As we approach the final third of The Bad Batch season three, we’ve been given two episodes at once, which have quite different visual styles and story tones.

It’s clear with episode ten why they chose to drop two episodes at once. It focusses almost entirely entirely on Dr. Emerie Karr as she works in the lab on Tantiss, taking over from Nala Se who was imprisoned after Hemlock discovered she was destroying Omega’s blood samples.

One of the secret projects the Empire is working on involves collecting Force-sensitive children to undergo experiments for Project Necromancer. They use skilled bounty hunters to collect these individuals who have a high M-count, giving a reason for Cad Bane to make a return, though it feels like a waste if this is his only appearance this season.

There’s a similarity to The Clone Wars episode ‘Children of the Force’, which also involved Cad Bane kidnapping Force-sensitive children for Palpatine and delivering them to a secret facility on Mustafar, and it opens an interesting question about how such children are treated now that the Jedi Order no longer exists.

One big problem with this episode is that it takes the focus away from the Bad Batch, and considering how few episodes are left, that isn’t a good thing. Clearly Karr is going to be important in future, and she needs more character development, but this isn’t the way to do it. It reminds me of The Mandalorian season three episode ‘The Convert’, which followed minor characters Penn Pershing and Elia Kane on Coruscant to the detriment of Din Djarin. Such characters should be woven in throughout the series with short appearances in multiple episodes. Not only does this prevent the main characters being neglected, it also makes the series more interesting.

Episode eleven is much more on point, as it delivers on a scenario that’s been teased ever since Pabu was discovered in season two. There’s always been a feeling of dread that the Empire would find the world and invade it to try and capture Omega.

Considering everything that’s happening around the galaxy with Imperial expansion, it seemed unlikely the planet could survive undisturbed forever, and now that the Batch is making something of a permanent home, it was only going to get worse.

The biggest thing that happened this episode was Omega being taken prisoner by the Empire, putting her right back where she was in episode one, except this time she’s on her own, without Crosshair. The fact he missed his shot to attach the tracking beacon to the ship makes finding her almost impossible, and will be a huge blow to him as he was already struggling with his reduced sniper skills.

This leaves open all kinds of possibilities for where the show will go as it approaches its finale, not just of season three, but of the entire show. There are plenty of storylines to be wrapped up and a lot of established characters we could be seeing again. Maybe even Cid Scaleback, who became one of the show’s most hated characters after she sold out the Batch at the end of season two. CX2 mentioned torturing a Trandoshan, so it’s possible she’ll get something of a redemption.

Whatever happens, it looks like The Bad Batch will be going out in style.

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