Who Is Fennec Shand's M-Count Informant In Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3? An Investigation
This article contains spoilers for "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" season 3, episode 8, "Bad Territory."
This week's episode of "The Bad Batch" sees Hunter and Wrecker doing a job for no pay for Fennec Shand — the bounty hunter played by Ming-Na Wen who was first introduced in season 1 of "The Mandalorian." She's holding information they need to understand why the Empire is after Omega hostage in order to compel them to help her with collecting a dangerous bounty. They're reluctant to do it, but they see little other choice. They need to know about M-Counts and why the Empire is so intent on finding Omega.
Fennec Shand is a bit dishonest about it, too. She implies she has the information they need, but when they finish the job, she reveals that she only knows the person who might have the information they need and she'll get them in contact. The episode then ends with the dangling question of who that M-Count understanding bounty hunter might be.
Let's run down the list of likely candidates!
Asajj Ventress
Ordinarily, a character who seems to have died in a pretty prominent story wouldn't rate on my list, but Asajj Ventress's appearance in the trailer for the final season of "The Bad Batch" makes her my number one candidate.
For a refresher: Asajj was introduced during "The Clone Wars." A Dathomiri Witch trained as a Jedi, she was abandoned by the order and took up a life of darkness, which made her the perfect candidate for an enforcer of the Dark Side utilized by Count Dooku. She bedeviled the heroes of the Republic (chiefly Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker) until she was betrayed by the Sith. Sensing her growing power, Darth Sidious ordered his apprentice to kill her, but Asajj was able to escape by the skin of her teeth and took up a life of bounty hunting. Her story in "The Clone Wars" was never completed because of the show's initial cancellation and author Christie Golden was brought on board to adapt scripts from unproduced arcs of the show into a novel called "Dark Disciple." In that novel, she teamed up with Jedi Quinlan Vos to assassinate Count Dooku and entered a romance with the wayward Jedi. Together, they confronted Dooku. Dooku used his Force lightning in an attempt to kill Vos, but Ventress stepped in the way, apparently sacrificing herself in the process.
Though Dooku escaped to fight another day, Vos made it away with Ventress's body. Keeping her body in stasis, he brought her back to the Republic. Accompanied by Obi-Wan Kenobi, they took a pilgrimage to Dathomir, which had previously been ravaged by the Separatists led by General Grievous, and laid her body to rest. There, green tendrils of mist rose — a clear indication of the Dathomiri magicks at work, even in her "death."
If we know anything about those from Dathomir, it's that strange things can happen, and coming back to life is not outside the realm of possibility. It happened with Maul once and Mother Talzin as well.
If Asajj found herself resurrected, it stands to reason that she could have resumed her life as an independent bounty hunter and is the very contact Fennec Shand has in mind on "The Bad Batch."
Other candidates
Though Asajj Ventress might be the most likely guess, there are a couple of other candidates that could fit the bill from the annals of the "Star Wars" canon.
The first is none other than Boba Fett.
He's a teenager at this point, older than Omega, and revealed to have been codenamed "Alpha." Like Omega, he was raised on Kamino and was around the other clones as his father, Jango Fett, trained them. Does he know more about cloning processes and M-Counts than the Bad Batch? It's plausible, especially since his upbringing seems like it was a lot more free than Omega's.
Does he know anything about Omega? It's also a distinct possibility. And with Daniel Logan (who played young Boba in "Attack of the Clones") having already returned for a previous episode of "The Bad Batch," anything is possible.
The other candidate, though I think it's the least likely one of those listed here, is Cad Bane. Bane has made appearances on "The Bad Batch" already and has worked for the Sith before. The last time he appeared, though, he'd been hired to kidnap Omega and fought directly against Fennec Shand for the right to do it. The fact they were enemies doesn't necessarily mean he wouldn't talk to Fennec Shand or the Bad Batch about this issue though; as long as he's getting paid, Cad never really seems to care whose side he's on. He's also had access to the folks at Mount Tantiss and has already been on the Omega retrieval mission, so it stands to reason that he could have the information the Bad Batch is desperately seeking.
Is it likely? That I would doubt, admittedly. My money is on Asajj making an appearance next week. Still, as Master Yoda says, "Always in motion is the future."
Episodes of the final season of "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" premiere on Wednesdays on Disney+.