WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 7, “Battle Scars,” streaming now on Disney+.
Throughout Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Wrecker and Omega have established a close bond that has been shown through both subtle moments and grand gestures. At the beginning of “Battle Scars,” Clone Force 99 completes another mission for Cid, and afterward, Wrecker and Omega ask to leave so that they can complete their post-mission tradition. Together, the two go out and get “Mantell Mix,” a food that looks like popcorn, to celebrate a job well done. And while states that it’s for the kid, it’s obviously a tradition they both enjoy.
On a practical level, this tradition gives the audience a rough estimate of how many missions the team has completed for Cid; she includes “20 cartons of Mantell Mix” in her itemized bill for the team’s debt to her. After the revelation of this item on the list, the show immediately cuts to Wrecker telling the stall owner to put their cartons “on Cid’s tab.” Since it cost fourteen credits for two cartons, the team owes Cid 154 credits for Mantell Mix alone, including the two cartons that the duo just purchased that would not yet have been included on the bill.
The Mantell Mix also helps mark the passage of time on the show, even if it does not provide a definite timeline. Since Wrecker and Omega seem to get a carton each as part of their tradition, this means that the team has completed approximately 11 missions for Cid so far. This means that at least a couple of weeks have passed since the team’s mission to Corellia, if not over a month.
But while the tradition is revealing on a technical level, this bonding activity is more important on an emotional level. Even though the Mantell Mix tradition seems like a small detail, this bonding moment shows just how close the Wrecker and Omega have become, making Wrecker’s transformation later in the episode even more heartbreaking. After leaving to get their chips removed with Rex, Wrecker’s programming activates, and he corners Omega. She begs him to stop, saying that he’s her friend, but the show makes it clear that Wrecker ultimately would have gone through with killing his friends had Rex not intervened.
Even though Wrecker was terrifying under the chip’s influence, Omega makes it clear she knows that he wasn’t in control. After the team completes the procedure to remove Wrecker’s chip, she refuses to leave his side until he wakes up. Omega also is the first person Wrecker acknowledges when he does finally come to. Later, he is clearly distraught as he talks to Omega about what happened. Even after Omega says that “it’s okay,” Wrecker continues to apologize. To show that there are no hard feelings and that she does not blame him, Omega pulls out some leftover Mantell Mix for the two to share. She states, “The mission’s over. We can’t break tradition,” which snaps Wrecker out of his melancholy.
Even though the Mantell Mix tradition seems to be a throwaway detail, it’s actually revealing on multiple levels. While the implications are important for marking the passage of time, the tradition also inspires a poignant moment showing that Omega and Wrecker’s bond is as strong as ever. Wrecker and Omega may have some new psychological battle scars from the experience, but the sharing of their tradition helps them move forward.
Created by Dave Filoni, Star Wars: The Bad Batch stars Dee Bradley Baker, Michelle Ang, Andrew Kishino and Ming-Na Wen. The new episodes air Fridays on Disney+.
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