'Skeleton Crew' Episode 6 Is Actually… Good? That Can't Be Right

Skeleton Crew Episode 6 opens with what is easily the show’s most blatant homage/rip-off of The Goonies, which is pretty impressive given Episode 5 was basically the moment Mikey finds One Eyed Willie’s treasure, but in space. Subtle this show is not, and it was working with a sledgehammer this week as the kids flew down a booby trap tunnel after being double-crossed by Jude Law. But then something very surprising happened: The rest of the episode was actually… good? I’m as shocked as you are.

Don’t get me wrong, I have very strong thoughts about how Skeleton Crew probably should’ve been a movie, or at the very least, only six episodes. However, those thoughts melted as I finally witnessed a tight and competent installment that made me want to know who was at the helm this week. This is what this show should’ve been the whole time, so naturally, it was Bryce Dallas Howard behind the lens. I’m talking everything was on point: The acting, the direction, even the CGI was crisp. Most incredibly, the kids finally clicked into a desperately-needed gear as their scenes easily went toe-to-toe with Law’s. I honestly couldn’t believe it.

At the core of Episode 6 is the plight of KB (Kyriana Kratter). After the kids make a rough landing out of the booby trap tunnels, KB is not doing so hot. As we slowly learn, she was in some sort of accident that required significant parts of her body to be augmented with droid parts that are starting to break down. We also learn how that change affected her friendship with Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), leaving KB afraid to tell her headstrong bestie the truth if she can’t do something.

This fissure causes Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) and KB to follow a school of space crabs in an effort to get back to the Onyx Cinder. Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) surprisingly breaks off to go with the headstrong Fern, who thinks a faster solution is scaling a perilous cliff. Normally, these events would have me eye-rolling the kids getting into more hijinks, but goddamn, if it didn’t have some heart.

While Wim and KB bond, Skeleton Crew strikes at its core audience’s biggest fear: Losing a friend. No one tells you this about being a parent, but one of the hardest parts is watching your child get absolutely crushed when a friend shuts them out. It f*cking sucks, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I’d love to be the kind of parent who can just tune that stuff out, but Christ, if it doesn’t cut like a knife. Anyway, to Skeleton Crew’s credit, this episode knows its target demo inside and out. Props.

Long story short, the kids work out their issues and are stronger for it. We’re finally seeing them work as a team and become, ahem, a skeleton crew as their ship is now in danger of being crushed by a massive trash compactor crab thing. Of course, this show had to have one eye-rolling moment, and it’s learning that the button SM-33 told the kids never to press makes the Onyx Cinder explosively shed it’s outer hull to reveal a shinier, cooler looking ship as they narrowly escape being crushed. I’ll let it slide because after some drawn-out Surf Dracula action, the kids are finally delivering what it says on the label as they make their way home to At Attin.

As for Jude Law’s Jod/Silvo/Dash, he’s been captured by his old pirate gang and who’s he also promising to take them to At Attin where everyone will be rewarded with a take that never runs out because, as we now know, the planet was a mint for the Old Republic. It literally prints money. The lightsaber from last week was also confiscated, but not far from Jod’s grasp…

Bones to Pick (Get it? “Skeleton Crew,” I’ll let myself out):

— I just want to circle back to the true identity of Tak Rennod. Last week, I theorized that he’s just another one of Jod’s aliases. I no longer think that. I now believe that he (or she) is not a character we’ve seen yet, but one we have heard of: The Supervisor, the shadowy superior who runs At Attin and has remained suspiciously off-camera. I’m gonna take a shot in the dark here and assume that their face and Rennod’s are one and the same, especially as the show keeps making it a point to emphasize that every pirate in the galaxy thinks Rennod is dead.

All that said, if Rennod ends up being Kerry Condon, well, that’s one way of not wasting a critically-acclaimed actor. Until next week!