Summary
Skeleton Crew delivers excellent character work – and some great visuals – in Episode 6, as Bryce Dallas Howard stands out in Star Wars again.
You can usually count on the Bryce Dallas Howard-directed episode of a Star Wars series to be the best one, and that’s partly true of Skeleton Crew, depending on what you’re looking for. Episode 6, “Zero Friends Again”, comes on the back of by far the most exciting and surprising installment, but while it can’t match that sense of adventurous energy, it provides the most depth of character with the help of another script from Myung Joh Wesner.
So, while this isn’t the episode that had me sat up the straightest warmly remembering the first time I saw The Goonies or Indiana Jones or whatever, it is the episode that made me feel for and ultimately like the characters – especially the kids – more than I did before. And in a show that is very explicit about the kids, not to mention in large part for the kids, that’s pretty valuable.
Out of the Frying Pan
After Jod’s betrayal and the kids’ narrow escape through a trap door in Tak Rennod’s secret lair, they emerge into a trash chute that spits them into a frozen wilderness, accompanied only by “Trash Crabs” – one of those obligatory Star Wars droid designs that just makes you think, “Yep, that’ll stick.”
Now the kids are on their own, it’s time to work through their personal issues since otherwise they aren’t going to get anywhere. Fern is still assuming a leadership role, but a captain without a ship doesn’t have as much weight, and the others – especially Neel and KB – are struggling. Fern’s arc in this episode, simplistic though it might be, is about accepting that not everyone is as capable or as able-bodied as she is; even her best friend is on her last legs, badly in need of maintenance and too afraid of losing her only friend to speak up.
This leads to a rift in the group and they break into unexpected pairs – Wim and KB go to follow the Trash Crabs, while Fern and Neel go to climb up the mountain to get the Onyx Cinder back. This leaves plenty of time for some relationship-building.
Jod Wins the Crowd
We’ll get back to the kids in a minute, but let’s briefly check in on Jod. After emerging from Rennod’s lair daubed in jewels, he’s promptly apprehended by his former crew, who seem to have survived his acid trick in the previous episode. After a scuffle with Pokkit, Gunter, Vane, and some suddenly arriving X-Wings – this all looks great, by the way – Jod and a stunned SM-33 are dragged before Brutus to answer for their crimes.
However, since pirates are nothing if not adherent to their code, Jod is granted the Right of Last Appeal – in other words, he has until an egg timer of plasma drains to make a case for himself that’ll hopefully dissuade Brutus from stuffing him into an airlock and jettisoning him out into the cold vacuum of space.
Naturally, Jod plays to the pirates’ greed. But he takes an unexpected angle by reminding them how hungry they all are; how hungry they have always been, fighting over scraps at the foot of a table presided over by others. It’s all the silver tongue of a career cad, obviously, but the pirates buy it. Even Brutus is willing to let him live, but only on a temporary basis. Jod is going to have to prove that his claims about At Attin being an inexhaustible supply of wealth – not to mention knowing how to get there – are genuine.
A still from Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 6 | Image via Disney+
Friends Like These
The heart of Skeleton Crew Episode 6 is back on Lanupa with the kids, who’re all struggling with their attendant issues. While following the Trash Crabs, KB collapses, her corroded augs having finally given up, and Wim has to perform some impromptu engineering while she explains both how to do the repairs and how her fondness for Fern – and her fear of losing her friendship – have gotten KB to this point in the first place.
Meanwhile, Fern tries to force Neel up the cliffside, only realizing when they’re about halfway up that Neel kind of has a point about not being able to climb as fast as she can. This is a direct parallel with what KB’s saying to Wim at that very moment. Fern doesn’t always live in the real world; she lives in her own head, where she reinvents everyone as either as capable as she is or aggravatingly useless. But Neel, unlike KB, is willing to say when he’s struggling. When she sees it for herself, she realizes how hard she’s pushing him, and instead comes up with a more outside-the-box solution to make the climb easier. In so doing, she realizes how she has been mistreating KB.
There’s no denying that this is kid-focused, lesson-learning stuff, underpinned by the moral value of teaching youngsters that everyone’s different and understanding yields the best results. But it’s written with real sophistication. It gives each of the individual kids – especially the undervalued “sidekicks”, Neel and KB – their own voice and the opportunity to use it, and the resolution comes in that easy way that it often does for kids – lessons learned, hugs shared, and BFFs back together.
The Maw
And just in time, it turns out. The Trash Crabs were leading Wim and KB to a giant compactor version that is about to crunch up the Onyx Cinder. Fern and Neel are able to commandeer one of the smaller droid ships to get back to them, but they’re left with the somewhat pressing matter of their ship being crushed – while they’re inside it.
Luckily, the kids learned more under Jod than they realized. Wim jumps on the guns while Fern and Neel take over the cockpit and KB heads to the engine room. The kids all have a role, and all present their own value, but it scarcely seems like it’ll be enough to free them from the trash compactor (this scene also looks phenomenal, for what that’s worth.) Their only solution is to use the Emergency Hull Demolition button which SM-33 warned them never to press under any circumstances. But it’s now or never.
Pushing the button causes the Onyx Cinder to jettison its outer hull like a snake shedding its skin, and a lither vessel emerges from within, allowing the kids to free themselves from the compactor and jet off into space. But where are they going to go next? Their home is where Jod is presently leading a crew of space pirates, so it seems a reunion is inevitable.
RELATED:
