Are We About To See This Female Jedi's Turn To The Dark Side In 'The Bad Batch?'
Even before shows like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, or Ahsoka, which are linked together by certain characters and events, Dave Filoni had a tendency to continue and connect stories across more than one series: He brought back Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan in Rebels (and brought them back again in The Mandalorian). Captain Rex was a main character in The Clone Wars and at least an auxiliary character in Rebels, as was Darth Maul, to name only a few.
On May 4, The Bad Batch, the spin-off series of The Clone Wars, will start airing on Disney+. A recently released promo poster prominently shows the looming figure of Palpatine/Sidious, which suggests that the Emperor may have more than just small cameos here and there, and might have a central part in the hunt for Clone Force 99, along with the already confirmed Tarkin.
Why the Emperor would have such an interest in a bunch of clones that basically become bounty hunters and mercenaries is yet to be seen. But what we do know is that Palpatine used a very elite and quite mysterious group of Force sensitive beings to hunt down the remaining Jedi and to find Force sensitive children. The Inquisitors are not Sith per-se, thus not breaking the Rule of Two, but at least some of them have been Jedi or at least previously affiliated with the Jedi Order, but turned away from the light side, as they were disillusioned about what had become of the Order. And this is where another character from The Clone Wars, whose fate was left open at the end of the series, comes into play:
Barriss Offee
The Mirialan padawan to Luminara Unduli first appeared in Episode II – Attack of The Clones, where she was portrayed by Nalini Krishan. In the 3D-animated series, she was voiced by Meredith Salenger. During the course of the series, she became a close and trusted friend to Ahsoka Tano, until she too got so frustrated with the Jedi and their role in the Clone Wars, that she detonates a bomb at the Jedi Temple, frames Ahsoka for it, and even tries to kill her. When Anakin Skywalker confronts her, she fiights with the red lightsabers she had taken from Asajj Ventress, claiming “they suit me.” After confessing her deeds, she is brought away and arrested.
At Star Wars Celebration in 2015, Filoni admitted that he had originally intended for Barriss to blow up her cell and kill herself, but he later changed his mind:
“I didn’t want that fate for Barriss, so I cut that part. I had plans for Barriss.”
These plans have yet to come to fruition, as Barriss did not reappear in the last two seasons of The Clone Wars, nor did she appear in Rebels. But according to some fan theories on the Reddit forums, that could change with the upcoming The Bad Batch series, as some expect (or at least hope) that the lost padawan and traitor could appear as one of the Inquisitors.
There is no official word onscreen as to how many of the Emperor’s secret Enforcers there had actually been, but the 2017 reference book Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, Updated and Expanded gives a number of up to 12. So far, 11 Inquisitors (including the demised leader, who was only known as The Grand Inquisitor) have appeared in official canon (mainly in Rebels, in Marvel comics, or in the video game Jedi: Fallen Order):
The Second Sister
The Fourth Sister
The Fifth Brother
The Sixth Brother
The Seventh Sister
The Eighth Brother
The Ninth Sister
The Tenth Brother
There were also a black-skinned Twi’lek and a red skinned Palliduvan, who strangely didn’t get a number, and of course, the Grand Inquisitor himself. None of these could be Barriss, except the show creators could “retcon” the Seventh Sister, who is also a Mirialan, into being the former Jedi padawan, which would really be a stretch.
This basically leaves the Fourth Sister, of whom hardly anything is known other than she doesn’t use the traditional red lightsaber as the other Inquisitors, but a yellow/orange one similar to the Jedi Guards and that her armor is at some point acquired by the Rebel Alliance, as one of the rebels uses it to pose as this Inquisitor. The only other Inquisitor who hasn’t appeared yet is number three, which could potentially make Barriss Offee the Third Sister in The Bad Batch.
The question is why there would be a need for the presence of the Inquisitors in the series anyway. None of the altered clones seem to be Force sensitive, so it would be a waste of resources to have Palpatine or Tarkin track them down with the Jedi hunters. Of course, they could potentially come into contact with a Jedi on the run, which would in turn put them into the crosshair (no pun intended) of the Emperor.
But what if – and this is pure speculation right now – Omega, the young girl whom Clone Force 99 takes with them, is Force sensitive, and thus hunted by the Inquisitors, or more specifically by Barriss Offee in her new identity as the Third Sister?
With her past, she would absolutely fit the bill of becoming an Inquisitor after Order 66. And with Filoni’s mentioning of having plans for her, perhaps there is a high likelihood that she could appear in The Bad Batch. Stranger Things have happened in the Filoni-verse.
Source(s): Inside The Magic