– Spoiler Review –
Skeleton Crew’s season one finale “The Real Good Guys” is a rousing good time, which helps obscure some shortcomings, and a delightful showcase of the characters’ growth with some themes and ideas everyone could benefit learning.
I never expected Skeleton Crew’s finale to tie everything up into a neat bow, as there’s long been a hope by the creative team for a second season, and while I don’t have too much of an issue with some of the unknowns left lingering when the credits roll, I think it seemed a little too open-ended given the probabilities these days of a show being cancelled. With The Acolyte, its non-renewal still stings, it at least felt like it resolved its storylines and pointed towards what could come next, so while we won’t get it on the screen (I hope to be wrong), publishing could pick up the pieces, whereas Skeleton Crew’s finale, while it wraps up the main story of Jod and the pirates wanting to plunder At Attin, the amount of unknowns works against it, as it feels more like a hasty ending without any hints or guidance about what could come next. By not lingering for a bit, showing us something of what comes next, Skeleton Crew’s season one finale feels incomplete, like it gave us what we wanted and then disappeared into the night. I get I might be alone on this front, as I’ve seen tons of positive feedback about the show and its finale, which I totally agree was still an excellent episode, but what it doesn’t provide leaves the uncertainty of if there’s something coming next all the more fragile, as if the creative team felt too confident in a renewal to the point there’s not as much satisfaction from how things end, as they figured they’d get to answer it. It might be a while before we learn the show’s fate and I think we’ll all see the bigger, lingering questions grow and grow the longer we don’t know if it’s coming back or not, but those will never take away from how satisfying the overall finale is.
My favorite aspect of “The Real Good Guys” is the theme of fear. As the robotic Supervisor is revealed, it shows he’s been stoking the flames of fear, being the one to say the galaxy is dangerous and their Barrier keeps them safe, something Fern’s mother Fara echoes when faced with the decision to bring it down or not as Jod and his pirates begin to plunder. Wim’s father Wendle is in a similar boat, so reliant on the structures in place and comfort it brings him, he still dismisses his son’s warnings and tries to prevent the kids from getting into danger when trying to save Fern/stop Jod. I’m 35 now, and while I’ve seen it in my parents or their parents, I’m sometimes even seeing it now not just in myself with certain things, but in others my age (or younger even) as well, where fear of something begins to build and whatever keeps it at bay, gives one comfort about it, is what one would rather rely on than learning more about it. We see it the worst in those who run the government, not just in the US where it’s become particularly pronounced as somehow a fascist like Trump finds his way back to the Presidency, but in other countries who are electing and turning to conservative viewpoints. Their fear of what they don’t understand or has been drummed up by others as a threat to ‘normalcy’, always in a disproportionate way to the threat, if any, of what they are meant to fear, turns into holding back rights from/making it less safe for those less fortunate.
On a smaller scale, and maybe a little more fitting to the scenario in this episode, are examples of this I can share about even my family, from cousins who think of our big city as the ultimate lawless place and question why we’d ever go downtown to direct family members who own a gun just in case someone comes into their home out in the boonies, but by focusing on the fear, they are just perpetrating the cycle, as those who are the target of their fear become fearful of what the other side might do or have and they resort to more desperate measures in response. The Barrier is supposedly meant to save At Attin and its citizens from the dangers of the galaxy, but its very nature makes it impossible for help to arrive, yet even with this knowledge, Fara can’t fathom allowing the danger in. There’s never going to be a lack of danger in any of our lives, it’ll come in new and different ways no matter what you hide behind or try to control, but by cutting off everything, not even the good can come in, and no one grows, no one learns, they stay stagnant behind a wall built on many things, especially fear. After their journey, Wim, Fern, Neel, and KB know this now, if they didn’t already suspect in little ways, and no one says it better than Fern, as while the galaxy is dangerous, there were nice people along the way, be it Kh’ymm or the Theelin woman, so despite the parents’ good intentions of protecting them by perpetrating the cycle of At Attin, the danger is inside now and they have to do something. With their safety and support structure in ruins, the Supervisor droid dead by Jod’s blade, the parents seem frozen about what to do next. Wendle, enthused from the thrill of their journey and his son asking him for help, steps up and even tries to pull the device to destroy the Barrier, while Fara, after much pleading from her daughter, finally joins Wendle’s efforts and helps destroy their safety net. It’s a frightening thing to be without what you think keeps you safe, but living in fear is no way to live at all, as one might never be able to experience even the simplest of joys in one’s short lifespan.
We see living in fear with good intentions, keeping people save and fulfilling a Great Work, through At Attin, and on the flip side we’ve seen Jod living with his fear and what it’s made him do through the series, but it’s truly pronounced here in the finale. Having Jod end up still being an antagonist, not being ‘redeemed,’ is actually my preferred outcome, as it’s not only more interesting than someone always being just good or bad, it feels more realistic, as we see many people with self-serving motivations push others down to get what they want in the real-world all the time. Having him be so upset as things spiral, like when they all believe KB dies as the Onyx Cinder plummets to the ground after sending out a message to Kh’ymm (my Queen is back!) for help, he tells them all it didn’t have to be this way, if they just let him plunder and take over as he wished, he had no intentions of hurting them, his lightsaber carving threats from last episode just prying on the children’s love of their parents. He seems to actively try missing the kids or their parents when shooting at them or igniting his lightsaber, and even urging Wim to let go of the Barrier destruction handle with his blade at Wendle’s throat, as if he can wash his slate clean if he can blame Wim for him having to kill the kid’s dad. I believe Jod when he says he doesn’t want to hurt any of them, given Jude Law’s performance, and when he reveals he was found by a Jedi on the run in a post-Order 66 world, who was later hunted down and killed in front of him (likely by the Inquisitorious), I think he had enough training from this mysterious Jedi (I wonder who she was!!) to probably help keep him going fully evil as a pirate. Pirates do have a code though, which we don’t get to see or learn much of in this show, but going from the Jedi code to another could’ve had some crossover rules. As Jod told the pirates before and he tells them here, hunger, the basics, are what spurned on his actions, as he did what he could just to have the bear necessities and At Attin is the culmination of that wish, of beating back his fear, but now that he has it in his grasp, I get his fear over losing access to it, of having to fight again for scrapes if he fails, and I love how the episode ends with his next steps uncertain, still on At Attin, watching the pirate frigate go down. Moments before, we saw Jod like never before, as while Skeleton Crew hasn’t been a dim-lit so by any means, as the Barrier goes down it produces a blinding light and everyone is exposed in full by it, but the camera lingers on Jod for a reason, as (no offense, Mr. Law) Jod looks much older now and the realization he’s lost, he’s gone too far in pursuit of his goals, is all over his face, while his clothes and his overall look don’t seem as dashing anymore, but rather a pittance compared to what he’s always made himself seem to others. Jod’s been an interested, very layered character and I hope to see more of him, or those like him, in stories to come.
