Beyond the Barrier: A Deep Dive into Star Wars Skeleton Crew | Episode 3 - Around the Galaxy

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:35):
Well, ahoy there, Star Wars Adventurers, and welcome to episode
two of Beyond the Barrier, exploring the mysteries of Skeleton Crew.
I am your host, Pete Flitzer, and along with my
co host and co pilot, my Star Wars first mate,
mister Nick Milk. Each week we will guide you through
the twists, the turns, and the treasures of the Disney
Plus Star Wars show.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Skeleton You are right, oh, captain, my captain, and tonight
we aving deep into episode three of Skeleton Crew, which
is titled very Interesting as an astrogation Problem, and we've
got an exciting show lined up, and here's what you're
going to be able to expect.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
That is right in the scuttle. But we're going to
kick things off with our first reactions to the episode
using just one word to sort of set the stage.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
After that, we're going to navigate through what we call
plotting the course. This is breaking down the major story beats,
following the math, the path, the journey, and we're going
to talk about those beats and discuss what stood out
to us.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
And then after that we're going to go into what
we call buried treasure, where we're going to dig up
easter eggs, references and hidden gems, things you might have
missed along the way.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, finally after that in Bucko's and Codgers, that's you, guys,
our patrons. We're going to hand it over to you,
our patron supporters. We want to hear your thoughts, your theories,
your hot takes, the things that you saw in these
episodes as we go through this every week.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
And if you're catching this on the podcast stream, you
are missing out on all the fun live action. Join
us live every Thursday night. We have a couple of
days after the episode airs, and you can become a
patron at patreon dot com slash the SSW network so
that you can be a part of the show. Not
only can you hang out with us in real time,

(02:20):
but we're also going to give you a link so
that we can take your calls live and talk about
what you have to say about Skeleton Crew.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
And there is one warning here be spoilers, and we
will hold nothing back every week as we dive into
the plot points, the details, the easter eggs, and all
of our wildest expectations not expectations, maybe actually we're going
to be expectations or speculations. All of that to say,
if you're tuning in on the podcast, if you're tuning

(02:49):
in right now live, if you haven't watched episode three yet,
this is your chance to take a pause, go check
it out, and then come back and join us again. Exactly.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
So, grab your maps, raise your solar sales, and join
us on this epic journey. But first, let's hit the
scuttle bit, Nick the scuttle But every week we are
going to give our first impression, that one word that
you used to describe how you felt or what the

(03:22):
show meant, or just give me episode three in one word.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Go, I'm going to give you a hyphenated one word up.
I ND My hyphen id hyphenated one word is wide eyed.
I came into this episode I was hooked last week.
That was my word. This week, I was wide eyed.
I was ready for this adventure. I wanted to see
how they were going to get out. I mean, when
we get to Kim and the little Moon that they're on,

(03:48):
all that stuff, Like this show is continuing to connect
with my inner eighties child, and I'm just watching it
like I did as a kid, sitting on my knees
in front of the TV, wide eyed, locked in, ready
to go.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, I'm gonna give you a word that is I
don't know, it feels like a cop out, but it's
the only thing that kept hitting me over and over
after I watched this episode, and then when I watched
the second time, and I'm going to get away with
two words by making it a hashtag, and I'm gonna
call it hashtag star Wars because to me, this was
the most Star Wars show that I have seen since

(04:26):
the Marshall episode of the Mandalorian. It did everything right.
It brought all the right pieces of Star Wars together
into what was it, thirty seven minutes long, and it
just and the great thing was the difference between this
and the Marshal. The Marshal was on Tatooine and was
Boba Fett Harmer and really went for the things we recognize,

(04:50):
the things we've seen. This did it by just sort
of taking me back to that time when maybe when
I saw the Empire Strikes Back or even Return of
the Jedi, and that it was new Star Wars. It
was that adventure, the feeling that I had, but it
was all right there and I was so so ready.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
For it, and I absolutely loved that.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
So, well, that's the scuttle butt. Now we're going to
take a look at the show beat by beat, talk
about some of things that happened, and then sort of
talk about our feelings about it along the way. We're
going to watch the chat see what you have to
say about it while we go. But Nick, let's plot
the course. Well, this was episode number three and it

(05:35):
was called very Interesting as an Astrogation Problem, directed by
David Lowry, who also directed episode two, and had a
run time of forty eight minutes. No, it didn't, it
was thirty seven.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Yes, I was close. I was only off by eleven minutes.
The Disney Plus description was a mysterious stranger offers to
help our heroes before we did into it.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I just want to say.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
It struck me that we didn't really get Jude Law
at all in the first two episodes until this one,
and it felt perfect. It didn't feel like we missed him,
but he felt like he should be there, which I
think is a tribute to Jude Law and probably why
he got a start on a Walk of Fame this
week for sure.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, you get the teeny tiny teas at the beginning
of the first episode, right as he gets mutinied, although
technically we don't know that I at that point because
he's got the helmet on. And then we get him
as the closing kind of teaser cliffhanger at the end
of episode two steps out of the shadows. Hey, I
can help you wink and a nod, and we're off
waiting for another week.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Absolutely, and then this episode starts. But this one starts
on at ad In, and it gives us a look
at this suburbian utopia hellscape. Honestly, I mean it felt
so sterile. It felt a lot like where we saw
Si Carn live in uh In in uh and Or.

