Episode 4 of Skeleton Crew has arrived. Is it as much fun as the others? There’s only one way to find out!
SPOILER WARNING! The following contains spoilers for Skeleton Crew Episode 4! Do not proceed if you wish to avoid spoilers!
MAJOR POINTS
- The group did not land on At Attin, but one of its neighboring planets that has been torn apart by endless war
- Jod prevents a major battle, potentially saving the kids from certain doom
Our heroes arrive at what appears to be At Attin. However, upon landing they realize this is not their home, but a similar planet ravaged by endless tribal war.
The kids are captured by one clan, while Jod and SM-33 are captured by a rival clan. Unfortunately, the clans are at odds over a stolen herd of eopies. Fern is expected by the clan leader to lead the clan in battle to reclaim the stolen critters. But fortunately, Jod uses the credits he took on the ship to buy the eopies and returns them to the rightful clan.
The reunited group makes their way to a tower where they find the locations of all the hidden planets… except At Attin. It turns out SM-33 destroyed the coordinates as commanded by the previous captain, who also instructed him to kill anyone who came looking for them. Neel distracts SM-33 while Jod deactivates him from behind. The crew thank Neel, who promptly faints from all the excitement.
MAJOR QUESTIONS
- Did Jod spend all the credits on the eopies?
- Did he do this out of the goodness of his heart? Or to win loyalty?
- Do the other seven planets still exist? And if so, do they also have vastly different environments?
FINAL GRADE: C
This was nowhere near as exciting or gripping as the previous episodes. That said, it still gave an unexpected twist in the story that we’ll hopefully see built upon. At first, I thought the reveal would be that the heroes went through some sort of time dilation and returned decades later. That would have been a story more worthy of Star Trek than Star Wars, so I’m happy to see that was not the case.
That said, it’s laughable that a clan leader would instantly expect children from another planet to be competent soldiers or leaders. Especially when his own daughter sees how terrible soldiers they make.