Episode 6 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch brings in two Clone Wars friends and a new mystery

Things are getting complicated for our jolly group of miscreant clones. They were used to being soldiers only, and even though the Bad Batch (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) always did things their own way, their objectives were plain. The battle lines were clear. 

In the age of the Galactic Empire, the lines are anything but clear. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a soldier, a criminal, a smuggler, a bounty hunter, or even a decommissioned battle droid — in the end, the time will come to choose a side. Two friends from Star Wars: The Clone Wars drive that notion home for Hunter and the rest of the team in Episode 6 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. 

***WARNING: From this point on, there will be spoilers for Episode 6 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch. If you haven’t watched yet, then you don’t want this. Get outta here Dewey, it’s the cheapest one there is but get outta here.***

After Omega (Michelle Ang) gets some practice in with her new laser bow, Cid (Rhea Perlman) sends the Batch to Corellia where decommissioned droids from the Clone Wars are being disposed of. A tactical droid is in the mix, and the intel within that droid is very useful. Cid will share the rewards. Money! 

The Batch doesn’t have anything better to do, so these remnants of war proceed to run after another remnant from the same war. There’s only one tactical droid head left, and the Batch aren’t the only ones after it. 

Trace and Rafa Martell (Brigette Kali and Elizabeth Rodriguez) are also on the hunt for the head. They were last seen in the second arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7, pulling shenanigans with Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein). Now they’re back, and they want that head! At first, we may think that they’re going to sell it to some shady folk, just like the Batch. That proves not to be the case — Ahsoka definitely left an impression. 

The tactical droid isn’t the only head having issues, as the ongoing drama of Wrecker’s headache continues this week. He smacks it on a pole after making a dangerous swing, and the chip within almost activates. He mutters the words “good soldiers…” and recalls Crosshair’s voice. He never gets the full trigger line out ("good soldiers follow orders"), but he’s close, and he’s out of the action for at least five minutes. 

When he shakes it off and rejoins the others, no one notices. These headaches are not random, and they aren't Wrecker’s Tylenol commercial audition. The chip in his head is obviously causing them, and it needs to come out ASAP. We’re worried, not only for Wrecker, but for anyone and everyone who may be around him when this storm churns up. 

The Batch and the Martez sisters escape, but they lose the droid head in the process. Trace has already explained to them that they were not going to sell it, their contact was going to use the intel to fight the Empire. “They’re trying to help people, and make things better,” Trace says. Righteousness! 

Trace and Rafa leave with the intel after all though, because Tech managed to transfer it to a data rod. Hunter gives it to Rafa before parting, saying that they’ll use it “for the right reasons.” Cid probably won’t be happy about this, and Hunter is conflicted. Righteousness has topped money! Things were easier when he was just a soldier, but now he has to make tough choices. Rafa pretty much tells him that those days are over. Not just for him, they’re over for everyone. 

When the sisters depart, they get their contact on the holo and let them know that they recovered the intel. They also let the contact know that they were helped by a squad of old clones. 

Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney

Who is this contact? We don't see them. The group that Trace talks about earlier in the episode is either the very early sputterings of the Rebellion or a splinter group that will eventually join the Rebellion. Saw Gerrera’s Partisans are a possibility, as is Enfys Nest’s little group. For all we know Bail Organa is the contact, or even better, Clone Captain Rex. 

If the show wants to play fast and loose with canon (as it has already shown that it has no issues doing), then the contact could be Ahsoka herself. That seems a little too easy, though, and Star Wars Rebels already gave us a season where Ahsoka was a secret holographic contact. It could still be her, it could also be Rey’s parents, or it could be Revan. We'll find out.

How about a take at ludicrous speed? Muchi the Rancor could be getting in on the Rebellion. We’d like to take this opportunity to apologize for forgetting our Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt lore when writing about rancors last week. Indeed, we forgot that Chuck Wendig wrote about Malakili and canonically names Jabba’s dead (male) rancor Pateesa. 

Unless The Bad Batch is having another swipe at canon, then Muchi is not the rancor Luke kills in Return of the Jedi. That leaves the door wide open for Muchi to be the secret contact of the Martez sisters... though this is highly unlikely. 

Whoever the contact is, the universe is getting complicated for Hunter and the Batch. Their new single is dropping soon, and they’re also caught in some awful gray area between their old brothers, crime syndicates, bounty hunters, nascent rebellions, and writers who forget proper rancor canon. 

We’re quite sure that they’ll make the right choices. In the meantime, welcome back Trace and Rafa. They are right back in the mess. 

Star Wars: The Bad Batch shoots off new episodes on Disney+ every Friday. Is there an Echo in here? Yes.