The Bad Batch S3 E5 Breakdown: “The Return”
Crosshair and Omega may be back, but that doesn’t mean that things are back to normal this week on The Bad Batch.
The Bad Batch is chugging right along and packing as much into their final season as possible. It’s clear that the characters—and the plot—are going somewhere, and fast. Last week’s reunion between Hunter and Wrecker and an escaped Omega and Crosshair may have been heartwarming. But Crosshair has some explaining and making-amens to do.
In order to break down this episode, I will need to spoil large portions of what happened this week. If you haven’t watched yet, proceed at your own risk.
Insider Info
Now that Omega and Crosshair are free from the secret lab-slash-prison on Tantiss, a priority is finding the base, saving the clones still trapped there, and shutting the operation down. But this is proving easier said than done. Hunter and Wrecker were searching for Omega for months and only got sort-of-close. And while Omega and Crosshair can help narrow the search down a whole bunch, they still can’t be exact. It’s not like they had access to schematics or datapads on the inside.
Except that Omega sort of did.
To help facilitate her escape, Nale Se gave Omega her own datapad, and Omega still has it. Only it’s been long since shut down by the Empire, so even if there is helpful information hidden on there, the Bad Batch can’t access it without plugging it into one of the Empire’s computer systems. Which they obviously don’t have access to.
That is, until Crosshair suggests a remote base with between zero and few personnel that may be perfect for this exact job.
When they do finally unlock the datapad later in the episode, there is no base location, no schematics, and no Map Quest printout. There only seems to be medical information, which makes sense being that it’s Nala Se’s datapad. But this item is a huge chekhov’s gun in their possession now, and I think it’s likely that’s how they figure out what it is that makes Omega different in a medical and possibly midichlorian sort of way.
The Physical Return
The base Crosshair takes them to is the snowy, desolate place from Season Two’s ‘The Outpost‘. And for anybody who doesn’t remember, this location and episode were huge for Crosshair. This is when he finally realized that the Empire would never care about or do right by the clones no matter how much they were “good soldiers” or “followed orders.”
And further, it’s when he realized that the remaining clones were basically fodder, being sent out into the ice to deal with raiders that didn’t need to be dealt with while protecting unused TK armor that they, as clones, were never allowed to use while their own armor fell apart. It may have been the best episode of last season.
So Crosshair bringing the clones back to the exact scene of his realization of what a huge mistake he made feels a lot like his story coming full circle. He hasn’t earned the team’s forgiveness yet, but this particular location is a stark reminder for him and us as the audience of how far he’d come.
The Outpost is also attacked by some sort of ice wyrm while they’re there, leading the group to understand what it is that the sensors and protection barriers were meant to keep away from the base.
Unfortunately, this also means that the Imperial forces here knew about the wyrm, and sent clones out into the tundra around the outpost anyhow.
Also, this episode brought back Echo… Which we’ve all been waiting for, but it happened with almost no pomp or circumstance.
The Emotional Return
One of the most impossible-to-miss themes this episode was Hunter’s refusal to forgive and forget with Crosshair. Echo had almost nothing to say about it upon his return, and Wrecker’s opinion is that if Omega trusts him, it should be good enough for the rest of them. But Hunter has a vested interest in keeping his team safe and a personal grudge against Crosshair; he’s not willing to move on quite so easily. And Crosshair isn’t the most talkative about himself in the best of circumstances, let alone the awkward ones.
By the end of the episode, Hunter is forced to trust Crosshair to lead him to safety and get him out of the wyrm’s tunnel. All while sternly talking in circles and pseudo-explaining Crosshair’s change of heart regarding the Empire. It was terse and difficult, and despite getting what seems like the closest thing we’ll see to an apology by the end of the episode very little was actually talked about.
Instead, Crosshair seems to be working his way back into the Batch’s good graces by proving that he can be trusted in a scrape. And while he did that in this episode, I have a feeling he’ll have at least a few more chances to prove himself throughout the rest of the season.
What do you think of The Bad Batch this season? What do you think is in store for Clone Force 99 before the season’s end? Would you forgive Crosshair? Let us know in the comments!
May the Force be with you, adventurers!
