Star Wars: The Bad Batch (1.8) Episode Recap: The Moment We Have Been Waiting For

This is the moment we have been waiting for since the first episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Crosshair versus the Bad Batch. During last week, I lamented on how emotionally poignant the episode was. This episode built on those strengths with the most visually inventive episode since the show started this season. The action was purposeful, gripping, and drove the plot the entire episode. It started with Crosshair versus the Bad Batch but spun out their showdown into something bigger than the clones could have imagined.

I have touched on how great Dee Bradley Baker’s voice work as every clone in the series (besides Omega) is, but I think that Crosshair is my favorite of his. The voice is almost always even but contains so much rage. It matches how the show presents Crosshair visually with precision. Whenever Crosshair and the rest of the clones step off their ship, the scene is lit just by the lights from the ship cutting through the fog on the planet. It’s ominous and frightful. Dee Bradley Baker matches that intensity with each line of dialogue.

The moment that Crosshair steps off his ship into the fog is not only lasting image from this episode though. It often felt like an episode chock full of them. It has been a while since I have seen a new television show make this frequent and thoughtful use of long shots. Close-up shots are good for portraying emotion, intensity, and conversation, but the way the camera pulls back in this past episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch was inspired to say the least. Brad Rau and Stewart Lee did a marvelous job directing this episode. The long shots all serve a different function too. For instance, after Crosshair and the Bad Batch have their initial showdown and the Bad Batch is trying to escape from him, they run into a clone trooper with a flamethrower. Rather than playing this moment as cut between Wrecker (leading the Bad Batch) and the clone trooper, the camera pulls back. The music cuts out as Wrecker throws scrap at him. The scrap hits the clone trooper and knocks him out immediately as the threat is neutralized. It’s a funny gag right in the middle of a tense chase scene. It’s a small detail, but it is also starting to become indicative of how Star Wars: The Bad Batch approaches each episode. Once you start to add the small moments up, you realize that they become the identity of the show.

The second long shot that stands out in this episode is far more important to the plot. It comes right near the end of the episode and the introduction of yet another Star Wars: The Clone Wars character: Cad Bane. As Omega and Hunter are running to the ship to try and make their escape, they run into Cad Bane who has mowed down all of the clones that Crosshair sent to capture the Bad Batch’s ship. He is there to capture Omega (for whom we know but the why we do not yet). Suddenly the show leans into Star Wars connections to western movies and shows, the strings pick up, and we get a long shot of Hunter and Cad Bane with their hands on their holsters about to duel. The camera starts to cut to long shots between them. Cad in the foreground, Hunter in the background. Hunter in the foreground, Cad in the background. Shots between each fingering the trigger of their weapon, itching to make their moves. Hunter is too slow though. He gets shot. Omega cries out. Cad Bane kidnaps her. This moment lays out the Bad Batch’s next journey. But not before yet another inspired series of shots. While we don’t know what happened to Hunter after he was shot, he starts to come to as the Bad Batch call out his name. Instead of watching him awaken, we see the next minute through his eyes. As he takes off his helmet, the camera cuts to his face when he tells the Bad Batch that Cad Bane kidnapped Omega.

Now they must get her back. Since the very first episode, this group has been searching for purpose. Even in this episode, Tech mentions to Hunter that they are soldiers, that they should have followed Rex. Hunter sort of pauses, but doesn’t directly address it at that moment. The end of this episode functions as an answer to that question. They have a purpose, and it’s tied to Omega. I have written before about how the end of The Clone Wars in the Star Wars universe means they are not just soldiers anymore. This is when the Bad Batch realizes that they are more than were ever intended to be.