Full Series The Bad Batch 3.05 - The Return - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

at least they were in the daylight in this one.

 

Solid episode, with some of the perfunctory busywork to arrive at the next plot point, but I really dug all of the character work and conflict between Hunter and Crosshair as well as seeing Echo again.

7/10

 

This is some of the finest story telling in SW. Going back to the outpost not only did a lot of emotional heavy lifting, but also gave a depth and quality to it rarely seen.

 

"Omega can't go on this mission, it's much much too dangerous."
"But I really want to go!"
"Okay, you're coming with us."


It's always the same conversation and it never adds anything to the story or characters.

 

But HUNTAAAAAAAAAAAAH

 

But they can’t leave Omega behind. She’s the only one that isTech savy.

 

Spoiler

Honestly, I kind of like the monster fights. At least, they are less repetitive than the shoot-outs and require the heroes to think and work their way to victory than standing still, outshooting mooks. Creature designs are nice as well.

Though it does make me wonder how the raiders lived out there with the worms. Ice fremen?

Well, emotional arc wrapped up for now - well, unless it turns out this is one of the cases where it only seems patched up to come up again more intensely later - this season really going at a breakneck pace and making me wonder how they are going to fill out the rest of the season. Hopefully by giving the clone rebellion more of a spotlight, which does seem likely given the goals of this episode.

Poor Az doing the William Tell bit with a guy with a shaky gun hand.

Batcher is cute, I especially liked her barking at the worm at the end, like she scared it off.

 

I just watched the new episode. It was all right, nothing really spectacular or memorable going on. The gang's all back (minus Tech) and the continuation from the last episode where Crosshair is still walking a thin line to gain back the trust of the other 99 clones. That was pretty much the premise of this entire episode, where from the beginning there was little trust, and he slowly wins it back through some heroic acts and dialogue. They went to that vacant Empire base to bypass codes, but it seemed like they couldn't get much out of it.

The one part that confused me was when Omega came out and suggested to Crosshair that she was in fact older than him. Maybe I forgot when or where that had been established in the past. I know she was with Nala Se on Kamino for a while, but was it so much longer than the BB team was around?

 

On Kamino, Omega said she was there when they were born or created or something.

 

Action packed episode, I really enjoyed it. The story arc of the antagonism between Hunter and Crosshair has come to a satisfying conclusion or has it?

 

I saw Dune 2 last night, so the snow worm was a pretty big letdown, comparatively.

 

I gave the episode a 7/10. Review above; nothing too memorable, but it wasn't bad either.

 

Sand Snow Worms on an episode that's come out just as Dune Part 2 hits theaters and I caught that movie earlier today. More Jurassic References with Omega and Wrecker paying homage to Malcolm talking Dr. Sattler through the manual restart of the power. Also, the worm coming through the tunnel after Hunter was exactly like the Baryonyx in Fallen Kingdom. There is one homage I've started to notice whether intentional or just a similarity. Batcher is Bronx from Gargoyles, acts and looks like him right down to the number of toes.

This was a great episode though, it feels like the season is building to a climatic goal with trying to free the clone prisoners in Tantiss. I think its important to show Pabu as the peaceful island paradise it is presently. We're building on foundations laid by the jumbled-up season last season. I was glad to see Echo again.

Echo's reunion with Omega called back to the training he did with her. He does feel like a half-hearted peacekeeper detached from the rest of the group dialed into his mission to get intel on Tantiss. It's an ongoing twist on his decision at the end of TCW's Bad Batch arc to join The Bad Batch because he didn't feel like he belonged anywhere else. I think he just never got close to the brothers and has a stronger belonging to Rex and the other clones.

That's also a thread with Crosshair. Crosshair is much better developed than Echo. I think much of Crosshair's guilt is toward how many "Regs" he once looked down on were put into their grave or sent to Tantiss by him. His grief and guilt when he finds Mayday's helmet is aching. It was bittersweet seeing Crosshair suit up in his old armor. Thanks to his injured hand his superpower is embers. Tech's absence is felt in this episode. Crosshair is going to be the first to jump on board with Echo and Rex's plan to storm Tantiss which would be the incredible realization of his character arc. Coming from those lines he said about Echo getting blown up on Lola Sayu who trolled Rex into punching him.

