The Bad Batch: Bad Territory Thoughts
Hunter and Wrecker try to find some answers while Omega helps Crosshair fix himself.
Hunter is taking Rex’s advice at the end of “Extraction” to heart and wastes no time trying to find more information about M-Counts. Phee (the first time we have seen her this season) gets back with some news: Class I level bounty hunters (assuming that means top tier) have been tasked with finding high M-Count individuals. Hunter thinks that the bounty hunter, Fennec Shand, who tried to take Omega in season one, might be one of those bounty hunters.
Class I Bounty Hunters
According to the Star Wars: Timelines reference book, the Inquisitorious is in its early stages during this series. This might explain why the Empire has bounty hunters searching for candidates rather than the Inquisitors.
It is early for Boba Fett to be considered one of those high-level hunters (unless he is still working with a team that includes Bossk). Otherwise, the likely bounty-hunting candidates that the Empire would task are the same ones from The Empire Strikes Back (minus Boba). Although it is doubtful that any of them would warrant a later reveal, the secret person Fennec is talking to is likely the one revealed in the trailer.
But this gives way to an “adventure of the week” format that The Mandalorian often adopted, which is also how Fennec Shand was introduced in “The Gunslinger.” Fennec offers to get the information they need for a price of free muscle to wrangle in a bounty: Sylar Saris (aka The Slayer of Ordo Eris), who works for the Haxion Brood crime syndicate (from the Jedi: Fallen Order game series).
Wisely, the writers separated the team so that Crosshair’s development continued. At the same time, Hunter and Wrecker found answers, but it also brought one of the most significant weaknesses of this season and the series overall.
Hunter and Wrecker’s Lack of Character Development is a Glaring Problem
The team needs information on M-count and is one step closer to getting it. Meanwhile, Omega has introduced Crosshair to meditation to encourage his mental healing process.
However, because Omega and Crosshair have had more meaningful character development throughout the three seasons, their short conversation scenes are more interesting than Hunter and Wrecker’s action scenes with Fennec Shand, which cover most of the episode.
The final season is late to address this issue (and the episodes are already finished), but it would help to have a few quiet moments with Hunter and Wrecker, together or separately. Wrecker has changed and is more cautious on missions. He is more forthcoming about his lack of trust in Fennec Shand, once on Pabu and again when they reach the unnamed planet (which requires breathing masks) to track down Sylar. Losing Tech and Omega being captured by the Empire was traumatic for him, but the season has not given the audience a moment to sit with Wrecker’s trauma the way we have for Crosshair.
This is especially pertinent because, aside from Omega, Wrecker was closest to Tech. Aside from the moment after Tech’s death, none of the Batch has discussed it, and his absence is only mentioned in the context of his skillset. In this episode, Phee calls him by name instead of her affectionate “brown eyes.”
The little mention of the late team member may be because Tech is not dead, as is widely theorized, but the characters don’t know that. And, if and when it is revealed that Tech is alive, he is dead, and it feels like emotional beats are missing that could also help with much-needed character development.
Crosshair’s Toolkit
Back on Pabu, Omega takes on the mission assigned to her by Hunter: getting Crosshair help for his hand. Crosshair still seems to be holding back from talking about what he went through on Tantiss. The trauma that Crosshair is repressing could boil over into a potentially devastating tale that could also connect to the mysterious C-X2 and parallel the fate Crosshair avoided.
Overall, the series has been adding compelling character moments for Crosshair that involve every other Batch member (including Batcher), making him one of the best-realized characters in Star Wars canon.
An Episode of Anticipation
The word “filler” is often overused by people who cannot articulate shortcomings they find in an episode (for whatever reasons). “Bad Territory is not a filler episode because the events influence the overall story, placing the team closer to getting the information on M-Counts.
However, because Fennec tells Hunter and Wrecker from the start that she doesn’t have answers but will get them with the quid pro quo mission, the entire episode anticipates meeting the person who can give them answers. The Bad Batch is not the type of show to kill off major characters in the middle of the season. There are no stakes for Hunter and Wrecker, so caring about anything happening in their storyline is difficult.
Hopefully, this mystery person will find the team quickly so the characters can catch up to what the audience already knows about M-Counts. Then, we can move on to finding out C-X2’s identity, and WHY Omega is different. At this point, Nala Se is the only one who can provide insight into that mystery.
Originally published at http://creditsandcanon.com on March 24, 2024.
