Review: Star Wars The Bad Batch “Bounty Lost”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When Cad Bane captures Omega, the Bad Batch sets off on a rescue mission to get her back. Meanwhile, Omega attempts to escape and discovers the shocking truth about her existence.

Our Take:

A show’s mid-season usually finds a way to kick things into high gear. The Bad Batch is no exception, as it began the first season’s second half with a rescue mission. After ending the first half of season one with Cad Bane capturing Omega and injuring Hunter, the ninth episode picked up where we left off with the Batch escaping from Crosshair and attempting to rescue Omega from Bane.

While this episode centered on the Batch finding her, it focused solely on Omega and her attempt to break free from Bane’s clutches and signal her friends. The series continued to showcase Omega’s capability to defend herself despite being a damsel in distress and display more of her origins in a simple yet intriguing way. As it turns out, Omega is an unmodified replication of Jango Fett, which makes her the perfect source for fresh cloning material. The way it introduced this fact helped raise the stakes for the upcoming episodes regarding her role in the series.

Along with Omega’s development, the episode offered plenty of action and tiny bits of humor to craft a solid start to the show’s second half. The comedy came from Bane’s service droid Todo 360 (voiced by Robot Chicken voice actor Seth Green) trying to fix his leg and helping him capture Omega. The action segment, on the other hand, was where the episode really took off. In addition to Cad Bane, who made an appearance in last week’s episode, the chapter also saw the return of Fennec Shand, who killed Taun We and was hired by Nala Se to retrieve Omega. At least it didn’t rely on the guest-of-the-week formula again. It’s a bounty hunter showdown between Fennec and Bane, which happened to be the best part of the episode, in my opinion. While it’s not as memorable and intense as the fight sequences in the final season of The Clone Wars, it’s still a solid action scene to watch, thanks to its animation and direction. Plus, you still can’t go wrong with Ming-Na Wen’s performance as Fennec.

Overall, the “Bounty Lost” episode is nowhere near as lost as the bounty. This was a strong beginning of the first season’s second half due to its plot and the bounty hunter battle royal. Seeing how valuable Omega is now that she had discovered the truth, this created a perfect excuse for the Batch to protect her at all cost. If the rest of the episodes continue to build up from what this chapter offered regarding its high stakes, the show could reach the same status as The Clone Wars in no time.