The Bad Batch S2 Ep. 3 has more in common with Andor than you’d think.
I said all that stuff about fun action last week, and then this emotionally ambushed me (in a good way).
The Short Take:
Much darker and sadder than the premiere, the third episode of The Bad Batch Season 2 tells one of the most poignant stories in the series to date. A chilling look at a pivotal point in Star Wars history.
[SPOILER ALERT: I’ll discuss details of the plot of this episode from the jump. Disembark from the Marauder if you haven’t seen through Episode 3 yet.]
The Long Take:
The cheese — or should I say clone — stands alone.
Occasionally episode titles jump out at me, inviting me to infer far too much. “The Solitary Clone” caught my attention because I like the duality within it. On the one hand, it very obviously refers to Crosshair. When we start the episode, he’s alone, without his Clone Force 99 family. In fact, he did not appear once in the two-episode premiere, which emphasizes his isolation from the rest of the Batch even more. I admire the structural decision to bifurcate what’s happening with Hunter, Omega, Tech, and Echo and what’s happening with Crosshair, as opposed to intercutting their scenes from the start.
Since we last saw Crosshair at the end of Season 1, he hasn’t made any new friends. When he sits down with some other clones, they get up and move to another table. Rampart, who arguably is his closest contact in the Empire, still calls him by his number, CT-9904. (He actually doesn’t even know Commander Cody by name, that jerk.) There are countless sequences in which Crosshair wanders a hallway alone while storm troopers brush past him. We might as well pipe Celine Dion’s version of “All By Myself” through the cafeteria PA system.
At the same time, “The Solitary Clone” could refer to Cody. Over the course of the episode, we see him slowly separate from the trooper pack, realizing that he can no longer support The Empire. By the end of the episode, Rampart tells Crosshair that Cody has gone AWOL. He decides to defect from the Empire and go it alone. There are some rumblings on the Internet about whether or not Rampart is lying to Crosshair and in fact killed Cody, but I don’t think such a beloved and iconic character would have an off-screen death.
Through this two-sided coin of Crosshair and Cody, the episode mournfully illustrates how the era of the clones is coming to a close. They’re becoming obsolete as the pending Defense Recruitment Bill threatens to completely replace them with non-clone troopers, escalating the cancellation of the Kaminoan contract at the end of last season. But, as a memorable, breathtaking visual shows, the time of the clones will also end because so many of them have died in the war. All of Crosshair and Cody’s conversations very pointedly (and I assume deliberately) take place in front of a massive wall called The First Battle Memorial, built to honor the clone troopers who died in the First Battle of Geonosis.
The incandescent Geonosian red rock is a striking contrast to the drab, gun metal trappings of the Empire’s military headquarters, but, more importantly, it serves as a reminder to passersby — and Cody especially — of all that the clones sacrificed for The Republic. Cody staring at the wall as he talks to Crosshair about what they’re doing with the Empire adds a rich subtext to their conversations and, without lengthy, drawn-out exposition from Cody, gives us a sense as to what he’s thinking and feeling. As he looks up at the names of his fallen brothers, he wonders what it was all for. I especially loved the composition of many frames in these scenes. The positioning of Crosshair in relation to Cody seems so symbolic and intentional. There’s one in particular (pictured above) where they are far apart and facing different directions in a way that is very reflective of how they’re reacting and processing what’s happening around them so differently.
This is the darkest The Bad Batch has ever been. Perhaps it’s even the bleakest moment for all of Star Wars animation. Kevin Kiner’s score here, especially at the end of the episode, cemented the bleak and mournful tone for me as well. I was haunted by the long, slow notes that ominously echoed, fluttered, overlapped, and blared. With just a hint of synth, Kiner’s music reminded me a lot of the shades of Bladerunner in Andor’s brilliant score by Nicolas Birtell.
