The Bad Batch S3E4 presents...Dr. Omega-Little.
What do captive animals and Crosshair have in common?
The Short Take:
With a major turn of events that was at once heart-melting and tense, this episode holds family drama in the season’s sniper sights. This one’s for the animal lovers out there.
[SPOILER WARNING: This Long Take will contain details about the events of The Bad Batch Season 3 Episode 4.]
Image Credit: Wookieepedia
The Long Take:
I haven’t yet read or listened to any discussions of this week’s “A Different Approach,” but I suspect everyone’s going to be talking about the reunion of Crosshair and Omega with Wrecker and Hunter at the conclusion of the episode. Even if you were trying to be offbeat in your takes, it would be nigh impossible to ignore all the big feels this moment wrought.
At least for me, my emotions began to swell the second Omega ran across to the Marauder to hug Wrecker. Tears then formed once Hunter said that they’d never stopped searching for her. Even if, measured by the number episodes, it hasn’t been very long since they had separated, this moment had all the catharsis of the narrative time that had actually passed.
I know I praise Kevin Kiner’s talent a lot, but he has time and time again elevated this series from action adventure to a much deeper family drama. Going back to rewatch just this one scene (which was a bad idea — the tears came back almost immediately!), I noticed that the music is tiered and timed perfectly to the different stages of the reunion. When Omega and Crosshair are landing their ship, not knowing if Hunter and Wrecker are there waiting, it’s quiet, contemplative, almost despondent, yet still with that faint chime of childhood innocence. Then, once Omega sees Wrecker, the big, sweeping orchestral music starts, recalling how epic and extraordinary not only Omega’s ability to find Wrecker and Hunter against all odds is, but how amazing the broader story of the Bad Batch really is as well. Finally, it’s Hunter’s turn.
And, again, perfectly timed with his hug with Omega is the triumphant refrain of Omega’s theme. That’s such a smart choice because, as the dialogue also establishes, Omega is the one who found Hunter and Wrecker, not the other way around. This really is her hero’s journey to get back to the family she loves. More broadly, the phased build up of the score here does everything to support the emotional beats and give this touching moment the time and space it needs.
Image Credit: StarWars.com
This momentous scene is much more complicated than that, of course. The rush of the warm and fuzzies, the release and relief of hope restored, quickly dissipates as Crosshair emerges from the shadows, and all of the tension created by their tragic, conflict-ridden parting comes flooding back. As many mentioned after the premiere — and I’m probably thinking specifically of Coffee With Kenobi’s review of the premiere episodes, featuring Greg M and Mason Z — it was nice to root for Crosshair for a change. As such, I had quickly forgotten that just because we, the viewers, have seen his rejection of the Empire and just because we, the viewers, have seen Omega embrace him as her own family in spite of it all, that doesn’t mean the other characters have forgiven or forgotten. Far from it, it seems.
Kiner’s score similarly told me everything I needed to know about the current dynamics between these characters because the tone swings so quickly from triumphant and tender to dark and ominous, with an emphasis on low strings (what I assume is a cello). I look forward to seeing what happens next and what the long road to mending these relationships looks like.
Once I wipe my tears away and unclench my jaw, I wonder: how did we get here? How did this episode properly set up this moment? Because it instinctively feels like it did.
The answer is in the creatures. Sure, the lovable, ugly-cute Batcher appears to be a merchandising play — a quick and easy way to make a buck off me as I walk down a Target aisle with my kids. But she also serves as a way to test Crosshair, to see if he really has changed. If his heart has really softened. In the premiere episodes, especially when they make their escape, he seems to be listening to Omega a lot. He is amusingly crabby about it, but begrudgingly trusts her when she says she has a plan or is going to come up with one along the way. But there’s no quicker way to endear a character to me and allow me to forget all their past transgressions than to show them being nice to an animal. See John Wick, who can without hesitation murder a man with a pencil, but he’s just loves his puppy so much!
Image Credit: StarWars.com
Ever since the Season 1 finale, I have thought that the pairing of Crosshair with Omega, especially through the dialogue written for their conversations, have been among the best in the series. I always know that every time they converse, these two characters will bring about some kind of ethical or existential dialectic. Back on Kamino, as the walls crumbled and their home fell into the tumultuous sea, it was Omega who seemed to give him pause when she, with grace, told him that it wasn’t too late. And that he wasn’t a bad guy. This episode was no different because there is a constant push and pull between how Crosshair wants to shoot now and ask questions later, and Omega, in contrast, insists on trying to minimize casualties and try, as the episode title says, “A Different Approach.”
What Wrecker and Hunter know is that he passes this test with flying colors. He not only goes along with Omega’s relative pacifism until it is no longer sustainable, but he actively goes back to rescue Batcher. And then he helps Omega set all the creatures free! This scene’s odd Noah’s arc vibes made me laugh at first. We recently got an animal liberation in the new Percy Jackson series on Disney+, and I briefly wondered if this was just a trendy thing to have in your show right now. I eventually, though, began to consider what experimental horrors Omega saved all these creatures from. And that this is an effective way to show how large a scale the Imperial Science Division is operating on.
That is what then brought me back to Crosshair and the other Imperial Clones as commodities abused by the Empire. Just like the creatures in captivity, the Clones are being experimented upon on Mt. Tantiss. And Omega is the one who recognizes them both. Recognizes the good in both Batcher and Crosshair.
Image Credit: StarWars.com
It is very possible that this Dr. Dolittle scene represents the completion of Crosshairs existential transformation. The increased self-awareness that allows him to eschew the Empire once and for all, and, more importantly, regain his personhood.
The big question is, though: will Hunter and Wrecker believe that he has done so? Will they believe Omega when she says he has changed? [Cue cliched language that explicitly points to this as episodic storytelling.]
Apologies for the shorter Long Take this week. With Dune: Part Two coming out last weekend and the Oscars coming up this weekend, I have been podcasting overtime!