We''''''''re Gonna Be In So Much Trouble (Skeleton Crew - S01E07) - Live Action

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We're dead meat, we're pirate meat! SPOILERS.

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Today I want to talk about the penultimate episode of Skeleton Crew but also discuss why the series, apparently, does not work for a vast majority of fans.

The pirates have reached At Attin but other than Jod they are too stupid to see that what they see may be some kind of camouflage field meant to look like some gas giant

"We're Gonne Be In So Much Trouble" is like almost all other Skeleton Crew episodes this season. Pretty short, this episode has a net runtime of about 28 minutes or so, it's fun, it's entertaining and it's a bit silly. In short, it is once again perfectly fine family entertainment for anyone who does not mind a very lighthearted (unless it isn't) and very entertaining Star Wars series.

And soon after they want to put Jod into the airlock again because the pirates are dumbasses

The funny things is, that Skeleton Crew, maybe outside of Andor and parts of The Mandalorian, has the best writing and even best acting of any Star Wars series on Disney+ Jude Law is, like Ewan McGregor, a true star, a pro, is always fun to watch, he can sell any role. And his role is maybe not what some people would have thought early on. Some kind of redemption arc for the lovable scoundrel suggested itself. But instead Skeleton Crew went the other way: Jod has become the true villain of the series, maybe not mustache twirling evil like some cartoon villain or evil evil like Darth Vader, but he's turned out to be a greedy, selfish, ruthless bastard who may not want to harm the kids, but absolutely would probably if they annoyed him too much. So instead of the former padawan (almost certainly) finding his path again the series portrays Jod as someone who has completely lost himself and has no regard for others, he's the true "no attachments" guy.

Welcoming committee for the kids

And to drive home that point Skeleton Crew does not shy away from delightful acts of brutality or violence. You see, the kids arrive at their home planet almost at the same time as the pirate frigate. And they pull the Onyx Cinder piloted by the kids via tractor beam into the hangar bay. But the kids manage to trap Brutus into a mechanical arm that is part of the loading bay. And what does Jod do? He seizes the opportunity and shoots helpless Brutus at close range. So Jod doesn't just shoot first, he shoots unprovoked.

Jod shoots first

He then seizes command of the pirate gang again, after convincing them that the object they see in space is an illusion and that treasures wait for them in form of countless Old Republic credits. Jod and his pirates then have little trouble seizing the ship. But then things take an unexpected turn.

Fern calls "umclaimsies"... mhmmm...'kay'

Skeleton Crew shows its really silly side when it suddenly turns out that Jod is not in command of the Onyx Cinder, since the ship was transformed in last episode it's technically speaking a new ship, at least as per pirate code, and as per this code each pirate can have only one ship, Jod commanded the old Onyx Cinder, not this version though ... and now sit down... Wim wants to claim the ship for the kids, but Jod overpowers him before he can say anything and Jod says he claims the ship for himself. Then Fern simply refutes this by saying she "umclaimsies" Jod's claim... and for some reason, not further explained, the droid SM-33 listens to Fern and knocks Jod out cold. The pirates are removed from the ship and the kids launch the ship again. But Jod comes to just in time and hops on board at the last second as the loading bay is closing.

The camouflage field is home to satellites of death

In the opening scene of the episode we saw how the parents of the kids try to launch a probe into orbit with a prerecorded message, the droids, which are probably the most gentle law enforcement ever, threaten to stun everyone who does not comply... naturally the parents do not comply and one by one gets stunned... other than Fara, Fern's mom, who manages to launch the probe. And said probe arrives in orbit and plays several holo messages, one for each kid by their parents, before Jod and the kids play rock, paper scissors over the command of the ship. And here we learn that the Onyx Cinder can safely traverse the camouflage field of death. The pirates launched one of their shuttles earlier and it was destroyed by the satellites orbiting At Attin. But the Onyx Cinder is an "emissary" ship, which means it can travel to and from At Attin on official (Old) Republic business. And the fabled pirate Rennod seized one of those ships so he can reach At Attin. We also learn that the adults know all about the force field and whatnot, and that only the kids are kept in the dark. However, it is strongly implied that even the adults do not know that the Old Republic fell decades ago.

The kids see their home planet again

Anyway... when the kids believe their adventure may draw to a close, Jod appears in the cockpit, lightsaber in hand, he immediately decapitates SM-33, the only credible threat and seizes the ship after all. He will now pretend to be the emissary and he threatens the kids to keep quiet. The Onyx Cinder lands on At Attin and apparently the entire planet has just one small-ish town with US suburbs sprinkled around it.

Jod is not a nice person

The population gathers in the city center and watches the ship approach, a landing platform emerges from a grassy hill, the Onyx Cinder lands and Jod is immediately greeted by the security droids, and as per protocol he is to directly proceed to the vault. Which is exactly what Jod wants.

Brutalist downtown

So the landing platform desceneds into the depths of the planet, underground, we see some enormous structure, probably the mint. But as it turns out it may not be the only mint. In fact, the droid accompanying Jod eventually informs him that At Attin has a whopping 1,139 (NOT 1,138....) of these vaults. And when the vault opens Jod is greeted with the vault of vaults, the structure is massive and is filled to the brim with mint Old Republic credits.

