Max Nocerino 
This episode of The Bad Batch shows a great character foil between the cold and calculating Crosshair and the bright effervescing light that is Omega
How does a TV show like THE BAD BATCH manage to stay so basic but be so spectacular?
“A Different Approach” gives us a fun little adventure with Omega and Crosshair. They are now regarded as fugitives from their prison at Mount Tantiss and the Empire. Their ship is damaged and cannot remain in hyperspace so they end up crashlanding on a run-of-the-mill planet. The new planet even comes complete with a low-tech town full of food vendors. Ah, Star Wars. Every planet has small towns with food vendors on it. It never gets old.
CROSSHAIR
This episode shows a great character foil between the cold and calculating Crosshair (complete with an icy rasping voice) and the bright effervescing light that is Omega. Seriously, I love this kid! She’s barely 13 years old and her skills and smarts set her aside from even the most hardened soldiers and smugglers. Crosshair prefers to get results through force. But Omega doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Instead, she plans to play cards in a local cantina to raise the 30,000 credits for her and Crosshair to book passage off the planet. Omega is a card shark, but unfortunately, she beats the wrong Imperial officer.
This fellow is a portly human (all Imperial officers are human) with a cockney British accent. Moreover, he has a penchant for using veiled threats to cheat his way back to his lost credits. He’s a slimy character, but Omega plays ball and gives into this creep’s “fines” for gambling.
CREATURE FEATURE
Alongside these two unlikely allies, is the adorable Batcher; a lurca hound Omega domesticated while incarcerated on Tantiss. I have a thing for animals, and I am so glad that Batcher survived and Omega brought her with them. Batcher looks a bit like an overgrown Nuna, but there is also something sweet about her. Omega’s ability to connect with all types of beings through her love and morality brings a smile to my face. Her compassion even wins over the standoffish and crisp Crosshair. I feel that he admires her spirit. Now that he’s back in the fold, time will tell if the deep rift between him and his former teammates can be repaired. It doesn’t look like it right now, and I love the tension.
VERDICT
All in all, this episode could be considered episode filler. Season two had a brief bottleneck with that last year, but I felt this episode flowed great and the story was fun and engaging. I can’t complain. I just want more! B+
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is streaming exclusively on Disney Plus now.
FORCE FACTS
-
The spaceport worker charges 15,000 credits a head for a bribed passage on a shuttle. A total of 30,000 credits for Omega and Crosshair (Batcher rides for free). A price is rarely given in numbers in Star Wars, and I use the very first Star Wars as a measuring stick when it comes to money. 10,000- all in advance, was what Han Solo charged for passage to the Alderaan system in A New Hope. “10,000” Luke exclaims incredulously. “We could almost buy our own ship for that.” If that’s truly the case, then this is truly an OUTRAGEUS price tag, at 3x that amount. When Omega expresses her inability to prey, this spaceport worker obnoxiously replies- “That sounds like a you problem.” My god. I hate that quip. My brother was quite fond of it back in the day, and I have a mixed reaction to hearing Earth idioms, phrases, and slang in a GFFA. Oh, well. At least she didn’t say “big a-s door”.
-
The bartender droid has a slight Irish accent. Ha. That’s a little offensive, as Irish people are often stereotyped as heavy drinkers, and the droid works at a bar but Star Wars has never been shy when it came to poking fun at ethnic backgrounds. I still can’t believe they gave Kit Fisto a Jamaican accent!
-
Some of the exotic animals that Omega releases from their cages, one stood out to me. It reminded me of a dinosaur, you know the ones that look like ostriches that run fast. I was feeling some major Jurassic Park vibes, and it doesn’t end there.
-
The portly captain meets his fitting end, at the hands (or should I say tentacles) of an unseen monster in one of the bigger cages. This is a definite reference to the beginning of Jurassic Park, when the velociraptor grabs a worker and pulls him into her cage, and presumably kills him.
-
So Omega had a successful m-count transfer. Hmmm. When will we see signs of Force-sensitivity if any? Maybe that’s why she’s so good at sabacc. Force users are often banned from casinos, as we saw in the now Legends Darth Plagueis novel.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
