Hello and welcome to Laughing Place’s weekly recap of the Disney+ original series Star Wars: The Bad Batch from Lucasfilm Animation.
The fourth episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, entitled “Cornered,” begins with Clone Force 99 (all of whom are voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) drifting through space on the Havoc Marauder. They discuss traveling to the uninhabited planet Idaflor to hide out, though Omega (Michelle Ang) would rather explore. Regardless, Tech says they are almost out of fuel and rations, and Echo says they’ve been placed on a wanted list, so the plan becomes to land on Pantora to take care of these problems before they go into hiding. Upon arriving, they’re greeted by a Sullustan mechanic who wants to scan their ship in, but ends up accepting a bribe to refrain from doing so. Still, once he’s alone he reports the Bad Batch’s arrival to bounty hunter Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), who has apparently been tracking the Havoc Marauder.
Hunter and Echo prepare to sell some supplies to raise money for food while Tech works to scramble their ship’s signal. Tech disguises himself as a droid and Omega is excited to join them on their task out in the city. In the marketplace, they find a crowd of locals cheering a battalion of clone troopers as they march through the streets. Hunter tells Omega they’re celebrating the end of the war, and Echo points out a chain code post like the one they saw on Saleucami, complete with a hologram of Vice Admiral Rampart (Noshir Dalal) instructing citizens how to exchange their now-invalid currency for Imperial credits. A Gran shopkeeper (Bobby Moynihan) refuses to buy Hunter’s explosive device, but he does offer to purchase the “droid” (really Echo in disguise) that Hunter calls a military prototype. Echo reluctantly goes along with the temporary plan, and Hunters assures he will send a signal when Echo can leave.
Omega gets distracted by a yipping creature who steals a trooper toy she was playing with, and she chases it off into the city while Fennec Shand watches from an alleyway. Having “sold” Echo, Hunter chases after Omega, who is now overwhelmed by the frightening sights and sounds of the chaos around her. She’s approached by Shand, who comforts her and offers to help find her friends. In the back of the shop, the Gran puts Echo to work supervising the other droids, one of which (a protocol model voiced by Grey Griffin) immediately discovers Echo’s deception and intends to report him, so the clone threatens her and the astromechs into remaining silent. Hunter finds Omega’s trooper doll and continues his pursuit into the city, while Fennec Shand steals some fruit for Omega to eat. “It’s okay to break the rules sometimes,” says Shand, who says she’s alone and has a blaster to protect herself.
Omega suggests that Shand join Clone Force 99 on their adventures, but just as they’re seemingly bonding Hunter comes out of a side street and tells Omega to step away from her new acquaintance. A fight breaks out between Hunter and Shand as Omega runs away. Shand knocks Hunter unconscious with a headbutt and is pursued by the local police force, who shout for her to halt. Meanwhile, Wrecker assists Tech in taking apart the ship, and they get a call from Hunter, who has now woken up. He tells them what happened and Wrecker takes off to find Fennec Shand as Tech says he’ll tap into the central security network to find Omega. Echo overhears the conversation and offers to bring along his new maintenance droid coworkers to help repair the Havoc Marauder so they can take off once everyone is back together.
Echo removes the droids’ restraining bolts and escapes the shop with them, taking the Gran by surprise. Omega runs through the city streets with Fennec Shand hot on her tail and decides to hide in a mechanical manhole cover. Tech monitors security feeds and spots Omega going down into the maintenance tunnels, with Shand following close behind. But Wrecker finds Omega first and the two are glad to be reunited, but are soon separated again as Wrecker goes up against Fennec Shand in the tunnels as Omega heads back up toward the ship. Shand immediately takes out Wrecker and continues her pursuit and Omega emerges onto a very tall platform perched dangerously high above the streets below. Echo and his new droid companions arrive at the Havoc Marauder and get to work repairing the ship as Omega almost falls from the platform when Fennec Shand blasts the tunnel door open.
Tech watches the situation unfold and directs Hunter where to go to rescue Omega, so Hunter steals a swoop bike and races off in that direction. Fennec Shand grabs Omega’s hand just as she’s slipping from the platform, and they both drop onto a passing hover-garbage truck in the city’s busy traffic lanes. Hunter gives chase on the bike as Wrecker wakes up in the tunnels and Tech tells him to get back to the ship. Shand blasts away at Hunter behind her and Omega pulls the lever to dump the garbage they’re standing on, knocking the mercenary to another vehicle in the lane below. The Pantoran police give chase again as Shand takes control of the speeder. Shand takes out the police bikes with her blaster, but Hunter shoots out her engines and grabs Omega from the garbage scow before she can plummet to the ground below.
After saving Omega, Hunter throws the unsold explosive onto Fennec Shand’s speeder, but the assassin jumps free before the vehicle explodes. She staggers from the wreckage, looking angry as Hunter and Omega escape. The droids complete their repairs of the ship and Echo puts the protocol unit back in charge, so she leads the astromechs back to the shop. Hunter, Omega, and Wrecker all arrive back at the Havoc Marauder around the same time, so Tech pilots the ship away from the docking bay as the Sullustan waves his arms in frustration. On the ship, Clone Force 99 explain to Omega what a bounty hunter is, and that she appears to be Shand’s target. “We have to find out who she is and who hired her,” says Hunter. Back on Pantora, Fennec Shand corners the Sullustan, who says he tried to stop the Bad Batch from leaving. “If they come back, you know how to contact me.” Shand takes out her comlink and reports to an unknown contact that “the target got away, but I’ll find her.”
New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch are released Fridays, exclusively on Disney+.