Review: ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Episode Eight – ‘Reunion’

Wrecker and Omega in The Bad Batch

Star Wars: The Bad Batch continues to impress audiences with its newest installment. After a few bottle episodes that had the only purpose of building up character and their dynamics, we are now in the meat of the show. After last week’s Rex appearance, the plot continues to ramp up and our heroes continue to get into another thrilling adventure. Let’s get into this, first talking about the episode in general terms, and then we’ll get into the spoilers.

 

Reunion was directed by Steward Lee, and written by Christian Taylor, with Matt Michnovetz credited as the story editor. With that title, one can already expect that there will be a non-friendly meeting between our heroes and their former ally Crosshair, and the episode does not wait a second of its screen time — we are immediately thrown into the Kamino headquarters, with Crosshair showing his face for the first time since the third episode.

 

The Bad Batch are still on the same planet where we left them last week, Bracca, and when the Empire arrives, lead by Crosshair, things quickly escalate and we are presented with a breathtaking confrontation between the two helmeted forces. Let’s talk all about it!

 

Spoilers ahead!

 

The Bad Batch: Reunion

 

While we all want to talk about that final appearance in the episode, let’s start from the beginning. Bombs and explosives are a big theme in this episode — the episode opens with Wrecker showing Omega how to disarm a thermal detonator (which seems to be everybody’s favorite Star Wars explosive these days), and then, when she fails, we quickly see that it’s not a real detonator. It would have been interesting if they managed to write a parallel scene to this in the heat of the battle, later in the episode, where Omega would be forced to disarm one of these detonators to save her friends. That ultimately didn’t happen, but explosives did make a comeback later in the episode.

 

 

Right after that, Wrecker, Echo and Omega find a group of three scrappers spying on them, the same ones (we assume) that reported the clones’ presence to the Empire. Notice that this was crucial to the story because it gives our characters a sense of urgency, as they now realize they need to get off the planet as soon as possible. However, they can’t go back with their hands empty, so they must clear off their debt with Syd. Good news! If they turn into arm smugglers and sell the intel from the ship’s central system, they will succeed at that. Both of these side missions will turn out very relevant later on, which is what makes this episode so well threaded.

 

 

When they go to the artillery bay, Wrecker is able to grab a proton torpedo, which will turn out really useful later, when he crushes a stormtrooper that had them surrounded with it. The most interesting part of this small part of the episode happens in the bridge, where Tech is able to turn the ship back online. This part is essential both because of this and because when Omega shows up, they are both able to see Crosshair’s arrival, which buys them a bit of time.

 

 

It is fantastic to see how the creators of the show are exploiting the fact that these two rival forces know each other very well, to the point they worked together for years. Crosshair quickly realizes that his former friends are in that ship, and doesn’t buy the trap they left for the stormtroopers. The Empire quickly surrounds the Bad Batch, and you guessed it, they get out using explosives as a distraction. The Bad Batch manage to escape and get to the engine of the ship, which they at first thought was disabled.

 

Here, Tech’s side mission from earlier in the episode turns out really relevant, as now the Empire can turn on the engine and rewrite the ending of Toy Story 3 (spoiler alert). However, the story is not rewritten, and much like in that movie, the crew is able to escape alive. And you guessed it, they do it using explosives! In fact, they succeed at it to the point that they are both able to escape and defeat their enemies. Crosshair falls to the ground and manages to order the stormtrooper in the bridge to turn it off, right before he is turned into fried chicken. He passes out right after.

 

Crosshair in The Bad Batch

 

It was clear by now we were getting to the end of the episode, but Brad Rau and his team couldn’t resist giving us one final surprise. Waiting for Hunter and Omega is none other than Cad Bane, a fan-favorite bounty hunter from The Clone Wars. He last showed up in season 7, which aired last year, but the character has been missing in the post-The Clone Wars era for a while. He was supposed to be killed off by young Boba Fett in an episode that never aired of the original show, and that some people considered canon (an unfinished version of this scene can be found on YouTube). It will be interesting to see the response from the fanbase to this reveal, and whether or not they still consider that canon — maybe it happened after the events of The Bad Batch? Maybe we see it in live-action, in The Book of Boba Fett?

 

 

Cad Bane’s return was kind of foreshadowed earlier in the episode when two of the Kaminoans talked about needing another bounty hunter for the job so that the Empire doesn’t compromise their plans on Bracca. In plain words, the Kaminoans want Omega back for reasons we still don’t know they don’t want the Empire to know, and therefore, hired both Fennec Shand to go after her. When Crosshair displayed his forces on Bracca, they decided to hire Bane to get Omega once and for all.

 

Cad Bane vs. Hunter in The Bad Batch

 

With now Omega going back to Kamino, we can expect next week’s episode to be about The Bad Batch trying to get her back, and also, we as an audience getting some answers about who she is and what exactly is her place in the galaxy.

 

Credits

 

While we wait for that, make sure to check out James Baney’s spoiler review of The Bad Batch: Reunion, right here:

 

 

See you next week!

 

 

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Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.

Miguel Fernandez

Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.

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