Fans Fear For Echo In 'The Bad Batch' Finale: Let's Recap The Fates Of Domino Squad

WARNING! SPOILERS for The Bad Batch 3x14, 'Flash Strike'

We are now just a week away from seeing the series finale of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and it's sure to be a heartstopper. As Clone Force 99 attempts to infiltrate Tantiss base and rescue Omega, Omega is formulating her own escape plan with the other children held captive in The Vault. However, fans have developed a particular fear for the fate of Echo, the only member of the Bad Batch to have made it inside the base proper so far.

Echo, who made it inside the base disguised as a Stormtrooper, was last seen forming a tentative alliance with female clone scientist Dr. Emerie Karr after she offered to help him infiltrate The Vault, where Omega and the children are being held. So, why the concern from fans? Well, despite the fact that the rest of the Batch is currently being pursued by Stormtroopers through the forest surrounding the base, Echo being inside puts him in more significant and immediate danger than those outside, but that is not the only reason.

Echo is the final surviving member of Domino Squad. Introduced in the Clone Wars episode 'Clone Cadets' (the third episode in chronological order, but aired during season three), Domino Squad were a five-man company of clones, who viewers follow through various missions when watching the series in true chronological order. Unfortunately, the squad were historically rather unlucky.

Let's look at the fates of the rest of Domino Squad, and what this could mean for Echo.

Droidbait

Unfortunately, CT-00-2010's chosen name, Droidbait, likely doomed him from the start. When Droidbait is injured during the Citadel test, the rest of Domino Squad break the first rule of combat by opting to leave him behind, resulting in their failure.

Soon after the squad's arrival at Rishi Station, Droidbait is killed in an attack by Separatist-controlled BX-series droid commandos, becoming the first Domino to fall.

Cutup

During their troubled training days, CT-4040's tendency for joking about and not taking things seriously meant that their drillmaster, Siniteen Bric, often singled him out as the one to blame for Domino Squad's failures, telling him:

"You're a real cutup, aren't you?"

The intended insult falls flat when CT-4040 likes the sound, taking Cutup as his official name. After rallying to pass their re-test, Cutup joins his Squad on their assignment to Rishi Moon, but is attacked and killed by a Rishi eel as the squad flees a Separatist attack. Two Dominos down.

Hevy

During 'Clone Cadets', Clone CT-782, later to be known as Hevy, was something of a lone wolf. His tendency to race ahead on his own rather than work with his brothers led to Domino Squad initially failing their final training mission, the Citadel, and would have been assigned to maintenance duty had Jedi Master Shaak Ti not argued to give them another chance. Believing there was no chance of success, CT-782 attempts to desert, until a pep talk with the deformed but beloved clone 99, who officially names him Hevy, convinces him to return to Domino Squad, passing the re-test.

After completing training, Hevy and Domino Squad are assigned to an important strategic outpost on Rishi Moon. The outpost soon falls under attack by Separatist battle droids. Hevy gives his life destroying Rishi Station with explosives, posthumously recognised as a war hero for alerting the Republic forces and delaying a Separatist invasion of Kamino. In later episodes, fellow Dominos Fives and Echo memorialise Hevy on their armor. While a significant break between Domino deaths followed Hevy's demise, the squad's bad luck was far from over.

Fives

CT-27-5555, aka Fives, was one of just two members of Domino Squad, the other being Echo, to survive the attack on Rishi Station. After participating in a successful operation to defend the Clone 'Homeworld', Kamino, from Separatist invasion, both Fives and Echo are promoted, becoming ARC Troopers. Fives goes on to participate in a number of notable missions, including the attempted rescue of Jedi General Even Piell from Separatist prison facility the Citadel, the Battle of Umbara, and the subsequent arrest and capture of fallen Jedi Pong Krell.

However, Fives' most significant storyline is the one in which, after the death of his friend Tup due to a faulty inhibitor chip, Fives discovers the existence and purpose of the chips in all clones, and almost manages to thwart the implimentation of Order 66. Unfortunately, then-Chancellor Palpatine is able to deflect suspicion by painting Fives as defective and insane, and he is shot by his own clone brothers, dying in the arms of a devastated Captain Rex.

Fives' death wasn't entirely in vain, as he had planted a seed of suspicion in Rex's mind. When Order 66 comes down, Rex is able to resist his chip just long enough to warn his close friend Ahsoka Tano, allowing the former Jedi time to escape and uncover the information she needs to save Rex, and that he has since used to save other clones from further chip-based manipulation.

At the time of his death, Fives was believed to be the last surviving Domino, but it later turned out that this wasn't the case..

Will Echo be the last Domino to fall, or continue as the squad's sole survivor?

Initially, Echo was believed to have died in a heroic sacrifice during the raid on the Citadel prison, but during the 'Bad Batch' arc of Clone Wars final season, it was revealed that Echo had survived, only to be taken captive, experimented on, and turned into a cyborg by Wat Tambor of the Techno Union. Following his rescue, Echo embraced the changes in himself by joining the Defective clones of Clone Force 99. However, still maintainin g a bond with his 'reg' brothers, Echo joins Rex's rogue clone squad late in The Bad Batch's second season, but remains in regular contact with the Batch.

So, how much danger is Echo in come next week's finale? Some fans have pointed to the fact that Echo is no longer with Rex when the latter next chronologically appears in Star Wars: Rebels as a bad sign for Echo's longterm survival. Losing Echo, who he is close to, could also explain why Rex avoids confrontation with the Empire when we first rejoin him in Rebels. Note, none of this means Echo is definitely dead, as he could simply have rejoined Clone Force 99.

However, given that The Bad Batch is set during the last days of the Clone Troopers as the main military force of the Galaxy, killing off Echo, the last man standing of a squad viewers followed through most of the Clone Wars era, makes a lot of sense from a thematic perspective. As the last Domino falls, the age of the Clone Troopers would truly be over.

Echo should probably watch his back in the finale.