In Ahsoka's episode of The Mandalorian, we got to watch an animated character come to life in a live-action show. In this week's episode, we got to see the reverse of that.
Ming-Na Wen, who, to me, will always be Agent Melinda May (a.k.a. The Calvary) from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., voiced a beautifully drawn version of her Fennec Shand character, which debuted in The Mandalorian, in this week's episode of The Bad Batch.
Fennec, who, of course, is much younger now, is still a bounty hunter, and she is tracking Omega. We don't get a clue for whom she is working, but I suspect we'll find out soon enough (I'll throw some theories your way later).
Fennec crosses paths with Omega because the Bad Batch had to make a detour during their travels. Right away in the opening scene, they start complaining about their problems - they're out of rations and low on fuel, their ship is on a wanted list (how Fennec and her boss knew to look for Omega in the first place), and they don't have many credits. These problems make it seem like they'll struggle quite a bit. But nah, turns out all of that was just an excuse for them to land on some unknown planet called Pantora, the setting for one big chase scene.
The Bad Batch tries to sell explosives - their only goods worth any credits - while walking through a hopping downtown market; its aesthetics reminded me a lot of the Opera area in Episode II: Attack of the Clones when Anakin and Obi-Wan are chasing down the "changer" bounty hunter who was working for Jango Fett.
Omega eventually gets lost in the shuffle, and Hunter and Breaker go searching for her. But Fennec finds her first, and a shootout and chase scene ensue.
That's pretty much it. Eventually, of course, they get Omega back and shake off Fennec. But there is pretty much no more story/plot the rest of the episode.
Even the action was lacking. It was such a bust when Breaker finds Omega in the maintenance tunnels, with Fennec on her tail. It appeared as if Breaker and Fennec were set up for a showdown, but Fennec merely slams Breaker (who is wearing a helmet, by the way) into a pipe and knocks him out in one show. So ridiculous. Later, Hunter is flying a speeder in pursuit of Fennec and Omega in the air, and he eventually makes a nice move that allows him to get Omega and plant a small explosive on Fennec's vehicle, forcing her to jump out and give up her pursuit for the time being.
I'm reminded a lot of times, and in many ways, that I'm watching a cartoon instead of live-action shows. Dialogue in The Clone Wars, for example, was usually pretty corny/cheesy. The chase scene and action scenes of this episode in general gave me that same reminder. It felt cringy at times. It was so slow-paced and without a lot of action for some of it. As I mentioned, the ending of the chase had a bit of excitement, but watch dull action scenes for a big chunk of this episode was a real letdown, for sure.
So who is Fennec working for? Well, the obvious possibility is Boba Fett. By this point, Boba is a young adult; the last time we see him in the prequels is when he holds his father's severed head in his helmet after the Jedi crash the party of Geonosis. There are 10 years in between Episode II and Episode III, and The Bad Batch is overlapping with Episode III. It would be kind of nice to get a little insight as to what Boba did in the immediate years after his father's death. Who took care of him? Was is Nala Se (the woman Kaminoan)? She, of course, seemed to be Boba's caretaker when Jango was off chasing Obi-Wan, so it would make sense that Nala Se watched over him after Jango died. Fennec and Boba also are already working together in The Mandalorian, which re-contextualizes their appearance together a bit, as we now might be able to assume they've been long-time friends.
I could see a counter-argument that Boba would be too young to be running his own bounty-hunting business already. Maybe Fennec is actually working for someone like Jabba or The Syndicate (the latter of which we see in Solo: A Star Wars Story). Maybe Boba eventually crosses paths with Fennec, and they become friends after. And maybe (and I'm really reaching here) this is all setting up a huge story between Boba, Han, Lando, The Syndicate, Ahsoka and others, a story that was supposed to have been another mini-saga within the saga that was started with the Solo movie. I'm still upset about the cancellation of all that. We were supposedly getting a Boba Fett movie, maybe a solo Lando movie (eh, see what I did there?) and possibly an Obi-Wan movie. Instead of setting up those things, though, maybe this show is secretly recreating the last remnants of story ideas that were going to explore more of the era between Episode III and Rogue One/A New Hope. Maybe Saw, Fennec, Boba, and even Han and Lando will appear in the Obi-Wan TV show that is currently filming. Maybe all of it will connect somehow!
You know what else Fennec's appearance could be? A complete ruse. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, two of the most influential Star Wars creators at Lucasfilm now, could've simply talked together at some point and said, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we showed that Fennec is around at this point?" But surely we'll get more than an episode-long cameo, right? But I wouldn't put it past them to simply not bring her back any time soon, if at all. It seems as though they're trying to create these highlight moments in either name-drop or cameo form that gets everyone talking and thinking about the show without doing a whole lot else.
Either way, it seems highly likely that we'll see a young Boba at some point during this show. And maybe, just maybe, this will have some tie-ins with the recently announced Disney+ show "The Book of Boba." Disney, after all, is the business of marketing its own content within its own content.
Notes:
Omega plays with more toys in a shop, again reminding us that toys exist in this universe (and in our universe's shopping centers).