Up until now, after its extended premiere, The Bad Batch had opted to take a mission-based approach for Clone Force 99’s adventures which served as the background for the entire team to come together forming tighter relationships with each other, as well as including some encounters with some other characters finding their way through the newly formed Galactic Empire. Now, series creator Dave Filoni seems more intent on picking apart what the series has been building for two months by raising the stakes to deliver The Bad Batch’s first real cliffhanger after “Reunion.”
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Things start off right where the show ended last week with the Batch splitting from Captain Rex in the planet of Bracca as some Scrapper Guild members followed them closely, both of which are featured prominently in Fallen Order (available on EA Play through Xbox Game Pass). Naturally, the scrappers quickly rat out the Bad Batch to the Galactic Empire, putting the gang in imminent danger as their old friend Crosshair and his new elite team of soldiers are quickly deployed to go after them.
While the Batch is completely aware that they’re being spied on, they’re not prepared to face the full force of the empire, so instead they try to seize the opportunity to get their hands on some pretty valuable weaponry that they can use to pay their big debt to Cid. At the same time, viewers get a well-deserved explanation of exactly why they Batch found all the medical equipment and weapons on the abandoned Jedi cruiser completely intact with the Dianoga beast basically keeping them all safe for the gang to find and finally cure Wrecker’s dark side induced migraine.
Over on Kamino, Lama Su finds the need to resort to his own methods to avoid the empire killing Omega in the middle of their quest to liquidate the rogue Bad Batch, so it’s here that one learns for sure that the Kaminoans are indeed employing bounty hunters like Fennec Shand to get a hold of the very valuable Omega.
In what is easily one of the things that make this episode stand out from the previous six, things quickly start going wrong for the Batch as Crosshair’s new team and Empire reinforcements have no trouble overwhelming them. This marks the start of what is maybe the show’s best action sequence so far, which goes on for a good amount of the episode’s runtime after the two sides find themselves very familiar with the kind of battle tactics the other is bound to use due to the collective past experiences in the battlefield.
Despite Omega’s best wishes and efforts to keep Crosshair from killing them, their old friend is relentless in his pursuit resulting in the batch getting split up and the audience genuinely feeling that one of the team members might just go down during this fight. Eventually, the batch finds a way to outsmart Crosshair and the rest of the Empire forces, in a scheme that involves firing up the engine across which a good part of the chase took place, resulting in Crosshair getting absolutely torched and sustaining what looks to be some pretty serious injuries.
However, the real icing on the cake here comes once Hunter and Omega find a group of Empire clone soldiers passed out with the culprit being none other than Clone Wars veteran Bounty Hunter Cad Bane. The reveal is definitely one of The Bad Batch’s best moments so far, not even because Cad Bane is such a cool character but really for the way he is introduced here, taking down Hunter after the two engage in a pretty tense Mexican standoff that’s marvelously capped with the perfect music for it.
This means that Cad Bane and his trusty Todo 360 droid fulfill their mission objective and take an unconscious Omega away to present her to whoever hired them, although not before Hunter lands his shot on the snarky Todo. Even if for now, Cad Bane and Fennec Shand’s employers are presumed to be the Kaminoans, the presence of two bounty hunters on the Batch’s tail could be foreshadowing a future appearance from Boba Fett himself or The Mandalorian that could somehow tie The Bad Batch to one of Disney’s Plus’ other upcoming shows.
Finally, before anyone has time to process everything that just went down, the rest of the Batch arrives on the scene to help Hunter and quickly make a run for their lives because Crosshair’s Empire crew is still out to kill them. The camera angle then cuts to a view from Hunter’s helmet showing just how disoriented our Rambo-Solid Snake lookalike is after taking a blaster on the chest from Cad Bane, all of which does wonders to transmit the feeling that the Batch barely made it out of Bracca and that they’re down one member down.
Overall, “Reunion” definitely ends on a high note after such a fantastic reveal that will leave The Bad Batch embarking on a new quest to rescue their surrogate adoptive daughter, however, it’s not all about Omega as episode eight even left Crosshair scarred and him, as well as the entire Batch will retreat to think over at went wrong and how they each failed heir respective duties.
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