As enemies close in, the Batch must evacuate a stronghold.
Tropes:
- All Take and No Give: Crosshair admits the Empire did the taking and didn’t give him any loyalty in return.
- Anti-Villain: The only thing making Wolffe and his men villains is that they're working for the Empire; Wolffe is visibly affected by the dead clones he sees at the monastery, tries his best to avoid unnecessary force, and in the end, proves reasonable enough to let Rex, Howzer, and the Bad Batch leave peacefully.
- Big Damn Heroes: Howzer manages to stop the clone assassin from suffocating Crosshair to death in the nick of time.
- Call-Forward: The TK Stormtroopers have no problems working with Wolffe in taking Omega and the other clones alive despite their Fantastic Racism towards clones. That sentiment would later be shared with their modern successors when working with Torrent years later.
- The Cameo: Gregor appears, but has no lines, flying in with Echo to pick up the heroes.
- Commonality Connection: Howzer and Crosshair bury the hatchet over their mutual disillusionment with the Empire's All Take and No Give ideas of loyalty.
- Continuity Nod:
- Wolffe is shocked to learn he’s not been tasked with fighting insurgents. In the pilot episode, Tarkin told the Batch they were being sent to fight insurgents when it was actually innocent refugees being evacuated by the Partisans.
- Wolffe says that he heard Rex was KIA and went down on an attack cruiser, referring to the events of the Grand Finale of The Clone Wars where all hands aboard Ahsoka’s Venator, the Tribunal, were believed lost.
- The planet and B'omarr monastery Rex's forces use as a base look extremely similar to Teth and its monastery from the Clone Wars pilot movie.
- Devious Daggers: The assassin uses the same knife he used to cut the Teth base's comms in the previous episode to fight Crosshair.
- Disney Death: The assassin could've been assumed to have died from falling off the waterfall, but he turns out to have survived.
- Downer Ending: The Clones' base is compromised, the only clones remaining from there are the Bad Batch, Rex, and Howzer, and they still don't have the coordinates to Tantiss.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Crosshair at 100% would have shot the assassin dead in the central spire, much less all the other times he had a clean shot. His diminished aim gives the assassin a chance to close in to hand-to-hand, where the assassin has the edge.
- Due to the Dead: As he prepares to depart after letting Rex, Howzer, and the Bad Batch leave, Wolffe orders his men to gather the fallen clones from Rex's base. Hilo protests that they're traitors, but Wolffe counters that they're clones all the same.
- Elite Mooks: Clone assassins may not have Crosshair’s Improbable Aiming Skills (though the assassin is still a remarkable shot all the same), but they have an extremely fast reaction time difficult even for Crosshair to keep up with.
- Evil Virtues: Crosshair spells out that loyalty is his primary trait, and realizing the Empire had none to him or any clone is what convinced him to defect.
- Exact Words:
- When Wolffe expresses surprise at the dead clones at the base, saying he thought the enemy were insurgents, not clones, Hilo pipes up to say that they're both.
- The assassin tries to argue this since he shot down the crew’s ship, preventing Omega from escaping. Wolffe counters that causing her ship to crash hardly increases her chances of being retrieved alive and unharmed.
- Foregone Conclusion: Wolffe doesn’t join Rex in defecting, but viewers of Star Wars Rebels know he will eventually reform into a loyal ally to Rex once again.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: Wolffe is convinced to let Rex, Omega, and the others go, but he doesn’t join them either, especially since what Rex told him was a lot for him to take in. The other clones with him also go along with it.
- I Want Them Alive!: Hemlock's orders for Omega to be recovered alive are mentioned several times, though the assassin is a bit careless, shooting down a ship that Omega is aboard with no guarantee that she'd survive the resulting crash.
- Idiot Ball: Despite the assassin being both insubordinate and a proven problem, Wolffe takes no precautions to keep him from going after Omega unsupervised.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While Wolffe correctly notes that the assassin could have killed Omega by shooting down the heroes' ship, the assassin replies that he prevented the targets from escaping, which is also true; the Imperials quickly catch up to the heroes, and if Rex hadn't been able to talk Wolffe into letting them go, they would have been done for.
- Kick the Dog: The assassin takes a moment to taunt Crosshair while fighting him, and goes the extra mile of trying to kill him by drowning after being disarmed of his knife.
- Lightning Bruiser: The clone assassin is fast and strong enough to outpace and overpower Crosshair in a brawl and is a glutton for punishment who can survive long falls, explosions, and getting crushed by debris.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Even if his orders came from Tantiss, Wolffe hasn't even been there himself, so everything Rex and the others are telling him is a lot for him to take in.
- Made of Iron: The clone assassin gets crushed by debris, blown back by an explosive sniper round, and sent flying off a waterfall after being hit by a stun blast. And he's still standing despite all this.
- Mook Horror Show: A squad of TK troopers go up against the clones, who use smoke bombs to sneak up on them and take them out.
- Mook Lieutenant: A Clone Commando named Hilo (whose rank is actually lieutenant) is by Wolffe's side throughout the episode, relaying his orders and acting as his right-hand man.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Howzer begins coming around more on Crosshair when he realizes both of them were able to realize the Empire had no loyalty to any of the clones.
- Papa Wolf: Crosshair plays the overbearing father role to Omega after the crash, prompting her to say that he's as bad as Hunter. An amused Crosshair replies that he's worse.
- Pet the Dog:
- Crosshair goes into full Papa Wolf mode once the crew crashes, asking Omega to be careful and be prepared for a fight. The behavior is enough to finally convince Howzer that Crosshair's Heel–Face Turn is legitimate.
- Despite the Empire's Fantastic Racism towards clones seen throughout the series, the TK Troopers working with Wolffe have no problem following his orders.
- Red Shirt: Nemec is the minor clone who is killed by the assassin.
- Right Hand Vs Left Hand: The assassin will only stick to his last known orders, and is not very cooperative with Wolffe. It clearly didn’t occur to Scorch to at least notify the assassin that Wolffe is in charge of the operation and to follow his orders.
- Saved by Canon: Quite obviously, Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor (who had only arrived towards the end of this special) must survive. Any other clones outside of them were fair game to kill off.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Rex makes plain he’s still shaken from the loss of his men the day Order 66 went live.
- Sniper Duel: Crosshair engages the clone assassin. While Crosshair may be good at spotting targets, and even if his hand weren't in bad shape, the clone assassin still has faster reflexes allowing him to fire the moment Crosshair spots him and before Crosshair can even take a shot. Crosshair then resorts to going melee on him, but the assassin proves to be more agile and Crosshair can barely keep up with him.
- Stock Scream: The Wilhelm scream returns when Hunter shoots down one of the Rho-class transport shuttles.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The assassin doesn't even pretend to respect Wolffe or heed his orders, and Wolffe doesn't bother to hide his annoyance with the assassin's lack of cooperation.
- To Be Lawful or Good: At Rex's urging, Wolffe agrees to let the heroes go. He acknowledges that they're perhaps traitors to the Empire, but feels that he owes his fellow clones better treatment.
- Worf Had the Flu: The damage to Crosshair’s hands still hasn’t been fully healed, meaning he can’t immediately shoot down the assassin on their tail.
