By George & Josh Bate
The Bad Batch revisited the location of one of the best episodes of Star Wars animation in this week’s episode. Check out all of the easter eggs, references, and hidden details we noticed in The Bad Batch – Season 3, Episode 5: “The Return” below:
The episode – “The Return” – shares the same name as the Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian
The episode begins with a parallel to the start of Season 3. Season 3 Episode 1 opened with shots of Omega waking up in a cold, dark environment while trapped on Tantiss. This contrasts Omega in Season 3 Episode 5 where she wakes up in a warm, brighter environment now that she is reunited with the rest of the Bad Batch.
In this shot of the Bad Batch speaking on Pabu, a chair is notably empty at the table, symbolizing the place Tech used to have in the team (insert crying emoji here).
The episode largely takes place on Barton IV, which is the same icy planet the Season 2 episode “The Outpost” took place on. “The Return” serves as an epilogue, of sorts, to “The Outpost” and features a variety of visual callbacks to the Season 2 episode, including shots of a bird flying over Crosshair’s head symbolic of his growing distance from the Empire.
The bird that flies over Crosshair’s head appears to have crystals that are similar to the Vulptex (aka crystal critters) in The Last Jedi. They are described as “ice vultures” in the script for the episode.
Crosshair honors the fallen Clones Mayday, Hexx, and Veetch from “The Outpost” by placing their clone helmets on a box. This memorial mirrors how Mayday honored fallen clones in “The Outpost.”
Symbolizing Crosshair’s gradual reintegration into the Bad Batch, Crosshair is seen with a toothpick again for the first time since leaving the Empire.
Omega calls Crosshair “baby brother,” which is a reference to the fact that Omega is a clone without accelerated aging and, conversely, Crosshair and the other Bad Batch members have accelerated aging. This means that, for every one year Omega ages, they age two years.
The monster-of-the-week is called a Wyrm, which shares its name with Sith Wyrms from Legends. The Wyrm resembles the sandworms in the recently released Dune: Part Two in their shared ability to travel underground and emerge above ground. According to StarWars.com, the ice wyrms “are much less active in the coldest seasons, which is why it never attacked when Crosshair was stationed at the snowy base in Season 2. If you compare the weather patterns in this episode to ‘The Outpost,’ you can see that Barton IV is now experiencing a slightly warmer season.”
Stay tuned to The HoloFiles and Star Wars Holocron for continued coverage of The Bad Batch!