1x09 Bounty Lost

[8.1/10] Another thrill ride of an episode. I didn’t know that I wanted to see Cad Bane vs. Fennec Shand, but I was mighty glad we got it. More to the point, it makes sense in terms of the story. The Bad Batch was going to have trouble finding a way to rescue Omega without making it feel cheap. Sending in another top bounty hunter, one hired by a client with inside information no less, helps justify why a pro like Cad Bane could lose his grasp on a resourceful but still relatively powerless little girl. Fennec Shand has the inside track thanks to her Kaminoan benefactor with a different agenda, and unlike Clone Force 99, she’s willing to fight dirty.

That said, I like Omega’s role here. It would be too much if she managed to sneak way from Cad Bane or, worse yet, find some way to fight him off on her own. But here, she does just enough -- tricking Todo 360, signaling her friends, and getting away in a flight pod -- to earn her part of the escape while still relying on a fighter more talented and experienced than she is. “Bounty Lost” strikes the right balance between Omega having a hand in her own rescue and her miraculously pulling it off all on her own.

Color me intrigued by the reveal about her nature here. I was expecting that the twist with Omega would be that she had force-sensitive abilities, potentially laying the groundwork for (sigh) Palpatine’s own cloning aspirations. Instead, the twist is that she is, like Boba Fett, a “pure” clone, one without growth acceleration and conditioning.

That accomplishes a number of worthwhile things for The Bad Batch. It explains why the Kaminoans want her back so badly -- she’s the fresh genetic stock they need to make more clones after Jango’s death. It creates an intriguing explanation for her name, with Boba Fett having been originally dubbed “Alpha”, and suggested the possibility of failed specimens named “Beta,” “Gamma,” etc.

Most of all though, it creates legitimate fear within Omega. Knowing that her former masters are after her, and why, makes her fear depersonalization. One of the major themes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars involved examining the treatment of the clones: who treated them like sentient beings with souls and agency and who treated them as property to be utilized whenever and however needed.

When Omega sees those Kaminoans (I think?) in tanks on the Cloud City-esque structure she’s aboard, it’s scary not just because the image of a lifeless, long-limbed alien is unnerving. It also represents a disturbing possible future for her, where she’s basically treated as breeding stock, raw genetic material to be harnessed and harvested, apart from her humanity or wishes. Hunter and company reassure her that they’ll fight to make certain that never happen, but they also affirm her as more than good clone fodder. They see her as a person and a friend. There’s a subtle contrast offered in that, something beyond the fireworks of an action-packed installment.

But the fireworks are damn good! The fight between Shand and Bane is exciting, with both bounty hunters pulling every trick in the book to thwart one another. The movements are fluids and the backgrounds are luminous, giving us some of the best realism and excitement in the animated corner of the Star Wars Galaxy. There’s plenty at stake as the motives of the bounty hunters’ benefactors are revealed and Omega herself struggles to get free.

Overall, The Bad Batch is on a roll, with three big time episodes that deliver major plot happenings, but which also motivate those developments with character and theme. This is the stuff good, meaningful storytelling is made of, and I hope we get more of it!