The half-way mark for The Bad Batch season 3, “Bad Territory,” points the Batch even further toward an uncertain, potentially dangerous future.
The rest of this article contains spoilers for episode 308 of The Bad Batch.
This episode sees Hunter heeding Rex’s warning from “Extraction” about Hemlock. The Empire won’t stop looking for Omega, and the only way to keep her safe is for the Batch to get ahead of them instead of hiding away. While Omega and Crosshair spend some quality sibling time on Pabu, Hunter and Wrecker find themselves working with someone they swore to never trust.
Quid Pro Quo
Bounty hunter Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) first appeared in The Bad Batch early in season 1. Hired to capture Omega after she escaped from Tipoca City, Fennec has always been a thorn in the Batch’s side. Her actual mission, to ensure Omega’s safety away from the Empire’s clutches, didn’t earn her any good will with the former soldiers, given how often she almost killed them herself. And how much fear she caused a younger Omega.
The Hunter of season 1 would never dream of teaming up with Fennec. But that Hunter had never known the panic of losing Omega for six months or the fear of it happening again — in a much more permanent way. The Hunter we know now is desperate. And we’re not the only ones who can see it.
In episode 302, “Paths Unknown,” when Hunter and Wrecker are searching for clues for Omega’s location, Wrecker questions his brother’s actions. Hunter rushes into a decision that, Wrecker cautions, could result in them losing even more than they already have. “The last time we stormed an Imperial base without backup,” Wrecker reminds his brother, “not all of us made it out.” Hunter’s desperation wins out against Wrecker’s warning.
“Bad Territory” reignites this tension. When Hunter agrees to work with Fennec for a potential lead on the bounties the Empire has issued for M-count targets, Wrecker is, once again, the voice of reason. “We’re working for her now?” He asks Hunter when they’re stowed away on Fennec’s ship. “We don’t even trust her.” And, once again, Hunter brushes away Wrecker’s worries. This time by reminding him that they need Fennec’s intel. Nothing matters to him more than that.
Though Hunter can’t be blamed for his desperation to protect Omega, it does lead to questions of how his hasty choices might affect the Batch in the future. The trailer for this season, which contains multiple scenes we still have yet to see, shows a Hunter whose armor is painted entirely black. None of his usual color and individuality remains on the dark planes. Could this panic and desperation we see building now lead to that transition?
A Light in the Dark
So much of what we see of Hunter this episode is cast in darkness. A stark difference to Omega and Crosshair’s light and peaceful experience back on Pabu.
Omega starts this episode determined to make up for the horrible results of their time on Teth in episodes 306 and 307. “[Echo] and Rex lost most of their squad in that attack,” she tells Crosshair. “All because the Empire was after me. I have to do something to help them.” Though Crosshair is quick to remind her that the best way she can help is by staying away and safe, Omega isn’t so easily swayed.
When Hunter agrees with Crosshair and sidelines Omega from his mission, he asks her to instead work with Crosshair on his unstable hand, understanding that she is the only one of them the sniper is likely to listen to. Omega, for her part, takes this personal mission seriously.
The tremor in Crosshair’s shooting hand has been troubling him since before he and Omega escaped from Tantiss. In episode 305, we learn from droid AZI that the clone’s shooting accuracy has lowered to around 53 per-cent, well below his average. As AZI examines Crosshair in “Bad Territory” and is unable to find any physical explanation for the tremors, it is once again clear that Crosshair still hasn’t revealed the extents of Hemlock’s experimentations on him.
But in a scene that could have turned as dark and panicked as Hunter and Wrecker’s storyline, we see Crosshair turn a bit more toward the light by not only accepting Omega’s help, but by actually asking for it. Though he won’t reveal anything more to his sister than he would AZI, Crosshair allows himself to follow Omega’s lead.
As Omega sits with a stiff Crosshair on a cliff overlooking the ocean, they talk about time lost. “You’ve missed a lot,” Omega says when her brother is shocked to discover she’s been to the Wookiee planet Kashyyyk. Crosshair’s brows crease as he looks away from her and out to the body of water in front of him before responding: “I know.”
The following scene is a beautiful picture of Omega guiding her ‘little’ brother through the meditation techniques she learned from Gungi, the Wookiee Jedi she met in season 2. As sister and brother sit side-by-side, cross-legged and facing the open and clear Pabu ocean, we see Crosshair find peace for the first time maybe ever.
There might be a lot about Crosshair we don’t yet know or understand, but his time on Pabu during “Bad Territory” does a lot to convince us that maybe, just maybe, he’ll be OK.
A Future Uncertain
Though this episode gives us a small amount of peace, the lightness battles heavily with the ominous tone of Hunter’s desperation and Fennec’s final words.
Claiming she’ll give Hunter and Wrecker her intel once she delivers her bounty, Fennec departs and makes a call to a mysterious contact. This is, presumably, the bounty hunter who she told the clones might have information about the M-count bounties. When she tells the contact about Hunter and Wrecker and asks about the bounties, the person warbles an answer we can’t hear. Fennec responds with a simple, but extremely loaded, “I’m sure you can track them down easily enough. I’ll send you what I have.”
As usual, Fennec doesn’t play by anyone’s rule book but her own. She’ll get the Batch their answers, but I have a feeling it’s going to look a lot different than what she led them to believe.
Who is this mysterious person? Could it be the promised return of Asajj Ventress or Cad Bane? With “Bad Territory” the last episode reviewers had early access to, it is, quite literally, anyone’s guess.
We can only hope this bounty hunter leads the Batch to answers rather than the dangerous future that feels all too close.
New episodes of The Bad Batch air every Wednesday at 3am (EST) / 12am (PST) on Disney+.
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