At this point you may be able to detect what I’m getting at — that this episode of The Bad Batch brings the series closer to Andor in tone than I ever thought it would. And that’s saying something considering one of the trailers addressed parents at the end, as if this show were only for kids. Of course, that may be a function of the period in Star Wars history both series occupy, in which the Empire seems to be in total control of the Galaxy. Or it could be to make what I suspect will be the Batch’s pivot from clones in hiding to clones who join the Rebellion carry that much more weight. In the same way we see Cassian Andor transform from on the run and looking out for number one to a hero defending others from the Empire’s tyranny, we will likely see Hunter come around to Echo’s pleas from the two-part premiere last week. To borrow words from Maarva Andor, Clone Force 99 know everything they need to know and feel everything they need to feel, and when those two come together, they will be an unstoppable force for good.
As I discussed last week, I don’t think The Bad Batch has narrative ambitions like Andor, as it’s mostly an action-focused mission of the week show with a side of family drama. Nonetheless, this episode allows the Empire to loom large. The big question mark for me, though, is if Crosshair is a part of that arc. Or if he remains a tragic loss.
As I often do with ISB Officer Dedra Miro in Andor, I catch myself rooting for Crosshair all the time, even though I know he’s on the wrong side. I feel sorry for him. I want him to have lunch room friends. I still cheered when he was sniping his heart out, besting everyone else, on Desix. I even want him to get the recognition he deserves, even if I don’t want him to do what it takes be in that position. (Like gunning down Separatist governors who just want to protect the sovereignty of their planet and its people. It’s not what you want.)
But Crosshair has chosen a side, all on his own. There was some ambiguity at the end of last season about whether or not Crosshair actually lost his inhibitor chip. I’m inclined to think that he did, making his break from the rest of the Batch all the more heartbreaking. In this episode, the lines that Crosshair says support the idea that he no longer has his chip in. The episode makes a point to show that Cody uses the phrase “Good soldiers follow orders” (and it’s so creepy!), but Crosshair always makes comments that are differently-worded variations that invoke the same sentiment but do not repeat the mantra verbatim. When Rampart asks him why he came back after being stranded on an imploding Kamino for 32 rotations, Crosshair says, “Because I’m a soldier of the Empire.” At the end of the episode, when Cody asks him if they’re making the Galaxy better with the Empire, he says “We’re soldiers. We do what needs to be done.” It’s not any programming that’s keeping him there. It’s what he personally thinks is right, of his own free will.
So when Cody says to him, “You know what makes us different from battle droids? We make our own decisions. Our own choices. And we have to live with them too,” he, without realizing it, actually calls out how ghoulish it is that Crosshair has chosen to stick with the Empire. To Cody, it’s in spite of what they witness on Desix, but to us it’s in spite of having complete control over his own decisions, unlike clones who still have active inhibitor chips.
These are dark times, to be sure, but they’re also confusing times, for characters like Cody but, to a lesser degree, for me watching at home as well. This episode made me feel that more than ever before because I found myself rooting for Cody and Crosshair when they were working together so well. But then I catch myself and say no, they’re on the wrong side. The repurposed battle droids on Desix multiples this confusion because I’m so used to seeing Obi-Wan and Anakin outsmarting battle droids and droidekas with minimal effort, in a heroic way. So seeing Crosshair and Cody doing the same made my brain default to them as good guys, even though they’re with the Empire.
Image Credit: RPG Gamer
Later on in the fight, when Governor Ames makes a comment about how Dooku was right, I didn’t know which way was up for a few minutes. During The Clone Wars, The Separatists were the villains, and Dooku was a supervillain. But here the Separatists are the victims. And then if we factor the Dooku episodes of The Tales of the Jedi into the equation, we see that Dooku really did have pure intentions before he turned to the Dark Side. He was righteous and wanted to eliminate corruption in the Galaxy. But, of course, the premiere of The Bad Batch depicts him as a hypocritical warmonger. So, from a certain point of view, The Separatists had political ground to stand on. Ames may have been duped or manipulated by Dooku, but her hopes of independence from The Republic or The Empire — from anyone — is understandable, even noble in this situation.
I know I’m talking myself in circles a bit here, but that’s my point. With this one episode, The Bad Batch borrows a little from Andor in casting the Galaxy as a little grayer — more complicated and bleaker. I was so ready to place this show in a bucket, but, as Star Wars animation continually demonstrates, that would be a mistake.