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Because it’s a prequel, we know where The Bad Batch is headed. We know the clones will eventually be gone, replaced by stormtroopers, and the Empire will only grow stronger and more evil. What makes the show interesting and its existence justified — particularly in this more focused season — is that we’re seeing the transition to evil Empire through the eyes of the army bred and created to defend the Republic.

The episode starts on the planet Desix, a former Separatist world that the Empire is trying to occupy. The current governess of the planet, Ames, attempts to claim that that Desix is outside of Imperial jurisdiction, but her would-be replacement simply responds with a cold “Your request has been received, reviewed, and, as you can see, rejected.” Still, Ames does not go down without a fight and reveals she has an army of battle droids at her disposal, which capture the Imperial officer.

We then cut to Coruscant, where we’re reunited with Crosshair, and we learn that he was left for dead and stranded for 32 days after the destruction of Kamino last season. Desperate for a new mission, he is assigned by Rampart to fight the insurgents and rescue the Imperial governor on Desix alongside a returning fan favorite: Commander Cody! Obi-Wan’s second-in-command and friend, and also the man who ordered Obi-Wan’s death during Order 66.

Talking to Crosshair about the rest of the batch going rogue, Cody reveals that there are several clones who are going rogue and questioning Order 66. Though the episode doesn’t dwell on this fact, it is a fascinating addition to the lore that almost justifies the inhibitor-chip retcon.

The Clone Wars revealed that Order 66 was built into the clones’ brains through an inhibitor chip and they were forced to kill the Jedi rather than willingly make a terrible choice. However, the revelation that the clones were not fully conscious and aware of Order 66 lets The Bad Batch explore their inner conflict as they realize what they did and come to terms with the fact that they had no choice in the matter. They’re questioning why exactly Order 66 was planted into their brains in the first place if the Jedi were meant to be their allies.

In many ways, “The Solitary Clone” feels like a cool throwback episode to The Clone Wars. There is a stealth mission with lots of exciting action, plenty of battle-droid banter, and poignant politics that illustrate the larger implications the war had on the galaxy, all while adding to the lore of Star Wars. Battle droids are always a welcome sight, providing delightful comic relief, especially since The Clone Wars started giving individual droids distinct personalities and let them banter beyond just endless “Roger, Roger!” And it feels good to get a classic clone-trooper mission, especially one that has both regular troopers and one of the bad batch, with the dynamic between Crosshair’s unconventional tactics and one-man-army skills with the collaborative, squad-focused behavior of the regular clones offering an interesting contrast. In a way, this episode feels like a Battlefront II campaign where you play an elite clone in charge of a squad, and you fight a whole army of droids.

Something that this episode does well that we hadn’t truly seen before is making the droidekas scary. Though they are stronger than battle droids, we’ve mostly seen them fight Jedi, who can easily cut through their defense shield and destroy them. But here, against regular humans, they are kind of scary. We hear them before we ever see them, and the sound of the droids rolling, of their shields going up, have a feeling of creeping death that makes them intimidating.

Even these scary droidekas, though, can’t stop Crosshair and Cody from making it to Ames and the tactical droid in charge of the rest of the army. The governess confronts them, explaining how Dooku always saw this coming. He knew that the Republic was corrupt and it did collapse to become something worse. Ames once believed in peace, so much so that she helped Mina Bonteri (from The Clone Wars) put forth a treaty to end the war, signed by both republicans and Separatists.

Unsurprisingly for us, Palpatine rejected the offer. The Clone Wars had several episodes that showed the war, and the Separatist movement, to be more than a black-and-white conflict. That there were efforts to end the war long before the events of Revenge of the Sith. But, again, these nuances and diplomatic revelations tended to come from the Jedi or Padmé’s point of view, never from the point of view of the clones who did the actual fighting. Of course, now it’s too late, both sides lost, and peace is no longer an option.

When the governess talks about the treaty that nearly ended the war, it makes Cody take pause. He puts down his weapons, removes his helmet, and says peace is an option now.

“We both lived through one war; let’s not start another,” Cody says — but he is not alone in the room. While Cody is willing to listen to reason, Crosshair only listens to official orders. So, when the rescued Imperial governor orders them to execute Ames, Crosshair obeys without hesitation and pulls the trigger. “So much for peace,” Ames says before dying. We spent a lot of season one with Crosshair actively choosing not to think for himself, and by now it is clear he is unwilling to second-guess commands, no matter how evil.

Back on Coruscant, Cody confronts Crosshair about the mission and asks whether they’re truly making the galaxy a better place. Crosshair doesn’t care; he’s just a soldier following orders. Cody disagrees — what makes the clones different from battle droids is their capacity to make decisions, and they have to live with them. The majority of this episode was all about reminding us of how badass and cool the clones are in combat, which is easier to buy when they’re fighting soulless droids than living humans. It is when Crosshair and Cody face off against the insurgents that we realize they are not fighting faceless droids, but people who only want to be left alone. They are not liberators, but conquerors and colonizers. When Crosshair doesn’t respond to Cody’s comments, it becomes clear that the clones working for the Empire have indeed become more like battle droids than human beings.

The next day, Rampart assigns Crosshair another mission, but this time Cody will not be joining him. Turns out, Cody’s gone AWOL. Honestly, good for him. For more than a decade, Commander Cody’s legacy in the Star Wars franchise has mostly been about his assassination attempt on Obi-Wan, so seeing him defy the Empire and desert is a step in the right direction, perhaps one that leads him to Rex.

The Mission Report

• The Clone Wars, particularly its final season, had some stunning cinematography clearly inspired by live action, and this season is not the exception. This episode has a fantastic use of lighting.

• It seems Crosshair doesn’t have many friends amongst his Imperial comrades, as they all avoid him at the mess hall.

• After the Empire conquers Desix, we see them rounding up all the aliens, starting their process of becoming human-first and human-only, as we see throughout the original trilogy. As if being fascists, cruel, and sadistic weren’t enough, they’re also speciesist.

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