Skeleton Crew continues to be the rare sort of on-screen Star Wars that’s content with just doing its own thing. Somehow, we’re already at the halfway point of the season, and while we’re still crossing our fingers that a deepfaked Luke Skywalker doesn’t show up to derail this fun romp with a link to the larger mythology, it’s so far, so good. In episode 4, directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert aka The Daniels (Everything Everywhere All At Once) inject more humanity into the characters, but what about the actual story?
Well, not a whole lot happens, honestly. This wouldn’t be a bad thing under normal circumstances, but with the show taking three episodes to properly send the kids and Jude Law’s Jod Na Nawood into interstellar adventures, now is the time to pick up the pace. ‘Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin’ has a handful of meaningful scenes to share with the audience and some important things to say, but overall, this ‘adventure of the week’ squanders its potential due to an anemic runtime.
On the upside, lovely little Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) gets to shine and Jude Law feels more relaxed in his double-faced role, and the episode’s take on child soldiers in Star Wars is noteworthy, if a bit shallow. Sure, it was never going to drill the serious issues like Andor, but there was more to say here, and the ‘conclusion’ ended up feeling abrupt and unexciting. Thankfully as the plot slides back into the search for At Attin towards the episode’s end, the intrigue ramps back up.
Spoilers ahead for Skeleton Crew episode 4: ‘Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin’
What happened on At Achrann?
With only 20 minutes or so of the total runtime to spare for the conflict at the center of the episode, ‘Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin’ gets to the point quickly: As soon as the skeleton crew gets off the ship, they wander into destroyed Earth-like playgrounds similar to those we saw on At Attin. This isn’t the planet they were looking for (of course, we still have four more episodes to go).
A group of child soldiers show up, instantly signaling we might be dealing with a world of ‘lost children’ here, but At Achrann’s situation is a bit more complicated: A war has been going on for a very long time (probably generations), and these people, adults and children alike, have only known war for as long as they can remember. It seems that the Old Republic’s ‘experiment’ went terribly wrong here, with a civil war that eventually broke out and rendered most of the surface inhabitable.
There’s a key difference between the Hattan faction and the group that’s led by one General Strix (Matthieu Kassovitz), who promptly recruits Wim, Fern, KB, and Neel: The former doesn’t seem to rely on children to bolster their ranks, which suggests that Strix and his resistance are at a clear disadvantage and don’t have strong morals. Of course, we’re fed the narrative of the faction we meet first, and only Strix’s daughter, Hayna (Hala Finley), wants to take an alternative path for her people in the future.
As for what started this war — it’s never explained — and almost the entire subplot feels like a missed opportunity to dig deeper into the cruel and truly pointless nature of war through the Star Wars lens, without being bogged down by the clear-cut ‘good vs. evil’ conflict explored in the Skywalker Saga. A more generous script and runtime would’ve helped land some critical hits with this diversion, but alas…
Did Neel unwittingly change the future of the planet?
As I previously mentioned, this is very much Neel’s episode. Jon Watts and Christopher Ford’s scripts for the first three episodes had already teased the blue alien character could be the beating heart of the show, and the fourth chapter doubles down on his role as a cowardly but compassionate soul.
His time with Hayna allowed Daniel Kwan and Scheinert to remind us that – on top of having a knack for kinetic camera moves and editing – they are very good at unearthing sincere emotion from their characters when they’re given the space to do so. While this episode didn’t feature their trademark array of strange creatures and colorful locales, the pair’s touch can be felt both through the dynamic use of cameras and focus on smaller moments of joy against the backdrop of a dark conflict.
Star Wars is ultimately about hope and redemption, and while things on At Achrann are looking dire before, during, and after the kids’ surprise visit, Neel manages to make an impression on Hayna thanks to his innocence and simple wishes for a better world (and galaxy). We might never know what happened to the planet and its people long after the skeleton crew left, but we’d like to think that Neel changed the course of its history with small gestures of kindness.
Is SM-33’s former captain At Attin’s mysterious Supervisor?
Jod is sidetracked in episode 4, but he’s the one that gets the kids away from Strix, even if he was still just looking after himself. He still needs them to find At Attin, its lost treasure, and perhaps even more. Again, since the runtime is so brief, we don’t get to see how he talks himself out of a dangerous situation with the Hattan troops, but it all comes down to money and a herd of stolen eopies.
After barely doing anything under Strix’s command, the gang is offered directions to a tall building — the Fallen Sanctum — that looks suspiciously like the Supervisor’s big tower back on At Attin. Unsurprisingly, the city layout and architecture are the same as back home too. Up there, Jod and the kids find coordinates to the lost worlds that Kh’ymm offered an explanation about in episode 3.
Oh, bummer. The coordinates to At Attin were destroyed… and SM-33 really doesn’t want anyone to ask any further questions about the planet or its location. It seems like the captain who left him and the ship behind on the planet murdered their entire crew and wiped the droid’s memory clean. When did this happen, who was SM-33’s former captain, and could they be the mysterious Supervisor that’s been keeping the entirety of At Attin’s society busy with the Great Plan?
Maybe, but that would certainly complicate things. It’s already abundantly clear the Old Republic was doing a large-scale experiment (or working on a secret long-term project), so adding an external influence could just be a needless level of complication.
Or perhaps we’re being misdirected once again? In any case, the mystery that’s been built up at the center of Skeleton Crew is far more interesting than the questions posed in it. Don’t get too distracted by that mystery though, because Jod’s role in all this could still be a major curveball. Is he a surviving crew member trying to get back at his old captain? Place your bets now.