(07:04):
But then we cut through all that. We see a
loan security robot walking through the streets, and then we
get to the cul de sac where Fern's mother lives
and all the parents are there, and it we we
see what I found a little bit jarring, and Nick,
I don't know if you picked up on it the

(07:25):
first time. We are so we're literally in Wilhelm's it
Will what's his name is it Will Well whatever, Whim's father.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, Whim's dad.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, But we're in his head in that all them.
The conversation happening around him is muffled, and he is
you know, you know, I'm checking the volume. I'm checking
to make sure that I'm watching it right and everything,
And it was it was a great effect to show
how bothered Whim's father is by this entire thing.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Wendell, thank you, d name. Yeah, that was you know,
it was such a good parenting moment. This is gonna
be one for anybody who knows this show, who knows
us West Wing. There's an episode of The West Wing
in season four, three or four, no season four. As
the end of season four, something major happens and the

(08:19):
President goes through the same thing. The audio drops. He's
in his head, he's connected, he's disconnected. And it felt
very much like that, which adds a lot of emotional weight,
certainly as a parent watching this episode. And these are
parents whose kids are gone, and they all have different
The thing I loved was all the different reactions. Yeah,

(08:40):
you know, You've got Fern's mom who's like, it's fine,
trust the System'll be back soon. Wendell's Wendell's Wendell's onto
something like he was the one out in the woods.
He's he's seen some stuff. And then you've got kv's moms,
who you know, they have a different concern and thought,
we don't really get a lot of Neil can. The
parents are there, but it's different you and our parents,

(09:05):
and we know people other people with kids, and this
is exactly what would happen if something happened to four
kids that we all know together, there'd be five different
reactions from for sets of parents. So that hit me,
you know, from a parenting standpoint, as very realistic of
everybody handling the situation in a different way. Yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
And then the doorbell rings and at the door is
one of those frightening security droids and they say, okay,
what are we going to do? And essentially they say,
the supervisor says we can't contact the Republic. It's just
essentially it's protocol. Nick, who's the supervisor or do you

(09:44):
want to say that your theories later, I'll.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Jump onto it right now, all right. I think the
supervisor is also a droid. I think the supervisor is
like a battle droid. This is like a maintain the
status quote kind of situation. This is a planet controlled
by at what point the old Republic the Empire. Whoever's
you know, maintaining this gript in this control right, And

(10:10):
it's kind of one of those like, don't ask question,
it's Pleasantville. What's outside of Pleasantville? Don't ask any questions,
Truman show, take your pick. We've seen all these different
shows and movies over the year. But I think about
Clone Wars, the final season of Clone Wars, those opening episodes,
anakanaobi Wan are on the bridge and it's the Commando

(10:30):
battle droid whatever it's called. I forget. It's got the
flat type visor. They're like, when you take that one out,
they all stop the command droid or whatever. Again, terrible
fan don't But I think the supervisor is like, it's
the Great Oz, It's the thing behind the curtain. And
I think the droids are doing the business that they've

(10:52):
been programmed to keep the society in check, this planet
in check. So I will be very surprised if the
supervisor turns out to be you know, Governor Price or
or something. I think the supervisor is a higher up
droid that's running this system that is kind of very

(11:12):
finely balanced.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
I like that, and it is freaking scary. It's a
it's a sinister way to tell a story, and.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
So after that, we then see John and the kids
making their escape. There they're breaking out and the kids
are questioning John, And this is one of the things
that I loved about this episode and I love about
the writing that I'm seeing, is the kids questioned John.
They say, well, why did you escape sooner if you
could have used the force to take the key? And
he says, what's the point if I don't have a ship?

(11:43):
What's the point of setting myself free if I don't
have a shift, which is a great answer. Same question
when they land on the moon a little bit later
and they say, why did you part closer? Because all
of us are thinking, yeah, why didn't he part closer?
You know, sort of like why the hell did or
Syncratic park his ship at at Generoso's parents' house like
miles away? That makes no sense, But in this case,

(12:04):
Fern picked up on it was like, yeah, he's hiding
from something. But I love that they asked that question
and he had a good answer. But he reassures him
that he knows somebody who can help them out and
help them get home. They sneak out through the crowded
part of the bar. I thought that was an interesting thing.
Did I read too much into it, Nick, Or was

(12:24):
that just kind of a just a cool choice that
he gave a kid. You can either go down the
empty hallway or you can go through with the kids
or with all the other life forms. Did you make
anything more out of that than it was?

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Or I liked it because I thought, yeah, that makes sense.
Like you go the empty way, you're going to be noticed.
There's plenty of opportunities to blend in. I'll be perfectly
honest when he said that. The thing, the scene that
clicked in my head is the scene in Hook when
Robin Williams is trying to get across like the pirate
island to go try and sneak and grab the hook

(12:58):
or whatever it is he's supposed to do, and he's
still dressed in like slacks and a dress shirt, and
so they're like throwing a cloak on him in a
hat and they're like they even tell him, they're like
drag your left leg or your arm's dead at your side,
out of the side of your like be a pirate
blend in. We've seen this kind of stuff because we
saw it in Kenobi when they escape, and you know,

(13:19):
Layah is under the coat, the big trench coat, and
everybody lost their mind over it. But you're like, there's
chaos and there's people walking. People don't pay attention to people.
We see this every day in real life. You have
a better opportunity to take five people and spread out
through a crowd than to have five people huddled up
in an empty hallway, because all it takes is one
person to go, what are you all doing here? Right?

(13:39):
If it's a pirate island, a port, craziness going on,
it's oh, there's a kid over there. Wait, there's a
kid over there. By the time you start going, why
have I seen four kids in the last four minutes,
it's too late. They've gotten to where they need to go.
So I thought that was worked well, and I wanted
to come to your other point is in the writing
of this show, this isn't that show where kids talk

(14:03):
like grown ups, because sometimes we get that on some
of these big IP shows. Oh blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah, like kids are doing what kids do?
I have four kids, you have two kids. We're around
all of our friends who have kids. Kids call you
on your stuff, and these kids are going, what the hell, man,
why didn't you try to get out of here already?
That's what a kid would do. And these kids talk

(14:24):
like kids, they act like kids. And I think that's
another thing that makes this show so endearing for me,
is it feels real. It doesn't feel like a kid
giving a monologue about hyperspace trade lanes and Oh, I
knew this because I read it in a book. Right,
it's a kid going, wait, I get to get in
that thing and shoot a cannon. Hell yeah, let's go. Yeah.

