One Star Wars: The Bad Batch theory posits that Star Wars is about to pull a Winter Soldier-esque twist – and this could have big implications for season 3. In The Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America, a.k.a. Steve Rogers, lost his best friend, Bucky Barnes, in the first Captain America film. Bucky fell to his death in a frozen ravine, and no one thought he’d ever be seen again. And yet, decades later, Bucky reappears in Steve’s life, having been captured by the evil organization HYDRA and brainwashed into becoming their most effective assassin. One Bad Batch character could face the same tragic fate.
In The Bad Batch season 2 finale, Clone Force 99 member Tech sacrifices himself to save his friends from the Empire’s clutches. Tech’s death was a shocking surprise, one that shook his friends and the audience to their core. But there are too many similarities to Bucky’s fate in Marvel’s Captain America trilogy to ignore, similarities which make it entirely plausible that Tech may yet return in The Bad Batch season 3, though he may not be the person his fellow clones remember him as.
Tech’s Tragic Fate In The Bad Batch Season 2 Is Somewhat Ambiguous
Though Tech’s death seems undeniable – few could survive a fall from that height, after all – Star Wars has always stressed that as long as the body isn’t explicitly shown, a character’s death may not be as final as once believed. After all, it was thought that Darth Maul was killed after his duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, but his body was never recovered, and he famously returned in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Tech’s death in The Bad Batch season 2 finale was just as ambiguous. He fell from a great height, but his body was never shown on screen.
Interestingly enough, what was shown was that the Empire had recovered Tech’s trademark goggles, implying that Tech’s body was found in the aftermath of the fight on Eriadu. Though Dr. Hemlock, a scientist with the Empire’s covert Advanced Science Division with a particularly unsettling interest in the cloning process, claimed that all that could be found were Tech’s goggles, this could be a fake-out, a way to make the audience and Clone Force 99 believe that Tech truly had died. But there’s another possibility, too, one that would further explore Hemlock’s nefarious motives.
9 Questions Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 Needs To Answer
As the show’s final season, Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3 has a lot of questions it has to answer, and here are 9 of the most essential ones.
Tech Could Be Transformed Into A Winter Soldier Figure
Tech’s death in The Bad Batch season 2 patently parallels Bucky Barnes’ death in Captain America: The First Avenger. Both drop from a train at a great height, supposedly falling to their deaths, though their final moments are never explicitly shown on screen. Tech’s ambiguous fate could mean he will return as a Winter Soldier figure, with the Empire standing in for HYDRA. Much like HYDRA, the Empire is fascinated by genetic research – HYDRA was after the secrets of the super soldier serum, while Hemlock, and by extension, Emperor Palpatine, are researching the cloning process. Tech would be a valuable test subject for them.
Though Bucky became HYDRA’s most vital weapon, he was also one of their most fruitful scientific experiments. He was the first of HYDRA’s self-made super soldiers, and they used state-of-the-art mind-wiping technology to keep Bucky docile and compliant, allowing him to infiltrate and destabilize dozens of societies over decades by keeping his body frozen in between missions. There’s no doubt that Hemlock and the rest of the Empire are just as nefarious and cruel as HYDRA. Palpatine is desperate to unravel the secrets of cloning for his gain, and Hemlock is obsessive enough to use Tech as experimental fodder, too.
Though Tech is unlikely to become a super soldier, his superior intellect could be hugely beneficial for the Empire, especially when it comes to Dr. Hemlock’s research. If Tech were to be brainwashed, he might even end up helping Hemlock experiment and torture his fellow clones, which would go against everything that Tech and his clone comrades stood for – much like working for HYDRA went against everything Bucky Barnes stood for before his supposed death, as well. The Empire already has the tools to brainwash one mere clone – all they’d have to do is insert another chip inside his head.
Tech’s Return Would Make A Shocking Twist For The Bad Batch Season 3
Tech’s return in a Winter Soldier-like capacity would undeniably shift the tone for The Bad Batch’s final season. So far, The Bad Batch has slowly but surely been expanding upon ideas presented in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, especially Palpatine’s desire to learn more about cloning and Mount Tantiss’ involvement in his earliest research. Palpatine is desperate to create a clone that can control the Force – and as the sequels proved, he eventually succeeds.
Hemlock could be after more than that, however, and some have theorized that Hemlock’s desire to experiment on any remaining clones at Mount Tantiss could lead to an uprising, explaining why there are so few clones left by the time of the original Star Wars trilogy. After The Bad Batch season 2 finale, it was expected that season 3 would be a story of grief and Clone Force 99’s final attempts to stop Hemlock’s experiments, but Tech’s resurrection could make this season so much more emotionally complex.
Hunter, Omega, Wrecker, Echo, and even Crosshair will likely be willing to sacrifice everything to save Tech if they find out he is still alive. But what then? What if he’s been brainwashed beyond repair? What if they can’t reach out to him, the same way Steve Rogers got through to Bucky?
Though many feel The Bad Batch is ultimately aimed at children, much like The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, it is, in fact, one of Star Wars’ most tragic stories. One of the show’s biggest themes is bodily autonomy. It has dived deeper into the effects of the clones’ creation and the fallout of Order 66 and how the clones experienced those horrific events than any other Star Wars property.
The clones were bred for war, yet any shred of independence and opinion they developed under the leadership of the Jedi was washed away by Palpatine’s invasive inhibitor chips. Now, they’re being decommissioned one by one, left to fend for themselves in a galaxy that never accounted for them in the first place. Tech could tragically be another casualty of the Empire’s ongoing cruelty towards the clones, and if he comes back as a Winter Soldier figure in Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3, this ongoing narrative theme will only hit harder.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is an action-adventure animated series set after the events of The Clone Wars, following Clone Force 99 (a.k.a. the Bad Batch.) Finding themselves immune to the brainwashing effects of Order 66, the Bad Batch become mercenaries for hire while outrunning the empire, now seeing them as fugitives of the law.
- Release Date
- May 4, 2021
- Cast
- Dee Bradley Baker , Michelle Ang , Noshir Dalal , Liam O’Brien , Rhea Perlman , Sam Riegel , Bob Bergen , Gwendoline Yeo
- Seasons
- 2
- Story By
- Dave Filoni
- Writers
- Jennifer Corbett , Dave Filoni , Matt Michnovetz , Tamara Becher , Amanda Rose Munoz , Gursimran Sandhu , Christian Taylor , Damani Johnson
- Network
- Disney Channel
- Streaming Service(s)
- Disney+
- Franchise(s)
- Star Wars
- Directors
- Dave Filoni
- Showrunner
- Dave Filoni
