The Bad Batch (episode)

"Rex, Cody, and Clone Force 99, an unorthodox, elite squad also known as the Bad Batch, look to recover the Republic's strategy algorithm from Admiral Trench. But a haunting truth awaits…"

Captain Rex and the Bad Batch must infiltrate an enemy base on Anaxes.

The Republic campaign on Anaxes begins to take a turn for the worse when the Separatists capture the main production facility for the Republic's battle fleet. While Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker debate on how to proceed, Commander Cody and Captain Rex join them with a theory about their losses. Rex recounts that the Separatist Droid Army uses analytics to predict Republic strategy. A tactic is effective the first time it is used, but it becomes less effective with each following use. The droids learn their tendencies and use that information to fight. The Republic needs to constantly vary its attack. Windu notes that the losses on Anaxes are not commonplace. Rex believes that the Separatists' counterattack is so specific because they have learned his own personal strategy. Cody explains that if the Separatists have figured out how to counter Rex, who is one of the most talented officers they have, the Republic could suffer even more severe losses. He proposes that they lead a squad behind enemy lines to steal any intel the Separatists have from their Cyber Center. Windu agrees to this plan, but Skywalker notices that Rex obviously has something else on his mind and asks him if he has anything else to say. Rex says he doesn't.

In the barracks, Cody finds Rex staring at an old picture of the two of them accompanied by the late ARC troopers Fives and Echo. Rex laments their deaths and the losses the Republic forces are taking in the war, which Cody understands. Rex tells Cody that he believes that there's a chance Echo might still be alive, since the strategies the Separatists are using are old battle plans the two of them came up with, but he didn't tell this to the Jedi since they might think he's crazy. Cody is skeptical, but says it's time to go. Rex asks him who they're taking with them, and Cody responds "Clone Force 99." Going out to the landing platform with ARC trooper Jesse and clone medic Kix, Rex and Cody see the squad's shuttle, the Marauder, come in for a wild landing that has other clones running out of the ship's way.

Rex asks Cody why he's never heard of this group. Cody explains that the squad, informally known as the "Bad Batch," consists of defectively born clones who underwent unique and "desirable" mutations. The squad, emerging from their shuttle, consists of Sergeant Hunter, the team's leader; Wrecker, the squad's brash strongman and assault specialist; Tech, the hyper-intelligent and knowledgeable tech specialist; and Crosshair, the team's grim, sarcastic sniper. Mounting a gunship, the assembled team departs for the Cyber Center.

However, on their way the clones are spotted and shot down by a battle droid force, and end up crashing in a ravine, leaving Cody seriously injured and trapped inside the vessel's wreckage. It is there that the Bad Batch begins to demonstrate its unique qualities: Wrecker singlehandedly lifts the gunship off Cody's body, and then he and his squadmates engage the incoming droids in a surprisingly aggressive move, taking down the entire enemy force by themselves. After the clones have left, a second droid force investigates the crash site and inform Trench of their findings.

The clones make their way to the cyber center on foot, guided by Hunter's extraordinary sensory capabilities. With Cody incapable of continuing, Rex announces that he will take charge of the mission. This creates tensions with Crosshair and Wrecker, which threaten to escalate into a fight until Hunter intervenes and concedes command to Rex. Proceeding without Cody and Kix, they reach a Separatist outpost near the cyber center, which Rex decides to take, hoping that it will contain vital information. Using the Bad Batch's prior performance as his attack strategy, Rex and his fellow clones quickly overwhelm the outpost's droid garrison and capture its command and communication center. But while trying to hack into the cyber center's computers to investigate its defensive capabilities, Tech intercepts a message which announces the impending arrival of heavy droid reinforcements.

Rex splits up the squad for a diversionary three-front attack on the center's guard force, just as the droid relief forces arrive at the outpost; but before Trench can warn them about the clones' assault, the cyber center droids are taken by surprise. While Rex, Crosshair, and Jesse keep the guards occupied, Hunter, Tech, and Wrecker penetrate the building and capture its command center. As the other clones hold the incoming droid reinforcements off, Rex joins Tech in the command center. Tech hacks into the computer system and discovers the algorithm, but strangely it is not stored inside the center's memory banks but is instead being broadcast from another planet, Skako Minor. Digging in further, Tech manages to receive an audio signal which sounds like a human voice. Rex asks him to send a transmission requesting the person's identity, and the voice responds "CT-1409," as the voice's masking is dropped so it's clearly the voice of a clone trooper.

In the meantime, the encroaching enemy force drives the remaining clones back into the command center. Rex is so shocked by what the voice is saying that he briefly ignores Hunter telling him they need to leave. The clones fight their way out of the structure and escape aboard a speeder craft secured by Crosshair. While Trench learns about the clones' infiltration of the broadcast, Rex, in turn, is left brooding over the startling discovery that Echo is still alive: "CT-1409" was his identification number.

The idea for the "Bad Batch" arc came up from Star Wars creator George Lucas, who wanted to explore the idea that there were clones that were a little bit more unique from one another and who were like an enhanced skills special forces unit. While the arc began production in 2012 as part of the seventh season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the designs for every member of the Bad Batch had been finalized a year earlier. The episodes were fully scripted, voiced and animated up to the "story reel" stage, but the series was canceled by Cartoon Network in 2013 following The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of Lucasfilm Ltd.

Series Writer Brent Friedman, who scripted "The Bad Batch" as well as the other three episodes of the arc, released information about the episode via his Twitter account in May 2014. The arc's original moral was "The best defense is a strong offense." Jedi General Anakin Skywalker is involved throughout the arc to an extent, though most of the action focuses on Rex and The Batch. Friedman stated that the "emotional hook" of the arc is Rex's relationship with ARC trooper Echo, a character who had been killed in the third season episode "Counterattack" but was brought back for this arc. The setting for the episodes is split between Anaxes, a planet from the Star Wars Legends line, and a new world called Skako Minor.

On April 9, 2015, StarWars.com announced that "The Bad Batch" and the other three episodes of the story arc would be released on April 17 in story reel form, in a special screening at Celebration Anaheim. On February 21, 2020, a completed version of the episode was aired as part of The Clone Wars revival on Disney+.

The finalized version of the episode has some differences to the original unfinished story reel, including a different explanation for the algorithm and a private meeting between Cody and Rex in the barracks. The episode also has a different opening moral, Kix now sports a full head of hair instead of the mostly-shaved hairstyle he has in previous episodes and the unfinished version, and Jesse's helmet does not have a rangefinder attached to it as it did in the unfinished version. The original newsreel sequence featured an ARC-170 and a Z-95 Headhunter engaging a Hyena Bomber and a droid tri-fighter, with another clip of an ARC-170 being shot down by Hyena Bombers and crashing onto a Venator-class Star Destroyer. The finalized version features Z-95 Headhunters dogfighting with Hyena Bombers, with another clip showing a Z-95 being shot down by Hyena Bombers and crashing into the Venator.

The picture of Cody, Rex, Fives, and Echo that Rex has depicts Cody and Rex in Phase II armor, most obviously with Cody's helmet, even though the series didn't introduce Phase II armor for all clones until Season 4, after the Citadel arc that showed Echo's presumed death (meaning that the picture must have been taken prior to that).

During the scene where Hunter, Wrecker, and Jesse are forced to retreat into the Cyber Center, Jesse's kama is missing.

The credits of the final episode list Matthew Wood as voicing a "Super Tactical Droid" when no droids of that model appear, only T-series tactical droids.

This episode introduces a new version of The Clone Wars' logo which remains for the rest of the series, placing "Star Wars" on one line, rather than being separated by "The Clone Wars".