Episode three of The Bad Batch season two has arrived and provides a thought-provoking and fun episode for the show, but it’s title ‘The Solitary Clone might confuse some. The episode does feature many clones after all. But after some thought it’s clear that the title of the episode is referring to Crosshair, and here’s why.
Crosshair is currently alone in the Empire. He is without his brothers, and despite reaching out to them at the end of the last season, he is rejected. His bunk is bare and lonely. At the start of the day, he tries to sit next to two “regs”, but his rhetoric about hating “regs” during the Clone War comes back to bit him when they leave. Crosshair is trying to reach out for friendship, but his past vitriol stops him.
But this changes when Commander Cody specifically requests him for a mission. Cody even greats him like a friend. Now Crosshair has someone with him in the Empire, one who seemingly shares his viewpoints doesn’t despise him. He’s no longer alone. Well, unfortunately that’s not the case for very long.
One their mission to Desix to destroy a Separatist holdout and rescue an Imperial Governor who’s been taken hostage, Cody manages to talk down the leader, by assuring her that he won’t kill her. She releases the Governor, who instantly orders Cody to go back on his word. Cody refuses, but Crosshair gives him an out by shooting the Separatist. What a friend would do, right?
Before getting on the shuttle to leave the planet, Cody begins to question the point of all of this, with TK troopers coming to occupy the city now that clones have made it safe. But he still gets on the shuttle, and leaves the planet for Coruscant.
When Crosshair arrives for his next mission, Vice Admiral Rampart tells him that Cody has gone AWOL. Crosshair looks disappointed by this, but Rampart goes on, telling him that clone loyalty is in short supply, and that it’s funny that the clones around Crosshair keep disappearing. This makes Crosshair angry, but he says there’s no problem.
This is where the Crosshair’s position as a solitary clone really comes to the fore. He thought he had found a friend in Cody, but he fled. And then Rampart makes a dig that Crosshair has no true friends, the Bad Batch left, and now Cody. No one wants to be around him
And he makes all of sound like a threat to Crosshair, because Rampart knows that Crosshair has been disloyal to the Empire too. Rampart will eventually come for Crosshair, but at this point he just wants to make him feel alone. That’s how the Empire wins.
Crosshair leaves Rampart, walking through a hallway full of clones. But that too, won’t last for long. The Empire will keep filling the Imperial Army with recruits, and surrounding Crosshair with organically born humans. Crosshair might even become the last clone in the Imperial Army, at which point he will then be well and truly alone. Metaphorically, he is the solitary clone. But quite soon, that might be literal as well.