That is... a lot of gold

As expected Jod is ecstatic, he still pretends to be the emissary, whose task it is to withdraw credits. He also tries to contact his pirate ship, when the droids inform him that it's not allowed to contact anyone on the outside really, he insists, because he's the emissary and apparently the supervisor's office has the means. We actually heard the supervisor for the first time over the PA before in this episode, when the Onyx Cinder arrived, he's voiced by Stephen Fry. All bets are open that he may be Captain Rennod.

Jod is happy for the first time .... GOLD!

Meanwhile the parents of the kids have made it into the vault as well and they are all reunited. But it's a very shortlived celebration because Jod emerges from the vault again and he means business. He ignites his lightsaber and approaches the group... and now we wait for the series finale....

Jod truly is no nice person

This episode failed to make the Luminate streaming charts, like all other episodes before. Nielsen only has data up to week 2, which means three episodes, and Skeleton Crew is also a no-show on the Nielden charts. So one has to wonder what is going wrong. The show is unadulterated fun. It's also, for the most part, very well written. The scripts are a lot better than they were for The Acolyte, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett.

The series is even not as predicatable as those other shows. Skeleton Crew has some nice surprises... Jod, who is at first lovable and a scoundrel... who turns out to be a cold, ruthless killer who is only after his own fortune. Skeleton Crew did not necessarily play out as you may have expected, given the setting and initial episodes.

Skeleton Crew can also be delightfully violent and despite all that also very lighthearted and fun. It does not insult your intelligence, it has all around good acting, even by the kids. It set up a nice mystery on At Attin... yet the show is a commercial failure for Lucasfilm.

Could it be that Skeleton Crew, even though it's so much fun and really solid entertainment, is too far removed from traditional Star Wars? Sure, we have a quasi Jedi, a Force user, one lightsaber, but the series, like Andor, lacks almost any of the elements most people would usually associate with Star Wars. Do people not want a Star Wars that branches out a bit and offers something new and unique?

Or is it that Skeleton Crew is not unique enough really and at times can feel like a knock off Treasure Island meets ET the Goonies meets Stranger Things? Maybe the pirate theme was laid on a bit thick?

Nevertheless it is almost tragic that a genuinely good show with its heart in the right place is failing. Is it all just because of The Acolyte and fan apathy? Or is it because the mostly adult fanbase does not want a show about kids? Did Lucasfilm miscalculate when they believed Star Wars Stranger Things could be a hit with adults like the Netflix show?

The repercussion may be serious. Because if Lucasfilm had test screenings (unknown) then feedback was probably very positive, all the feedback this show gets online is mostly positive too. Critics love it, the audience it gets loves it as well, or at least really likes it. Yet only a small number of people want to see it. Maybe it's time for Lucasfilm to focus on the essentials. Skeleton Crew, as much fun as it is, is yet another scattershot, another spaghetti flung against a wall. The shows on Disney+ vary too much in tone and intent, they also jump around on the timeline like crazy. It's difficult to picture a universe where Skeleton Crew and The Acolyte are set in the same galaxy, in the same continuity. Maybe it's time for Star Wars to be consistent again, to have a plan, to stop trying so many things... when Lucasfilm should know what works... because the thing that worked best is the tried and tested formula George Lucas created. At times you feel Lucasfilm want to reinvent the wheel, maybe because to attract an audience they will never have and never get. They are stuck with us. Predominantly men. Ages 35 and up. Whether they like it or not.

Anyway, this particular episode of Skeleton Crew was perfectly entertaining... but maybe just not great Star Wars when you think about it all. It feels like a fun reimagined SciFi retelling of something like Treasure Island... thing is Disney already did something like that with Treasure Planet, an animated feature which flopped badly when it was released. Maybe these themes are fallen out of time, in fact, outside of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies few other pirate themed movies were a huge success in the past few decades. And Skeleton Crew went all in with that concept. And another thing has to be said... when the mystery of At Attin was set up I had hoped for something more mysterious than just "treasure vault". At Attin is no weird fallout-esque social experiment, the planet was probably hidden because it is home of the mint. The adults know about it all and keep it a secret from their kids for whatever reason until they are old enough. And that's it. Maybe Skeletons Crew's problem is that there is just a man behind the curtain, not some great wizard. Still, it was (still is) a very enjoyable journey, with lots of laughs and good fun and delightfully violent when the story calls for it. And yes, kids love that stuff.

Maybe future generations will discover Skeleton Crew deep in the Disney+ library in 10 years from now or so and wonder why it wasn't a bigger success. Maybe if Lucasfilm had released the series after The Mandalorian, and not after the mean-spirited, nasty and ugly The Acolyte, it would have had a lot more success. But Lucasfilm made their own bed. They have to live with the consequences of their creative decisions. I only feel sorry for all the creatives involved with Skeleton Crew, they all deserve much more success and popularity. Skeleton Crew truly is the third best Star Wars series on Disney+, no contest. Even if it can be a bit silly at times ("unclaimsies".... THAT works? Really?). If you find the time give the show a chance.