(14:46):
I think that's really illustrated.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Well, when they're in the little ferry going over and
Jod leaves his gun on the bench and Neil just
picks it up, is looking at it at a gun,
and then it's funny because it tells you everything. That's
what's so great about the directing and the acting and
the show and the writing. You learn so much about
the characters just by how they reacted things. The way
Neil picks up and realizes it's a gun, it kind

(15:08):
of puts it down. It's like, Nope, this isn't for me.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Similarly, later on in the show, when when Wim gets
in the guns on the ship and he's thrilled. He's
like excited and says like, this is what I've been
waiting for. So, you know, it's those sort of subtle
things that are so different about this show and so
well done that it's easy to overlook them. But it's

(15:32):
why the show is working, I think so well for
a lot of people. So as they're on their way
to get to the ship, they I haven't seen many,
but you know, it's funny.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
You do the show a.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Couple of days after all the other Easter Egg shows
and things. Not a lot of people have picked up
on the fact that when they're coming out, when when
John sees the ship, which is the the Onyx Cinder,
we haven't heard that name yet, but if you got
the legos that you know that's what it's called. When
he sees the ship, he says, not that one, like
he recognizes it. So I think that's something to keep

(16:05):
in mind, like he knows that particular ship. So I'm
curious if that means anything or it could just be that, again,
something I haven't heard a lot of people talking about.
The Onyx sender has those gray and light gray stripes
like a lot of the other pirate ships had like
they had in the pirate ships in Mando season three.

(16:26):
So maybe he just recognizes it as a pirate ship,
or maybe he recognizes that specific ship.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
So that was something that stood out to me and
I wanted to talk about that. So I'm glad you
brought that up. Yeah, I didn't read it as he
knew it. Oh, you're in the Onyx sender, this isn't
the Black Pearl. I read it as that's an old ship, like,
and it goes back to the mysteries of ad Adam
and what's going on. Let's go a planet something that's

(16:53):
that old. You know, if you know you were told, hey,
we're going to go on a cruise and you show
up harbor on the coastal New Jersey and there's a
tall ship there, not the Carnival cruise line, you'd be
like that thing, that whole ship, Like, I feel like
it's that. That was the connection I made with it,
which was him going, it's kind of laya looking at

(17:13):
the falcon, going that hunk of junk. That was what
it felt like to me.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
That's great, that's that's a really a good way to
look at it.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
So cool.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
So they do finally get to the ship and lay
it Leah Fern, who says, A lay a line that
was too easy, essentially right and and kind of like,
I don't trust that. But as they're getting ready to go,
they realize that they need to retrieve sm thirty three,
and John says they can leave with at the Droid.

(17:44):
But ultimately the kids show their loyalty and say we're
going to go get him if you don't, and he says,
all right, well, I'll go get him. And during his attempt,
I love what's his name s thirty seven something. But
during his attemp to get as uh s, I'm thirty
three out. First of all, there are a couple of

(18:05):
Easter eggs in there, which we'll get to in a
in a couple of minutes. But he catches the attention
of an issue tip. We haven't really seen too many
of them. We saw one in uh in Ahsoka on
the bridge of the Republic ship.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
But in the beginning of a Mando season three, when
he goes to the when he kills people in the
meat packing room and then he goes to get his bounty,
that was and that right.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
He's got the head in the bag that was cool,
but the the it was interesting too, because again another
line I've I felt like that. Maybe that's why I
went with hashtag star Wars for my for my uh
description of this episode, because between John doing the the
the Jedi trick that Kenobe did to make the noise

(18:52):
to pull the attention to the the.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
Guards to.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
Where as John is leaving, and the issuative.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Who was voiced by Alfred Millina.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Alfred Millina a pizza. It's a deepot from Indie.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Or doctor, depending depending on how old you are.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Right, Well, he says as John says, I'm gonna I'm
just gonna get out of here, and and the line
that he says is well, that's the real trick in it,
which of course.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Consolo vibes.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, So of course a chaotic chase ensues. I love
we cut back to the kids who are just sort
of arguing as to whether or not he's really a Jedi,
even like the well, there's a million ways you can
make that.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
You can move a key, you can use repulsal list,
you can use mirrors, you can use string magnets. I
just loved that whole interaction between the kids.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
It was very much.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
You know what it reminded me of and this is
maybe a maybe a stretch, but to me, it reminded
me of the scene in E T where Elliott is
fighting with the kids while they're playing D and D
and they're just kind of like just arguing like it's
it's it's mundane, childish arguments, but that's what they do.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Yep yep.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
So that he gets his way back to the ship,
and I love that you could see the battles starting
outside the ship as they're talking. He gets on board,
and then we had again maybe one of the most
Star Wars things that I can recall in a long
time of him trying to figure out the way to
get out. He's still connected to the fuel lines and
uh and he you know, he makes a giant mess

(20:29):
of things as they're leaving. Nick, what did you think
of that scene? To me, it was it was a
great Star Wars scene.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Everything about this scene like it just kept checking boxes.
It's like if you went down a list, it was
like this thing and this thing and this thing, and
you it's like Oprah given out gifts. You get a
toy and you get a memory and because there are
so many things in there, the you know the line
the han sol the line that was the thing that
immediately I was like, oh, like I think I actually
said something outline like oh he said the thing like

(20:55):
it felt like one of those yeah, the you know,
the conversation about how did he do it? Could it
be magnets, could it be stringed? Could it be whatever?
I thought about Kenobi when you have Haja who's played
by Kumeil Nanjiani intending to be a Jedi, and he's
got all these little tricks, like it wasn't necessarily maybe
it was intended to rhind us of that. It reminded

(21:16):
me of that because I watched Star Wars the fuel
line connected to the thing. It felt like force awakens
when Poe and Finn are trying to escape in the
Tie Fighter at the beginning, they're connected to that docking thing.
They can't get away. They can't get away. But it
also is just every drop of it is fun, the equips,
like the little lines, like the way this is written.

