Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode 7, “Battle Scars,” features the return of Captain Rex, including a somber homage to his darkest moment from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Like the members of Clone Force 99, Rex is trying to find his way in a galaxy where the war he was bred to fight is over, and the government he once served has turned on him and his brothers. Unlike the Bad Batch, it seems that Rex is actively fighting back against Palpatine’s regime.
Captain Rex served his final tour of duty for the Grand Army of the Republic at the Siege of Mandalore, where he assisted former Jedi Ahsoka Tano in defeating and capturing Darth Maul. Afterwards, Rex and Ahsoka began the space voyage back to Coruscant – a voyage that would be interrupted by Order 66. Ahsoka managed to save Rex by removing his inhibitor chip, but the two were overwhelmed by the rest of their cruiser’s clone force. The fighting onboard the ship and Maul’s escape led to a crash on a nearby planet, killing many clones. Before leaving, Rex and Ahsoka buried the dead and marked their graves – a grim final image of the end of a brutal war.
Clearly, that experience stuck with Rex. When he returns in “Battle Scars” to help the Bad Batch remove their own clone inhibitor chips, Rex makes a comment that he doesn’t want to bury any more of his brothers. It’s a dark reminder that Order 66 was as devastating for the clones as for the Jedi they killed, as all freewill was stripped away and replaced with blind loyalty to the Emperor.
Near the end of the episode, after Rex and the Bad Batch successfully remove Wrecker’s chip and stop his rampage, there’s a shot of Rex staring down at his own empty helmet – likely an intentional visual allusion to the helmets he and Ahsoka left on sticks as a memorial to the clones who died during Order 66. It’s a brief moment, but it does an effective job of driving home the complicated pain that Rex carries with him. It makes sense then that, in the final scene of the episode, it’s revealed that he’s working with an early version of the Rebel Alliance to fight the regime that killed so many of his comrades.
It remains to be seen if Rex will continue to play a role in the Bad Batch story, but as such a beloved character, it seems likely. He represents in many ways the tragedy of the clones, who were bred for war and then turned on their own friends and leaders by Palpatine’s betrayal. Hopefully, Rex won’t have to bury any more clones if he does return later in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
