Since Crosshair turned on his brothers in the series debut, “Aftermath”, the Bad Batch has fundamentally been broken. The composition of the team has been somewhat fluid as Echo and Rex have joined them on missions but with Crosshair’s decision to remain loyal to the Empire and the shocking loss of Tech in Season 2, Clone Force 99 has simply not been whole. The truth is that they likely never will be made whole again, they will certainly fight to the last to keep what they do have together. And with Crosshair helping Omega make their way back to them with the Empire in hot pursuit, keeping her safe becomes their new mission and with the clock ticking, that means doing it under whatever conditions are necessary, even if one such condition is working with their wayward brother.
In the final season’s fifth episode, entitled “The Return”, the Batchers enlist Echo’s help to crack open Nala Se’s datapad to understand why Omega is so vital to the Empire. Despite all of Echo’s techpertise, the conclusion is drawn that it can only be accessed from inside an Imperial facility. And so it’s here where Crosshair takes his shot, telling the team of the abandoned outpost on Barton IV where the sniper faced his own existential crisis in Season 2.
After only just reuniting with Hunter and Wrecker, “The Return” puts Crosshair in the driver’s seat, adding some serious stressors to a relationship that’s already fractured. There are plenty of dangers to be faced on Barton IV, including a terrifying ice wyrm, but it proves the perfect place for Wrecker and Crosshair to work out their differences and to learn that they have quite a bit more in common than either of them realized. While they each have plenty of their own personal demons, the guilt of what has befallen Omega weighs heavily on both of them and it’s their shared concern for her well-being that allows them to bury the hatchet. Though the series is progressing toward a known conclusion (spoiler: the bad guys win), the Batch becoming whole-ish again won’t end well for the Imperials on their tail.
Once again, The Bad Batch delivers an episode where a surprising amount of character growth is accomplished while still allowing for some serious sci-fi action to take place. It’s hard to say that the broken trust between Crosshair and Hunter has been totally mended in “The Return” but if Ted Lasso taught us anything, it’s that by embracing the flaws and imperfections, something much stronger can be created.
