Bad Batch Spoiler Recap: Battle Scars

Last night, I dropped a cube of wax into my wax melter. The scent? It’s called “Rex”. I was manifesting, you see. I wanted my favourite clone back on my screen. And it WORKED. Watch out, y’all. I’m clearly very powerful, and I also have a Ben Solo scent. There’s no stopping me now.

Anyway, let’s dive in.

The Batch arrives back on Ord Mantell with a lizard in tow. Why Cid’s client wants it, she doesn’t know (or maybe she does, honestly). But the one thing the Batch knows for sure is they want out. They might owe Cid money, but they don’t want to be her personal errand boys forever. She tells them they need a really big score to buy out their debt. 

What exactly that is is going to have to wait though, as commotion in the bar draws their attention. Patrons are running scared as a mysterious hooded figured stands up and reveals himself to be...Rex!

That’s right. The character I’ve been waiting for since the trailer dropped. CT-7567 himself, Captain Rex has entered the scene. Be still, my heart.

He tells the Batch that he was able to find him via Trace and Rafa Martez - so that’s one mystery solved right away. After hearing that they were still active, not in Imperial service and travelling with a kid, Rex decided to come investigate. And not a moment too soon,

As soon as Wrecker and Omega get back from their traditional post-mission snack break, Wrecker’s head starts hurting again. The Batch dismisses it, mostly because they’ve been going on Tech’s “it’s not a problem” assumption. Rex knows better, and tells them they need to do something about it, and fast.

Rex heads out to investigate potential locations for them to deal with the chip and eventually tells the Batch to meet him on Bracca, the same ship junkyard we see in Jedi: Fallen Order. Together, the gang heads into a defunct Jedi cruiser to use the medbay and remove the Batch’s chips. 

Once they actually get to the medbay, Tech finally puts his brain scanner to use and scans Wrecker’s head. Omega is worried about the surgery, saying that if anything happens to the Batch, she’ll be alone. Which is a valid concern, but also...doesn’t she know how dangerous the chip is? She knew what it was before the rest of them did, so why doesn’t she know what it’s capable of? Plus Rex is right there and I doubt he’d abandon her. 

Omega finds out almost right away just how dangerous the chip can be. Tech’s brain scan is just a step too far for Wrecker, and his chip completely activates. Though there are no Jedi around, the chip also compels him to kill any clones in violation of Order 66, which at the moment is everyone present. 

They draw him out, Hunter and Rex doing their best to stop him while keeping the other three safe. But it isn’t until Omega draws him out and pulls him away from the others that they manage to get one over on him while he’s distracted. She had initially attempted to appeal to him, but Wrecker is too far gone for even that. 

The rest of the episode unfolds fairly quickly after that. Wrecker has his surgery, and after some tension where they worry he might not wake up, he does and is perfectly fine. The other three then line up for procedures of their own, after which Rex leaves them, saying he needs to get back to the fight. He asks Hunter if he won’t consider joining him, and Hunter replies that his priority is keeping his crew safe, and doing right by them. When pressed though, he admits he doesn’t really know what that entails. 

Which brings me to my first question: what about Crosshair? Now that they know what the chip does, and that those affected by it cannot control their actions, are they going to make any effort at all to get him back? Because this is yet another week where we don’t see Crosshair at all. They could even ask Rex for help, and no I’m not just saying that because I want him back.

Considering how long we’ve been drawing out Wrecker’s headache, it looked like this resolved really quickly, so I’m hoping they’re using this as fuel for the next wave of story. Now that they know what to do, will they help more clones? Wolffe and Gregor? Will they finally help Crosshair??

Speaking of clones and their chips, we know Omega doesn’t have one, which makes sense given the role she filled on Kamino. But what I thought was interesting is when Wrecker was hunting her down, he didn’t repeat the same thing about terminating clones in violation of Order 66. He said that she was conspiring with clones, making her guilty as well. Now this could just be because she’s not a clone trooper, but I now wonder if this means she isn’t a Jango clone, and therefore doesn’t register with Wrecker? I refuse to entertain another character in this story being related to Emperor Pineapple, but it’s a big galaxy, so it could be anyone I guess…

And finally, we have my only major point of contention with this episode: Echo. I’ve been saying for weeks that I want Echo to face everything that’s happened to him since the Citadel. It’s been explained away as him being too new to the group to be comfortable, and them not having time, etc etc. All excuses I can get behind. I figured, that makes sense. Let’s wait and see what happens when Rex shows up. 

So Rex shows up, and after asking him where he’s been this whole time, about 10 seconds after the audience sees him...they do not. Speak. At all. 

AT ALL.

“But Arezou,” I can hear you saying, “the middle of a mission is the wrong time for a heart to heart.” and I agree. But the plot literally included a period of time where they were all just sitting around waiting to see if Wrecker would wake up. It time jumps from a “let’s wait” to a “oh look, he’s awake”, but imagine if it hadn’t. Imagine if the Batch had been gathered around Wrecker, wondering if their brother would be OK, and the Rex used the time to go check on Echo and see how he was holding up. Or hey, maybe Echo went to find Rex. You cannot tell me that a man who spent years hooked up to machines and stripped of what little personhood he had to begin with is not feeling at least a little traumatized by being enslaved not once but twice over the course of the last, what, week?

This is another reason I hope Rex comes back. I want the two of them to have this conversation, or something like it. I am so ready for that kind of deep dive with these characters. 

Next week is our mid-season episode, and appropriately this week ends on our first true cliffhanger, with the Batch being spotted by the Scrapper Guild and reported to the Empire. I wonder how they’ll get out of this, and I also wonder if maybe a certain redheaded Jedi padawan might be there to lend a hand?

What did you think? Will we see Rex again? Are you annoyed he and Echo didn’t have a moment at all? Did anybody else think the Mantell Mix looked like Kat Sakka’s Kettle Corn? Join us for Bad Bitches on the Bad Batch, our biweekly livestream to dive in! And for more Star Wars discussion, don’t forget to subscribe to “Space Waffles”, our Star Wars focused podcast!

The Bad Batch is streaming now on Disney+ with new episodes every Friday.