Skeleton Crew Episode 8 reveals a connection to Palpatine

This article contains spoiler for Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Episode 8, “The Real Good Guys.”

The final episode of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” Season 1 (There’s no definitive word yet on whether Season 2 will happen) ends this story. The pirates have reached Attin and Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law) is there able to meet the superior (voiced by Stephen Fry) in the main tower above At Attin. With Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) and her mother Fara (Kerry Condon) as hostages, Jod is able to tear down the barrier and grant access to Attin to Vane and the other pirates, who round up the civilians to use as labor to load up all their Republic credits use up.

Luckily, each of the series’ young heroes brings their own special talent and together they can turn the tables on Jod. Thanks to his empathy with At Achrann, Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) knows about the turbolaser batteries on the school roof, which he uses to shoot at the pirate ships just in time for the Onyx Cinder to escape and call for help. KB (Kyriana Kratter) and her ability to memorize information coupled with her carefree attitude is then able to steer the ship past the barrier and deliver a message to Kh’ymm (Alia Shawkat). Meanwhile, Fern was able to use her powers of persuasion to convince her strong mother to join the cause, and Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) manages to overcome his idealism and become a hero.

Together, the children manage to stop iodine, but not without learning a lot in the process. After Jod introduces himself to the Supervisor as a Jedi, there is actually a major revelation that changes our understanding of Attin and reveals an important connection to Sheev Palpatine.

After Jod swings his lightsaber and declares himself both an emissary of the Republic and a Jedi Knight, the Overseer immediately becomes suspicious. That’s because, as he tells them, the last transmission he received from the Republic labeled the Jedi as traitors. While it doesn’t seem like this is common knowledge to the people of Attin, the Overseer definitely knows this and it has been conveyed to the planet. This means that Sheev Palpatine, who was Supreme Chancellor and later Emperor at the time, was the one who declared the Jedi enemies and would have been responsible for sending this letter across the galaxy.

Since getting messages through the barrier to At Attin is no easy task, this means that the Republic and Palpatine himself had to know how to get these messages to the mythical planet as well. Leaving Attin a deep secret, as only the most important elements of the Republic make sense. But it also means that Palpatine had even more secrets than we knew, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. His plans have always been complicated, with secrets within secrets that extend into places people might not expect. For who would have thought that the first step in his grand plan to destroy the Jedi would involve taxing trade routes to remote star systems and blockading his home planet? Perhaps he had other plans for Attin if he had survived (or could have used it to finance further operations).

Seeing that “Skeleton Crew” fit into the events of the larger fabric of the “Star Wars” universe was a much-needed link for the series. Although some felt that a major strength of this series was its disconnect from the rest of the galaxy, it really needed something more to tie into the broader events of the rest of the series. In Season 1, there were hints of how disconnected the children are from galactic events, even going so far as to mention that they hadn’t even heard of the destruction of Alderaan and had missed the news of a galactic civil war (completely). not to mention). Fall of the Old Republic). Seeing that one little thread being tugged in such a weird way that you immediately miss it was just the right thing to do. That wasn’t actually necessary see the connection, just a little dialogue that helps us conjure up images and spin stories in our heads about how it fit and why it could work.

Still, the Season 1 finale leaves us wondering: What will happen to the planet after the barrier is torn down and At Attin is exposed to the entire galaxy? Will more pirates come? Will At Attin join the New Republic? Will they finance the coming war against Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen)? in “Ahsoka” Season 2 or another future Star Wars title? As Master Yoda says: “Always moving is the future.”

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is now available in full on Disney+.