Tuesday may be Christmas Eve, but that doesn’t mean the Skeleton Crew kids are taking the day off!
After dropping the first two episodes of Skeleton Crew at once on December 2, Disney+ is dropping one episode per week at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays. The fifth episode will be directed by Jake Schreier, who has directed six episodes of the hit TV series Beef and will direct the upcoming Marvel movie, Thunderbolts.
But before we look ahead, let’s take a look back at the fourth episode of this series, which brought our heroes … and Jod … to a strange world that is not quite home sweet home.
Timing notes
Last week’s episode, Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin, clocked in at 38 minutes with credits. That’s one minute shorter than the third episode and makes three out of four episodes in the series to date which came in at under 40 minutes.
Notes
(Warning: Spoilers for episode four of Skeleton Crew ahead.)
- After getting coordinates from Kh’ymm on the Observatory Moon last week, the kids learn they have not landed back home but on At Achrann, a world that is a strange mirror image of At Attin. At Achrann is derelict and plagued by constant warfare and everything looks the same as home — like the school, Fern’s home, the Supervisor’s Tower — but almost completely in reverse with the idyllic At Attin suburbs looking like a blown out warzone. This makes sense, as Star Wars’ X account noted that many of the sets for At Achrann were the same sets from At Attin just with a layer of grime and decay.
At Achrann 🤝 At Attin
explore more trivia in the #SkeletonCrew episode guide: https://t.co/CVwrJZ8jkk pic.twitter.com/ODPZVBfVDY
— Star Wars (@starwars) December 20, 2024
- Once again highlighting the stark funhouse mirror nature of Neel noting that unlike his new friend Hayna (Hala Finley) he knows nothing but peace while she knows nothing but combat.
- Speaking of Neel, this week he got his showcase and it was quite beautiful. Despite being the only character who isn’t human, you can really feel his empathy and kindness throughout the episode, especially when offering his food to the starving children. He both took and gave something from Hayna — she inspired him to have courage and save the day at the episode’s close and he inspired her to strive to bring her planet peace if she can ever grasp control. Theirs was a brief, but sweet friendship that appears to have left a lasting mark on both characters.
- Jude Law’s “Jedi” Jod Na Nawood or Crimson Jack or whomever he decides to be this week continues to be an enigma. He clearly was snooping around to steal from the kids, but when push comes to shove he takes ill-gotten gains and saves them rather than taking off. In many ways, this episode shows him as being childlike in some ways, perhaps tying back to what he claimed last week when confronted — that he is really lost like Wim, Neel, Fern and KB. He’s still not trustworthy, but something tells me that perhaps he’ll be making a face turn by the end of the series almost akin to Han Solo coming back to save Luke’s skin when he made his run on the Death Star.
- We also see the first cracks in Fern’s confident facade. After the kids make it to the Fallen Sanctum, which is the Supervisor’s Tower on At Attin, and discover that it was another dead end with the coordinates to At Attin obscured. She briefly loses hope, claiming she is not truly fit to be “captain” and lead the kids. Wim attempts to give her a pep talk, which she initially brushes off but it gives her the eureka moment which she thinks will be the path home.
- The eureka moment works … sort of. She remembers how she manipulated her server droid at home to suit her needs and realizes that as “the captain” she can force SM-33 to reboot its memory so it will stop saying Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin and indeed remember the kids’ home. It works, but perhaps a little too well as SM-33 remembers At Attin … and his last captain’s instructions to tear anyone who comes looking for At Attin limb from limb.
- This brings us to Neil’s moment of brave heroism when he distracts SM-33 just as it is closing in on the kids, giving Jod an opening to shut the droid down. Following his act of bravery, Neel gets a well-earned rest … by fainting. Never change, Neel.
- This does bring up the question of what the kids and Jod do now with SM-33. They need the droid in order to get the coordinates, but there is the little problem of dismemberment which is nothing to take lightly. Perhaps KB can work her magic and find a way to get the coordinates without anyone suffering grievous injury.
- There were a couple of easter eggs in this episode. We see eopies on At Achrann, marking the first time, I believe, they’ve been used in Star Wars NOT on Tatooine. And maybe I’m mistaken, but a lot of the weaponry and battle armor are evocative of previously seen tanks and armor during the Clone Wars and the Original Trilogy.
- Mark it down, that weapon on the top of the school is Chekhov’s cannon.
All in all, Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin was an interesting detour that doesn’t necessarily move the pieces forward, keeping the kids just as far from home as they were at the beginning of the episode, but still delivering character growth for several of our featured players. Hopefully, the Skeleton Crew kids are on Santa’s Nice list this year. May the Force be with you!
