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The Clone Wars Season 7 just premiered, and it’s off to a great start. It brings in the essential theme of the Clone troopers and how close they are to their brothers and their missions. It has Captain Rex front and center with the Bad Batch special ops group. The episode also deals with the loss of another Clone, Echo, who seemingly died in Season 3. Who is Clone trooper Echo and why is he connected to this new season?

Spoilers ahead for The Clone Wars Season 7, Episode 1 ahead. 

Echo's helmet during the battle at the Citadel in Season 3 of 'The Clone Wars.'
Clone trooper Echo’s helmet during the battle at the Citadel in Season 3 of ‘The Clone Wars’ | Lucasfilm

Clone trooper Echo was presumed dead after the Citadel mission in Season 3

In Season 3, Episodes 18 through 20 — “The Citadel,” “Counter Attack,” and “Citadel Rescue” — a team of Jedi and Clone troopers head to the Citadel, an impenetrable prison where Master Even Piell was being held. He had hyperdrive coordinates that were harmful to both sides, and the Jedi needed to save him from being killed or from those coordinates from getting to the enemy. 

In addition to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano (who wasn’t supposed to be on the mission in the first place), troopers Echo, Fives, and the rest of the 501st Legion went along. It was wildly risky because they all had to freeze in carbonite to escape the lifeform detectors on entry, and it wasn’t a guarantee that would work. Not to mention, as Anakin tells Ahsoka, the prison is meant to harbor and kill Jedi, so it’s particularly lethal to the strongest people on the mission. 

They did succeed, to a certain degree, and were on their way with Master Even Piell and his men. They were attacked on the tarmac of the Citadel, though, and the only way to stop the Separatist droids from blowing up their shuttle was to take out their gun towers. Echo surged ahead to do so, as it was their “only chance” and one of those droids shot him. 

The shot luckily took out the tower and the group was able to escape, but Echo’s sacrifice was strongly felt by those on the mission. 

Captain Rex has suspicions that Echo is behind the current Separatists wins

Fast forward to the Season 7 premiere and Rex is seen looking at a photograph of him and his brothers. They had a hold on the planet Anaxes but the Separatists are able to guess their every move and counter-attack on them perfectly. In order to find out why the Separatists know every plan Rex has, he and a small group head behind enemy lines with the Bad Batch. 

But even Anakin sees that Rex has an underlying suspicion he’s not telling them. As Rex tells Cody, he has a hunch that somehow Echo is alive and the Separatists are using him for those battle plans. 

Echo is seemingly alive and working with the Separatists. Or is he?

Near the end of this first episode, Tech and Rex hear a nearly-human voice coming from the place where the plans are transmitting from. When Rex asks for their number, they say, “CT-1409,” which is Echo’s call number. 

This confirms that not only is Echo alive, but the Separatists have also had him this entire time. They’re using him for battle strategies to offset Rex’s plans. While it could seem like Echo is working with them, Episode 2 will likely show that’s not the case. It’s not in a Clone’s DNA to forgo their allegiance to the Republic in favor of the Separatists, let alone hurt their brothers.

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