*Warning: The following article contains spoilers for episode eight of Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3*
Well, after seven good-to-great episodes, Star Wars: The Bad Batch—Season 3 has its first bad apple. Though not as terrible as most of the episodes in seasons one and two, episode eight, Bad Territory, doesn’t have much to offer beyond a guest star appearance and a few decent musings on what happened on Tantiss between Omega (Michelle Ang) and Crosshair (Dee Bradley Baker).
In fact, these parts are the only elements that make the episode worth watching. The two are stuck on Pabu while Hunter (Dee Bradley Baker) and Wrecker (Dee Bradley Baker) go on a side mission with Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) to obtain information regarding Dr. Royce Hemlock’s (Jimmi Simpson) M-Count Program.
Shand agrees to help the two clones if they help her capture Sylar Saris (Jonathan Lipow), whom she is currently hunting but has been escaping her radar for some time. The two go on an arduous mission to track and capture Sylar, leading them to a decent action setpiece set on a swampy body of water. As they near Sylar’s location on a boat, the three realize that the swamp is completely rigged with mines, making their path difficult to cross. Hunter and Wrecker go in the water to disarm the mines but are (unsurprisingly) attacked by a swarm of crocodile-like creatures living in the water, leading to a rather tense setpiece, as Hunter almost gets eaten alive.
Credit where credit is due: the setpiece itself is fun, alongside the confrontation between the Clones, Fennec, and Sylar, but it leads to absolutely nothing. No, Fennec tells Hunter and Wrecker that she doesn’t have the information on the M-Count program, leaving them on a space station and dipping, likely never to be seen again. There is a cliffhanger discussion with her and a muffled contact, dropping the Batch’s information before flying off to space, likely a Hemlock plant, putting the last portion of the series in motion.
All of this effort was wasted, and the only fragments of the episode worth exploring were the Pabu parts, where Omega teaches Crosshair to overcome his hand-shaking through meditation. After AZI-3 (Ben Diskin) tells him his condition can’t be helped, Omega believes it’s the trauma on Tantiss that’s causing Crosshair’s hands to shake and teaches him meditation. There’s a casual Kashyyyk name drop, which develops their banter much further here than in most episodes, as Omega tells Crosshair she did meet some Wookies while he was working for the Empire.
These moments are the reason why this week’s episode isn’t a total wash, even if it isn’t as strong as what came before. There’s hope next week’s episode will be better, as it will lead up to another two episode-drop coming on April 3, where the story will intensify itself further as we’re nearing the home stretch of Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3.
The eighth episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3 is now streaming on Disney+.
