Today saw the release of the eighth episode in the third and final season of Lucasfilm’s acclaimed animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch on Disney+, entitled “Bad Territory,” and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
At the end of last week’s two-part episode of The Bad Batch, Captain Rex made it very clear to Hunter what Clone Force 99’s next priority should be: figuring out why exactly Dr. Hemlock and the Imperial cloning facility on Mount Tantiss want Omega so badly. Thankfully the Batch’s pirate contact Phee Genoa (voiced by Wanda Sykes) has a suggestion via hologram: meet up with bounty hunter Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen, reprising her role from The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and earlier seasons of this series), who might know something more about the “M-Count” discussion that Omega overheard at the facility. So Hunter and Wrecker (both played by Dee Bradley Baker, who voices all the adult male clones of Jango Fett) head off, leaving Omega (Michelle Ang) and Crosshair behind on Pabu so the former can help with the latter’s physical therapy.
And yes, the b-story in this episode is indeed about Crosshair having his shaky-hand syndrome checked out by AZI-3 (Ben Diskin), who says there isn’t actually anything physically wrong with him. This leads Omega to conclude that the condition is basically PTSD, the result of the diabolical experiments performed on Crosshair at Tantiss. So she introduces him to the meditation techniques that she learned from the Wookiees (especially Gungi) back on Kashyyyk, and the implication is that Crosshair is on the road to recovery. Meanwhile, Wrecker and Hunter meet up with Fennec, who tells them she doesn’t know much about M-Counts, but knows someone who might. Though in order to get that introduction, they’ll have to help her out on a bounty hunt first– tracking down another devious hunter named Sylar Saris (of the praying mantis-like Yam’rii species first seen in the original Star Wars film), voiced by Jonathan Lipow.
So the bulk of this episode is a side quest to a bayou planet (the titular “Bad Territory”) where Shand, Hunter, and Wrecker take a hover-boat through a swamp, deactivate some mines, and fight off space alligators. There’s some fun-enough action and enjoyable interactions between these previously at-odds characters who form an uneasy alliance, but it doesn’t pay off until the very end, when we (SPOILER ALERT) see Fennec betray the Bad Batch to her contact via hologram.
I wouldn’t call this a “filler” episode, per se, and it’s great to hear Ming-Na Wen’s voice again as a character who I’d love to see more of in live-action as well, but ultimately “Bad Territory” did feel to me like a tangent on the way to the eventual goal of the season– namely a showdown between Clone Force 99 and Dr. Hemlock at Mount Tantiss. Obviously with more than half a dozen episodes left, I knew we weren’t going to get there already, but I’d also say that this chapter of season 3 feels the most like the frustratingly wheel-spinning installments of seasons 1 and 2 so far. I’m guessing Shand’s contact (who is most likely Asajj Ventress, from what we’ve seen in the trailers) is going to be a big deal moving forward, and Crosshair’s redemptive arc (via Omega’s dedication and care) is already a rewarding one, so here’s hoping the ball keeps rolling with forward momentum next week.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch are released Wednesdays, exclusively via Disney+.