(21:38):
I love words. I tend to use too many of
them when I'm trying to express thoughts. I kind of
exist in that territory of like if you use five
words when you could have used twenty. You're not trying
hard enough, like the little side quotes, and Jude Law
is so good at this, and the kids are so
good at this. Again, not just that they sound like kids,

(21:59):
but the acting from these four children portraying these four characters.
It's so natural. It doesn't feel stilted. It feels fun.
And it's these little bits of like, of course this
is happening right now. Of course we can't get out
of here when we want to. Yep. It just again,
it just feeds into the vibe of the whole show.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
For sure, you're right, and again that's what's capturing that
that really well done eighties movies, the Goonies, et.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
You know, all those.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
So they narrowly escape. And while they're sitting there talking,
John is eating something the kids are hungry, puts it down.
And one of the things that I have to call
out because I thought it was an interesting piece to notice,
was John has no love for droid. It's very ding
Jarren of that. In fact, when he finishes his bowl

(22:53):
of food, he puts it down and he tells SM.
Thirty three to clean it up. And you can definitely
sense there's some tension there. You can tell he did
like going back to go get him. You can tell
he didn't like seeing the droids in the in in
that room where he had to go get them there.
His comment at first when they say we have to
get SM thirty three is well, he's just a droid, right,
There's no or not he It's just a droid. So

(23:16):
he definitely has some issues there. And I don't know
if that's sort of an insight into his character, but
it certainly tells the difference between the kids and him
when it comes to loyalty and things like that. But
then we start to really you know, what's interesting is
the the pace at which some of the mysteries are

(23:36):
starting to be explored. Whether we have answers or not
is another thing, but they're starting to explore the questions
that we as the audience has.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
When when.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
Neil says, did we really think that there's treasure at home?
And most of them they all say no. But Neil
then wonders out loud if it might have something to
do with the great work, and that leads the kids
to really start piecing the pieces together, recognizing that their
parents are these boring administrative jobs and and that they're

(24:06):
they're focused on money and whim pulls the you know,
he's got his credits and they're looking at it. Just
as John walks in, do you want to do you
want to comment on any on any of that piece
of the conversation.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
I do as a hardcore, longtime lover of the Sopranos,
I think I have decided that at Aton is a
money laundering planet for the benefit of Emperor Palpatine and
the New the First Order. It's the bottom being of
it is the botta being. They are running money through
this planet. They have a whole group of people, bureaucrats,

(24:42):
whoever they need to bring in money, send it out,
whatever they're doing. This is and this is very Star
Wars in itself because what did we jokingly complain about
in the nineties and then as time went on in
the prequels it was about trade routes and taxation. This
is an unfamiliar for Star Wars. So I think this

(25:04):
planet the treasure because you have these you know, scumbag
bartenders and pirates and whoever at Port Borgo going. That's
not real. That's a mystery or treasure. Untold treasure means
a lot of things to a lot of different people.
But if the general knowledge is that's where the money is, like, yeah,
that planet is Wall Street, but as a planet, or

(25:25):
that planet is you know, I don't know, somewhere where
there's lots of money. I think that's what it is.
And I think their parents are again being led by
this autonomous droid system that receives a program and instructions.
And you know, part of this is going to feed
into as you said, I think recently when you're on screen, Crush,

(25:48):
you know, the wider narrative of you know, what happens
in the sequel trilogy era and this era post you know,
after Return of the Jedi. Yep, yep, yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:59):
I do like how either kind of bringing it together
without overtly doing it. I think that's that's kind of
what we're starting to see here, which is great. A
little later, all the kids are asleep again. This was
a great kind of like something that was so much
what a child would do.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
Right when when.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
John says, you guys got to get some sleep, and
Fern says, I'm not tired, and the next scene you
see her just zonked out right, you know, practically drooling,
but all the kids are asleep except KB, and when
when John walks in, she says to him she's calculated
the odds of him being a Jedi, and Jodd replies
that not everything can be calculated. Sometimes you have to

(26:42):
trust your gut. And then he uses the force, or
appears to use the force to turn off some lights,
maintaining the question, keeping it going. Now it might be
a good time to ask you, Nick, do you think
he's a Jedi? What do you think his story is.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
I don't think he's a Jedi. I think he's a
force user. That's what I've That's what I've settled on.
He has said now in the maybe this is a
red herring, Maybe this is a way for him to
cover for himself. He's used some little phrases and expressions
that feel very Yoda, very Jedi training, like, you know,
the distance between you and the key is an illusion.
There was a couple in these you know, in this

(27:18):
episode things that felt like that little Confucia say, you know,
little nuggets of wisdom, that kind of thing. But I
think at the end of the day, I think he
is a survivor, a chameleon who has force abilities that
he's figured out and that's allowed him to kind of
be this scoundrel who can do He's Ezra, He's Ezra Bridger.

(27:41):
Ezra had the ability to know, oh, I need to run,
now I need to do this kind of thing. And
KG says it maybe Hondo taught him some things he
learned from Ezra. I love the idea that he's a
Force user, he doesn't have to be a Jedi. That's

(28:02):
something that we have not explored a lot of in
Star Wars overall.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, and I think it was hinted at in the
sequel trilogy. We've seen a little bit of it here
and there that you don't have to be enjoy, but
you give before sensitive.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Absolutely, Hey, maybe he's no, he's not browt boy. Maybe
he's no, he's not.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
So the crew finally arrives at the Moon. One of
the again, one of the things that I just loved
was whim playing on the cargo lift. He's just playing.
It's like it's a big giant toy, that the ship
is a big.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
What are you doing? It's like it's fun.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
I'm playing. And again, as I mentioned before, John lands
far away and Fern gets it. Fern's like no, he's
trying to hide the ship. He's he's trying to be
kind of cagey with it. And he admits to the
kids that the person they're going to meet, or the
creature they're going to meet, he doesn't always trust. And
he had to have a very interesting conversation similar to

