helplessly as Palpatine declares the clones obsolete.

The mystery of how the clones became the Imperial Army of the Galactic Empire it goes back to a line in A New Hope about Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness) serving under Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher) father in the Clone Wars. The 19 years between The Bad Batch and A New Hope are more than enough to raise an army and forget about the existence of clones.

What’s next for The Bad Consignment?

As we head into the second half of the season, the team has become more divided than ever. Echo stays with Rex, stating that “the clones will need our help now more than ever.” The Clones have already been dismissed, while Palpatine recruits his new army. Even so, there are questions about what will happen to the leftover clone troopers and whether they will appear in the sprawling canon of the series.

The last few episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch reiterated the advanced aging process of the clones, with a possible letter of freedom for explain why we don’t see them in the original trilogy. Although Palpatine seems to have written off the clones, the fact that there are more Rebels against the Empire means they are a Rebel threat not to be underestimated. In the background there is mention of the appearance of “insurgencies” in the Outer Rim, which seems like a good reason to recruit the morally strong of The Bad Batch.

While Rex plays a major role in Rebels, The Bad Batch doesn’t appear outside of his own series or The Clone Wars and has fans wondering. what will happen to Hunter and the rest of the team. It’s hard to imagine the entire crew from The Bad Batch getting wiped out, but with the team now split, an unexpected death would be a huge twist for season two. It’s also unclear what’s in store for Rampart after being imprisoned for his crimes, but since he’s another exclusive character from The Bad Batch, he could soon be silenced by Palpatine.

Palpatine’s cameo in The Bad Batch is the start of a major story arc for the franchise, if you join the clone troopers with a hint about cloning in The Mandalorian, Supreme Leader Snoke, and how “somehow Palpatine came back.” While there are still many gaps to be filled in the history of the Grand Army of the Republic, the fact that we see a clone trooper sleeping rough in Obi-Wan Kenobi means that things do not look good for the immediate future of those Kamino outcasts. On the other hand, Return of the Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker have shown that Palpatine continues to underestimate his most dangerous adversaries.