Skeleton Crew Episode 8 Review
‘Skeleton Crew’ has come to its satisfying conclusion, managing to resolve key plot points in an action-packed finish. The kids manage to confront Jod, who in turn gets a bit too comfortable in his role as Republic Emissary, while a pirate invasion of At Attin begins. This episode is tense as the kids have to work together to call in the New Republic to save this. It’s a fantastic conclusion to a great series, bringing back joy and wonder to ‘Star Wars’.
The first thing episode eight does is help defuse some of the immediate tension that the previous episode setup, by explaining why Jod drew his lightsaber. It was a much needed explanation, so thankfully it was present. Fern and her mother are brought to visit the supervisor with Jod, and it turns out that it’s just a droid! This isn’t treated as a huge reveal, as Fern’s mum seems to already know this, and audiences had speculated this was the case. This moment doesn’t insult the intelligence of audience members.
What is surprising is that the droid (voiced by Stephen Fry), does know that Order 66 happened, as it claims that the Jedi are traitors is how it figures out that Jod is untrustworthy. It raises questions about how much this droid knew about the outside galaxy, those are minor. With his ruse discovered, Jod destroys the droid, taking At Attin’s power with it. Fern’s mum, scared of destroying the barrier to let Jod’s pirates in, gives the ship permission to land, kickstarting the plunder of At Attin.
The rest of the kids are sent home, with Wim in particular restless and unhappy. He’s happy to be home, but doesn’t want to take assessment, and is frustrated his dad isn’t taking the situation seriously. It’s only when the power goes can he escape, kickstarting a speeder bike chase with his dad, Neel and KB. It’s reminiscent of the bike chase in ‘ET’, a series that no doubt inspired this show. It shows some growth for Wim’s dad, as he’s now embracing some adventure with his son, instead of being distant with work. Neel goes to activate the turbolaser on the school, a callback to episode four, and does manage to give the pirates a fright before it’s destroyed.
The kids realise that they can contact Kh’ymm for help, but can’t get the Onyx Cinder to launch due to the power loss. This means that Wim has to go up to the Tower to launch it with his dad. After a tense showdown, with Jod revealing just a little bit of his backstory as a scared Padwan during the reign of the Empire Fern and Wim manage to work together, with Wim using his imagination as a weapon to distract Jod in a humorous moment. Wim even manages to get the lightsaber upright to face Jod, in a pleasing moment.
KB does manage to launch and get a message out, though is shot down. It’s an obvious fake-out death moment, as this series wouldn’t kill anyone in the final episode, so this falls flat. Of course, the kids realise that the New Republic ships won’t be able to pass through the barrier, which leads to a heartfelt moment where Fern has to plead with her mum to shut it off, saying that there are good people in the galaxy. Fern’s mum does have the courage to do this, showing some growth (though it would have been better if seeded in earlier episodes), allowing the New Republic to swoop in and save the day, with some cool starfighter action and a nice look at B-Wings using their composite beam to inflict massive damage on the pirate capital ship.
Jod does get a chance to shoot Wim, but it’s curious that he can’t bring himself to do it. It’s clear he doesn’t want to hurt the kids, he likely sees the same scared kid as he was. It leads to a complex character in the end, a bad guy, but one who does have ability for some small goodness. His end is also left ambiguous, leaving the door open for him to return, though it’s likely he’ll be carted off to the New Republic.
The four kids reunite with each other, now having become full friends after their journey. It’s a sweet ending to a pleasant and enjoyable series, one that took inspiration from ‘The Goonies;, ‘ET’, and more, bringing a sense of whimsy and threat to the ‘Star Wars’ universe once again. Its lack of major connections to lore helped it to thrive, with a stellar cast who made the series their own. The finale brings aspects from previous episodes together to create a satisfying conclusion, and while some minor questions linger, the episode brings a lot together.
