[WARNING: Contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Proceed at your own risk if you’ve not seen episode 5, “Rampage,” yet.] If you’ve been paying close attention to The Bad Batch, then an iconic line of Star Wars dialogue has likely already made its way into your mind. Over the course of the show’s first five episodes, there have been overt references to the clones’ inhibitor chips and their purposes. Tech was already working on a scanner to more closely examine them, in fact. A more subtle reference, however, is the ongoing headache Wrecker is experiencing…. Coincidentally in the same temple where the chip just happens to be located. In the immortal words of, well, everybody, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
We’ve already seen one member of the Bad Batch succumb to his programming. Crosshair even uttered the words “good soldiers follow orders,” the subtext mantra of Order 66. He later went full Imperial, committing one of the darkest acts of any Star Wars animated series to date. His chip is without question fully functional. The chip in Wrecker’s skull, to the contrary, appeared to be ineffective. That could very well change in an upcoming episode, and we’d be foolish to think it won’t.
Can Wrecker avoid Crosshair’s fate in Star Wars: The Bad Batch?
Dave Filoni is a master Star Wars storyteller. (So much so, in fact, he is the now Lucasfilm’s Executive Producer and Creative Director.) The fact that Wrecker is experiencing headaches in the location of his inhibitor chip is no accident, and no red herring. Something is going to happen with the strongest member of the Bad Batch… We just don’t know what. We do know that the group will connect with Rex at some point, as we saw in the trailer. Could Wrecker turn on Rex? Don’t dismiss the possibility.
Remember, Jesse declared Rex a traitor for defending Ahsoka Tano in the final episode of The Clone Wars. As we learned, Order 66 didn’t just apply to the Jedi; it applied to all who aided and abetted them, too. Rex is thus on the Empire’s wanted list. If Wrecker takes another hit to the head while the Bad Batch is together with Rex, well, who knows what could happen.
Filoni always keeps us guessing, that’s for sure. And that’s why The Bad Batch makes another fine addition to Star Wars canon.
You can catch the show Fridays on Disney+.