WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 2, "Cut and Run," streaming now on Disney+.
The premiere of Star Wars: The Bad Batch sparked debate among fans over changes to the established backstory of a Star Wars Rebels favorite, Jedi Kanan Jarrus. But the second episode contains another, more subtle retcon that further explains a device introduced in The Mandalorian: chain codes.
Set 28 years after the end of the Clone Wars, and the events of The Bad Batch, The Mandalorian first mentions a chain code in its premiere episode, when bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) accepts the job from the Client (Werner Herzog) to recover what was revealed to be "the Child," aka Grogu. Viewers could deduce from context that a chain code was a unique identification marker that bounty hunters could use in conjunction with a tracking fob to locate targets. Despite additional references throughout Season 1, no real details were provided until Season 2, when Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) displayed a hologram of his chain code, signifying the marker's first appearance in Star Wars lore, without much of a explanation.
Fans finally found that in the second episode of The Bad Batch. Unfolding in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars, and the founding of the Galactic Empire, "Cut and Run" brings the fugitive Clone Force 99 to the planet Saleucami, home of old friends Cut and Suu Lawquane. There, they discover that, instead of removing soldiers following the Separatists' defeat, the Empire is tightening its grip. Ships are seized and registered, and Republic currency is being replaced by Galactic credits; the Empire will exchange the money for free, but only to citizens who possess a chain code.
That same I.D. is required for interplanetary travel, which creates a problem for an army deserter like Cut, and sets up the episode's primary conflict: How does the Bad Batch find and forge chain codes for Cut, Suu and their two children, so they can flee this Imperial crackdown?
RELATED: The Bad Batch: Why Cut Lawquane Wasn't Activated by Order 66
"It's ironic," Echo (Dee Bradley Baker, who voices all of the clones) sagely observes. "Clones wanted names instead of numbers, yet now people are signing up to be given numbers." Staying true to his character, Tech counters that the chain code is actually ingenious: "You can create a database to identify anyone in the galaxy."
A chain code is obviously more than the Galactic Empire's version of a passport or driver's license; it contains biographical information that goes beyond birth date and home address. For example, Boba Fett's chain code, embedded into his armor 25 years earlier, includes data that establishes his father, Jango Fett, as a foundling raised as a Mandalorian. Cara Dune (Gina Carano) expressed concern that her chain code might reveal the extent of her crimes committed following the Galactic Civil War, and thereby draw the attention of the New Republic, which continued to use the I.D. system. So, perhaps we can think of a chain code as a cross between a police database and Ancestry.com.
Inserting the chain code into an episode of The Bad Batch, set during the earliest days of the Galactic Empire, is a very literal example of retroactive continuity: A device first mentioned in a Star Wars story set in 9 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin) is subsequently reintroduced in another show, which takes place 28 years before. The timeline syncs up, given what little we know about Boba Fett's chain code. Fans just have to not think too much about why chain codes were never mentioned in, say, Star Wars Rebels.
Created by Dave Filoni, Star Wars: The Bad Batch stars Dee Bradley Baker, Andrew Kishino and Ming-Na Wen. A new episode debuts each Friday on Disney+.