(28:58):
what we talked about with with Greg a little bit earlier,
about you know, a joke that the kids don't get,
or in this case, it was a phrase the kids,
I guess she'll stab you in the back, and they
thought like that literally meant that she'll stab them in
the back. But so there was an interesting sort of
life lesson for the kids, and it showed a moment

(29:18):
too of sort of of him, kind of a little
twinkle in his eye of yeah, I kind of care
about these kids in a way.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Right.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
So finally they get up, they cross this moon and
some of the most beautifully shot I'm sure it was
the volume, but it was absolutely beautiful silhouette against the
planet while they're on the moon, which apparently has atmosphere,
which is fine. I don't care. It's Star Wars. I'm
not going to get into the scientific aspects of it.

(29:46):
But as they walk across one thing, and when they landed,
one thing I noticed was the music. It was very
nineteen fifties sci fi, which I felt was really very cool.
They walked across the desert, they're met by the handful
of the of the the greeting droids, the telltale droids
from job as Pallace, just basically the eyes on the

(30:10):
on the on the stalks. And but all this time
we recognize that Kim, who they're going to meet, has
been talking to somebody about being prepared to capture Uh,
to capture him, and she says that she will, she
will delay him as long as possible. It makes sense.
And this is where we hear a name that we

(30:33):
haven't heard yet. It's the third name for this character,
Crimson Jack Nick. What do we know about the name?
Crimson Jack?

Speaker 2 (30:40):
Crimson Jack, Oh, Crimson Jack, you scoundrel you. Crimson Jack
is a name and a character from old Star Wars
comic books. I don't know how old, because I don't
read Star Wars comic books, But as I was watching
some clips saying some things, I believe this is that
actually from the original like early nineteen seventy seven, seventy eight,

(31:04):
run of the original Marvel Star Wars comic books. Yep,
I know nothing about the character. I did not have
time to do a little deeper dive, deeper dig other
than he has like the old I call it, like
the old British boxer mustache, like the guy that's got
both fists out. It comes down. It is from the lamb,
chop from the side, chops up through the mustache, no

(31:25):
beard underneath, like that good connecting point like this is
a scoundrel, rap scallion, if you will. But this is
a name that has existed in other Star Wars media
in the past. So yep, it could be you know,
an easter egg, It could be a throwback, It could
be something for people our age that actually read the comics.

(31:46):
But at this point we have a character in a
main character in a show that has had three different names.
Ye Captain Silvo jad Nan and I would and Crimson Jack.
So who are you really, sir?

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Who are you? And so they get in there and
then Kim Boss Kim is this little owl cat creature
which is kind of a throwback to all the great cool,
little wise old owl characters that have appeared in things
like Clash of the Titans and you know, all of

(32:19):
those sort of things. But she's just she's not truly
an owl because she's got the cat features. But a
really interesting and Star Wars dot Com today said that
it's a character that does not has not had its
race identa or it's it's species identified yet, which is cool.
I don't need to know it. I think she's very cool.
Her voice was recognizable, but wasn't I did some research

(32:40):
on the actress who did it, and I couldn't find
anything that, like I said, oh, there's the connection. But
one of the things she did say in that recognizable
voice is that she has trinkets and tokens from a
thousand worlds, and Fern says, there's a thousand worlds. So
this again is a little bit of insight into how
we get some even better insight. But the first sort

(33:03):
of look at how protected the children are, how little
they know about the Star Wars universe, the universe that
they live in. She starts asking the children about with John.
They start they explain that they're looking for at Atten,
and she is excited. She rushes to go get more information.

(33:24):
She brings back a scroll and she reveals that at
Aden has been purposely hidden from the galaxy, and she
says that there's no map to Aden and explains to
them that it is one of the jewels of the
Old Republic. Nine planets hidden, but they were all destroyed
long ago, except for one, which was at Aten. Last piece.

(33:46):
I'll say about this, and then Nick, I want to
get your thoughts on what this all means. She starts
asking the kids to get some details, trying to figure
out how to get there, how to find it on
the map, and one of the kids says they've learned
about Core and older On a school in which she
says older On missed the war, did you? I thought
that was a fantastic line because it was a comical

(34:07):
way of reminding us who watched Star Wars. We knew
what happened older On, the kids didn't. And she started
to piece it all together, Nick, from what we learned
about this, how does this play into your theory? And
what do you think? How does this tie into the
greatest Star Wars universe.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
I think the tone we keep hitting on is this
is a planet lost slash frozen in time. There's a barrier,
it's isolated. I mean, honestly, I think The example I
keep coming back to the most is the Truman Show.
If anybody's ever watched the Truman Show, Jim Carrey, you know,
he's raised in this like contained bubble, controlled life narrative,

(34:56):
all those things, and this is what that feels like. Yep.
This society has been Everything they get is controlled at
state run media, whether it's the Republic, the Empire. They
say in that opening scene when the parents are together,
you know, we should appeal to the Republic. They don't
say the old Republic. They also don't say the New Republic.

(35:17):
They say the Republic very specifically. So this is a
society frozen in time. These kids have heard of Alderan
because Aldron was a significant planet, but they haven't heard
that Alderan got blasted to Smithereens. Yep. And so it's
it feeds into there is something sketchy with this planet.

(35:38):
What is its purpose? What is the role that it
fills in this greater overall Star Wars galaxy narrative?

Speaker 1 (35:45):
For sure?

