Survival is one step on the path to living.
As Tech races to figure out how to unplug Echo from the computer system while Anakin asks about the ARC trooper's condition, waves of attacking droids force Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair to retreat inside the lab. With the Techno Union forces closing in, including a new toy Wat Tambor refers to as the "decimator", Tech manages to figure the neural interface out, allowing Rex to unplug Echo, who admits afterwards he has a headache. Thanks to having been plugged into their systems, he had access to their entire database while they were using his memories, so he knows a way out of the city. But, cornered by Separatist droids, the team is forced to summon some keeradaks to escape, which take them back to the Poletec village.
With more Separatist droids on the way to reclaim Tambor's "property", Anakin, Rex and the Bad Batch have to work with the Poletecs to defend the village before they can leave Skako Minor...
Originally released as part of an unfinished story reel, the completed episode premiered on March 6, 2020.
Tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: The team escapes from the lab through the ventilation ducts. Thanks to the cybernetics the Techno Union gave him, Echo knows the entire layout of Purkoll and thus exactly how to get out through them.
- Body Horror: Echo has been subjected to who knows how many years of nightmares.
- Call-Back: The defenders' first move against the Separatist droids when they attack the village is for Wrecker to do the same boulder-pushing move he did when the clones entered the village to rescue Anakin during the previous episode.
- Call-Forward: Tech's collection of creature recordings includes bonzami and purrgil.
- Crazy-Prepared: The Bad Batch happens to have welding torches on them just in case they need to seal a door, which does indeed happen. Tech's habit of recording everything also comes in handy as it lets him summon some keeradaks for the group to escape on when they're cornered outside.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Rock Beats Laser does not apply in the defense of the Poletec village. The Poletecs fight with spears and crab claw-like weapons. While they ultimately come out victorious, it is only with help from Anakin and the clones (four of them being superhuman), and a lot of them get slaughtered, especially when the Octuptarra droids show up.
- Don't Look Down: Wrecker attempts to do this when the team is crossing a long, narrow pipe in an attempt to reach a building with a landing pad, but eventually fails and says he thinks he's going to be sick.
- Dual Wielding: Hunter borrows Wrecker's combat knife to use alongside his own during the battle at the village.
- Fastball Special: After seeing Anakin jump onto the other octuptarra droid, Wrecker gets the idea to throw Rex and Hunter onto the one the clones are dealing with so they can put its eyes out. Rex is less than thrilled by being thrown around by him again.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Tech is scrolling through his collection of recordings looking for the keeradak distress call, the list of creature recordings he does have includes bonzami, neebray, nexu, purrgil, and wampa.
- Go for the Eye: Rex, Hunter, and Crosshair blind one of the octuptarra droids by each taking out one of its three visual sensors.
- Greed: Upon being told that the attack force has failed to recapture Echo, Tambor decides not to immediately tell the Separatists because he first wants to find a way to recoup the Techno Union's investment and the blow to their profit margin. Naturally, this decision comes to bite the Separatists at Anaxes in the following episode.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: During the opening firefight, Wrecker takes down three D-wing droids by throwing another, defeated droid into them.
- Heroic RRoD: Echo is incredibly malnourished and has spent at least many months trapped in a stasis pod. As a result, he is too weak to move on his own when he first comes out of the pod.
- Irony: Everyone, even poor Wrecker assumes he's the mostly likely to fall off the narrow pipe between the laboratory and the platform. In the end, it's Crosshair who falls, with Wrecker even being the one to jump down and save him from falling to his death.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: When Tambor gets inside the lab and sees Echo's empty stasis chamber, he says "They took it!"
- Noodle Incident: The wide variety of creatures Tech has managed to record may lead one to wonder precisely what circumstances allowed him to acquire those recordings.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Wrecker, when faced with the Organic Decimator, although Anakin is able to pull him inside the air vent to safety in time.
- This is also Played for Laughs a few times: Hunter and Rex's indignant reactions when grabbed by Wrecker because he's about to throw them somewhere, and then every other member of the group turning to stare at Echo when he announces that they're not going to like his escape route. And then again with Anakin, Rex, Echo, and Hunter giving Tech apprehensive looks when he says they're going to have to jump onto the keeradaks in order to escape.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Rex's reaction when Wrecker grabs him to throw him onto an attacking Octuptarra droid, clearly remembering when Wrecker threw most of the party into the vent to escape the lab earlier.
- The Precarious Ledge: Echo's escape route from Purkoll requires everyone to cross a long, narrow pipe leading between two buildings. The team is only halfway across when they're cornered by D-wing battle droids, requiring them to find an alternate means of escape. Crosshair loses his balance and nearly falls to his death before Wrecker manages to swing down and grab him, underscoring how dangerous it is.
- Rousing Speech: Rex gives one, translated by Tech, that persuades the Poletecs to help the team to fight back against the Techno Union forces by pointing out what they did to Echo.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Wrecker decides to demonstrate what he thinks of Tambor's "science experiment" by planting explosives all around the lab.
- Tempting Fate: While crossing the pipe, right after Hunter reassures a nervous Wrecker that they're almost there, a squad of Separatist droids emerges from the doorway they're approaching.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Tambor's reaction when he realizes the lab has been strewn with explosives is a relatively subdued "Oh, no." Cue the door to his lab being thrown at him.
