TV Review: ‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Season 3, Episode 9 Expands The ‘Star Wars’ Ecosystem
by Frank Martin
One of the ways that animated Star Wars has an edge up on live action is that it can easily revisit old characters and story lines. This is much harder to do with live action as it requires actors to reprise their roles. Of course, animation wants voice actors to come back and reprise their characters, too, but it’s not entirely necessary. So many characters from Star Wars: The Clone Wars have shown up in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and this week’s episode is another example of how this universe is a fully-fledged living organism that evolves over time.
As the Bad Batch tries to figure out why the Empire wants Omega (Michelle Ang), they encounter Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman), a former Separatist assassin with experience in the Force. She discloses to them that M-Count means how many Midi-chlorians an individual has in their blood. She tests Omega to see if she is Force-sensitive. After a couple of dangerous trials, she concludes that Omega is not attuned to the Force, but her M-Count is still of interest to the Empire. The Bad Batch doesn’t have any definite answers, but at least they have more information that can provide some clarity as they try to keep Omega safe.
Asajj Ventress wasn’t a major character in The Clone Wars, but she was certainly a recurring character that provided a lot of trouble for the Jedi. Now that the Clone Wars are over, the sides of war aren’t as clear cut as they were before. Ventress points out that even though the clones were her enemies, they both lost the war, which is telling about what kind of situation they both are in. Not much is known about how Ventress fits into this new era of Star Wars, but it was very interesting to see her return and what place she can hold for the future of the franchise.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch streams Wednesdays on Disney+.
