Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Season 3 Episode 5: The Return
What is it ? : Omega awakens from a sleep with the sunshine of Pabu shining down through the windows, Wrecker gives her some fruit and she asks after Crosshair, to which Wrecker tells her that he's outside adjusting. She finds him on the cliff face practicing with his sniper rifle, and not doing very well due to the shake in his hand, he tells her about being a sniper, and one of the skills needed is knowing when you're being watched, indicating Hunter and Wrecker watching them. She tells him they need to talk, but a starship arrives with Echo aboard.
He examines the datapad that Omega took from Tantiss, commenting that's it's encrypted and without Tech he can't think of a way of gaining access. But Crosshair tells him it'll automatically unlock on connection to an Imperial Terminal, but they are heavily secured. He then suggests that he knows of one which has minimal security, so Hunter, Echo and Him will go, with Wrecker staying behind to guard Omega. But Omega complains about splitting the group, so she and Wrecker go as well, and Wrecker returns Crosshairs equipment left behind from when he was part of the squad, saying that it never felt right to throw it out, so they kept it.
Later, they arrive at Barton IV aboard Echo's ship, where Crosshair helped guard some supplies back in Season 2 Episode 12: The Outpost, where he killed an Imperial officer and was sent to Mount Tantiss for it.
They find the base abandoned, with only the beacons securing the base still functional. Entering the building they find the terminal, but have to divert power from the beacons to activate it.
The base shudders, and Hunter and Crosshair go outside to check, and Crosshair shares that this is where the Empire betrayed him, so he betrayed it, but they come under attack from a giant Ice Worm, which partially buries their ship.
They retreat to the base, where Echo and Omega have decrypted the datapad, which doesn't reveal the location of Tantiss, but does have the medical records of everyone there, which are far more numerous than Omega and Crosshair were aware of.
With that done, they decide to reactivate the beacons, but this will require someone to go to the circuit breakers and flip them, but also the Ice Worm needs to be outside the beacons or will be trapped inside with them. So Wrecker will work the circuit breakers, while Hunter and Crosshair lure the worm away.
They manage this, and the worm is stuck outside the barrier before it leaves, and they can dig their ship out. Hunter and Crosshair return as friends, and Wrecker hugs them both, while Echo tells Omega that the clones usually work out their differences, and this time it was less bloody than usual.
Omega is upset that she couldn't help rescue the other clones at Tantiss, and they tells her she did her duty and escaped, letting them know of the existence of Tantiss. Crosshair admits that he made a bad decision in joining the Empire, and Hunter tells him that no one knew what they were doing at the time, and that while they can have regrets, they must strive to do better. . . .
High Points : Crosshair remains the most interesting story this season, and while this is mainly a standard Bad Batch episode (they fight a giant monster), it's that the story is happening at the place where Crosshair turned on the Empire for his fellow clones, which makes the episode stand out.
And we're getting information on his condition leaking out, the fact that his practice early in the episode only has a hit rate of 53%, from the man who never misses, shows how ill he is, I really hope this is a major plot point building, rather than just a minor element, as there is so many interesting things they can do with this storyline.
Low Points : I feel that perhaps this episode would have been better served by a different threat than the very generic giant ice worm. Having the Empire still involved with the base, to keep the pressure up of the Batch being on the run. Another big monster was just a little boring and didn't differentiate the episode from so many others.
So what do you really think ? : Another really solid episode, this season is outstanding so far, and I'm really looking forwards to every episode.
I keep looking for the return of Tech, and even thought that's what the title of this episode referred to, and am now looking at the fact the datapad revealed clone troopers on Tantiss which Omega and Crosshair hadn't been aware of, which might include Tech. But we shall see.
Final Words : This season is being quite remarkable in it's episodes, especially as they're forming a solid storyline right through rather than stand alone episodes. That said, I am concerned as to how they're going to keep this momentum up, as this is just the 5th of 15 episodes, which could mean there's a lot of filler episodes ahead, but fingers crossed they're all going to be as good as these early episodes.
Score : 9/10
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