Echo decided to leave The Bad Batch squad because he wanted to help Captain Rex on his mission after the Stormtrooper bill was passed.
Echo, like all the other members of the Clone Force 99 squad has his own sorted history, but he is an invaluable part of the team when it comes to his skills and devotion.
However, Echo recently decided to leave the squad temporarily. He did this to help Captain Rex with his mission to help the regular clones after they were made obsolete.
Echo’s role in Star Wars: The Bad Batch
Star Wars: The Bad Batch has introduced audiences to a whole new squad of unlikely heroes in the form of Clone Force 99.
Although the members of Clone Force 99 each have their own histories and were already well-known for not following the rules before they joined the squad, every member has their own role to play in their new squad where they take on varying mercenary missions in the aftermath of the clone wars.
Echo is the only regular clone on the team and while he technically only has one arm, he does bring a certain kind of devotion to the cause and to their missions that no other member of Clone Force 99 can match.
Why did Echo leave Bad Batch?
While Echo is a valuable member of the Clone Force 99 squad, he has always had a more personal reason to fight back against the Empire than the other members.
Techno was not always part of Clone Force 99 squad and was only taken in by Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair after the Separatists mutilated him so badly that he no longer felt like his old self.
After Echo was rescued by Captain Rex (who he used to work with when he was a regular clone) and the rest of Clone Force 99 squad, he was caught between two worlds.
He no longer fitted in with regular clones, but his devotion to doing everything he can to save the other regular clones also meant that he did not always fit in with the rest of the squad of elite clones either.
This is why Echo decides to leave The Bad Batch in the seventh and eighth episodes of season two, in order to assist Captain Rex with a much larger mission, and one that is much more aligned with his own core values.
Captain Rex needs Echo’s assistance with helping the regular clones after Senate passed the Stormtrooper bill and made the clones obsolete, while the clones still had to fight their own to avoid being killed.
Will Echo ever return to the Clone Force 99 squad?
At this point, it is not yet certain exactly when Echo will return to the Clone Force 99 squad.
However, when Omega was so sad after Echo announced that he was leaving, Tech and the other remaining members of the squad comforted her by saying that he never left them; he was just on a different mission.
This seems to indicate that Echo did not leave the team entirely, but just went away temporarily to help Captain Rex with this mission and should return at a later date.
Why did Echo decide to help Captain Rex instead of staying with the squad?
Echo was not the first member of the Clone Force 99 to leave the squad, but there is no doubt that his unique abilities and specialities will be sorely missed in their future missions.
However, many viewers and fans of the show have admitted that they always felt like Echo would eventually leave the squad because he had always put the mission before himself.
Echo has wanted to do more with the squad’s missions from the start and now, with this new mission, he will finally get this opportunity.
What may happen now that Echo has left?
When Echo left, Hunter assured him that the Cloud Force 99 squad would welcome him back at any time and Echo promised that he would return. However, he and Captain Rex will have a lot to do to beat the Empire before Echo can return,.
For now, the only direct effect that Echo’s departure had is that it absolutely emotionally destroyed Omega.
In fact, some popular fan theories even pose the idea that Omega will sneak away to try and find Echo and that this will eventually end up dragging the rest of the squad into an official head-on fight against the Empire.
However, even if this theory does not play out as expected, Echo’s departure does leave Clone Force 99 with one less member and Omega with one less protector on their future missions.