Summary
“Reunion” reintroduces another old face as the plot really starts to rocket forwards.
This recap of Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 1, episode 8, “Reunion”, contains spoilers.
It has been a good while since we’ve visited the rainswept planet of Kamino, so it’s nice to see it at the start of “Reunion”, even if it’s only briefly. After the Empire got tipped off by Bracca’s Scrapper’s Guild in last week’s episode, Crosshair has been dispatched to deal with Clone Force 99 by an uninterested Imperial functionary. And the Bad Batch is still on Bracca — Wrecker is trying to teach Omega about explosives — for now, making them obvious targets. It’s an easy setup for The Bad Batch episode 8, with built-in stakes and drama.
The Bad Batch is still chilling in that wrecked Jedi cruiser, but they run afoul of the scrappers early on in “Reunion”, leading to a brief action scene and a conversation about how much sense it makes to stick around. The crew needs money, though, and the easiest way to get it and clear their debt with Cid is to pilfer some lucrative arms from Bracca, so the decision is made for them. There’s a haul of proton torpedos lying around and Tech can lift the data from scuttled ships, but the proximity sensor blaring tips everyone off to new arrivals — Crosshair and his new team of morally fluid Imperial Stormtroopers.
Crosshair makes a good antagonist for Clone Force 99 since he knows them so well. “Reunion” has a tense cat-and-mouse feel with the audience knowing that both parties are one step ahead of the other, almost at all times. But the character-based conflict is more interesting, since the Bad Batch, knowing what they do about the inhibitor chips, still believes that Crosshair can be “saved”, so to speak. Not that he’s willing to listen to reason. A sneaky escape through a ship’s ion engine takes a turn when Crosshair activates the engine to flush them out, covering the exit with his rifle. Some explosive improvisation gets Clone Force 99 out of that ambush but almost kills them in the collapsing chamber, and then they come under fire as they attempt to make their way back to the Marauder. Crosshair, too, gets badly injured by the flaring engine.
But The Bad Batch season 1, episode 8 has another surprise up its sleeve. As Hunter and Omega make it back to the ship, they’re confronted by… Cad Bane, easily the coolest Star Wars character who almost nobody knows about. He has been hired by parties unknown (though one suspects the Kaminoans) and he’s able to quick-draw on Hunter and stun Omega, taking her away. There’s a cool first-person shot from inside Hunter’s helmet as the rest of the team are able to get him to safety, and Crosshair, with his burned face bandaged and a respirator to help with his charred lungs, is beginning to look more and more like a real villain. These later episodes are really picking up.
