Episode 4.11—"Who You Are"
We flash back to Nala Se's old lab on Kamino, where she created Clone Force 99. Four baby clones play on the floor. One is big and stocky; another has long, unruly hair; and a third wears thick glasses. And then there's the fourth—Crosshair. He crawls toward his brothers, but Nala Se separates him from the others.
In the present, Crosshair lurks down the halls of a lab belonging to the Advanced Science Division. He swipes some datacards from an empty room before continuing on his way. In another area of the lab, men guard the entrance to a detainment cell. A scientist approaches the guards and informs them that the clone prisoners are ready for harvest. The youngest guard, who looks about eighteen, reaches for his keys.
Blaster shots zip out of the shadows, taking out everyone except the youngest guard. The trembling man sees Crosshair's silhouette at the end of the hall. Crosshair says he can walk out of this alive if he releases the clones. As he speaks, he steps into the light, revealing his identity. The guard's terror mixes with disgust. He says he won't take orders from property, much less the byproduct of Clone Force 99. We linger on Crosshair's face, cold and hard. He fires his blaster.
Crosshair retrieves the young man's keys from his lab coat, unlocks the cell door, and orders the clone prisoners to stand back. He uses an explosive to blow a hole in the ceiling, revealing the sky. Emerie pilots Crosshair's ship overhead and lowers a ladder through the opening. The prisoners climb to safety while Crosshair sets more bombs. Once the last clone has entered the ship, he climbs on board.
Crosshair stands by the ship's window and activates his remote detonator. He watches in satisfaction as his bombs go off, destroying the lab. As Emerie pilots the ship into space, he turns to survey the rescued clones. Their frames are sallow and emaciated, and many bear the marks of previous experimentation. Bitterness reclaims his expression.
Late at night, they land on Coruscant. They sneak their injured brothers down abandoned alleyways, keeping out of sight of the stormtroopers who patrol the streets. They reach what appears to be a dead end, but Emerie moves aside some trash bins, uncovering the entrance to Dr. Boll's secret lab.
As they enter the lab, we pan up to the top of a nearby building. An Imperial spy sits crouched in the shadows, watching them.
Inside the lab, Boll tends to the injured clones while Crosshair helps Emerie analyze the datacards he stole. They discover a record of recent shipments to a certain individual—Nala Se. Apparently, she is still alive and under the Advanced Science Division's control. Crosshair speculates that Nala Se may know the location of the Division's new headquarters, or at least some of the other labs. He decides to find and interrogate her.
While Emerie researches the shipping coordinates associated with Nala Se, Crosshair watches the injured clones. The Regs patch each other up and talk easily among themselves, just as Crosshair's squad used to do. The lines in his face deepen.
On Sorgan, Echo calls Hunter, Wrecker, and Omega into the Marauder. He pulls up a HoloNews report on his datapad. The article reveals that Crosshair is wanted for murdering Imperial scientists. The Batch is relieved to learn he is alive, but his high profile concerns them.
Omega says they cannot abandon Crosshair again. They must find a way to contact him so he doesn't have to battle the Empire alone. The four scrutinize the article, which contains a blurry picture of Crosshair on Phelar. Omega spots the hazy form of Emerie in the background. They surmise that the two may be working together. If Emerie still has the comlink Hunter gave her on Eiloh, they may be able to transmit a message to it.
Meanwhile, Crosshair and Emerie pilot their ship to the coordinates they found, which lead to a prison on the planet Roto II. Crosshair has concealed his tattoo and dressed in a white prison uniform. As he sorts through his weapons, he comes across the keys that belonged to the young guard he killed. He looks away as he deposits them in the trash. He slides a small pistol into one pocket and a packet of reflection mirrors into the other.
Crosshair notices Emerie watching him uneasily. He asks what her problem is. Emerie asks if he plans to kill Nala Se. Crosshair says he just wants information from her, but Emerie looks unconvinced. She reminds him that Nala Se created and raised him. He rejoins that he doesn't exactly see her as a mother figure. After a pause, Emerie says she would have given anything to have a relationship with Jango. The least they can do is respect the people who filled in for him. Glancing at the scars that peek out from under her collar, Crosshair asks how that went for her.
They land outside the prison. Since they are piloting a stolen Imperial vessel, their ship blends in among the other shuttles. New prisoners filter out of the other vessels, and Crosshair steps out to join them. Emerie retreats to the back of the ship, where she uses her datapad to access the prison's security feed.
We cut to a filthy workshop inside the prison. Crosshair keeps his head down as guards assign groups of inmates to different labor stations. At the end of the long workshop is a small connecting room, its entrance blocked by the whirring blades of a giant fan. Crosshair sneaks forward, staying behind the other workers to avoid detection.
