Films and Fiction

Contains spoilers for The Bad Batch season 3, episode 8, ‘Bad Territory’

With the release of the eight episode of The Bad Batch, we’ve passed the halfway point of the series, and with so little time left until the series is brought to an end, there’s not much happening here to justify this episode’s inclusion

After hearing that the Empire is trying to capture Omega because of something called M-Count, the Batch decide to find out exactly what this means, and contact an old friend, Phee Genoa, hoping she’ll know. Unfortunately, she doesn’t. She’s heard that bounties are being put out to track down individuals with a high M-Count, but she doesn’t know why, and tells them they’ll have to ask a bounty hunter. They decide Fennec Shand is their best choice, and Hunter and Wrecker go to meet her. She agrees to find give them the information, but only if they help her track down a bounty. They agree and help her bring in her target, only for her to tell them she’ll get them the information later.

This is one of the biggest faults with The Bad Batch, though it’s not limited to this series, where entire episodes basically revolve around side quests that don’t give much to the plot. It’s great to see the action and nice to have Fennec Back on screen, but there’s not really anything of substance here. The whole point of the episode, to find out what an M-Count is, doesn’t even get resolved, as Fennec only promises to find out what it means and let them know. This kind of episode could have been acceptable in past seasons, but we’re fast approaching the end of the Batch’s story, and every minute counts.

There’s one bit of good character building in the episode, as Omega gets Crosshair to meditate, hoping it will help him with his bad trigger hand, which AZI has said is physically fine, suggesting he’s struggling with it mentally. It’s interesting to see how far he’s come, and he has some of the best development of any character in the show.

The big question that hangs over this episode is who did Fennec contact to tell on the Batch? It’s possible it was Asajj Ventress, as we know she’ll be returning for this season, and considering her past as Dooku’s apprentice, she would be able to take down any bounties who were Force-sensitive.

This was a fun episode, especially with the planet where Fennec’s bounty was hiding clearly being inspired by the Louisiana bayous, but it feels like something of an indulgence now there are so few episodes left to wrap up the show. Hopefully there won’t be any more like this to come, as there are still several plotlines that need to be resolved before the series ends.

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