The Bad Batch season 3, episodes 8 review: Bad Territory

This review contains spoilers for The Bad Batch Season 3, episode 8 "Bad Territory."

So far, Season 3 of The Bad Batch has done a great job bringing back several of the Season 1 and Season 2 storylines to tie off those threads. While some of these threads have been one-time payoffs like bringing back Roland Durand for information, episode 8, "Bad Territory," made the return of Fennec Shand far more significant. It not only is tying off a storyline from Season 1 but also setting up the rest of the show.

It's neat seeing Fennec at this stage in her life, verses where she is in The Book of Boba Fett. She's still so young and just getting started with her career. However, in one of those "Star Wars is like poetry. It rhymes" moments, you could argue that Hunter's words about money not being the important thing in life stick with her. It's echoing what Boba Fett tells her, which is also fun as Hunter and Boba are clones of Jango Fett. Perhaps this groundwork with Hunter, along with her time with Omega, is what stays with Fennec over the decades. Seeing how these seeds will bloom later for her character is nice.

Though, Fennec isn't there yet which is why I adore how perfectly in character she is when it comes to information about Omega. It would be easy for The Bad Batch to fall into the trappings of "kids show" and have Omega be a soft spot for the bounty hunter. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, either. This has worked in other shows like Star Wars Rebels, when Hondo Ohnaka took a liking to Ezra Bridger. However, that's not who Fennec is. She's fishing for information on Omega just as much as Hunter and Wrecker seek anything about M-counts. Fennec should be at the start of her journey to turn into who she is by the time we reach The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.

Her action at the end, calling up the mysterious person, sets up the rest of the season. Regardless of who that person is, it's laying the path the show will follow to its finale. It could be the Empire, which would put Clone Force 99 back in danger with Hemlock. It could be Cad Bane, who we know was in the Season 3 trailer and would be one of those high-ranking bounty hunters mentioned in the episode. Along that line, it could be Asajj Ventress, also in the trailer. She has ties to Quinlan Vos, who we know from the series Obi-Wan Kenobi protected Force-sensitive children. Whoever this mysterious person is, that will be the direction that the rest of the show will go. While "Bad Territory" might feel like an adventure of the week style episode, it's actually really important.

The best moment of "Bad Territory," though, was between Omega and Crosshair. The meditation scene was perfectly executed in a season where the lack of conversations has been detrimental at times. It pulled up threads from Season 2 when the Batch rescued Gungi. Omega clearly communicated with Crosshair, which felt like a significant shift in Crosshair's journey as he followed her directions. The lighting, music, animation—everything in the scene came together for one of the most powerful moments of the entire show.

And Batcher continues to be the best girl.

The Bad Batch Season 3, episode 8, "Bad Territory," might have taken a bit of a detour. Still, it was an important one that will see the rest of the show to its conclusion.