Caught up on TBB Season 2 and the ambiguity of whether Crosshair’s chip has really been removed aside, 2.03 hit me like a truck in depicting just how NOT capable Crosshair is of abandoning the Empire. Not in this state.
First, we’ve got the fact that he’s within the Empire itself, resulting in a constant barrage of the propaganda that accompanies the chip’s (potential) influence.
Second is Crosshair’s desperate need to hold onto his usefulness/sense of familiarity due to abandonment issues (and I get annoyed at posts that imply this is some kinda random flaw and not... you know... stemming from the fact that he was literally left by his squad. Regardless of whether we think the others could have made it back to him, that doesn’t erase the reality that they left him behind and didn’t return.) This has inevitably been exacerbated by being left on his destroyed home for a month--a month!!!! A MONTH OH MY GOD--and the fact that Crosshair is making overt attempts (for him) at companionship by sitting with the other clones and is unambiguously rejected. Cody feels him out for rebellious thinking and when he doesn’t find it, when Crosshair demonstrates that he really is a good soldier following orders, he leaves him behind. Like, I’m not blaming Cody, just highlighting that from Crosshair’s POV someone else has now abandoned him and the viewer is cable of seeing how this was a brother Crosshair was coming to care for--annoyance at the Admiral not knowing his name, wanting to re-join his squad--and that, once again, no one is sticking around to fight for Crosshair.
As soon as he’s cleared for active duty the Admiral calls him into his office at every meal. My boy ain’t eating.
The final scene shows us that he’s not sleeping anymore either.
Yeah, no wonder he’s not finding the emotional resilience to acknowledge the Empire for what it really is and strike out completely on his own to oppose it. I’ve got a lot to say about TBB’s writing (including this muddied approach to whether the other clones are brothers in need of rescue, or phaser fodder for fun action sequences), but “The Solitary Clone”--real subtle title there lol--does a fantastic job of highlighting precisely how unlikely it is that Crosshair can change without outside intervention. Everyone else we know who has broken away has some semblance of support, isn’t buckling under that sense of abandonment, and has presumably been eating and sleeping and not getting burned in the face, allowing them the bandwidth to weigh ethical questions. Crosshair has been in survival mode since the chips activated and even if his is out, it’s damn unlikely he can beat off his depression on a whim.
I say “unlikely” because sure, it’s technically possible and we may indeed get an arc where Crosshair simply hits a breaking point and leaves, but right now it’s like watching someone at the bottom of a fifty foot hole and going, “You can climb out using only your hands, actually. Ignore that others got a rope, shoulders to stand on, a meal beforehand, the hope that something is waiting for them up at the top. If you just tried harder you could accomplish the same.”
