Battle Scars (The Bad Batch - S01E07) - Animated Series

Discuss the latest Chapter! (Discussion)

"And 20 cartons of Mantell Mix?" SPOILERS.

Rex is wary of the Bad Batch.

After weeks of persisting headaches The Bad Batch finally addresses Wrecker's inhibitor chip problem. After a successful mission that only pays a third of Hunter thought was promised (it turns out Cid charges the Bad Batch for everything) Captain Rex turns up. So last week's mystery figure that appeared in the holochat with the Martez sisters was not Bail Organa or Ahsoka, it was Captain Rex. As soon as he learns that the Bad Batch still have their inhibitor chips and that Wrecker is suffering headaches he reaches for his blaster, things calm down again, but Rex urges the team to have their chips removed.

Another week, another planet. This time it's Bracca.

Of course they need medical facilities to have the chip removed and since Rex has first hand experience he suggests they meet on Bracca, the shapceship graveyard. The planet will be known to gamers who played Jedi: Fallen Order, where Bracca was the starting location for the adventure. On Bracca, onboard an old Republic Star Destroyer with still functioning medical facilities, the inevitable happens: Wrecker's chips activates before his chip can be removed. What follows are several intense moments where Wrecker transforms into a formidable opponent who tries to kill all the "traitors", including Omega.

Wrecker is about to pull the trigger on Omega

Eventually Wrecker corners Omega and is about to shoot her when Rex finally manages to stun him. Wrecker and the other Bad Batch members have their chips removed. Rex has a last chat with Hunter and tells him that not all of the Republic is gone and that the Bad Batch would be tremendous assets in the fight against the Empire. But Hunter declines and tells Rex that he needs to do what is best for the team and that they have to look after Omega. Rex tells Hunter to get in touch with him once the Bad Batch have sorted their lives out and he makes his departure. Meanwhile in the distance two members of the scrapper guild observe the conversation and one of the scrappers says that the Empire should be notified. And this concludes the episode.

Omega and Wrecker are best buddies again

The Bad Batch finally dealt with one of the ongoing issues: the inhibitor chips. That at least Wrecker's chip would activate was telegraphed for weeks, the only question was how bad it would be. As it turns out it it's pretty bad. Wrecker is a formidable fighting machine with superior physical power. The Bad Batch has done a good job of establishing the friendship between Wrecker and Omega in the past few weeks. And their Mantell Mix ritual where they buy the snack and enjoy it after a mission further emphasized that friendship between the two early in the episode. It's actually somewhat surprising that Wrecker turns out to be the second most important Bad Batch member after Hunter, something that the pilot didn't really let on where Wrecker's characterization was quite different from what followed in later episodes. So where Hunter is clearly Omega's father, Wrecker has taken on the role of the weird but funny uncle you can have fun with and he's certainly Omega's best friend.

More trouble is brewing...

And if you thought Wrecker may turn when the Bad Batch encounter a Jedi you were mistaken. It turns out Wrecker's activation was much more a tragedy for both him and Omega who has to see how her best friend turns into a scary monster that wants to kill her. Which is certainly nothing any child should ever experience. But the episode ends things on a positive note where Omega offers Wrecker some Mantell Mix after the successful operation, indicating that Omega very much knows and understands that it was not the real Wrecker who threatened to kill her. Somethihg which may otherwise traumatize a child and which could end the friendship. But Omega is not just very perceptive, but also very understanding of the situation and things are back to normal again. The episode also once more highlights Omega's perceptiveness when she can tell that Rex must be a first generation clone because of the wrinkles on his face. This will certainly be quite important later in the season when we may or may not find out what Omega's true purpose is.

"Battle Scars" was a solid episode. It's positive that the inhibitor chip issue was resolved, now the Bad Batch are no longer in danger of becoming puppets of the Empire. What I find somewhat puzzling is how and why Rex left the rebellion behind. In Rebels he's retired and in hiding with his buddies. Here he is much more hopeful and insists that the Republic is not wholly gone. Something must have happened that made Rex turn his back on the rebellion. The big question now is what path the Bad Batch will choose for themselves, after declining to join Rex and his purpose. Since they have first hand experience with the chip now and how removing it can restore the original personality I would guess that one goal for them must be to free Crosshair. I just hope that the Bad Batch will not stay on Ord Mantell much longer and that they will instead try to get back to Kamino. With the Empire on their trail now it's pretty certain that Ord Mantell will very soon no longer be safe for the Bad Batch.