Hello there!
Welcome to my first episode review for The Bad Batch. My reviews will follow my usual format: an overview of the plot (so be aware, there will be spoilers!), my review of the show, then a few “Moments in canon” – references that link to other media and the galaxy as a whole. Today, we’ll be looking at episode 9: “Bounty Lost”.
Plot Summary
The Bad Batch are escaping from Bracca in the Havoc Marauder with Crosshair pursuing in one of the Imperial shuttles. Though Hunter is desperate to find Omega, the team have no way of finding the unknown bounty hunter, so they are force to jump out the system to escape the Empire.
“You’ll be sorry when my friends come for me.”
“Your friends are long gone. I made sure of that. No one is coming for you, little lady.”
Meanwhile, Omega is being held in a cell on Cad Bane’s ship. Rathe than fixing TODO’s leg, Bane contact Lama Su to inform him that he has successfully captured Omega and will meet them at their prearranged rendezvous, where they will give him unmarked credits. Nala Se offers to go to the rendezvous, but Lama Su notes that Nala Se’s attachment to Omega has threatened their operation enough and sends Taun We instead, before telling Nala Se to terminate Omega once she has retrieved the necessary genetic material.
Now safely away from Imperials, Echo uses Hunter’s description to guess that the bounty hunter who has taken Omega is Cad Bane. As they discuss why so many bounty hunters are after Omega, Tech reveals that he has further investigated Omegas genetic profile and deduced that she has pure, first-generation DNA and is a pure genetic replication—the only one Tech is aware of, other than Boba Fett. As Boba has disappeared, the team deduce that the Kaminoans want her back as she is the only source they have of Jango Fett’s raw genetic material.
“Do not try anything funny. Mr Bane will be back shortly.”
Omega convinces TODO to let her help reattach his leg—to do which involves her being let out of her cell—but once she does so, she deactivates him and begins looking for her communicator, which had been taken from her. Cad Bane arrives at the rendezvous—an abandoned Kaminoan facility on Bora Vio—but becomes suspicious when TODO does not respond to his orders to come to the cockpit. Bane goes into the back of the ship to find TODO reactivated and Omega gone, as she has escaped into the facility the moment Bane landed.
While trying to get as far away from Bane as she can, Omega tries using her communicator to contact the Bad Batch. She successfully gets through to them, but she doesn’t know where she is and the signal is too weak for the Bad Batch to track. Tech tells her to try to create a power surge, which will boost the signal, but Bane recaptures her and destroys her communicator. As he is taking her back to his ship, he gets a message from TODO that another ship has arrived, before hearing a blaster shot. Continuing through the hallways, he and Omega come across Taun We’s body and find Fennec Shand, who has taken the case full of credits. Shand offers the case in exchange for Omega, but TODO steals the case, sparking a fight between the two bounty hunters, during which TODO is lasted out of the facility and the case opened, causing the credits to all fall towards the planet surface. Omega uses the fight as a chance to run, while Shand successfully knocks Bane out using a detonator.
“They won’t get here in time. The only person you can rely on is yourself.
Omega comes across a room holding a number of test subjects in tubes, and uses the nearby terminal to send out a signal, allowing the Bad Batch to find her location. Shand finds Omega and says that coming with her is better than what Lama Su has planed for her. TODO attacks Shand in this moment, and Omega uses the distraction to drop one of the test subjects on Shand, giving her a chance to escape Her escape takes her straight to Bane, but Shand catches up and the bounty hunters fight again.
While the bounty hunters are engaged, Omega again escapes and makes it to a flight pod, getting away despite TODO’s best efforts to stop her. The pod begins falling towards the planet surface, but the Bad Batch arrive and catch it, getting her back into their ship. An upset Omega asks why the Kaminoans are after her, and Hunter tells her what they have discovered.
“You’re valuable to them. More than all the other clones. Even more than us. You’re different.”
Bane and TODO return to their ship, but they are unable to chase after the Bad Batch as Shand has sabotaged their systems, laving them unable to take off. As Fennec leaves the planet, she reports to Nala Se that Omega escaped with the Bad Batch. She offers to track them for extra cost, but Nala Se is happy that Omega is safely out of Lama Su’s hands.
