‘Skeleton Crew’ Finally Did More With One of Its Most Interesting Characters Find help us

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 6.

Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) may be everyone’s favorite in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, but this week the spotlight belongs to another member of the kids’ crew. “Zero Friends Again,” the latest episode, is all about KB (Kyriana Kratter), as she stands up to Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) in what feels like the first time ever, and chooses to go with Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) to seek help. While things don’t really work out for them with the Trash Crabs, KB has her own moment to win our hearts over and get some proper development as a character.

KB Has a Complex Friendship Dynamic With Fern in ‘Skeleton Crew’

“Zero Friends Again” is probably when we hear KB’s voice the most in Skeleton Crew. A quiet and collected young girl, she is always beside Fern, who is the troublemaker-in-chief among the At Attin kids. Because of this, it’s usually Fern who does most of the talking, with KB going along. Given their different personalities, it may feel weird at first that the two of them would be such good friends, but KB explains to Wim why that is, and it’s both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

KB herself has always stood out because of her augs, a type of cybernetic construct that is attached to an organic body to keep it functional and augment the host’s abilities. This is why she has always had a knack for dealing with technology and information, and finding it suspicious when something doesn’t add up, like when she confronts Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) about him being a Jedi in Episode 3, “Very Interesting, As An Astrogation Problem.” Augs aren’t necessarily upgrades, though. Throughout the series so far, KB has always displayed more sensitivity than her friends, like feeling too cold on Kh’ymm’s (Alia Shawkat) moon, or complaining about humidity at the spa on Lanupa.

However, Fern never acknowledges KB’s condition because she only sees her friend, who is willing to do everything she does. As KB explains, Fern is the only person who sees her that way, but, while this is nice, it also means that Fern is failing to see her friend’s limitations. Fern doesn’t do it on purpose, of course; learning to deal with such differences is part of growing up. This is why their reunion at the end of the episode is so gratifying: now they know more about being each other’s best friends.

Cybernetic Constructs Are an Interesting Part of Star Wars Lore

KB explains to Wim that her augs are a consequence of an accident she suffered in the past. While the precise nature of such an accident isn’t clarified, in Episode 4, “Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin,” her mothers, Maree (Cass Buggé) and Garree (M.J. Kang), call it a life monitor. In “Zero Friends Again,” we see that KB’s implants go deep into her skull, so it must have been something serious, justifying her mothers’ concern.

But KB’s are hardly the only cybernetic constructs in Star Wars, though. In Skeleton Crew itself, for example, the pirate Gunter (Jaleel White) has much more complex implants, probably to enhance his professional abilities as an outlaw. In The Book of Boba Fett, legendary bassist Stephen “Thundercat” Bruner plays a mod artist who provides people with augs and mods, suggesting that it’s something that more people want, and is also affordable. There are extreme cases, such as bounty hunter Rothgar Deng in Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, who got so many implants throughout his life, he is barely recognizable as a human.

The most iconic, of course, is Lobot (John Hollis) in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. He is Lando Calrissian’s (Billy Dee Williams) business partner, and works as the computer liaison in Cloud City. Lobot’s are the first augs we see in Star Wars, which he got when he agreed to work for the Empire as a battlefield analyst. His augs are much more complex than KB’s, though, to the point that he sacrificed some of his personality in exchange for increased abilities in his line of work — the name Lobot isn’t because he is part robot, but a corruption of “lobotomy.”

But KB is just a child right now, and there is no need for more augs than she already requires, and she doesn’t have them because she wants them, but rather because she needs them. Whether she improves on them or gets more in the future is totally up to her, but, given what she has been going through in Skeleton Crew, it doesn’t seem likely that she will.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is streaming on Disney+. New episodes drop on Tuesdays.

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Four kids make a mysterious discovery on their home planet that leads them to get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy.

Release Date

December 2, 2024

Creator

Cast

Jude Law
, Ravi Cabot-Conyers
, Ryan Kiera Armstrong
, Kyriana Kratter
, Robert Timothy Smith
, Tunde Adebimpe
, Kerry Condon
, Nick Frost

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

Seasons

1

Franchise

Streaming Service(s)

Dis

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WATCH ON DISNEY+