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yep, yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
So Kim is continuing to try to figure out how
to had a narrow down out of the thousands of
planets and millions of planets how to find it. Then
she sees Furn's backpack and she sees some some symbols
on there, which she decodes, and she starts working it
all out and and she says something like oh, yes, yes,
and he says, did you figure it out? And she implies, uh, no, no,

(36:12):
not yet so and then that's when Jod recognizes that
she's stalling and discovers her communicator, which has been open
the whole time, and we learned that there's some X
wings inbound. And Kim tells the kids to run, but
not before KB checks to see if they're She's okay,
because they all they blast out. John does a little

(36:33):
bit of sort of makes a mess so they can
get out the door. KB checks on on on Kim,
who says, trust your head and offers her that if
she ever needs Kim she can reach out to her,
she can do that. And then the kids run away
with John, and Kim seems a little bit concerned that

(36:56):
they're leaving, but not so much so that she continued,
you know, I found that was an interesting sort of
concern about because hey, because because what is it? Kim
asked them do you trust him? And all KB says
is he's gotten us this far, but I don't trust him,
which is an interesting, perplexing situation to be in. Right,

(37:16):
if you're this person has saved your life and helped
you get closer to home, but I still don't trust him,
So what do I do? And and again not to
get too deep, but it's it's an interesting spot for
a child to be in, Right, I don't trust this person.
They haven't hurt me yet, but I don't think they're
good for me. And that's a that's a tough spot

(37:37):
for a kid to be in.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
So it's a very tough spot.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yeah, yeah, but it was interesting because Kim also knew
that she that she said, did he tell you to
trust your gut? Like she knows Crimson Jack's way of
doing things? And and KB, you know, recognized that she
knew what he had asked her. So, but they do
get to the ship and the kids confront Jod and

(38:04):
Fern brings in SM thirty three to kind of press
him a little bit further, and John admits finally that
he's not a Jedi. He says, well, I never said
I was a really kind of han Soloe. Way out
of it, right, He proposes a deal to them. He
says that he'll do the right thing and maybe get
a reward and the kids and then he says, I'll

(38:25):
be your partner, and the kids say, you're not gonna
be a partner, You're gonna work for us. And then
Jod reluctantly agrees. Nick, what did you think that interplay
at the ship and the way the kids responded, and
not just maybe from not just from a story perspective,
but also from a production direction and acting perspective.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
It continues to drive plucky kids lost in a galaxy.
It can't just be oh, this like, this is how
good he's happened. This is how space can't happen. This
is how you know all these movies that we watched
as kids when we were younger, Like, they have agency,

(39:06):
they have some spunk, you know, Ferns kind of the leader.
Whim's in for the adventure. Neil's are careful, calculated, and
kb's a little bit of our wild card. They're all
out there doing something, but they also have their head
on their shoulders, which I love. They're paying attention, even
coming from this bubble secure, safe planet. They're going, wait,

(39:28):
something's funny here, And I think that's such a true
attribution to again the nature of who kids are as
I've raised my kids, as I've watched other kids, Like
kids will call you on your stuff, kids will go
what do you mean? And even if it's literal, they're
going to ask the question, go what do you mean? Like, no,
that's not what I mean. Here's what that means. And

(39:50):
that you know, it's partially genuine and earnest, but it's
also self defense. It's also a way to you know,
protect themselves. So I think it's fantastic and I think
it's the highlight of the show at this point is
these kids and these actors. Full credit to these actors.
They are playing these rolls yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Well, to escape this moon, they need to get to
the other side where there's daylight before they can jump
into hyper space. So John hands the controls over to
Neil and he puts puts Fern and Wim on the
guns and has KB handle all the coordinates for hyperspace.
When Wim gets as I just said before, when Wim
gets in the gunning in the in the in the

(40:33):
gun spot, he's excited. It's like this is what he's
been waiting for. And then he hits an X Wing
that's in pursuit and he's just like he's it's Luke Skywalker.
When he got the first high Fighters, he said, I
got him. And the funny part again kids being kids,
friend said that was my shot. But it was just

(40:54):
it was really cool to see them kind of fight,
fight through and fight to get out the way they did.
And so just again the directing, the way we see
Whim in the in the bubble of the of the
gun and just the wide eyed excitement on his face.

(41:14):
They do, of course barely escape. They get out there
and back on the by the X Wings come in.
They land by Kim and they said that they didn't
engage because they didn't want to hurt the children, which
was interesting, and they the pilot says where were they headed?
And Kim says cryptically, if I told you, you wouldn't

(41:36):
believe me. And then they end this season? What did
you think of those X Wings?

Speaker 2 (41:42):
Are? They are? They Republicans?

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Know what I thought?

Speaker 2 (41:44):
You know what I thought about those X Wings? You
know you know who? Yeah? Who we expected to see?
I fully expected and not fully expected. There was that
part of me fifty to fifty that was like, ooh,
I hope Carson Teva one of these pilots, and at
the same time I went, he doesn't have to be
every x Wing pilot though at the end of the day,

(42:08):
these were unidentified x Wing pilots out on patrol, which
also does track with this New Republic era, this post
Return of the Jedi. You've got pilots out there, and
some of them may be working for government, some of
them may be free agents. We don't know. I could
go by at a state auction or retired state trooper
car or a retired police car, so I could go
free agent myself out there. Maybe that's what these guys

(42:31):
are doing. We don't know. They could be private security.
But it's fun to see an x Wing. It's always
fun to see a chase, to see some shots fired,
and you know, I think again also, and maybe I'll
say for these first three episodes, every one of them
has ended on a cliffhangary kind of situation or not

(42:54):
even I won't say a cliff They've ended at the
right time. The endings have been perfect every all three
episode so far.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Yeah, it hasn't felt like I mean that again, that
was one of the problems with the Soca and one
of the problems with the accolade. It was like, oh,
we have to we have to make this into two episodes,
so wait, we're done now. It felt like weird cuts.
And to your point too, it did feel like a
lot of those seventies and eighties shows that we liked
where it would end and you'd be like, that's the
whole story, Like this was the whole story. They got
out of jail, and they escaped, and they found out