Unable to sleep after the day’s revelations, Omega joins Hunter in the cockpit. She is scared of ending up as an experiment in a tube and that Lama Su will keep sending Bounty Hunters, but Hunter promises that the squad will protect them and that she is never going back to Kamino.
Review
This show has really got going as we reached the middle of the season and this was another wonderful episode, which seemed to be a natural conclusion to the current story arc.
Talk about us being spoiled in this episode with both Cad Bane and Fennec Shand playing key roles last in this episode! And boy were we allowed to enjoy having the pair on screen together, with a series of fights between them being a large focus for the second half of the episode, allowing them to both show off a variety of weapons and moves—it was a great reminder that Cad Bane is one of the best hunters in the galaxy, while Fennec is an up-and-comer with a lot of promise, that will see her become an elite assassin over the coming years.
As well as the awesomeness of having the pair in the show, we also began to get some answers on who has been hiring them, with the reveal that Lama Su hired Cad Bane to bring back Omega, while Nala Se has Fennec Shand trying to keep Omega away from them. I am a little confused by Shand’s job, though, as she appeared to have been sent to retrieve Omega in her first appearance, but is now being allowed to let her escape with the exact same group that the was with previously. Was she always working for Nala Se to keep Omega safe? Or was she working for Lama Su and then offered a better offer from Nala Se to keep her away from Kamino? I’m not sure that we will get a complete answer for this, but it’s just a matter of time until Nala Se’s efforts against Lama Su come to light.
I loved the new location in this episode of the Kaminoan facility. It was great to see a location that we recognise (the Kaminoan architecture being similar to Tipoca City) that is made to look completely different by rusting it up and powering it down, very much like the Jedi Cruiser on Bracca. I imagine that it is cheaper to rust up existing assets than to create something brand new, but it also makes the location feel completely different, especially when you add in the clouds passing through the outer hallways and just adding to the ambiance during the game of cat(s) and mouse.
As for the revelations about Omega’s identity, I do think that this is an interesting development. It certainly explains how she recognised immediately that Rex was a Generation 1 clone, as she has grown up naturally rather than having accelerated ageing, s has grown up among the Gen 1s. It also makes sense as to why the Kaminoans would have an unaltered clone that is an exact genetic match to Jango, in case the army was required for years well after Jango died. However it does leave me with the question about why Omega was not used earlier as even as far back as the episode “Clone Cadets” in The Clone Wars (one of the earliest episodes chronologically) already had Lama Su admitting that the Jango Fett DNA was being stretched thin.
A few final thoughts on the episode:
- While I was a little surprised that Crosshair was in a strong enough condition to pilot the attack shuttle, I’m glad that we were given the scene of the Bad Batch escaping Bracca to start the episode as it gave us closure to the last episode.
- I loved seeing Omega stay strong and focused through all her danger but break down once she was safely back with the Bad Batch. She’s growing up with soldiers so learning to keep calm under pressure, but is still a child who went through a harrowing ordeal, especially when you remember this was the first time she had seen Hunter since she watched him get shot in the chest.
Moments in Canon
- So today’s Moment in Canon is a little different as it is more a speculation than a confirmed link. This episode clearly showed that Cad Bane has a metal plate attached to one side of his head, something that he didn’t have last time we saw him in The Clone Wars. There was an arc intended for the series before it’s cancellation—which even reached the early animatic stages—that was going to see Boba Fett training under Cad Bane. Later in the arc, the pair were to find themselves on opposite sides and end up in a stand-off, with both of them firing. From the footage that has been publicly show, Bane’s fate remained unknown, but this was shown to be the event that created the famous dent on Fett’s helmet. It s likely that this metal plate is due to whatever injury Bane suffered in this stand-off
- When looking at the information on Bane, Echo mentions an attempted abduction of Chancellor Palpatine, which is the finale of the Obi-Wan undercover arc during The Clone Wars
What did you think of the episode?
Thanks for reading. Good soldiers follow orders….
The Canon Padawan 