And Hunter continues to be slightly more interesting this season. He was super suspicious of Crosshair, perhaps actually casting his own regrets onto him. Hunter took Crosshair's siding with the empire hard and I think blames himself. I used to have a theory he has spent season 1 and 2 in a high-functioning version of a Heroic Blue Screen of Death. Does he regret just coasting along with Cid and staying on the Empire's radar instead of disappearing? Or does he regret not joining Rex's cause? Let's see where this goes. Perhaps Omega's imprisonment is what finally rebooted him.

One thing for sure is that all four of them, Crosshair and Echo included will do anything for Omega. Echo will choose her again and this time so will Crosshair. It's the most common thing that unites them. That's probably what is going to kill them. This was a great episode. I thought they did a great job handling the rift between Hunter and Crosshair. Setting the episode in a place that was so traumatic and highlighting how that changed him to both the audience and Hunter was a great idea. The location also highlights how dangerous and mysterious the Empire is. Crosshair served it but barely knows anything about it. He had no idea what the parameter fence was keeping out. What the real secrets of the base were.

I wonder if the Empire will track that The Bad Batch went there. I wonder if this is the last we'll see of the base. It seems like it could be a hideout but a better planet was introduced for that last season in the worst episode of The Bad Batch. "The Return" is much better than that one. This one gets an 8 from me.

 

You dare disrespect Snow-Hulud???

 

8/10, good episode with development of Crosshair and Hunter.

 

That part where he's pumping the generator up and down mimicked Ellie Sattler's scene to a T.

 

I'm in a generous mood, so I'll give it a 6/10.

 

I dare. It's not much of a dare, but there it is.

 

Yeah I agree with this completely; they took the two most emotionally charged situations, the two biggest elephants in the room, and resolved them off screen. That's weak; the writers took the easy way out. I was expecting to see the confrontation/reunion of Crosshair with Hunter and Wrecker be addressed, as well as the revelation of Tech's death to Crosshair. I kinda feel cheated as a viewer.

That being said I did enjoy other parts of the episode. The interactions between Hunter and Crosshair were pretty good; at least as good as I could of hoped for. I liked the monster of the week sequence; that thing was like "Tremors" on ice. I really like the direction in the scenes before the worm shows up. The way they showed those sensor things shut down and then the view slowly got closer to the perimeter, suggesting something is a approaching. It was kinda foreboding. I also liked seeing AZ again, he's a droid favorite of mine. And I also liked seeing Batcher becoming involved as a team member in his own way. 5/10

 

I quite liked the episode; it was mostly about Hunter and Crosshair. Yes, it was a monster-of-the-week episode, but the monster mostly functioned to facilitate the Hunter-Crosshair dynamic.

 

I gave this a 10/10.

I'll say it was a "quiet" episode, in that it kind of set up the new dynamic. Hunter and Crosshair started out at the beginning butting heads but I think they came to a decent understanding at the end. So this in essence was good character building. That's the reason it got a 10. The rest was okay. We've seen monsters so it was nothing new, but another plus was seeing Echo. I almost forgot he'd been a member. I am wondering when we'll see Cody again though.

 

Liked this episode quite a lot, especially Crosshair's balance - he is legitimately remorseful and mostly not as rude as he was before, but still has dignity and his words to Hunter were fair.
Parallels with The Honorable Ones episode from Rebels were quite fitting.

Probably not planned, but still a fun coincidence, especially considering parallels between Kaminoans/clones and Tleilaxu/gholas, that will most likely play an important role in Dune 3.

 

I suspect Omega told Crosshair about Tech during their time on Tantiss. I doubt she would withhold such information for months. Still, it's Echo (not) learning about Fives situation all over again. Does it make sense for them to learn it off screen? Yeah, I guess. Does this make me feel any less cheated as a viewer? Absolutely not. They could have easily shown us a talk between Omega and Crosshair and his reaction.