The Bad Batch Spoiler Review: The Outpost

This review contains spoilers for The Bad Batch episode “The Outpost”

Here at The Geeky Waffle, while we are fans of The Bad Batch, we are also in support of the Unwhitewash TBB movement.

This movement is from the Twitter user @unwhitewashtbb and is being led by “fans of color, disabled fans, neurodivergent fans, and Jewish fans.” It’s to bring awareness of the racial discrimination that is baked into the very fabric of this show. The Batch is designed to be “elite clones” and yet their skin tones are very white. All clones are designed after Temuera Morrison, who is a man of color. If the only clones that are perceived as white are considered “elite” and “the best” while regular clones who still appear as people of color are seen as “lesser,” these kinds of design choices have very real consequences on young audiences. @UnwhitewashTBB cites in their title card the hurtful implications this has on minority groups. The card, linked here, goes into great detail about how and why this is a problem. Go read it thoroughly.

It’s important that the creators hear the concerns of fans and work to rectify them. To be clear, whitewashing characters of color should never happen in the first place. It’s a choice that begins in the design phase, which makes it faulty and wrong from the start. We will continue to help hold the creators accountable so mistakes like this don’t happen if we get a season three as well as for future Star Wars projects.

Please follow @UnwhitewashTBB for more information.

WOW! The Bad Batch season two just keeps getting better, because my goodness, “The Outpost” absolutely blew me away. It is about damn time that Crosshair finally woke up. That’s right, folks. It’s here. Mark this as the moment that we’re finally kicking off a possible Crosshair redemption arc! He hit his breaking point and crossed the point of no return with the Empire. “The Outpost” was absolutely soul-crushing in the best way possible, so let’s get into it.

Anyone who knows me knows I love a good villain. Lieutenant Nolan established right away he was a great villain because I wanted to sock him right in the mouth by the end of his first conversation with Crosshair. We can see the effects of “Truth and Consequences” as the clones are being forced into retirement. Crosshair is watching the entire thing as Nolan struts up to him and established right away how he, frankly, sucks.

Nolan speaks to Crosshair like he’s an object and has no care for Crosshair’s individuality. It sets the stage right away for what he thinks of the clones. My jaw literally dropped when he said to Crosshair’s face that clones were “used equipment.” Yep, wanted to punch him there and then. How Nolan treats Mayday the entire episode is disgusting. These are veterans and people, and Nolan is a brat given a shiny new position of power. But it does shed a light on how he, a natural-born person, is valued more than Mayday, who does actually outrank him. Despite Nolan having no experience in the field, he still is in charge regardless of what the clones say.

It's a fantastic departure from what Crosshair is used to with Rampart. I’ve actually been wondering what Crosshair has been doing since Rampart lost his job. That was the clone’s commanding officer, so I have to assume Crosshair did a whole lot of nothing since Rampart was ousted. Nolan does show the step down for Crosshair showing the quick demise of the clones. Rampart had an incredibly high position of power. Even though Rampart was trying to replace the clones with conscripted soldiers, he at least saw some value in the clones during the transition, even disagreeing with Tarkin in season one about the quick phasing out of the clones. He still utilized Crosshair in high-stakes missions and made him the leader of the Elite Squad Troopers. Rampart didn’t like Crosshair, but he at least recognized the specialty clone’s skills which is more value than Nolan put into Crosshair.

Nolan treats the clones like walking objects. Crosshair is no different from the stapler on Nolan’s desk. Nolan probably has a new stapler for his new position which is far more valuable to him than Crosshair ever was to begin with. He doesn’t see any of the clones for their strengths, individuality, or respect them for protecting civilians of the Empire for years. They are a means to an end for him. He doesn’t care that Mayday outranks him. He’s almost gleeful to see Mayday, who challenged Nolan’s leadership, dead on the ground. He would never “waste resources” on a clone because they are nothing to him.

I think if Crosshair didn’t have his change of heart at the end of “The Outpost,” he would have just gotten kicked further and further down the line and put at worse and worse outposts. This elite soldier, the best of the best, is given nothing because that is exactly how the Empire sees Crosshair.

He is nothing to them.

This episode reminds me in a lot of ways of the Star Wars Rebels episode “The Honorable Ones.” In it, Zeb spends the majority of the episode essentially poking holes in Kallus’ propaganda logic that he was raised on. Zeb has an answer for each of Kallus’ points until the Imperial is stripped down with nothing but the truth that Zeb is telling him. Kallus even sees it firsthand when he returns wounded to the Empire and realizes no one actually cared he was gone. “The Outpost” is essentially Crosshair’s version of “The Honorable Ones” with Mayday being Zeb in the situation.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Mayday’s dropping almost verbatim some of the most important lines from clones over the series. He comes right out of the gate saying how in his experience respect is earned, mirroring one of Captain Rex’s first lines of dialogue from the Clone Wars movie about how it’s the experience that matters more than rank. Like Rex, he clearly values his men by keeping their helmets as a memorial after they have passed. He immediately welcomes Crosshair to the outpost and treats him as an equal, compared to the Empire seeing him as a thing. Even after Crosshair made his “dead weight” comment, Mayday didn’t leave him behind when he stepped on a pressure mine. Mayday risked his own life to make sure that Crosshair could be free from it.

