Summary
The much-anticipated appearance of Fennec Shand is fun, as The Bad Batch continues to make connections to other corners of the canon.
While The Bad Batch started as a spin-off to the beloved animated series The Clone Wars, it has since evolved into an essential component of Star Wars canon, with Season 3 helping to explain some plot concepts that stretch to The Mandalorian and beyond. Episode 8 of this final season, “Bad Territory”, continues the trend by revealing how the Empire had elected to track down targets deemed suitable for Project Necromancer, which in a roundabout way explains why Moff Gideon was so intent on finding Grogu.
“Bad Territory” is split fairly neatly down the middle. After the events of Episode 7, Clone Force 99 is investigating the nature of Royce Hemlock‘s experiments on Mount Tantiss, particularly how the Empire was hunting potential subjects for their M-Count tests (while the audience knows that the “M” stands for “Midi-chlorians”, the characters don’t.) While Hunter and Wrecker chase down a lead, Omega remains behind on Pabu with Crosshair to help him work through his jittery hand issues, which AZ thinks might be slightly psychosomatic.
Phee and Fennec Shand
It’s Phee Genoa who chimes in with the important lead that the Empire has been hiring Class One Bounty Hunters to pick up M-Count targets, though nobody seems to know why. Luckily, Clone Force 99 have already made the acquaintance of a bounty hunter who tried to pick up Omega in the past – Fennec Shand.
Hunter doesn’t like the idea, but he and Wrecker agree to find her with help from Phee. The trailer already spoiled Fennec’s appearance, but it’s nice to see her again nonetheless, intimidating a Rodian in a cantina like all good bounty hunters must. She knows someone who was hired on an M-Count contract, but before she spills the beans, she wants Hunter and Wrecker’s help with another bounty.
Crosshair’s Physical Therapy
Meanwhile, back on Pabu, AZ analyses Crosshair’s shaking hand. While there’s some damage there that may never heal back to 100%, the droid thinks that some of the worse symptoms might be a product of Crosshair’s trauma, which he has refused to open up about since returning from Mount Tantiss. Naturally, Crosshair is dead against the idea of talking about his feelings, but Omega takes it as a challenge to get him to open up.
I suspect some might not like this subplot, but in the grand scheme of things, one of the franchise’s most badass characters unpacking his trauma and learning to be more mindful is a good thing. Omega continues to take a much more mature role in their relationship, talking him through his frustration over his diminished abilities and teaching him a meditation technique she learned from Gungi on Kashyyyk.
The downside is obviously that we’re building towards Crosshair’s injury being magically healed through the power of friendship and understanding, but things in the Star Wars universe have been magically healed for much less.
Sylar Saris and the Haxion Brood
Fennec Shand’s target is Sylar Saris, “The Slayer of Ordo Eris”, a praying mantis-looking thing wanted for taking out the top bosses of the Haxion Brood.
If you recognize some of this, it’s because the Haxion Brood is a crime syndicate that has cropped up all over the place in the current canon, perhaps most notably recently in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. An entire sequence of that game is set on Ordo Eris, a Haxion Brood hideout built into an asteroid with a coliseum-style fighting pit. Cal Kestis was taken there to settle Greez’s gambling debts.
Sylar is hiding out on a deeply toxic planet with noxious air and ravenous space crocodiles sweeping through swamps that have been booby-trapped with mines. The big action sequence of the episode finds their rented boat under attack on all sides from the crocs, while Hunter and Wrecker try to disarm the explosives underwater. It isn’t the best set-piece of the season, but it’s still fairly novel.
How does Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 Episode 8 end?
With Hunter and Wrecker’s help, Fennec is able to capture Sylar. With her mission a success, Fennec agrees to hand over the information they’re looking for, but only once Sylar has been safely delivered to her client.
In the final scene, though, Fennec reports what she has seen to someone else. We don’t see who it is – maybe Cad Bane? – but she’s selling out Hunter and Wrecker, who will now be hunted in turn. Whether or not she comes through with the information remains anyone’s guess.
What did you think of Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 Episode 8? Let us know in the comments what you thought of “Bad Territory”.
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