Commander Cody will return in clone commandos of Clone Force 99 avoid being brainwashed into Imperial service long enough to remove their control chips. The lone exception to this is Crosshair, who voluntarily fights for the Empire even without his control chip. Commander Cody, a fan-favorite clone officer, became brainwashed by Order 66 but the lore surrounding clone control chips and Cody’s continuing Imperial service, as teased in The Bad Batch season 2’s trailer, suggests a far worse betrayal than Crosshair’s.
Commander Cody is one of the Star Wars franchise’s first prominent clone characters. Commander Cody, along with Commander Bly and the ARC Trooper Alpha, appeared in the Legends continuity, with Cody making his onscreen debut in the Legends-era Star Wars: Clone Wars micro-series before appearing in live-action for the first time in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Naturally, Cody appeared often in canon’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, often working alongside General Obi-Wan Kenobi and Captain Rex. As with nearly all clones, Cody is characterized as a fundamentally good man who only betrayed the Republic due to his implant overriding his free will and compelling him to serve the Galactic Empire.
As shown in The Bad Batch season 1, clone control chips will eventually wear off, allowing clone troopers to regain their free will and question their actions. This notably happened to Captain Howzer during the Empire’s occupation of Ryloth and the Star Wars: Kanan - The Last Padawan comics showed Commander Grey regaining his free will after murdering Depa Billaba. This was likely the case for Crosshair as well, allowing him to remove his chip by the end of The Bad Batch season 1, but in a shocking reveal, he explains to his former squates that he now chooses to serve the Empire, making him perhaps the only clone who believes in the regime’s fascist ideology. For Commander Cody, who has a much better-defined character than Crosshair, to willfully serve the Empire, despite his close friendships with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Captain Rex, this is a much harsher twist.
Commander Cody appears in far more Star Wars content than Crosshair, and although his ideology is never delved into, it’s presumably the same as the majority of the Republic’s clones. As explained by Captain Rex in the Clone Wars episode “The Deserter,” clones fight for democracy and to prevent the citizens of the Republic from enduring unimaginable oppression under Separatist rule. The Separatist Alliance is a corrupt corporate oligarchy, despite its pretense of superior representation to the Republic, so the Empire is as unfavorable of a regime if not more so for most clones. Moreover, Crosshair only appeared in one Clone Wars story arc before his Bad Batch betrayal, and he was already characterized as an unusually callous and unkind clone. Cody, on the other hand, is depicted as a true hero throughout The Clone Wars’ seven seasons, making his possible turn to villainy much harsher.
Why Is Commander Cody Still Serving The Empire In The Bad Batch Season 2?
There are several possible reasons why Commander Cody will continue to serve the Empire in The Bad Batch season 2, and the most tragic reason is that he’s choosing to. The Galactic Empire is notoriously unforgiving towards traitors, so perhaps Cody is serving the regime to survive. Cody could also be resigned to his new role, seeing his near-assassination of one of his best friends, Obi-Wan Kenobi, as a point of no return. The most heartbreaking reason would be that Cody believes in the Empire’s ideology like Crosshair, making him truly a traitor to the Republic and his friends.
Cody might still be controlled by his brain implant, however, as there are other clone troopers who serve the Empire well into the Star Wars original trilogy era. Clones like Crosshair are rare instances of clones who lack altruism, so Cody could easily be still brainwashed during the events of The Bad Batch season 2. Considering Commander Cody’s meaning to both viewers and Captain Rex, he and Clone Force 99 may try to redeem the clone commander by removing his implant in Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2.