Review: A Clone Wars favorite returns in this week's excellent Bad Batch episode

Star Wars: The Bad Batch finally figured out what M-count means in this week's new episode, "The Harbinger," but it's unclear what they'll do with this information moving forward.

At the end of last week's episode, the Bad Batch convinced Fennec Shand to make a call to an unknown bounty hunter to shed some light on what M-count means. This bounty hunter turns out to be Asajj Ventress, the former Separatist commander and apprentice of Count Dooku. This is a character we haven't seen since The Clone Wars TV show. She last appeared in 2020 when Disney released season 7 of the animated show. Long story short, she used to be a bad guy, but now she's a bounty hunter who doesn't trust anybody.

Unlike last week, Ventress thankfully gets straight to the point and tells the Clones that if you have a high M-count, it means that you're more likely to be force-sensitive. Plain and simple, thank you for not stretching this out for three episodes. Since the Empire is hunting down Omega, she thinks that she is a Jedi and the Empire wants to kill her. Ironically, Dr. Hemlock initially only wanted Omega because she meant something to his scientist Nala Se, but the initial episodes of season 3 saw the Empire learn about Omega's high M-count, so now she is like, double valuable to them. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Darth Vader knocked on their door.

Ventress agrees to do some tests on Omega to see if she is capable of wielding the Force, but the Clones find out that she is a former Separatist war criminal pretty quickly. They send Omega out of the room before telling Ventress to scram, which is a big mistake because she wipes the floor with them. I like how this fight scene wasn't just Ventress pulling out her lightsaber and the fight is over. The three brothers come together and fight on behalf of Omega and they don't back down, even when it's clear that Ventress could end the fight whenever she wants to. It's also really satisfying to see Crosshair fight with the rest of the group again.

She doesn't kill them though, because she isn't part of the Empire and she recognizes that they were all played like a fiddle in the Clone Wars. She sticks around and puts Omega through a dangerous test that almost gets her eaten by a sea monster. Ventress saves Omega's life before the rest of the crew scoops them in the ship.

At the end, Ventress lies to Omega so she can stay with the Clones, which is pretty touching when you think about it. Ventress clearly develops an affinity for Omega and honestly the entire group, and she doesn't want to see them go down a harmful path. So she lies and tells Omega that she isn't force sensitive, knowing that she would have to be trained if she knew the truth, and be separated from Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair in the process. She tells them to leave and go into hiding because the Empire won't stop hunting them.

There's a small chance they follow this advice, because we don't know the fate of the Bad Batch. We know that Rex and his crew want to free the Clones on Mount Tantis, but it remains to be seen if the Bad Batch will join them on this suicide mission. All we know is that Rex, Gregor and Wolfe survive and go into hiding. Who's to say the Bad Batch doesn't do the same thing? Given the events of this episode, it would also be interesting to see if Omega eventually becomes Ventress' companion/apprentice. Ventress made a jape about taking Omega off their hands, and honestly, there aren't many people better to train her in the ways of the Force, at least no one that the Bad Batch know of.

Canonically, this episode throws a wrench into Ventress' story. In the book Dark Disciple, Ventress seemingly dies to save her lover Quinlon Vos. However, it is teased that her body was resurrected by Nightsister Magic, which is seemingly confirmed in this episode. Ventress alludes to this in the final moments of the episode where she tells Hunter and Crosshair that she still has a few lives left. This episode had a lot of good stuff that encourages thought-provoking speculation about the future of these characters.

Episode Grade: A-