[Warning: Article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Episode 9 – ‘The Harbinger.’ Read on if you’ve seen the episode!] Star Wars characters sure do have a way of coming back from the dead, don’t they? The latest resurrection, of course, comes by way of The Bad Batch Season 3, Episode 9, ‘The Harbinger.’ Fennec Shad was true to her word and connected Clone Force 99 to someone who could help explain “M Count,” and perhaps why the Empire is so interested in Omega. Shockingly, that contact turns out to be none other than Asajj Ventress – raising eyebrows, and questions.
Ventress was, in this humble writer’s opinion, one of the best, most complex, and intriguing characters of the entirety of The Clone Wars animated series. An abandoned padawan, the Nightsister of Dathomir became Count Dooku’s apprentice. She later learned how fickle the Dark Side could be, however. Dooku also abandoned her, leaving her to forge her own path and, perhaps, finally create an identity of her own. But how is it she comes to appear in The Bad Batch? Asajj Ventress, as a lot of us know, died during the events of the novel ‘Dark Disciple.’
Star Wars: The Bad Batch – somehow, Ventress returned
Having perished at the hands of Dooku to save the life of Quinlan Vos, Ventress had seemingly completed the redemption arc she was meant to have had in the cancelled, then-final season of The Clone Wars. Obi Wan Kenobi and Vos returned her to the depths of a ceremonial pool on Dathomir. That, my friends, should have been our first clue that perhaps Star Wars wasn’t done with Ventress. Though it’s not (yet) explained in The Bad Batch, we suspect Nightsister dark magic may account for the former assassin having “a few lives left.”
Nightsisters are known for the revivalist magic. We saw it in The Clone Wars, and as recently in Ahsoka. Though the question certainly remains, perhaps the bigger query regarding Ventress’s return isn’t the how, but the why. What’s her endgame here? On the surface, she appears to be genuinely concerned for Omega. The Empire, as she learned first-hand, is brutally cruel to those that don’t fit within its agenda. In many cases, it is almost crueler to those that do. Her warnings to the Bad Batch crew are ominous. Something tells us Omega, Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair will require the Dathomirian’s assistance again before the season ends.
Implications for the rest of the season
As noted above, Star Wars characters have a habit of returning to life. Ventress returning, though, may mean we truly have seen the last of Tech. The fourth member of the original Bad Batch plummeted to his doom at the end of Season 2. While many are questioning whether the unnamed clone assassin from this season may be a resurrected and repurposed Tech, that now seems unlikely. It would be lazy storytelling to have two characters come back to life, and we now already have Ventress. Thus, her return only deepens another of this season’s mysteries….
What does the future hold for Ventress, Omega, and the Bad Batch? We don’t know, but the return of Dooku’s apprentice will certainly make the rest of the show’s final season more interesting. Let’s not forget the episode’s title, ‘The Harbinger.’ Harbinger is usually succeed by the words “of death.”
Watch the final season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch on Disney+. New episodes air every Wednesday.