Then there is the reveal of what the clones were protecting and recovering from the rebels. Mayday mentioned the lack of supplies they’ve gotten from the Empire. But because he was a good soldier who followed orders, they never looked in the crates since they weren’t allowed. Finding out it was armor that the clones could have used to help their situation was a slap in the face. Even more so since Nolan made it sound like it was incredibly important cargo, but NO! It was just basic armor for the people replacing them that Mayday and all the other clones there gave their lives for.

Mayday cites the other important piece of dialogue that mirrors Crosshair's place in all of this which is, “After all the clones have done, after all we’ve sacrificed… We’re good soldiers. We followed orders. And for what?” This is essentially the summary of Crosshair’s journey. He gave up everything for the Empire. He followed their shady orders at the cost of losing his brothers in the Bad Batch. And what did he get for any of it? To be replaced and fade into obscurity in the eyes of the Empire.

With a mix of Crosshair’s journey with the personality of Rex, Mayday is that representation of all the clones. Rex is very much the paragon clone, and Mayday has similar morals and thoughts. Rex was the very symbol of individuality for seven seasons of Clone Wars as we saw his growth and change over that time into who he is now in The Bad Batch. Then, Mayday, like Crosshair, did everything asked by the Empire to his own detriment. Mayday represents the spectrum of clones up to this point just so Crosshair can see his mistakes up to this moment.

It is heart-wrenching but also refreshing to see Crosshair so intensely vulnerable in “The Outpost.” As Zeb did to Kallus, Mayday breaks through Crosshair’s walls brick by brick. He forces Crosshair to think about Clone Force 99 and his relationship with the rest of the Bad Batch. Despite Crosshair’s cold initial responses, Mayday treats him like a brother. I think the change in Crosshair was the scene when he steps on a mine. It’s the most vulnerable place to be in because he has to literally put his life in Mayday’s hands. The Empire wouldn’t blink twice and would have left him there to die. Mayday, instead, risks his life to save him.

Mayday’s words stating they were good soldiers and did everything they were supposed to do finally raise the question Crosshair has been avoiding. I’ve said in my review of “The Solitary Clone” that his pain of staying the same hasn’t outweighed the hardship of changing. But now? He’s finally asking himself that question. What is he actually getting out of the Empire? What are they doing for him? Is it really worth it?

Crosshair is a killer. His skill set is being a sniper. To him, all he is ever good at is taking lives. But after the avalanche takes him and Mayday, trying to bury them under the snow just like the Empire is trying to bury the clones, Crosshair emerges from a horrific baptism of ice and cold to fight for someone else. This man who is so good at stealing life spends the rest of the episode fighting to save Mayday. Crosshair has been so avoidant to make new relationships again, scared to be hurt and left behind after the Batch and Cody went away, risks everything fighting for a reg he’s only known for a few hours.

Only to find out it doesn’t matter. Crosshair gets Mayday back to the base only for Nolan to let him die. None of the TK-Stormtroopers try to aid them. On his hands and knees, Crosshair begs the organization he gave everything to save Mayday, and the Empire doesn’t care at all. He looks up and sees the ice vulture.

It’s very much a symbol of Crosshair in the episode. Like the clone, it is a predator that lives in harsh conditions. The creature has learned to adapt and survive. It’s at this moment that Crosshair rises. He’s had enough. He’s reached his breaking point. With the mountains in the background framing him like the wings of an ice vulture, he raises his blaster and kills Nolan.

I SCREAMED! I fist-pumped! I was proud that he finally reached that turning point. It was excellent and so very satisfying to watch. It might be the standout moment of the entire series thus far. This was some damn good Star Wars!

Waking up on Mount Tantiss, Crosshair sees he’s in the evil care of Doctor Emerie Karr, one of the people working under the new big bad Hemlock. I loved all of this because it’s essentially setting up the finale in one fell swoop. We know from last week that Hemlock is targeting the Batch, specifically Omega. Here is Crosshair at Mount Tantiss where I can almost certainly expect Omega to be brought to. I love the idea of Omega and Crosshair teaming up, especially with how he treated her during the season one finale. He’s not who he used to be anymore, and I think that would be stellar for Omega to see with her own eyes.

I keep saying this, but “The Outpost” was the best episode of the season. The Bad Batch has really stepped it up in many ways in its second season. This series is absolutely leaving its mark on Star Wars, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.