The Bad Batch S2E3 ending explained: ‘The Solitary Clone’

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: The Bad Batch season two, episode three, “The Solitary Clone.”

The second season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch is off to a solid start. After a gripping two-part premiere that saw Hunter, Omega, and the rest of Clone Troop 99 in a tense heist, this week’s episode followed their lost brother, Crosshair. Let’s dive into the tense ending and explore what comes next for Crosshair.

War and Peace

This week’s episode of The Bad Batch picked up with their lost brother, Crosshair (Dee Bradley Baker). We learned he’d been recovering from the fallout on Kamino, where he’d been stranded for 32 days.

In an episode reminiscent of the series’ predecessor, The Clone Wars, Crosshair and Commander Cody were sent to neutralize the holdout leader of a Separatist planet.

Much of the first season’s emotional conflict came from Crosshair’s seeming defection from Clone Troop 99. While his brothers did not follow Order 66, Crosshair respects authority and orders to a deadly degree, refusing to question the Empire despite the fact that he used to serve the Republic.

Pairing Crosshair with Cody in this episode posed a fascinating moral contradiction for the soldier. Cody has not been immune to his own moral quandaries, issuing an order to execute his one-time friend and general Obi-Wan Kenobi in the aftermath of Order 66.

Yet it seems that the long-term impacts of the war have taken a toll. In the episode’s final moments as the Separatist leader pleaded for her life, Cody seemed moved by the possibility of peace while Crosshair unflinchingly pulled the trigger once again.

After the mission, we learned that Cody went AWOL, apparently fed up with the choices he was forced to make at the hands of the Empire. It’s clear this season will once again focus on Crosshair as a moral center, but whether he doubles down or returns to his brothers remains to be seen.

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