(43:23):
where they need to go next. They had a little
adventure along the way, and you know, if the series
ended here, obviously it would be a lot of unanswered questions,
but it could, you know, they could. All we know
is that they're you know, they're on their way to
the next thing.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
So it's not quite the Dukes of Hazard. The generally
as frozen in midair as it's jumping the creek and
they say, let's see what happens next week, right, not
quite exc.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Quite that extreme, but yes, enough to make you definitely
wanted to come back for sure. Yes, well that's the
way that episode went. That was the beat by beat.
We got a lot to look forward to next week.
But there are some Easter eggs and some buried treasure
that we want to talk about real quick. All right, Nick, Well,

(44:23):
there were a couple of things that we saw. Why
don't we kind of go back and forth like we
did before and just kind of see what we got.
We'll go till we run out there was. It's one
of those things where the first time I watched it,
I was like, yeah, not a lot of Easter eggs.
Watched the second time, I was like, wow, there was
a lot more stuff in there. The stuff that the
first one that I'll throw out there was Whim used

(44:46):
the Obi Wan quote about that the Jedi are are
the defenders of justice, keepers peace in the galaxy. He says,
everybody knows that. But what was interesting was, and I
think again more just a tip to the story and
the isolation of the children. Whim says, the Jedi are
the defenders of justice and keepers a piece in the galaxy.
And we know that this story takes place after return

(45:08):
of the Jedi, so they've been gone for a while.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Mm hmm. That's a fantastic one. I have a couple
one of my favorites. It's not a great secret that
I am a deep, deep lover of Star Tours and
all the mythology and the things that go around Star Tours.
So we do get the the Star Tours, the one thousand,

(45:34):
the ship that is, you know, the vehicle that you
get to ride in on Star Tours. It's in the
background right there around Port Borgo when they're doing their thing.
It's another one of those teases, like the all the
ships seen in Rise of Skywalker and you're picking out
which one is here, which one is here? That Star
Speeder one thousand in the background, just like eight I

(45:57):
mean eighties, nineties vibes Star Tours. It begs the question, Disney,
are we going to add a Port Borgo stop into
the Star Doers video because we've updated over the years.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Absolute on Deck and I'll tell you what. Let's let's
get rid of some of the stuff in Galaxy's Edge
and put Port Borgo there. I would rather hang out
in Port Borgo than than Ogus Cantina.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Sorry, no offense. So those that love it for uh
Ne Orland Square, where Pirates of the Caribbean is just getting.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
Taking over all of Disney, Let's take over all of
Disney World.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Let's do that.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
This is one that I don't know if it's true
or not, but it's the way I picked up on it.
I didn't hear anybody else talk about it on any
other shows. But it looks like a Corellian blood stripe
on John's pants, the pants that he found in this ship.
So I'm in my mind, I'm going with that. I'm
going for the stripe on the pants being Han Solo
like so, which would make sense. Again, I feel like

(46:53):
John is kind of Han Solo meets Obi Wan Kenobi
in this in this show.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Mm hmmm. I think that's and that's a perfect You know,
he's the scoundrel, what is his deal? We're very much
in scoundrel scoundrel testing mode, as we'll call it. I
want to talk about Kim for just a second. Kim
was such a fun character. The vibes, and this comes
back to all of our eighties callbacks for anybody who

(47:19):
watched The Dark Crystal in the eighties, the Dark Crystal
vibes that come with Kim comes with agra offra depending
on how you pronounce that, you've got the telescope, you've
got this creature, You've got all these like orbs and rotations.
It is one hundred percent feeding into that same nostage.
So we just keep expanding. We keep talking about goonies

(47:42):
and etah, but every week we're expanding the canon of
what are the references, what are the things we're pulling
from even more.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yes, yeah, now that's that's I didn't even think of
that one.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
But it's funny.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
I didn't think of that specifically, but I knew I
recognized it, which is when Yeah, that's a testive memory thing.

Speaker 2 (48:02):
And we talked about Greg earlier, you know, like it's
something that sticks out for you. It wasn't put that
way to intend that, but when people watch Dark Crystal
back in the day, yeah, it planted itself in your
remember and you go, I've seen that before. Where have
I seen that?

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Yep, yep, the last Easter Egg. I'll point out again
there there's always a thousand of them, and there are
people who do Easter eg videos much better than we do.
Check those guys out. These are things that sort of
stuck with me that that Again, this is why this
episode was a new hope to me, because the droid
that was floating through the hallway that KB picked up

(48:39):
on was a silver version of the torture droid from
a New Hope and it complete with a very similar sound.
It sounded like a cross between the one and a
New Hope and a a Probe droid. But it was
that same kind of model, and again a callback to
stuff we know without it being.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Avert yep, I have one other one. This was something
else that I saw online. I saw, I know, the
our friends that Children of the Watch tweeted this out.
Somebody else had tweeted a similar version of it, and
so I went and did a little comparison and made
these graphics myself, the badges and the planet map, cave

(49:21):
the fern, the badge on the back of her backpack,
and the map that Kim lays out. If you overlay
it with that Imperial graphic, the eight points, the planets,
the positioning they line up, and that creates this intrigue
of a few coincidental but it's two separate things. It's

(49:42):
the patch on the bag. And I know people have
kind of depicted or interpreted, you know, what are the graphics,
what are the signs? What are the RBSH mean? But
I saw that and then I couldn't not see it
every time, the way parts of that lineup so I
thought that was really cool and maybe feeds into what
is the mystery, what is the conspiracy of what's going

(50:02):
on here? Who's connected to it?

