‘Star Wars: The Bad Batch’ Season 3, Episode 7 Sees The Clones Facing An Existential Crisis
by Frank Martin
After ending on a cliffhanger, Star Wars:The Bad Batch delivers a follow-up episode with plenty of action and character drama, which is pretty much par for the course. What’s interesting is just how much the clones have become a centerpiece of this series. It’s obvious the Bad Batch would be a major focus, but now the series is expanding to look at the clone army at large. Even though the clones played a big role in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, it was really about the war and the Jedi. The clones were ancillary characters at best. But The Bad Batch reveals just what happens once the war is over and the Jedi are out of the picture. The clones have to find a new place in this world, and this episode did a great job of highlighting that.
After the attack on his secret base, Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) escapes with the Bad Batch (also Baker) and tries to head to an extraction point. This leads the shadow clone, along with a squadron of clone troopers led by Wolffe (Baker yet again), to go after them. Crosshair engages the shadow trooper in order to cover the others’ escape, but the Bad Batch and Omega (Michelle Ang) don’t leave a man behind. They save Crosshair and manage to make it to the extraction point, but Wolffe gets there first. In a very tense standoff, Rex appeals to Wolffe and says that the Empire is their enemy. After deep contemplation, Wolffe allows them to escape.
Order 66 gets so much attention from fans that it’s never really been contemplated what happens afterwards. Fans just assumed that Order 66 flipped a switch that automatically turns clones into loyal servants, but it wasn’t. Not entirely. The order merely turned the clones against the Jedi. But once the Jedi are out of the picture, it’s not entirely clear what role Order 66 plays in the minds of the clones if anything at all. They may simply be regular soldiers following orders, but they are still humans with consciences. This is the subject that this episode touched upon, and it did so magnificently with fabulous action.
