Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 7.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is officially down to its final two episodes, and Episode 7, aptly titled “We’re Gonna Be in So Much Trouble,” certainly delivers on the trouble. After last week’s episode saw Jod (Jude Law) unwillingly reunited with his former crew, the lightsaber-wielding pirate got his groove back, much to the chagrin of the core four — Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Neel (Robert Timothy Smith), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), and KB (Kyriana Kratter). As the series reaches the end of Season 1, Jon Watts and Christopher Ford return to bring things to a close with the penultimate episode and finale next week. Episode 7 also marks the return of Lee Isaac Chung, who previously directed the third episode of The Mandalorian Season 3.
The episode opens on At Attin as the children’s beleaguered parents — Fara (Kerry Condon), Wendle (Tunde Adebimpe), Garree (M.J. Kang) and Maree (Cass Buggé), and Nol and Nooma — desperately try to get a message through the planet’s barrier, via a transmitter. The safety droids show up to stop them, and while most of the parents end up on the receiving end of a stun ray, Fara is able to send their message up to the stars. While the children have been through the wringer lately, they are doing surprisingly well aboard the Onyx Cinder now that they know they are headed back home. They’re goofing off, playing ball, and acting like children again, but poor Wim is still stuck in his emotions about his adventure gone wrong. He even expresses regret about getting them into this mess, but the other three all assure him that they’re glad he hit the button that sent them on such a grand adventure. (By the time the episode ends, though, it’s safe to say they’re no longer feeling this way.)
‘Skeleton Crew’ Episode 7 Reminds Us to Never Trust a Pirate
As cool as Jod Na Nawood and his numerous aliases have been, Skeleton Crew has made it pretty clear from the start that he isn’t a good guy. Even if the show didn’t have every character the children encountered warn them about Jod, it’s evident that the series has been positioning him as a Captain Hook-esque character opposite their merry band of Lost Boys. While Episode 5 may have revealed his traitorous nature, Episode 7 revels in the fact that this is a man who will stop at nothing to ensure that his pockets are lined with gold. If you give a man a blue lightsaber, he will threaten children with it.
Episode 7 quickly reunites audiences with Jod and his plight aboard his former pirate ship. In the intervening time since his impassioned “I’m hungry” speech, he has navigated them to At Attin. However, At Attin doesn’t appear to be anything like what he described, which sets Brutus (Fred Tatasciore/Stephen Oyoung) off. From the untrained eye, At Attin appears to be a dangerous gaseous planet with a perpetual storm that could cause death and destruction to any ship that passes through the atmosphere. SM-33 (Nick Frost) — who is alive, for now — backs up Jod’s assertion that it’s an illusion, not necessarily a true weather anomaly. Jod volunteers to fly into the storm to prove his theory, but Brutus knows better and sends a volunteer down instead. Much to Jod’s dismay, the volunteer does not return, and Brutus has him hauled off to the airlock for his imminent execution. But once again, Jod is saved by pure luck: the Onyx Cinder drops out of hyperspace and a new plan begins to form.
Jod changes up his theory about At Attin and claims that the Onyx Cinder is the key to safe passage onto the planet. Brutus goes with this new plan of action and utilizes a tractor beam to pull the ship aboard theirs. As they head down to the hangar to commandeer the Onyx, Brutus threatens to kill Jod at the first chance he gets, but Jod gloats that the crew loves him too much to let that happen. Brutus, however? The crew has no love for him, it seems. The children put up a pretty impressive ruse when Brutus walks up the ship’s landing ramp, threatening the passengers of the Onyx Cinder with harm if they don’t come out unarmed. Instead, the children utilize the claw-like arm to ensnare Brutus, but they underestimate just how much Jod or any of the pirates care about their captain. As Jod approaches the landing ramp, they threaten to kill Brutus if he comes any closer, but Jod takes that opportunity away from them, killing Brutus after using the Force to free himself from the shackles he’s been trapped in for two episodes. After spending most of the season treating Jod like their would-be prisoner, he finally gets the opportunity to take the children hostage and commandeer the Onyx Cinder for himself.
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You have to admit, it makes sense.
