The Bad Batch season 3, episode 5 recap: We return to Season 2's best episode

This recap has full spoilers for The Bad Batch Season 3, episode 5 "The Return."

The Bad Batch’s fifth episode of Season 3 is here, so let’s recap everything that happened in “The Return.”

We open with Omega waking up safe at home again with her family, holding her dear Tooka doll, Lula. Hunter and Wrecker have breakfast for her as they are once more on the beautiful island of Pabu. Omega notices Crosshair is gone, and he apparently decided to hang out outside before anyone woke up that morning. So she steps out to check on him.

Crosshair is trying to practice shooting on the beach of Pabu, but his hand tremors keep him from hitting the targets. And Omega’s droid friend, Azi, and Batcher are there too! Hurray for Azi being safe after what went down in Cid’s parlor at the end of Season 2.

Omega calls him out about hiding his hand tremor, telling him to talk to Hunter. Crosshair doesn’t want to do feelings and rather train himself again. Omega engages him on his ground, asking what it takes to be a sniper. He feels Wrecker and Hunter watching him. Hunter doesn’t trust Crosshair yet, but Wrecker accepts Omega vouching for him.

They’re interrupted by Echo's arrival. They all sit for dinner, and Omega and Crosshair share with the Batch everything happening at Mount Tantiss, including the experiments using clones. She also still has Nala Se’s datapad that she used to escape; however, it’s not working anymore. It’s encrypted and difficult to break into, especially without Tech.

However, Crosshair used to work in the Empire and knows that plugging the pad into an Imperial port will get around the encryption. He knows a remote and understaffed place. Hunter decides that he, Echo, and Crosshair will go. However, Omega is done being left behind. She wants to save the other clones, too and is coming.

As they load up the Marauder for the mission, Wrecker gives Crosshair his old armor back. With that, they head to the snowy planet of Barton IV, where the best episode of Season 2, “The Outpost,” took place. There doesn’t seem to be anyone at the outpost. Crosshair comes out in his old armor, and an ice vulture screeches overhead (you can read all about the symbolism here).

They notice their lurca hound Batcher acting weird, reasoning that the sensors giving off high tones are probably affecting her. Crosshair mentions they were for raiders. Hunter is ticked off that Crosshair didn’t give him all this intel up front. Already, the two are starting to bicker, but Echo breaks them up to get going.

They break into the old outpost and find a depot to start booting up. In the most gut punch dialogue exchange, Wrecker wonders why the Empire abandoned the outpost.

Crosshair laments, “I guess it served its purpose.”

And Echo quips, “Sounds familiar.”

Which hits a major theme of the show on its head and it clearly hits Crosshair in the emotions.

Crosshair steps away and finds the pile of clone helmets shoved in a corner. Where in “The Outpost” Commander Mayday cared so much for his fallen brothers, the Empire has left the helmets with the garbage. Crosshair picks up Mayday’s helmet and sets it with the other clone helmets back on their rightful place. And Hunter sees him doing this.

Omega gets the power transferred from the sensors. The moment they’re shut down, a distant rumbling immediately sounds. Back inside, Echo gets Nala Se’s datapad working. Batcher is getting uneasy as the rumbling is getting worse. Crosshair and Hunter go to check it out while the others work on the data transfer. Sadly, her datapad only has medical records and not any of the information they were hoping to get like a location of Tantiss and schematics of the base.

And it’s time for the Hunter and Crosshair to hash out their feelings outside. Confronting each other, Crosshair comes clean about killing an Imperial officer but also calls out Hunter. Crosshair risked everything to warn the Batch about Hemlock in Season 2, but Hunter ignored it, which got Omega captured (from Crosshair’s point of view). Before they can get into a fistfight, Batcher runs out, barking because whatever is shaking the ground is here.

A massive ice monster called a Wyrm bursts out of the ground, screeching to the sky. They race back inside the outpost, which seems safe from the Wyrm… for now, as it slams against the sides. They decide they need to restore power to the sensor beacons to drive it away. Of course, the only way to reset the grid is manually, outside, with the creature that wants to eat them.

They also need to get the creature outside the perimeter before the reboot so they’re not trapped with it. Wrecker chooses to go for the power box, Omega will get the sensors up again, and Crosshair wants to lure the Wyrm away. Hunter decides to go with Crosshair to work together, with Echo assisting them from afar.

They all spring into action! The Wyrm heads after Hunter and Crosshair, but the plan immediately goes awry! Hunter falls through the ice into a chasm below. Hunter leads the Wyrm away from the tunnels below while Crosshair and Batcher follow from the surface. They get outside the perimeter, where they start trying to dig Hunter out to safety.  

Meanwhile, Wrecker gets the power up again at the fuse box. Yanking out Hunter from below just in time, they get the sensors up and keep out the Wyrm. The day is saved!

It also looks like Crosshair and Hunter are on better terms, because nothing fixes hurt feelings like fighting a Dune-inspired Wyrm monster.

With that, they head out on their way for the next adventure.