Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7 Episode 3 review: Trapped and surrounded

Now that Rex, Anakin, and the Bad Batch have located Echo, their next move is to figure out how to get him away from the Trade Federation alive on Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Echo lives! After years of mourning the loss of a brother, Rex can almost rest easy knowing he doesn’t have to live with the guilt of leaving him behind any longer.

But the fight isn’t over once Rex learns Echo is (technically) alive. They still have to figure out how to escape. Thankfully, they manage to use an exhaust vent (those always seem to be strategically placed just so) to get out — making sure to destroy years’ worth of the Techno Union’s research before doing so. Take that, Wat Tambor. You lose. Kind of.

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After summoning the keeradaks to avoid being trapped by Tambor’s forces again, Anakin and the clones return to the village where all this began, not realizing the droids would follow them there … and bring a few friends with them.

Together, the team is able to convince the Poletec villagers that the Techno Union is anything but neutral in the war and that they must be stopped.

There was a moment during the battle that follows that a terrible thought crossed my mind: What if they can’t win this fight? It would have been something that doesn’t always happen in this show, and admittedly would have made for a brilliant cliffhanger.

But anytime a lightsaber enters the fight, the enemy’s chances of emerging victorious diminish significantly. As they should.

Thanks to the unique tactics of the Bad Batch and Anakin’s mad Force and lightsaber skills, the droid forces retreat. Before heading back to their ship, the village chief tells Anakin the Jedi can always count on them if they’re ever in need of an ally.

But that’s not the end of the episode. There’s one brief moment where, before following Rex aboard the ship, Echo pauses when he’s reminded of the past.

In case you missed it on your first viewing like I did, that sinister music in the episode’s final moments wasn’t the only hint that something is amiss. Pay close attention to Echo’s eyes during the close-up of his face.

Yep — his eyes are yellow/gold. Which usually means only one thing in Star Wars.

Okay, so Echo most definitely isn’t a super secret Sith Lord. But there is something else going on with him … something we’ll likely learn more about soon enough.

If you’ve seen Star Wars: Rebels, you already know Echo doesn’t make an appearance in the series, which implies he doesn’t survive this one. Either that or he doesn’t undergo the same process as some of his brothers to avoid the horrors of Order 66.

Could this mean the next episode featuring Echo will be the last? It’s possible. Those who haven’t seen the unfinished cuts of this arc don’t know what’s coming. Chances are, though, we’ll have to say goodbye to at least one beloved character before we come face-to-face with Ahsoka again in the arc that follows this one.

Dave Filoni, if anything happens to Wrecker, we riot.

The final episode of the Bad Batch arc drops on Disney+ next Friday.

What do you think is going on with Echo? Is he just afraid of going back to the war — or is something much darker going on?