So With the book of Boba Fett chapter 7, the finale recently released, we finally got a look at Cad Bane facing off with one of his oldest Rivals Boba Fett in live action. Although us very dedicated fans of the Clone Wars have probably already seen the obscure unfinished episode of that series where Cad and Boba face off, many people certainly haven’t. So for many this was the pair’s first encounter on screen and they were shocked at Bane’s death. But there was one very tiny detail that many people missed which points to Bane remaining alive, albeit in very bad shape. Even I missed this tiny detail the first time around. So before we start, tell me in the comments if you think he should be alive in the first place, because although there is evidence that is, is it the right decision?

After facing down with the man who gave him his infamous helmet dent all those years ago, Boba Fett managed to get the better of Cad Bane and topple him to the ground. At that point, Boba utilized all of the training and channeled all of the suffering he felt from the death of the tuskens. Using that, he impaled Cad Bane right through the chest with his Gaffi stick, seemingly putting an end to his long and illustrious bounty hunting career.

If you look carefully though, there was one massive detail which even I missed on my first go around. As Cad Bane breathes his final on-screen breath, a tiny little cyberntic unit activates and begins flashing with an ominous red light. On top of that, the unit begins beeping in a tone consistent with the heartbeat of a Duros. Now they even linger on this shot for a pretty long period of time, obviously meaning its intentional to show us that there is still life within him.

Very interestingly though, the monitor only switches on once he stops breathing. This pretty much confirms that it is connected to his vital signs in some way, he clearly didn’t activate it manually. On top of that, it makes it pretty clear that this system is intended to keep him alive in the event that his lungs can no longer intake air, possibly through his breathing tubes seen on the neck. I really don’t think the Gaffi stick penetrated the heart considering Duros have their hearts much higher up and are pretty small.

We know Cad Bane is no stranger to augmenting his body, and you can even see the major example of this through the patch on his head in this very scene. This patch was first seen in Star Wars The Bad Batch and is currently assumed to have come as a result of him being blasted in the head by Boba fett at the end of the Clone wars. For those of you who don’t know, in the very final days of the war, Boba Fett staged a mutiny against Cad Bane because of the way he was treating their hostages and bounty targets. Boba wanted to treat them with more dignity, but Cad Bane scoffed at this weakness. This as you can imagine led them into a western standoff, where they were both as quick as eachother. Cad and Boba both fired their blasters with one putting a dent in Boba fett’s helmet and the other hitting Bane in the head. This is where the cybernetic patch on his head comes from and is presumably what is keeping him alive in the first place, along with the other life support system seen beeping.

Cad bane is one of the most pragmatic bounty hunters to ever live. He doesn’t take unnecessary risks and he always plans for the future. As an example, he was very fond of taking bountys on Jedi and force using targets. So he didn’t just go forth and attack, he planned carefully, loading out his equipment pretty much exclusively for anti force user gear. Things like his reinforced breathing tubes to prevent force chokes, his jet boots to counter and mimic force jumps, his electro stunner to mimic force lightning and even his stolen mandalorian vambraces.