“The Real Good Guys” was a well-paced episode, with plenty of answers and intriguing lingering threads, as well as some neat callbacks to earlier episodes. For starters, there’s Neel realizing they might have a big gun on the school roof like At Achrann had and he’s rewarded for his suspicions, taking out some of the lasers on the pirate frigate before they take out his gun. KB uses her code to Kh’ymm to call for help, who sends in the New Republic, and shows off her mechanical skills to help her and SM-33 not crash and explode. Wim admits his adventures were more than he expected and he realizes how great home is, but he’s ready to take control of his own future. Fern, remembering the help from an unlikely source, helps to push her fearful mother over the edge and stand up and do something. Wendle gets out of his shell and enjoys some thrills, with his line about being a level 7 supervisor so hilariously delivered, plus listens to his son and attempts to take out the Barrier. The character journeys for the parents were an overall weak point for me, as while I enjoyed how they came out of their shells in little ways, I never felt like we got enough time with them to let these really land. As for the kids, obviously we had far more time with them, so to see them all together as a crew, helping one another and stepping in the face of danger to stop the pirate threat, especially when their parents and the other adults would rather clutch their pearls first, was such a delight and makes me excited for where a second season could take them now that the galaxy is wide open to them.
Whereas shows like The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, or Obi-Wan Kenobi have relied more on nostalgia to power their stories, like ‘here’s this thing you loved or remember’ and all it does it act like you remember it, Skeleton Crew, like Andor and The Acolyte before it, feels so fresh because it looks at Star Wars and finds new ways to explore what makes the franchise so special and loved by many, both by taking it apart and by using what’s come before, while it even does it to the 80’s vibes its borrowing. It’s a big part of why I hoped, in my review of the previous episode, this had been made in a different era, where the kids went on a 15-20 episode journey, as the concept and the writing were on par to deliver Star Wars in a way we haven’t always gotten on screen since Disney took over and I could easily take more of it. I’ll hope for a second season not because I want answers to lingering questions or to see what’s next, but because I believe it’ll have the chance to keep Star Wars fresh where others haven’t tried. Otherwise, publishing could take up the reins of the story, as it’s mostly been pushing the franchise in the past decade and seems to be allowed to take bigger swings.
Here are a few other things:
- Seeing the B-wings deploy their lasers like Hera Syndulla showed they were capable of in Star Wars Rebels was such an absolute delight, I was hooting and hollering!
- I’m glad the Supervisor wasn’t Tak Rennod, I’m assuming he must’ve been one of the two skeletons on the Onyx Cinder when the kids found it, but I find it interested we never got a reveal of his face or who voiced his hologram. Maybe so they could cast him for a second season that includes more about Rennod or flashbacks?
- Having more episodes could’ve given the show time to maybe give more hints at the current state of the New Republic and show them being so effective more often, as while we know they have flaws and it’ll all come to an end one day, it’d be nice to see what our heroes built in a more functioning, heroic light here and there. Like, why does Kh’ymm call them pirate busters, have they had a lot to deal with and they’ve been very good at it? Plus, it might have allowed for hints as to what the New Republic might do regarding At Attin now that it’s open to the galaxy.
- Neel and KB’s parents overall got the short end of the stick in the series so I hope any potential second season could involve them more.
- My wife immediately picked up on it, but the whole Supervisor situation, with the dusty, dark room felt very Wizard of Oz to her, the whole “man behind the curtain” stuff. According to the episode guide, that’s exactly what they were going for!
- The whole chase sequence, with KB leading them around At Attin to get to the Supervisor’s tower, was such an 80’s throwback feel, and I’d kill for more stuff like that in a second season.
- It was thematically fun to have the storybook images playing over the credits to include one of the kids, saying they’ve lived up to and experienced a journey worthy to be told for generations to come.
Skeleton Crew’s season one finale “The Real Good Guys” was an effective, exciting episode that, while felt incomplete in some places, showed it’s another great taste of what the future of the franchise could look like.
+ Addressing themes of fear and the knowledge of youth so often ignored
+ Rousing, exiting adventure
+ Jod’s path and realizations
– Maybe too open-ended with some lingering threads
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, Twitter @MynockManor, and Instagram @mynockmanor.
SKELETON CREW REVIEWS:
Season One: 1.1/1.2 “This Could Be a Real Adventure” & “Way, Way Out Past the Barrier” | 1.3 “Very Interesting, As An Astrogation Problem” | 1.4 “Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin” | 1.5 “You Have a Lot to Learn About Pirates” | 1.6 “Zero Friends Again” | 1.7 “We’re Gonna Be in So Much Trouble”