Summary
Skeleton Crew gives Jod some real villain credentials in Episode 7, as the kids finally return home, but with an unwelcome guest in tow.
It’s easy to forget – especially in Episode 7, which contains two pretty cold-blooded executions and the threat of several others – that Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is a kids’ show. But a title like “We’re Gonna Be in So Much Trouble” is a nice reminder. With Wim, Fern, Neel, and KB all on their way back to At Attin in the Onyx Cinder, a message from their parents serves as both a nice emotional beat and a warning. There’s going to be hell to pay for everything they’ve been up to this season.
That message, sent in the episode’s opening by the kids’ parents in direct violation of the planet’s security protocols, is a bit of a clue as to how hidden At Attin really is. Simply getting a message out through the barrier is a nightmare. As we’ll see, getting anything in is even harder.
Jod Takes Control of the Pirate Frigate and the Onyx Cinder
As if it wasn’t obvious from his betrayal in Episode 5 and his scheming in Episode 6, Jod Na Nawood is not a good guy. He isn’t playing both sides against the middle, he isn’t a charismatic scamp with a heart of gold; he’s an outright villain with little heart to speak of, and the only gold is in his pockets, at least if he has anything to say about it.
“We’re Gonna Be in So Much Trouble” works to fit Jod into the classic Star Wars villain mold by giving him a lightsaber (the one taken from Tak Rennod’s secret lair, which he has been hanging on to) and a cool helmet (the one he was wearing in the premiere). All Star Wars villains need such things, for merchandising purposes if nothing else. The lightsaber’s blue, but you shouldn’t let that trouble you. It isn’t like Jod lets him trouble him when he’s lopping SM-33’s head off with it and threatening to carve the kids’ parents up if they don’t stay quiet.
Yes, poor SM-33. More on him in a minute.
In the meantime, Jod is able to take over command of the pirate frigate and the Onyx Cinder itself in a relatively deft one-two punch that nonetheless involves a certain amount of good fortune. Jod seems destined for the airlock when Brutus first gazes upon At Attin and sees a roiling planet locked in an endless, deadly storm, but Jod claims that it’s an illusion. He volunteers to fly a ship through the storm to prove this point, but Brutus sends a volunteer instead. And the volunteer doesn’t return.
The sudden arrival of the Onyx Cinder gives Jod a new theory, which is that the ship is the key to bypassing the storm (which, incidentally, he’s right about.) Brutus pulls the Onyx Cinder in via a tractor beam and attempts to board it, but the kids snatch him using the claw-like loading arm. Jod takes the opportunity to free himself, execute Brutus, and commandeer the Onyx Cinder.
SM-33 Pays The Price
Jude Law in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew | Image via Disney+
This is around the time that the kids receive the message from their parents, full of love and support and reassurances and, crucially, a clue. Jod now knows who to threaten and who to pretend to be – a Republic Emissary – to gain access to At Attin’s vault, which is all he cares about.
But the pesky pirate code proves problematic again. SM-33 reveals Jod cannot be captain of two ships, and since he took over Brutus’s command, that leaves the Onyx Cinder short a captain. Wim tries to claim it, but Jod clamps a hand over his mouth. Fern, however, throws in a childish “nah” and claims the ship for the kids instead, which SM-33, somewhat inexplicably given his programming, reckons is close enough to the pirate code to stick. He knocks Jod out and the children make their escape, flying straight past the generator that is obviously creating the storm and getting locked into an automatic landing sequence.
This is when Jod wakes up, and when SM-33 runs at him, Jod ignites the lightsaber and unceremoniously beheads him. He also waves the saber around in front of the kids and describes cleaving their parents limb from limb with it if they make a sound.
See? I told you he was a proper villain.
Gold Rush
At the end of Skeleton Crew Episode 7, the Onyx Cinder touches down on At Attin, and Jod, posing as a Republic Emissary, is led to the mint hidden below the planet (we can infer from the message earlier that all of the adults on the planet know about this; it’s only the kids who’re unaware, and they’re informed of the true nature of At Attin once they graduate. This probably explains why the adults are so willing to live lives of supreme administrative drudgery.)
Jod has got his wish – an indescribably vast fortune, shiny gold Republic Credits piled high in At Attin’s 1139 subterranean vaults. He maniacally laughs as his new fortune cascades over him. He seems to have won, at least for now.
Just outside the vault, the kids are emotionally reunited with their parents, which would be a nice moment if it wasn’t for Jod igniting his lightsaber and striding menacingly toward them. He did promise to hack them all up if the kids didn’t stay put, and, well, they didn’t stay put. At this point, who knows what the finale has in store?