A wheezing prisoner nearly falls against a spinning saw blade, but Crosshair steadies him. Relief fills the man's eyes, but it shifts to hatred when he realizes Crosshair is a clone. The man spits that clones destroyed everything he had on Coruscant. He attempts to strangle Crosshair while the other prisoners watch approvingly. Crosshair breaks free, only to be struck by a guard. The guard shoves him toward a labor station and yells at him to get back to work.
Crosshair simmers but says nothing. As more men join his station, he frees a loose piece of metal from his worktable. He uses it to shank a nearby inmate. He disappears into the crowd before his victim can identify who attacked him. As the commotion around the injured prisoner grows, Crosshair uses the distraction to reach the end of the room.
He narrowly ducks through the sharp fan blades and enters a small boiler room. A droid stands guard, but Crosshair takes out his pistol and blasts it. The fan muffles the sound. He rolls up his sleeve, revealing his communicuff. He whispers that he is in position.
Back in the ship, Emerie speaks to Crosshair through her comlink. She says she has replaced the halls' security feed with old footage. She cannot see into the inmates' cells, but she directs him to the area with the strongest security.
Crosshair seizes the droid's security card and uses it to unlock the exit to the boiler room. He enters the main area of the facility and creeps down the indoor balconies, taking care to avoid the patrol droids. Cells run alongside the balconies. The cells' metal doors prevent him from seeing inside them, but he hears a pre-recorded rehabilitation speech emanating from each room's speakers. The narrator declares that the inmates are worthless to the galaxy, but those who follow orders will gain glory and honor. These words intensify the smoldering anger on Crosshair's face.
He reaches his location, which is blocked by an iron door. Droids guard the entrance, but he attacks them swiftly and brutally. Using the security card he confiscated earlier, he unlocks the entrance and steps inside, closing the door behind him.
The room contains a small cell with transparent walls. Inside this cell is Nala Se. Surprise briefly registers on Crosshair's face when he sees her. Nala Se's time in this prison has left her frail and sickly. Nevertheless, she watches him calmly as he approaches. She says she was wondering when his destructive path would lead him back to her. Every day, people threaten to harm her if she doesn't solve their problems. She asks what problem he wants her to solve.
Crosshair orders her to reveal all she knows about the Advanced Science Division. Nala Se doesn't respond. He aims his blaster at one of the cell's ventilation holes, which is directly in front of her face. She says intimidation won't work with her. He may fool others, but she sees him for who he truly is—a twelve-year-old boy in the body she made for him.
As Crosshair scowls, Nala Se tells him to stop pretending to be a hero. She claims he came here for one reason—to kill her. Crosshair hisses that she deserves it. He reminds her that she controlled him with an inhibitor chip and forced him to turn on his squad. Without her interference, he and his brothers would still be together. Nala Se regards him coldly and says he couldn't be more wrong. She reveals that he was never even supposed to be a part of Clone Force 99. Crosshair starts to scoff, but her intense gaze makes him hesitate.
We transition to the prison's back entrance, where Rampart has arrived. Guards inform him that they discovered inert patrol droids outside Nala Se's cell. Smiling, Rampart comments that the spy he hired on Coruscant has not let him down. He hands a tracker to the guards.
Back in the cell, Crosshair commands Nala Se to disclose the location of the Division's headquarters. Instead, she reveals the origins of the Bad Batch. Several years ago, she received orders to create three enhanced clones—the first with heightened senses, the second with increased intelligence, and the third with remarkable strength. But none of those attributes constitute a perfect soldier. She determined to make a fourth clone, one she would shape from the inside out.
We transition to Crosshair's ship, where Emerie is waiting. Her comlink blinks, indicating that someone has transmitted a message. Before she can play it, the two guards who reported to Rampart break into the ship. She grabs her blaster, but one of the guards stuns her before she can fire. The other conceals a tracker in the ship's machinery.
Back in the prison, Crosshair asserts that Nala Se gave him the eyesight and aim of a marksman, plain and simple. Beyond that, she knows nothing about who he is. Nala Se meets his eyes with a piercing stare. She asks if he truly regrets the lives he took while serving the Empire. Or were his months of killing rebels the only time he ever felt like himself?
As Crosshair wavers, Nala Se ruminates that he must have been in so much pain growing up. She mentions how intensely he felt emotions, how they cut into him in a way his squad never understood. As she speaks, we see quick flashes of his childhood. Under Nala Se's instructions, young clones torment Crosshair. He mercilessly attacks them, then looks up to see his squad arriving. They stare at him in shock.
In the present, vulnerability mixes with the wrath in Crosshair's gaze. Nala Se concludes that she gave him the pain and drive to be one thing—a killer. That is who he is. That is all he will ever be. He cannot escape his darkness, because she created him from darkness.
Crosshair keeps his blaster aimed at the ventilation hole in front of Nala Se. He mutters that she is stalling. As weariness pervades Nala Se's features, she quietly agrees. She says she has no further information for him. But as long as she lives, her captors will continue to force her to serve the Empire. She knows he hates her. She asks Crosshair to complete his mission, to do what she made him to do.
Crosshair's pistol shakes slightly as he studies Nala Se. His conflicting emotions harden into resolve as he wraps his finger around the trigger. He fires at a small, nearly invisible sensor above the cell. Nala Se glitches and disappears. We realize she has been a hologram this whole time. Now that the illusion has vanished, we see that a stack of explosives were concealed behind her image. Had Crosshair shot her, he would have died instantly. Nala Se's voice emanates from the cell's hidden speakers. She says she made him smart, too. We cut to another area of the facility, where Nala Se is actually confined. Guards hold her at gunpoint as she speaks into a microphone.
We return to Crosshair. The door slides open, revealing scores of Imperials who have filled the halls. As Nala Se's voice fades from the speakers, she tells him to go home.
The guard who struck Crosshair orders him to surrender. His words only strengthen the hatred in Crosshair's expression. He removes a reflection mirror from his pack and sets it near the cell. As his enemies advance, he raises his blaster and gets to work.
Crosshair shoots the hinges off a compartment panel and pries it free. He strides down the hall, using the metal panel to shield himself from gunfire. With his free hand, he alternates between shooting his attackers and setting more mirrors. Tossing his pistol aside, he snatches a fallen guard's rifle. Vitality ignites in his eyes as he peppers his enemies with blaster fire.
Having broken through the Imperials, Crosshair heads down another corridor. A new wave of soldiers approaches from behind. He turns and throws the sharp metal panel at the attackers leading the group. It wedges in their torsos.
Back in Crosshair's ship, the guards move aside Emerie's unconscious body and take the helm. Upon receiving word of Crosshair's whereabouts, they pilot the ship toward his location.
In the prison, Crosshair continues destroying his enemies with staggering expertise. But more and more soldiers arrive. As a blast sears his shoulder, he escapes down another hall, only to reach a dead end. He sets his last reflection mirror, then turns to see a multitude of Imperials closing in. As Crosshair pants for breath, one man says there's nowhere left to run.
Crosshair glances through the window and sees his ship approaching. He slowly raises his hands in surrender. He tilts the rifle in his upraised hand, aiming it at the closest reflection mirror. He fires. His shot ricochets down the hall, bouncing against the other mirrors and tearing through the hordes of Imperials. The blast makes it back to the room that displayed Nala Se's hologram. It flies through the ventilation hole and hits the explosive.
The resulting detonation surges down the hall, taking out the surviving guards. As Crosshair's ship draws closer, he breaks through the window, landing on top of his vessel. He climbs into the ship and discovers the invaders. They open fire, but he ruthlessly overpowers them and throws them overboard. The vessel starts to spiral to the ground. Crosshair takes the helm and pilots the ship up into the sky, out of the atmosphere, and into the safety of hyperspace.
Slowly, the fire in his eyes subsides. He checks on Emerie, who is still unconscious from the stun blast. As he rests her against a metal chair, he catches a glimpse of his reflection. His white prison uniform has torn in multiple places, revealing his black clothes underneath. Drops of blood tarnish his hands and clothes. He turns away from his reflection.
We return to a small office in the prison, where Rampart has stationed himself. He steps into the hall and sees the carnage Crosshair has left behind. His face pales as his failure sinks in.
Back in Crosshair's ship, Emerie awakens. Crosshair has changed his clothes, washed his hands clean, and bandaged his shoulder. But Emerie's gaze falls to some blood spatters on his new rifle. As he holsters the weapon, she asks if he killed Nala Se. He shakes his head. He says he didn't get any information out of her, either. But she did emphatically tell him to "go home."
While Emerie considers this, Crosshair notices the comlink blinking in the back of the ship. He heads out of Emerie's earshot to play the comm's message. Omega's voice, sweet and gentle, comes through the device. She tells Crosshair that she misses him so much. She knows he feels alone, but no one understands him better than his squad. He's a good person, and they want him by their side. It's not too late to return to them.
Crosshair's facial muscles tighten. He studies the blood-spattered rifle at his side. As the message ends, he hardens his expression, chasing away the emotions threatening to overcome him. He crushes the comlink. He watches numbly as lets the pieces fall into the trash.
Back at the prison, more Imperials arrive for Rampart, only to learn that he is missing. We transition to space, where Rampart has fled in his ship. He removes a tracking device from his pocket. It blinks, confirming the location of Crosshair's ship. Determination settles in his features.
END OF EPISODE ELEVEN