This assessment accommodates full spoilers for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Season 1, Episode 7.
After a galaxy-spanning journey via pirate stations, planet-wide battlefields, and a luxurious spa, who would’ve thought the important thing to getting the crew again dwelling would simply be… going again dwelling? Despite all the secrecy over At Attin’s location and its impenetrable barrier, it seems that each one it’s worthwhile to do is level your spaceship on the planet and fly in (supplied you could have the fitting spaceship, which the children have naturally had this entire time). Not sufficient occurred on this penultimate episode, and what did occur occurred far too simply, making for a uncommon Skeleton Crew disappointment.
On paper, it looks like this is an eventful episode: The children and the pirates all make it to At Attin, Jod goes full Bad Guy and executes each Captain Brutus and (apparently) SM-33, after which he lastly makes it to At Attin’s legendary treasure hoard. But these occasions are purely plot factors. Previous episodes have given us little emotional explorations of who these children are, or tales of what it’s wish to develop up in a world the place adults are both utterly absent or checked-out. Sadly, episode 7 simply has some issues occur after which ends on a frustratingly abrupt and considerably inexplicable cliffhanger.
Let’s begin with that ending, as a result of it drags the entire episode down. Before touchdown on At Attin, Jod repeatedly snaps on the children as they attempt to do their “disarmingly chatty” factor. He finally threatens to brutally homicide all of their mother and father (having seen what they appear to be within the pointless message that they despatched up via the planetary barrier) if the children reveal that he’s really a pirate and never an emissary from the Republic. And but, having come so near his dream of infinite cash that he appears to be actually on the verge of tears (an excellent little bit of face performing from Jude Law), he decides to threat all of it by disrupting the children’ reunion with their mother and father, whipping out the lightsaber he nabbed just a few episodes in the past.
Then the episode ends. The children don’t blab to their mother and father. The mother and father haven’t any purpose to imagine that Jod isn’t who he claims to be. All Jod must do is act cool till he can work out how you can sign the remainder of the pirates in orbit. With this cliffhanger, although, we’re left to surprise what occurs subsequent: will he assault them or not? If he does, it’s a foolish, mindless mistake for him to make. If he doesn’t, then why finish the penultimate episode with such a pointless query mark?
This won’t show to be an issue in any respect come subsequent week’s finale episode, and Skeleton Crew might actually resolve this in an fascinating method, however the unfastened logic of the scenario drags this episode down. It contributes to creating episode 7 a weaker a part of what has in any other case been a powerful sequence. And, sadly, it’s not the one subject with “We’re Gonna Be In So Much Trouble.”
A couple of scenes in each this episode and prior chapters have strengthened the concept that it’s not possible to get something via At Attin’s planet-wide defend – even only a sign. And so the crew’s mother and father rig up some form of little transmitter to allow them to ship a message out to area… besides the children are already in orbit. The present solves its personal drawback earlier than the characters create an answer. Furthermore, the message’s key data is a proof of how you can get via the barrier’s pretend lightning storm… which seems to be irrelevant as a result of the Onyx Cinder was apparently stolen from At Attin and may move via the storm unhurt anyway.
Before all that, SM-33 reveals {that a} rule throughout the Pirate Code dictates {that a} pirate can solely be the captain of 1 vessel. By killing Brutus and taking up the pirate frigate, Jod subsequently can’t be captain of the Onyx Cinder. So, by declaring that the ship is for “children solely” (which, credit score the place it’s due, is humorous), Fern is ready to effortlessly retain management of the ship from the pirates—albeit briefly. Nobody on this episode actually has to do something – occasions simply fall into place and all would’ve occurred a technique or one other – and that saps Skeleton Crew of the thrilling narrative momentum it had early on.
There is a few great things right here, like an early scene during which the children toss a ball via the halls of their ship and fondly reminisce about how enjoyable their journey has been, regardless of (or due to) how typically they’ve come near dying. It’s a pleasant second that lets the children act like children, which is when the present is at its greatest.
