'Skeleton Crew' takes a dark turn in episode four (playtime is over)

Child armies, dismemberment, and a murderous conspiracy... This is still family-friendly, right?

SM-33 (voiced by Nick Frost) in Lucasfilm's STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
SM-33 (voiced by Nick Frost) in Lucasfilm's STAR WARS: SKELETON CREW, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

The latest chapter of Disney's Star Wars: Skeleton Crew sees our team of young spacers and their roguish companion landing on a planet with an eerie resemblance to At Attin. However, warring clans and abandoned ruins that look too much like their home planet lead the adventure down a dark road.

After stealing the coordinates from the owlish Kh'ymm (Alia Shawkat) in the previous episode, Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), Neel (Robert Timothy Smith ), Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), and KB (Kyriana Kratter) are whisked away to a planet resembling a ruined At Attin. However, the truth is stranger than just a doppelganger ravaged by rival raiders.

WARNING: Spoilers for Skeleton Crew beyond this point!

"Can't Say I Remember At Attin"

When the kids arrive on the surface of the planet (later revealed to be a similar location called At Acharan), another layer of this piece of the galaxy falls away. While the audience is too busy wondering if they've been in a time jump, more nefarious plots are afoot.

The meat of the episode's plot sees the kids falling in league with a group of raiders called the Troik, a child army led by a handful of adults in a turf war after a rival clan steals their livestock. It gives the young leads a chance to develop and evolve their characters (especially Neel), but that's not what has our attention.

As the crew continues their journey home, the phrase "Can't say I remember At Attin" is frequently repeated by the malfunctioning SM-33 (Nick Frost). This glitch from an old pirate droid is later revealed to be not a malfunction but a direct order.

In the ancient ruins, it's revealed that At Attin is one of several missing planets, and its coordinates have been destroyed. Under the direction of his former captain, SM-33 was ordered to destroy any remnants of At-Attin's whereabouts... and tear any witnesses apart.

The Jewels of the Republic were touched on briefly in the previous episode, but there's something sinister going on, and we're not just talking about SM-33's deadly directive. There might be a reason At-Attin remained untouched by the rest of the Star Wars plot.

In this writer's opinion, Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) and his crew of reluctant adventurers are about to uncover an intergalactic conspiracy involving the missing planets, and it concerns more than just the golden Republic credits. Something about At-Attin looks a bit too earthly to be commonplace in the galaxy far, far away.

From what viewers have seen thus far, the Jewels of the Republic look less like mythical cities of great wealth and more like something George Orwell would imagine rather than George Lucas. As any veteran sci-fi buff will know, all utopias have something insidious underneath their shiny surfaces, and At Attin is no different.

As to what that is, only a certain mysterious pirate captain can say for sure, but there are more things at stake than treasure. Whether the broken old droid was a pawn in the game or a willing conspirator, SM-33 just opened a door for a massive conspiracy case, and we're definitely here for it.

Once again, Skeleton Crew shows a genuine love for the classic '80s kids' films that came before, and there are definitely designs and sequences that harken back to Return of the Jedi (1983) and Temple of Doom (1984), but it also knows how to utilize dark and scary elements to make an impact. This Star Wars fan certainly isn't going to forget "tear em' apart" anytime soon.

All four episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew are currently available on Disney+.