The adventure is over and what an adventure it was! And the only thing that was in danger of getting crushed was our feelings at having to leave these four friends behind.
The finale of #SkeletonCrew is now streaming, only on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/t1bfWzFeeX
— Star Wars (@starwars) January 15, 2025
Skeleton Crew finished its story in fine fashion, embodying the best of Star Wars in a climactic ending that featured invading pirates, X-Wing squadrons, lightsabers and plenty of callbacks to breadcrumbs sprinkled throughout the series.
Timing notes
The Real Good Guys clocked in at 40 minutes with credits. That means no episode in the series reached the 50-minute mark, but that’s not a bad thing. Throughout the series, there was little to no filler, and each episode left me feeling fulfilled and like I got what I needed. I think the old axiom of there being too much a good thing is true and Jon Watts and Christopher Ford were wise not to let Skeleton Crew fall into the trap that many streaming shows do in taking advantage of not being confined by the traditional TV time slot strictures often to their own detriment. Skeleton Crew was tight, focused and kept my attention throughout each episode.
Notes
(Warning: Spoilers for the season (series?) finale of Skeleton Crew ahead.)
- We pick right back up where we left off and Jod continues to spin his web of lies playing the role of the emissary to the hilt, even as Wim’s father questions whether the “emissary” is taking things too far by having the kids confined to their quarters under droid surveillance for violating so many regulations.
- Fern can’t bite her tongue and snarks at Jod, so he in turn chooses her and her mother to accompany him to meet the supervisor. Afterall, in the prior episode Jod did say it’s always good to have a hostage. And you could cut the tension with a knife when he talks about Fern learning about duty and responsibility, a reminder of his threat to carve up the kids’ parents with his lightsaber if they expose him and his ruse. Jod is charismatically menacing as he promises to take special care of Fern and her mom Fara while smirking at Fern.
- Wim, meanwhile, is returned to something akin to normal domesticity with his father Wendle … except with a security droid there to babysit and make sure he doesn’t tell his father the true nature of Jod. As he’s arguing with his father about what he’s learned on his “space joyride,” Wim tries to subtly tell his father what’s really going on but his father is still blind and naive to what exists outside the barrier (and now within).
- Is there any more classic kids movie trope than walkie-talkies. Even in our modern age of iPhones and any number of ways to communicate with each other from a young age, it still warms my heart to see the antennae go up and hear that static. I’m not sure that I buy that the security droid is really placated by Wim’s action figure cover for his attempt to contact Neel, but sure, we’ll go with it.
- The moment where Jod, Fern and Undersecretary Fara go to the top of the spire to meet the illustrious “supervisor” gives off strong “Wizard of Oz” vibes. The great and powerful “supervisor,” like the great and powerful Oz, is something of an illusion and a misdirection. Here the supervisor is in actuality a droid controlling everything on the planet. The supervisor does quickly see through Jod’s story when Jod portrays himself as both an emissary and a Jedi, a mistake since the last message from the Republic is that all Jedi were traitors. Order 66 comes into play again. So is he an emissary or a Jedi? Neither, as Fern reveals his pirate nature and Jod blocks stun bolts from the security droids and takes out the supervisor, shutting down all power throughout the planet.
- Executing the barrier override will destroy the barrier. Fara says she can allow the pirate ship past the barrier without the override, and Jod promises they’ll take their credits and go. Fern (rightly) says he’s lying, which earns her a lightsaber at her throat. Of course, Jod was lying and the pirates begin their destructive, terrorizing invasion of At Attin and its citizens.
- The unintended consequence of the power outage is that it lets Wim finally tell Wendle the truth about Jod and the kids make plans to save Fern — getting the Onyx Cinder outside the barrier to contact Kh’ymm to send her X-Wing friends. The ensuing bike chase reveals the sense of fun and adventure beneath Wendle’s stoic exterior, indicating perhaps he and Wim are more similar than we thought.
- The chase also reveals that with so many pirates, the Onyx Cinder will need cover. Remember Chekov’s turbo laser back on At Achrann? Yeah, luckily Neel does too. But first, in order for the Onyx Cinder to take off they need the power back on. Luckily Wendle is a level 7 systems coordinator and in the coolest nerd dad moment possible tells his son to get the bike.
- As Jod is discussing his plans to enslave the planet to achieve his “great work” of making him lots and lots of credits, Fara is despondent, saying the barrier was supposed to protect the kids from the galaxy, but Fern has a grown-up moment revealing that it also hid them away from good people too. People who can help them. She shows how she’s grown as a leader, convincing her mother to that they need to do something.
