Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 9 “Bounty Lost” – Answers Some Questions and Creates New Ones by Adam D. Slobodzian
This week was another great episode of the Bad Batch where we begin to see what the Kaminoans have in store for Omega, and why she is so significant to their cloning operations. We also get to see some great Bounty Hunter vs. Bounty Hunter action sequences and a fascinating glimpse at an abandoned cloning facility.
Again, this week began right where we left off with the Bad Batch trying to escape Bracca while being pursued by a very injured Crosshair, where they jump to hyperspace in search of Omega.
Meanwhile, aboard Cad Bane’s cruiser, we catch up with Omega who is being held captive by Bane and an injured Todo 360. Bane is in communication with the Kaminoan Prime Minister who sent him out to retrieve Omega, and we get an indication of the conflict between the Kaminoans. We see that Lama Su has a soft spot for Omega which the Prime Minister believes has gotten in the way of their contingency plans. The Prime Minister instead sends Taun We to meet Cad Bane on their abandoned cloning facility on Bora Vio to deliver payment to Bane and retrieve Omega for the Kaminoans. Among this exchange we hear that the Prime Minister of Kamino intends to extract Omega’s DNA for future cloning purposes, then eliminate her.
In this episode we get another glimps at Omega’s cunning ability to adapt and survive where she tricks Todo 360 into letting her out of her cell, where she is then able to fix and disable Todo 360 then retrieve her comm device and escape into the Bora Vio cloning facility in the clouds.
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Back on the Marauder we catch up with the Bad Batch who are trying to locate Omega and identify Cad Bane, where Tech begins to answer some key questions on why Omega is so important to the Kaminoans cloning plans. Omega has first generation Jango Fett DNA, which the Kaminoans need to develop their Phase 3 plans, because they have exhausted their ability to continue using Jango’s DNA from other clones. Tech also reveals that there only TWO first generation clones that were not developed to be fast growing obedient soldiers, and these two are Omega, and Alpha who was later renamed Boba—as in Boba Fett, our favorite scarlacc pit escaping bounty hunter!
Back on Bora Vio Omega is able to make contact with the Batch who are unable to find her location without more power, and before she is able to boost her signal, Cad Bane catches up with her. Behind them, a blaster is fired and Taun We is on the ground where we see none other than Fennec Shand who is responsible for killing the Kaminoan.
Fennec Shand is back!
That’s right, Fennec Shand is back and she is responsible for disrupting the bounty on Omega. Many may remember Fennec Shand from The Mandalorian causing Mando some trouble, and later teaming up with the other first-generation clone, and original trilogy favorite Boba Fett. It is really cool to see another character make the jump from live action to animation and/or vice versa. We get to see a series of very good fight sequences between Cad Bane and Fennec Shand as Omega escapes through the cloning facilities to send a signal to the Batch and escape the bounty hunters.
This is a super interesting scene where we see Omega find several abandoned cloning tubes with different alien species, possibly unwanted Kaminoan experiments, left in vats of green liquid. Fennec Shand then reveals she was sent to protect Omega, and that the Kaminoan Prime Minister has terrible plans in store for her, which is implied to be a life of cloning experimentation like we see in the abandoned cloning tubes in the background. After another tussle between Fennec Shand, Cad Bane, and Todo 360, Omega is able to getaway into an escape pod where the Bad Batch rescues her and makes the jump away from Bora Vio.
The Exciting Stuff
Cloning Tanks – Seeing the abandoned cloning tanks was another interesting insight into the Kaminoan operations over time, with several different species (experiments) being left in the tanks. This is again another insight into how important cloning is in the SW Universe as the Republic, the Empire, and the Final Order used Clones in different ways to achieve their goals.
Shand vs. Bane – It was interesting to see how evenly matched these two bounty hunters were given the fact that Cad Bane has taken on some of the most powerful Jedi during the Clone Wars. It did look like Cad Bane had a metal plate attached to his head at the beginning of the episode, is this an injury that may be slowing him down slightly?
What Next?
– Will we get to see Boba? Now that we know the significance of Boba and Omega, will Boba make an appearance before we get to see him again in The Book of Boba Fett?
– What are the phase 3 plans for clones? What do the Kaminoans have in store for future generations of clones to keep the empire interested once they have First Generation DNA from Omega?
– Omega and Grogu, a similar intended fate? It seems like Omega and Grogu (Baby Yoda) are trying to escape very similar fates of ending up as cloning experiments or source material for future clones.
In the conclusion of this episode, we see that Lama Su was the one that hired Fennec Shand to protect Omega, and we see a touching scene between Hunter and Omega, where Hunter promises Omega that they will never go back to Kamino.
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Adam D. Slobodzian
Not only is Adam, aka Darth Slobo, a lifelong Star Wars fan, he is also PhD a Candidate in Marketing at Smith School of Business.
