Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3 Episode 9 “The Harbinger” Recap & Review

“The Harbinger”

In Star Wars: The Bad Batch, “The Harbinger”, the batch anxiously awaits intel from Fennec Shand. Omega and Batcher the hound explore a cave and find a ship. The fearsome, ex-sith apprentice, Asajj Ventress appears out of the darkness and lunges towards Omega. Hunter, Crosshair, and Wrecker approach the cave, and Ventress returns Omega freely.

At long last, Ventress explains the Empire’s mysterious “M-count” experiments. M stands for Midichlorians, the particles that help Force-sensitives wield the Force. Omega has a large M-count that the Empire wants to gain from her blood. While the batch doubts her intentions, Ventress tests Omega for Force-sensitivity.

While Omega retrieves a flower from the top of the mountain on Pabu, the Batch attacks Ventress. Omega returns and stops the fight. Ventress hints at her long and complicated story, but insists she’s not an enemy and backs off. Omega convinces the others to give Ventress a chance. She continues testing Omega in the ways of the Force.

Omega doesn’t take to the testing methods because she doesn’t understand the Force. Ventress demonstrates her power by summoning a school of glowing fish. Unfortunately, she also unwittingly summons a giant sea monster. The creature nearly eats them, but Ventress uses the Force to calm the beast, saving Omega in the process. The batch flies to rescue them and become more willing to trust Ventress.

Strangely, as M-count connects to Force ability, Omega does not show any natural ability. Crosshair and Hunter can tell she’s being withholding. However, Ventress makes it clear that the most important fact is that the Empire won’t stop hunting Omega.

The Episode Review

“The Harbinger” feels short, sweet, and to the point. The shroud of mystery around the Empire’s experiments gained a delightfully predictable layer of complication. Ventress’s return avoids the trap of standing in an awkward “remember her” shot. Simply, the show presents her as a force-sensitive, ‘separatist assassin.’ This is, after all, from a narrow perspective in a big galaxy.

The scope and scale of the conflict feel appropriate. The central question of the show remains, what exactly does the Empire want with Omega? For fans who know Ventress from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, this is a satisfying evolution of her character.

The animation has gotten good enough to show a deep level of emotional expression alongside the vocal performances. Her yellow lightsaber helps display her kind heart, but her voice and cold philosophy convey her long and complicated history. It’s quite wonderful to see her essentially doing her part to keep the culture and ways of the Jedi alive, if only slightly.

The way that the plot plunges forward is noticeably improved in this episode. The A-story is finally strong enough to excuse the often rushed side stories. Many fans may know what these experiments are aiming for, who Fennec reached out to in the last episode, and that Omega hasn’t really shown any natural force ability. So, retrieving a flower wasn’t her brand of task.

The inevitable, episodic conflict was motivated by strong core character actions. You would expect the men to be wary of Ventress and for Ventress not to care enough to fully guide them. The deeper “scientific” nature of these highly guarded, fictional experiments might be beyond the realm of logic to predict. However, it’s fair to say things may not be as simple as they seem.