WARNING: The following contains SPOILERS for The Bad Batch Season 2, Episode 12: “The Outpost.”
Crosshair is not having a good time. Still under the command of more “capable” officers, he has now been assigned to accompany a lieutenant to an outpost under insurgent siege.
Arriving at the outpost, Crosshair meets clone commander Mayday (that’s not sinister foreshadowing at all). Most of the commander’s men are dead. He reveals to Crosshair that they don’t even know what’s in the supply crates they’ve been instructed to guard. They’re losing their lives just trying to be good soldiers and follow orders.
The outpost comes under attack again, and two more supply crates go missing. The lieutenant orders Crosshair and Mayday to go retrieve them — no matter the risks.
On the way, Mayday expresses his disdain with the Empire. He and his men have been begging for supplies and resources for months and don’t even know why they’re here. They know they’re expendable. They’re just doing their jobs.
When they reach the camp where the crates are being held, their run-in with the “insurgents” ends up breaking open one of the crates. Inside, Crosshair and Mayday find stormtrooper armor. Not for the clones, but for the Empire’s new “more capable” military.
Both Crosshair and Mayday are seriously injured, and Mayday needs immediate medical attention. Instead of leaving his brother to die alone in the ice, Crosshair picks him up and carries him back to the outpost, further injuring and exhausting himself.
Returning to the outpost, Crosshair begs the lieutenant to get Mayday medical help. The lieutenant scolds both men for not retrieving the crates. Mayday struggles through his final breath, and the weight of reality comes crashing down on Crosshair.
With one final burst of strength, he calls to the lieutenant and delivers a fatal shot to the man’s chest before collapsing to the ground himself.
He wakes up in a medical bay, but he’s now less free than he has ever been.
As long as he cooperates, he gets to live.
At this point — is living even worth it?
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