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

Interesting, my thoughts watching were, "at least the BB addressed the issues between them and Crosshair and didn't pull an Ashoka and ignore the elephant in the room." Suppose I assumed Omega told Crosshair about Tech, based on his, "of course he did", comment when Omega told him that Tech made her memorize Imperial something or other.

 

They pulled half-Ahsoka on us It's good that the conflict between Hunter and Crosshair was the focal point of the episode. It was bad, however, to start the episode on the next day, or even later, considering that they had to get to Pabu, and it seems like Crosshair practiced shooting at AZI more than once, judging by his "shooting accuracy today" comment. You left me on a cliffhanger for an entire week, only to skip it. Not cool. I wanted to see their first interaction, the first words they'd say to each other after all that time and everything that's happened. That cliffhanger with the absolute dead stare as they see each other, and then you cut to black, only to skip how it went? The same thing about Tech's death. Many speculated that Omega simply never told him, because surely, they'd show such an important revelation and Crosshair's reaction on-screen. But no. They didn't. It happened off-screen. We never saw Omega's first interaction with Crosshair, since S3 started weeks after she arrived to Tantiss. We never saw Crosshair's first and immediate reaction to Tech's death. It kinda sucks.

 

I have been thinking about Crosshair's aim issues and I'm starting to think its a side effect of having the midi-chlorians removed from his body from all the blood tests.

I think part of the reason why he has always been a good shot was because he was unconuiously using the force when aiming

 

Nah. It's most likely psychological/PTSD after everything he went through since The Outpost, and essentially losing his life's purpose of being a soldier, which is reflected through him losing his only skill that allowed him to fulfill that purpose and made him superior to the other clones. That is what makes most sense for his character arc.

He was a good shot because he was genetically altered to be one with specific mutations to his DNA. Just as Wrecker is big and strong, because he was genetically altered with specific mutations to his DNA to be big and strong. And so on with the rest of the Batch. They are clones with desirable mutations.

 

I think Crosshair is heading for a Roy Batty ending.

 

I'm starting to get the feeling that there is going to be a big reveal regarding the true nature of not just why Omega was cloned but the Bad Batch in general

 

6/10

I figured some time would've passed for the beginning, so no disappointment there. The guys had a visibly tense reunion, probably not much literal communication, and then they all went to Pabu (Crosshair likely sitting on his own during the trip). By extension, I don't think Crosshair would've had some dramatic reaction to learning of Tech's death, probably a sigh and some internal reflection, which then would've been criticized as insufficiently emotional. Meanwhile I'm sad that Ryloth was only used as a nice backdrop, and still possibly leading to a greater Imperial presence there as a result.

On the rest of this episode, I like Crosshair's interaction with Omega again, and the moment with Wrecker giving him the armor. Crosshair being in that gear again is a nice visual contrast to the others given his circumstances. I also like his quiet moments on Barton IV (a good place to revisit), and the image of him ultimately returning to the base with Hunter. That brings up my main issue, though. I may be missing something, but Hunter's just not all that engaging -- less interesting than Crosshair, less entertaining (and interesting, perhaps) than Wrecker -- and having him in the central conflict here doesn't have much impact for me.

The monster element isn't terrible, but it doesn't help. I know next to nothing about Dune, so to me the wyrm seems like a Krayt dragon variant, and with a less interesting sequence than that of The Marshal. So the episode ends up being just good.

 

Yeah, and that contrivance makes it even worse, IMO. This is a good animated show, but these kinds of repetitive elements are getting beyond tiresome.

 

I’m not disagreeing.

Side note: while I really enjoyed the Hunter-Crosshair interaction, the one thing that bugged me about their interaction was the shot of Crosshair shoving Hunter, followed by Hunter clenching his fist. They’re then interrupted by the monster, the implication being that it would’ve escalated into a physical fight. The only adults capable of talking about feelings and disagreements without it escalating into some form of physical violence, in this universe, it seems are Jedi.

 

That said, apart from another monster of the week thing (and yeah, Hunter pushing Crosshair stupidly), I thought the episode was quite beautiful. Great shot compositions and lighting. I also really like the ship they're using now.

And I, for one, applaud the decision to not show their very first meeting with Crosshair. Don't think that would've been particularly interesting. I liked how they started with the awkwardness of Crosshair having been back with them for a bit, which also created some tension and anxiety about what was going on, and how much trust had been built or not. Made the drama less obvious, and better, IMO.

 

In fairness, these are designer soldiers who are used to fighting. So I am not sure clones are the best group to look to as likely examples of talking something out instead of coming to blows.

 

That was my assumption as well but I would have liked them to actually add the scene

 

I wonder if they wrote the scene, looked it over and said, "Nah, this is lame, let's just skip ahead a few days instead."