Heart of Gold

Skeleton Crew Season 1 Episode 7 "We're Gonna Be In So Much Trouble"

SPOILERS LACED WITH TEARS

Once, a season of television regularly spanned around 23 episodes. In a series from that era, the last episode of Skeleton Crew would have been just the beginning. The children would have escaped with their new ship, overcome their first real betrayal, and launched themselves into the galaxy to find their way home. By the end of a season of that length, after weeks of cameos, one-offs, and monsters-of-the-week, finding At Attin would have felt like a well-earned relief. “I can’t believe it,” we’d say, “they actually found it…this season!”

(If this were a film, of course - this is a Goonies tribute - one could reorient this same story to be about finding treasure, winding up in space, and realizing the treasure was right under their homes all along, and racing against time.)

But as it is, in this world of film-sized budgets and shorter seasons, right after they escape the Trash Crab in all her Phil Tippett Glory, the children are home again. One can almost feel the egg timer ticking down on the season about to go ding. It did, for me, reduce the impact of the return home. But that’s the reality of schedules and budgets, isn’t it? And I certainly wouldn’t want them to risk a cliffhanger with Lucasfilm feeling very ready to cancel series mid-thought all the sudden! So, maybe on balance, better to move the story forward, instead of hold out for a long-term story that we may or may not see.

That’s all structural, though, and quibbles. Putting it aside, how is the episode as an episode unto itself?

The first word that comes to mind is frightening. As promised, this is very much a show with kids, instead of a kids’ show. The stakes skyrocket.

Jod Na Nawood is finally revealed as a mortal threat. We watch him behead SM-33, execute his former first mate with a blaster, and threaten to butcher the children’s parents with a lightsaber. Whatever hopes there were that Jod would eventually turn out to have a heart of gold are dashed (pun intended, alias joke, for those in the back of the auditorium).

It’s strange, isn’t it, that we use the idiom “heart of gold” to describe someone of high character. Gold could not be less moral. If we can learn anything from looking around at the world as it is, it’s that wealth is not a measure of virtue. In fact, it’s a great place to start looking for its opposite. So perhaps when we say a ‘heart of gold’, we should mean that a person whose heart is cold as metal.

Jod only seems to have a heart for gold. In this efficient, powerful episode, Jod makes the children cry, deceives everyone, and executes a heel turn of galactic proportions. When Jod reaches the vault in the Old Republic mint, cackling as the gold pours into his hands and onto his face, he is a vision of greed. He is, in the end, a dastardly pirate, as advertised.

Obviously, this is a pirate with a blue lightsaber and the ability to use the Force. He’s a villain who has quoted Qui-Gon Jinn. That leaves us in an ambiguous place, with so much more to know about this man and his story. But will his backstory justify what he’s done so far? One can only wonder if we’ll receive an explanation, or, at least, a rationalization. Or will they go The Joker route, and leave his defining characteristic as undefinable.

There are more pieces on the board that have yet to be played, too. Remember Kh’ymm offering to help the children in the future? Feels like she could bring the cavalry. The Supervisor also looms large as the finale approaches, like Oz waiting behind the curtain in the Emerald City.

And, of course, are the parents. Skeleton Crew’s parents all rock. They’re awesome sweethearts who love their children. As the episode ends, KB, Fern, Neel and Wim are standing side by side with their parents, who have tirelessly fought to get a message past the barrier and guide their children home.

Parents, in Star Wars, are often a fraught subject. At least in the main Star Wars Saga, you can count the diligent caring parents on one hand. As I’ve said before, about The Bad Batch especially, and The Mandalorian, there’s been a shift towards parents as heroes in the last few years of Star Wars storytelling. While their parents are not the leads in Skeleton Crew, they are forces for good and comfort, and bless them, I do not want to see a hair harmed on their beautiful heads.

I’d also like to throw up some confetti for the perfect “No Backsies!” moment. It was, as Inside No 9 would say, well seeded by how the children bargain in the first episode. It’s astute and hilarious to identify how close children’s made up rules for negotiation are to the no less valid Pirate’s Code, in the end. Right on, Skeleton Crew. I cheered.

And, there we have it. “We’re Gonna Be In So Much Trouble” leads us straight into a finale rife with danger. But like The Heart of Gold from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a spaceship run on an Improbability Drive, I hope the highly improbable becomes reality, and we’re surprised and delighted by what we can’t foresee. I’d love the storytellers to be as bold with, for example, who the Supervisor is, or Jod’s backstory, as they were with Luke Skywalker appearing in The Mandalorian. This series has been a perfectly executed plan so far. I’m excited to see if they finish the story and complete the Amblin tribute; or if they have a few tricks up their roguish sleeves.