Speaker 1 (50:05):
That's wild. Yeah, I mean there's there's so many different things.
You know. I had a theory about add In that
I shared on Screen Crush this week that it's to me,
it's it's the planet that is the First Order. They're
building the First Order right now. They're building the paper
pushers and the the analysts and the financial guys, and
then they try to figure out and these tests where

(50:26):
these kids should go, and maybe Whim has tested out
and maybe he'll be put to another part of the
planet where they train soldiers and UH and and and
sort of their more military type of kids. The challenge
with at At and being a part of the First
Order is and again I said this on Screen Crush

(50:48):
as well, and I'll say here is it makes it
very difficult to have a happy ending for the show.
If the kids go back home and it turns out
home is the First Order sort of genesis, that's not
a happy ending. And you know, the kids are back
with their families, great, but they're they're doing bad things.

(51:09):
So I don't know that. That's exactly where I think
your idea of it being sort of a money laundering
kind of thing is.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
A little bit better.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Maybe the kids get there see that it's not good,
especially after they've seen the rest of the galaxy or
more of the galaxy, and maybe they don't stay. Maybe
they make the decision to leave. But yeah, I think
that that's I think, you know, and I saw somebody
say something and Chris Ryan's if you're listening, I'm apologizing

(51:37):
in advance. Somebody was saying, well, maybe whim is finn
He's not, but may where I The only way I
will say that's connected is maybe this is how they
found some soldiers and they put them to work. The
kids that weren't going to be financial analysts and you
know whatever number crunters were put into the the army.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
But I don't know. I don't do any comments on that, Nick.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
No.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
I mean, again, similar apologies to Chris. Probably not, but
we do hear, you know, kids being kidnapped, kids being
you know, conscripted Jenne was the same way, you know,
taking families taken into So it's all on the table
at this point because that's the part of the galaxy
in the universe, and the timeline that those things are happening.
Those foundations are being built for what the New Order,

(52:32):
first Order, Final Order is going to.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
Be, right yep yep? Well, Nick, any anything else to
add to this week's episode. I have one final thing
I want to add. I want to talk about KB
for just a quick quick second. KB, Like I said,
it's kind.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
Of our wild card of the four kids has the
digital implants. We hear at the very beginning when the
parents are together, her moms are saying we've lost connection
with her, and I forget the word, they used her
life monitoring system, the system or something, ye, something like that,
And so it creates the question. And there's two things

(53:10):
because also we kind of get these little like is
KB maybe for sensitive? They hint at that they're in
the hallway to the whatever and she has a moment.
But it's when that droid comes across that you're talking about.
So is an electronic thing that's connected to the visor
and you know all of that. This is not as
much a theory, but they did call it a health

(53:33):
life monitoring thing. It could be a plot point if
you remove remember one of the classic movies of the
nineties con Air, we have Baby Oh played by Bubba
Blue from As Far As Gump. He's Nicholas Cage's friend,

(53:54):
and he's the one he has the diabetes issue. And
so in the middle of this movie, when the plane
is happening and all these other crazy things are going on,
he's got to get the insulin for his friend. I
think we're headed to a situation where, in the middle
of the adventures the things that are going on, maybe
KB has a health thing because they say, and I
saw somebody else tweet about it, and it was kind

(54:14):
of in the background dialogue, you know, has health needs
or special health they say something to that effect. So
what if KB has some sort of health thing that
in the midst of this journey and this adventure, they're
going to also have to like figure out how to
save their friend, which God's layers of development and adventure

(54:34):
and jobs make a decision. Yeah, its know, he's have
to make a decision. He's going to pretend like, oh,
it's just a kid, But then is the better part
of him going to get over Are the kids going
to force him into it? Yeah? KB brings the ability
not as a liability mind you, but brings the ability
to add so much more because it's the character that

(54:57):
we've seen them, but I feel like we've seen the
least of them. So I'm very intrigued by KB in
that character.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
I agree one hundred percent on that. I think that
that's that's actually you know, it's funny you text me,
you said, I have some thoughts on KB, and I said,
I think we're thinking the same thing. That's exactly what
I was thinking. I was thinking that's going to become
a plot piece because even if they do have the
proper coordinates from from Kim, we've seen other planets and
other drama happening in the series, so which either a,

(55:26):
do they actually have the recordinates or is it going
to take them somewhere nearby?

Speaker 2 (55:29):
But no one can ever go directly from point A
to point B. That's always something or two or three
somethings that are going to show up in between.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yep, that's that's absolutely correct, So well we'll definitely keep
an eye that.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
I do agree with you.

Speaker 1 (55:44):
I do think we're going to see a situation where
they're going to have to help her in order to
get home. And I think, you know, similar to e.
T right Et suddenly becomes ill and uh, it's heartbreaking.
This this that would be it just seems to make sense.
But Nick, that's going to do it. For our second

(56:05):
episode of Beyond the Barrier, exploring the mysteries of Skeleting Crew,
I got to say, these first three episodes are just
the beginning and I can't wait to see where the
show is going to take us next.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
Just need it to be Tuesday again.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
Yes, bring on the Tuesday. So remember, your input makes
the show even better. So if you've got theories, or
if you spot us some mister eggs that we missed,
or you just want to debate that family tree of
goryan Shard's cousin or something.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
Let us know.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Call us at five oh four three two one fifty one.
You can join us as a patron, or you can
reach out to us on social media. We'll play your
voicemails next week if you leave us something this week,
and we'll make sure to get it on there. And
that even includes if if you're happy to live in Enid,
Oklahoma and you want to talk to some guys at

(56:56):
the liquor store about Skeleton Crew, Matt will take it
We'll definitely play on here for you, but if you
enjoyed tonight's episode, be sure to give us a like,
share it with your fellow Star Wars fans, and subscribe
so you won't miss what's next. And for our podcast listeners,
we'd love it if you gave us a five star review.
It's the next pissed thing to a.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Map at I'm excited to do this again. Why can't
it be tuesday? That's really all I'm worried about at
this point. But until it is Tuesday, and until next time, Pete,
May the Force be with you always

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Beyond the Barrier: A Deep Dive into Star Wars Skeleton Crew | Episode 3

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Beyond the Barrier: A Deep Dive into Star Wars Skeleton Crew | Episode 3