‘Skeleton Crew’ Episode 7 Says Farewell to SM-33
With the Onyx Cinder and his old pirate ship once again under his purview, Jod returns to his Captain Silvo persona, complete with the nifty helmet he appeared in in Episode 1. As they start to plot their attack on At Attin, they intercept the transmission from the children’s parents. It is interesting that Skeleton Crew opted to deliver this scene whilst Jod’s face is concealed, meaning we may never know if he was truly affected by the fact that the children’s parents care so much about him. Perhaps the finale will shed light on who Jod was before he was a pirate, but surely there’s some parent-based trauma, given that he is a Force user, of a certain age, in a post-Order 66 world.
Despite being sequestered away from most of the action, the children do get to hear their parents sending their love and support — particularly, Fern and Wim listen to their parents’ desperate words and find renewed strength to do what they have to in order to survive. In the midst of their assurance, Fara reveals that the children should find a Republic Emissary, as they will know about At Attin and be able to get them back safely. It is also revealed that the children would’ve eventually learned everything about their homeworld once they graduated, shooting a few holes in theories about who knows the truth about At Attin.
Fern suggests that they need to work on a plan for escaping from Jod and the pirates, and Wim — being the impulsive boy he is — decides to scream “Attack!” and charge into the cockpit with nothing but pure moxie at his side. As expected, the children are apprehended before they can do much, and Jod is deeply annoyed. While the children struggle against their captors, SM-33 reveals that Jod cannot be the captain of two ships, meaning he does not have to follow Jod’s orders and the Onyx Cinder is free to be claimed. Jod slaps a hand over Wim’s mouth before he can make a claim on the ship, and once again declares himself the ship’s captain, but Fern is quick to call “unclaimsies” and declare the ship is claimed for children only. Surprisingly, SM-33 decides that this is close enough to pirate law for him and knocks Jod out. Captain Fern and the children make their escape, leaving a trail of unconscious pirates in their wake, and navigate the ship through the barrier. For as much awe and wonder as the children wore when they escaped from At Attin, there’s even more awe on their faces as they get to see their planet for the first time. As they get locked into an autopilot landing sequence, signaling the end of their grand adventure, Fern remarks that “we’re gonna be in so much trouble,” and Jod agrees.
Yes, before the children made their escape, Jod managed to sneak his way aboard the Onyx Cinder, and he’s madder than he’s been all season. With a raging headache and waning patience for a bunch of “spoiled” children, Jod ignites his lightsaber and beheads SM-33 before the droid can protect his crew. He orders the children to get on the ground and keep their mouths shut, which doesn’t necessarily work. After realizing he isn’t going to be able to get a message back to the pirates about his success, Jod gets even more nasty with the children, digging in at Wim and Fern in particular. At wit’s end with their “jabbering,” Jod threatens to kill all of their parents if they don’t behave, since their transmission ensured that he can identify each and every one of them.
Jod Lands the Score of the Century in ‘Skeleton Crew’ Episode 7
The last few minutes of Episode 7 are a race to the finish line as Jod and the children arrive on At Attin, and it all sets up a lot of angst and drama for next week’s finale. As their parents sit and wait to be reprimanded for breaching the barrier, a message comes through over the intercom announcing the arrival of a Republic frigate, and they quickly realize that this ship is carrying their children, thanks to the tracker that KB’s moms have.
Jod and the children are greeted by safety droids as they disembark, and — rather than this spelling trouble for Jod — the droids mistake him for a Republic Emissary and, as it turns out, all Emissaries must be immediately escorted to the mint below At Attin. Jod, the children, and the ship are lowered into the ground as their parents watch, and taken directly to the massive vault filled with Republic credits. The droids do recognize that the children are the very same children who were reported missing by their parents, but Jod requests that the droids keep them on the Onyx Cinder while they wait for their parents to collect them. Jod asks the droids about how many vaults are beneath At Attin and is thrilled to learn that there are 1,139, to be precise, filled with credits (a number off of Star Wars’ favorite number 1138).
As the episode draws to a close, the children are finally reunited with their parents, but their happy little reunion is short-lived. Jod strolls up, ignites his lightsaber, and the episode fades to black. Maybe we should be worried about Kyriana Kratter describing next week’s episode with only one word: death.
The first seven episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew are streaming now on Disney+.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 7 sees our young heroes return home, but not without trouble as Jod seeks At Attin’s treasure.
- Jude Law gives a flawless performance as the unscrupulous pirate captain, while still leaving so much room for viewers to question his motives.
- Lee Isaac Chung really understands how to direct an excellent episode of Star Wars.
- Jon Watts and Christopher Ford have crafted such a brilliantly flawless season, and the penultimate episode proves to be a real treat.
