Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 7 Easter Eggs Explained
In “Battle Scars,” another familiar face returns and a clock counts down to zero. The Bad Batch head to an old Jedi cruiser to remove their inhibitor chips.
While it’s too early to count out the Scrapper Guild patrols who control the starship graveyard, the real threat this week comes from within. Wrecker’s control chip activates, plunging him into an Order 66-induced rage. The Batch needs the help of an old friend to remove their chips once and for all.
Captain Rex
Clone Captain Rex returns to the Star Wars animated universe! For those who don’t know, he is a long-standing character from The Clone Wars, second only to the central cast of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala, and Ahsoka Tano. On that show, he was often attached to Anakin and Ahsoka, and developed a strong rapport with both of them.
At the end of The Clone Wars, Ahsoka succeeded with great difficulty in removing Rex’s control chip before the other clones could kill her as part of the new Emperor’s Order 66. He had to see the death of those clones first hand, with led him to the realization that they died on the wrong side of the war.
He’s met the Bad Batch before as part of their mission on the planet Anaxes, where they together discovered Echo was still alive after being captured and transformed by the Separatists. Rex was fond of Echo from when they had previously served together, and were distressed by the Separatists having turned him into a living computer.
Rex turns out to be the person the Martez sisters were contacting last week. It makes sense that he would know them, since he was close with Ahsoka, whom first met Rafa and Trace in The Clone Wars. She likely put him in touch with the sisters. “Battle Scars” also implies Rex is still in touch with Ahsoka herself as she tries to fight against the Empire without putting a target on her own back.
Omega notes that Rex is a “Gen 1” clone. This isn’t really a technical term that has been used with any specificity in Star Wars in the past. However, it can be presumed to mean the first batch of clones, the ones deployed at Geonosis in Attack of the Clones.
Rex also mentions Fives, the clone trooper who discovered the inhibitor chips and was killed as part of the fallout of that discovery.
Bracca
– Bracca’s ship breaking yards are perhaps best known as the setting of the opening missions of the video game Jedi: Fallen Order. Former Jedi Padawan Cal Kestis works there while attempting to hide from the Empire. Technically, the planet was first mentioned in Resistance Reborn, the The Rise of Skywalker tie-in novel which was released shortly before the game.
– The Scrapper Guild patrols are a new addition. While this is probably just a coincidence rather than an actual connection or nod, their masks are kind of reminiscent of Darth Revan’s mask from Knights of the Old Republic.
– Among the rubble of the scrapyard can be seen a variety of ships including Republic cruisers. In the hangar where the Bad Batch land, you can also see the Y-wing Rex used to escape the cruiser crash in The Clone Wars finale.
The Bad Batch’s Errand
– The Rhokai, from whom the Bad Batch seem to have stolen a lizard in the episode’s cold open, are also brand new. We can infer that they’re some kind of spacefaring gang or smugglers, but there’s no information other than that. It’s nice to have something new to make the Star Wars universe continue to feel bigger, though.
– The lizard, whom Omega nicknames Ruby during her brief time with the Bad Batch, also appears to be a brand new species. We think she looks a little bit like a real-world pangolin.