- Luckily Wim makes his entrance, spinning a fanciful yarn about the crystal of the founders which allowed him to call the X-Wings and the “Jedi Army.” Of course, the story isn’t believable, but it gives his dad time enough to turn the power back on, allowing KB to fly the Onyx Cinder past the barrier thanks to Neel’s cover fire from the turbo laser … and the help from the decapitated but alive SM-33! KB is able to contact Kh’ymm before pirates hit her ship and it comes crashing back down to At Attin. We get the classic trope of making the heroes think their friend has died when in reality they survived.
- Throughout it all, we get a little look into Jod that maybe he really didn’t want anyone to die. He’s just greedy. Maybe it’s him being manipulative, but I almost believe him when he says he didn’t want it to be like this. It was all for naught anyways, he says, since their help won’t make it through the barrier. Fern goes to activate the barrier override but is stopped by her mother, leaving Wim to try only to have Jod threaten his father with the lightsaber.
- Jod once again is infuriated by Wim’s declaration that he’s no Jedi and the now the real good guys are coming to save them. His jaded, cynical nature comes through, telling Wim to grow up and that no one is coming to save him. We learn that Jod was a child just trying not to starve until a Jedi found him and identified potential in him. She only got to teach him a little bit about the ways of the Force, however, before she was found by the Inquisitors and killed in front of him. So now we know why he thinks the galaxy is nothing but dark and he will do whatever it takes and kill whoever he has to kill in order to get his little bit of “light.”
- Once again it’s hard to see between the lines of what is true or just a con when Jod says he doesn’t want anyone to get hurt or At Attin destroyed. He just wants to let the people continue their “great work” … just for him. Perhaps there is something good within him still. But it’s clear it’s not nearly as big a part of Jod as his greed, as once again declaring that the only thing that matters in the galaxy is cold, hard credits ends badly for him, just as it did in the premiere. Wendle steps up and punches Jod, allowing Wim to pick up the lightsaber. Jod can’t quite handle both using the Force to get back and the lightsaber and prevent Wendle from executing the barrier override, and an impassioned plea from Fern prompts Fara to finally give him and help Wendle execute the barrier override. The X-Wings come in and lay waste to the pirates, looking better than they ever have before in a bit of classic Star Wars, and Wim indeed gets his moment where he heroically gets to hold the lightsaber like a true Jedi.
- Jod watches alone as his pirate frigate crashes, almost with a smirk on his face. Maybe this opportunity to get away from the pirate life will allow him to embrace his better angels again, then again maybe he just slinks away counting his blessings to have survived to fight another day.
- In a shock to no one, KB is alive and well and the kids have a joyous reunion after what SM-33 deems one of his better landings. And Wendle is right — you don’t want to have a whole adventure only to be crushed at the end by your spaceship.
- Remember Wim’s malaise about going home and everything going back to normal, including taking assessment? Well, forget about it. The galaxy knows about At Attin now, the barrier is gone and life on their home planet will never be the same again. The destruction of the school by the Onyx Cinder’s crash landing is an appropriate allegory for how Wim, his friends and his home have been forever changed by his adventure. And the way he looks up in awe at the New Republic fleet while ignoring his father’s calls for him suggests Wim’s adventures are just beginning.
But will we get to see them? Watts said in advance of the finale that he and Ford would love to make more Skeleton Crew, even though they made sure to have a satisfying beginning, middle and end to the story they told in this season. And they did leave things in a place where the kids could come together again for another adventure, Jod is still alive and somewhere in the galaxy and who knows what will happen to At Attin now that it’s no longer got its barrier and is exposed to the galaxy at large.
However, the issue might be the ratings. Although, Disney+ doesn’t release traditional ratings, reports suggest the early episodes of Skeleton Crew did not rate well, despite overwhelmingly positive critical reviews.
#SkeletonCrew earned 382 million minutes viewed during its two episode premiere making it the lowest viewership for any #StarWars show.
For comparison, #TheAcolyte earned 488 million minutes viewed.
Source: Nielsen pic.twitter.com/jJtp3cJiMH
— Screen Rant (@screenrant) January 14, 2025
Disney and Lucasfilm had a short leash for The Acolyte, and given their seeming pivot to put Star Wars back in theaters rather than on the small screen, it seems hardly guaranteed that we’ll get a season 2 of Skeleton Crew. Unfortunately, Jod really might have been right when he said the only thing that really matters in the galaxy is cold, hard credits. However, there’s no doubt that Skeleton Crew was thoroughly entertaining, told a fun story about action and adventure that taps right into the DNA of Star Wars and if judged on quality alone deserves to continue. I hope it does, but if it doesn’t I’m just glad we got to follow along on this adventure with Wim, Fern, Neel and KB.
