Bounty Lost (The Bad Batch - S01E09) - Animated Series

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"You are a prisoner and are not to be trusted!" SPOILERS.

Omega passed James T. Kirk's course "Advanced reasoning with artificial intelligence" with flying colors

In last week's episode Omega was captured by the bounty hunter Cad Bane. But The Bad Batch doesn't waste any time and immediately resolves the situation in "Bounty Lost". But the episode also further advances the plot and finally the Bad Batch have more or less a full picture of what is going on, only some details are still missing. The Bad Batch finally find out (Tech finds out, of course) that Omega is actually a 1st generation clone, i.e. she is a perfect clone of Jango Fett, her genetic material was not tampered with, there is no added obedience or accelerated growth. She is just like Boba Fett, maybe a few years younger, but not by much. And the Bad Batch also figure out that only the Kaminoans can have an interest in Omega. Yet another matter resolved. More and more puzzle pieces are added to the full picture.

An old cloning facility

"Bounty Lost" is, just like last week's episode more or less a game of cat and mouse. As it turns out Omega is really good at sweet talking droids (or maybe she's a niece of James T. Kirk who inherited some of his talents) and she successfully convinces To-Do, Cad Bane's droid, to release her from the cell, so she can help him fix his broken leg. Which she does. But she also deactives him in the process, making her escape. However, Cad Bane has already arrived at some old Kamino cloning facility to hand over Omega to a Kaminoan and to receive his payment and so there's no easy way out.

Fennec Shand, a successful graduate of the Rey Palpatine school for strong female characters

Things are further complicated when Fennec Shand arrives on the scene. A suspicion I've had for some time now has turned out to be true. While Lama Su wants Omega's genetic material and then dispose of her (i.e. he wants her dead), Nala Se has apparently developed an attachment to Omega and absolutely doesn't want her dead. So she hired Fennec Shand to rescue Omega from Cad Bane. And just as Cad captures Omega again, Fennec enters the scene and in the confusion and fighting Omega manages to escape once more.

Don't worry, these are not Snokes, just several alien species, including a Kaminoan

We are then treated to a battle of skill and wits between Fennec, the brand new bounty hunter, and Cad Bane, the seasoned veteran. The end result is more or less a draw, but with major advantages for Fennec. Fennec manages to knock out Cad Bane out cold, somewhat later Cad Bane manages to knock out Fennec for a few seconds, ultimately Fennec disposes of Cad by tying him up with bolo ties and pushing him over a guardrail. This gives her more than enough time to make her exit. Cad Bane has booster rockets in his boots, so he easily flies back up, but by then both Omega and Fennec are gone.

Roasted desert fox won't be on the menu today after all

Between the several encounters with Cad Bane Fennec tracks down Omega, it is then that Fennec reveals to Omega that Lama Su's plans for Omega are less than pleasant and she also tells Omega that she only wants to help her. Omega however has learned her previous lesson and doesn't trust Fennec. She manages to release one of the huge clone tanks that falls on Fennec, taking her out long enough for Omega to escape. Omega had also managed to contact the Bad Batch with her communicator before, but the signal was too weak for the Bad Batch to track her down. Cad Bane, after he first recaptures her, destroyed Omega's communicator, but she manages to find a com console in the cloning facility and this allows the Bad Batch to track Omega down. So after successfully escaping from both Cad Bane and Fennec Shand Omega finds an escape pod and is picked up by the Bad Batch who arrive just in time for the rescue.

Family reunion

Reunited with her friends and family Omega is distressed and on the verge of tears, Echo convinces Hunter that he has to tell Omega the truth. So he reveals to her that she is different and extremely valuable to the Kaminoans. Omega fears the bounty hunters will never stop coming after them, but Hunter reassures her that she will never get back to Kamino and that she has the Bad Batch.

Nala Se, surrogate mother of the year

And towards the end of the episode it is finally revealed that Nala Se did indeed hire Fennec and that she has Omega's wellbeing in mind and doesn't want her killed by Lama Su. Fennec offers her services but for now Nala Se is content that Omega is not in the hands of Lama Su and therefore safe.

"Bounty Lost" was yet another very solid Bad Batch episode. However, you definitely shouldn't overthink certain details. The big question is: if Omega is indeed a pure clone of Jango Fett, unaltered, how come she is female? This is not how cloning works. Of course it would be possible to make a female Jango clone, since males have both the X and Y chromosome, just copy the X chromosome and delete the Y chromosome and you have female Jango, but the other big question is: why would the Kaminoans bother to make a female clone of Jango which is an added complication? Does Omega's gender play a crucial role for whatever phase II is? If not the showrunners have some good explaining to do as to why Omega is female. Her name is also no coincidence. Boba is revealed to be the alpha clone, whereas Omega is, well the omega clone. Beginning and end, so Omega is "the end", as in, the final, ultimate Jango Clone?

The episode went out of its way not to nerf Cad Bane too much, even so Fennec more or less has the upper hand in the end, even if it's technically a draw. How a rookie bounty hunter can be a match for the seasoned Cad Bane is certainly somewhat surprising. But for entertainment purposes Fennec needs to hold her own of course, or else the episode wouldn't work. Maybe Fennec is just a bounty hunter prodigy. Too bad then that some wannabe bounty hunter shoots her and leaves her for dead a few decades later.

And as suspected not all Kaminoans pursue the same plans. Lama Su and Nale Se are at odds when it comes to Omega's fate. Nala Se has evidently formed an attachment to Omega. And since she's a 1st generation Jango clone with no alterations, she is actually 10 (more or less) years old or so (Omega's exact age is unknown), meaning she spent a lot of time on Kamino with Nala Se. More than enough time to grow fond of the child.

Now it would certainly be interesting to see what Boba would do if he finds out he has an actual younger "sister", who is just like him. Since he was mentioned by name I venture a guess and say that Boba may eventually make an appearance on the show.

Ultimately the Bad Batch will have to go to Kamino to resolve matters once and for all, because Omega is right when she says that they will keep sending bounty hunters after her. And we still need to find out what "phase II" really is and whether or not Omega is really a true Jango clone (female or not) or if she does have some added abilities after all. The show goes out if its way to highlight Omega's intelligence and perceptiveness again and again, unless Jango was some kind of genius this may be something the Kaminoans added and which may be of importance later.

All in all the episode was fun, if you can overlook some contrivances and tropes (Omega duping To-Do is a prime example here). The sense of deja vu in this episode was also quite strong, since we have seen similar things like clones in tanks or kids as science experiments before. At least the Bad Batch now have an almost complete picture of things and can make further plans. Let's see where the Bad Batch will take us next.