The Bad Batch: Will Crosshair ever go back to normal?

“Good soldiers follow orders.” That’s the motto that former Bad Batch member Crosshair likes to go by… at least it is now.

When we first met Crosshair and the rest of the Bad Batch in The Clone Wars season 7, the group of genetically modified clones fought for the Grand Army of the Republic and had nothing but great camaraderie together. They saw themselves as different from the regular clone troopers, but they got to be different together.

But when we see them again in their very own series, The Bad Batch, something’s changed. Hunter, Wrecker, Tech and new member Echo are doing just fine. But it’s Crosshair who begins to change. When the call for Order 66 is made, all but Crosshair are skeptical of the call and have no desire to turn on the Jedi. Crosshair, on the other hand, is more skeptical of his crew for not following orders and feels the need to take down young padawan Caleb Dume despite doing nothing wrong.

We later find out that this was all because Crosshair’s inhibitor chip left him susceptible to following orders, unlike the rest of the Bad Batch. And when Tarkin got a hold of him on Kamino, his chip was manipulated so that he’d be even more obedient to following orders. By episode 3, we see Crosshair leading his own troop of new human soldiers for the Empire, and it seems he is beyond redemption. But is he really?

Will Crosshair be good again?

Unfortunately, Crosshair is estranged from his fellow Bad Batchers. While he serves the Empire, the rest of them (including Omega) are on their own and on the run from the new regime. But, at some point, it may become a goal of theirs to get Crosshair back.

Thanks to both Tech and Omega, the crew knows about the inhibitor chips that are inside of them. And they know just how much it has had an effect on Crosshair’s behavior. So, we have a hunch that with Tech’s abilities, they may be able to find a way to fix the levels in Crosshair’s inhibitor chip.

This type of manipulation has been done before. By the end of The Clone Wars season 7, Ahsoka was able to reprogram Captain Rex’s chip so that he was back to normal. His chip was fully functioning before that, and he was extremely close to killing the former Jedi when Palpatine made the call. But after some work and putting him under a medical scanner, Ahsoka was successful. So, with the use of the same type of scanner (or completely new technology), it should be a piece of cake for Tech to do the same thing, so long as they can pin Crosshair down first.

It’s also possible that the Empire may want to dump Crosshair first, before the Bad Batch can get to him. While Admiral Rampart seemed quite content to have clones lead human troops for the Empire, we know Tarkin has very little desire to deal with the clones. And at some point (as we know from Star Wars history), the clones will be phased out.

Hopefully, then, the Bad Batch can save Crosshair before the Empire tries to get rid of him themselves!

Do you think the Bad Batch will be able to save Crosshair this season, or will the sharpshooter always be loyal to the Empire? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!