Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 4
"Can't Say I Remember No At Attin"
Writers: Christopher Ford and Jon Watts
Directors: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Cast: Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Kyriana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith, Nick Frost, and Jude Law
Our castaways emerge from hyperspace into the familiar embrace of a crème de menthe nebula. Kh'ymm's coordinates have brought them back home. Or so it would seem.
"Rennod's ghost!" Jod exclaims. "At Attin! It's real!" He's practically drooling over the very prospect of plunder. Captain Fern summarily banishes all adults from the cockpit, and our resident man-child turns tail with little pushback. On approach, the ship jolts into a preconfigured autopilot sequence, which SM-33 overrides. Though the kids recognize grids of suburban development, they make planetfall in an uncanny valley. If this is home, it's changed.
Warily, they step out onto a playground reclaimed by nature. Jod is unimpressed. He remarks that the bleak haze of dust and ash remind him of his own home planet. Interesting. We'll file that away for now. The children are keen to investigate this twilight zone, directing Jod and SM-33 to remain with the ship. The droid is only too eager to pull rank, ordering "baby" to return inside.
The children soon determine that this ruinous planet shares similar architecture with At Attin, but unless they've gone full Interstellar, unstuck in time, this is more likely one of the other Jewels of the Old Republic Kh'ymm described. Didn't she say those worlds were destroyed?
Aboard the ship, Jod rifles through Wim's belongings to take a bite of those Old Republic credits. Our man is down bad for treasure. SM-33 throttles him, mistaking a pirate for a common thief. The droid apologizes for the overreaction, claiming At Achrann is playing tricks on his memory circuits. Ah, so that's where we are. But if he knows At Achrann, why does At Attin remain a blind spot? Jod prods at this, and though we see a brief glint of recognition, SM-33 once again dismisses it. "Can't say I remember no At Attin," he says, wandering off. It's becoming a maxim.
The children venture deeper into the wasteland in search of any inhabitants with knowledge of this planet's connection to their own. Neel complains of mild respiratory distress, wrinkling his little trunk. This place sucks. They spy a ruined statue, and before Wim can mourn the shattered visage of "King No-Head" in the manner of Percy Bysshe Shelley, blaster fire rings out. We're immediately flanked by two child soldiers.
A student of episodic genre fiction, Wim immediately clocks the situation. "Are you guys, like, an army of kids battling the adults for control over the planet?"
It's not quite like that, but close. These battle-hardened kids are Troik, engaged with another faction called the Hattan in a forever war. You can practically hear the sizzle as Rod Serling ignites his eighth Chesterfield of the hour. Hayna (Hala Finley) and her friend have been scouting the area for their missing herd of eopie, recently nabbed by a Hattan platoon. She leads the crew to their bombed-out elementary school base to meet Hayna's papa, Troik leader General Strix (Mathieu Kassovitz, writer/director of La Haine — are you kidding me right now?).
Strix welcomes the crew as potential allies, explaining that At Achrann treats its children as adults. This is a lot to unpack, and the episode mostly doesn't. Captain Fern is clearly overwhelmed here, struggling with a desire to prove herself as a capable leader. Though he's uninterested in offworld affairs, Strix agrees to test the kids' combat skills to see whether or not they're ready to venture to the "Fallen Sanctum", which may hold the answers to their questions.
Meanwhile, Jod ushers SM-33 down the gangplank to explore the planet. It all feels a bit like elder abuse as he presses for any insights on treasure. Instead, the cold light of day serves only to jog vivid memories of At Achrann's warrior culture. It's as if those very memories are stepping out from the fog of years. Ah. That'll be the Hattans then. True to form, Jod puts up his hands in immediate surrender.
The kids engage in target practice. Hayna leads Neel — by the trunk — to the tent village on the school roof. The current plan is to get the eopies, vital to the Troik way of life, back from the Hattans and to burn down a granary. She describes a grim cycle of raids, bombings, and proportional responses. When her father dies, Hayna believes she will be the one to lead her clan to victory. Neel listens politely. Since Neel is a real one, he instinctively offers his day's food ration to a pair of smaller children. Hayna smiles warmly at this kindness, but she rewards it by showing off an enormous antique cannon.
Neel remarks that this way of life hardly seems fair. He points to a crumbling high-rise, identifying it as the analog to the building where his mother works — where he, too, will work someday. "It's peaceful." The show seems aware that there's something sad about that cycle as well. The pair sit on the roof's edge. Not unkindly, Hayna muses that Neel's clan must be very weak if they never fight. Neel concedes this is probably true. Hayna takes pride in her way of life, a constant fight for survival for those she loves. Neel says fighting is bad and that it seems unlikely the raids will ever end if they continue on this way.
"If it was me," he says, "I'd just say I was sorry. No more fighting. But that's probably just 'cause I get too scared."
Downstairs we learn that KB is an absolute crack shot. We also learn that General Strix is a psychopath eager to send his new recruits into battle, at the tip of the spear. This seems more barbaric than tactically astute. Fern begs off, but the Troik won't take no for an answer. "How are we going to run away from this?" asks KB.
Hayna volunteers to join the crew as they advance on the literal fog of war. Presumably this atmospheric haze descends on the main street each day so the clans can do a Gangs of New York. Neel accepts his spear. He insists this is wrong, though he doesn't retreat or stand down. Despite his fear, he takes the lead, but only to stand with his friends. Neel, you'll recall, is a real one.
But it's not the Hattan who emerge from the fog. It's Jod and SM-33!
And they're leading the eopie back to the Troik. It turns out the Hattan were more than willing to exchange the livestock for some Old Republic credits. Strix offers him weapons or animal hides as a reward, but the pirate asks instead for his crew. Fern is shocked. It's pretty clear the kids thought they were genuinely about to die.
Hayna, another real one, offers to lead the crew to the Fallen Sanctum, a spire the children recognize as the Supervisor's Tower. Unfortunately, this is where Hayna must leave them. Neel entreats her to join them, that his home on At Attin has plenty of room. If only he'd mentioned that crazy bathtub. Hayna's loyalty is to her people, and she promises to remember Neel's compassion when it's her turn to lead.
"I see now. Your weakness … it makes you kind. And my world could use some kindness."
She kisses him on the cheek and, hand to god, she does a flip as she runs off. It's incredibly sweet.
The crew reaches the top of the derelict spire. At first it seems unlikely they'll find any answers here, but these kids are gamers. They brush centuries of dust from a series of columns. Presto. The names and coordinates to the other Jewel planets.
At Aytuu.
At Arissia.
At Aravin.
At Acoda.
But when they locate the column for At Attin, the coordinates are gone, gouged away by a deep slash. SM-33 readily volunteers that he was responsible. His old captain commanded him to do it when they last visited this place, to conceal the location of the treasure. The droid isn't just cagey about further details; he appears outright confused. "C-can't say I remember no At Attin."
Fern breaks down in tears. We've never seen her so afraid. Wim is at a loss to comfort her. He trusts her to figure this out, but that implicit faith only angers the girl. "You can't just say, 'You're amazing, now figure something out.' Like I'm supposed to solve everything. I'm not a droid. I don't just do whatever I'm told." And that's when she remembers her secret power.
Fern commands SM-33 to remember, to run a memory override. It's not that the droid can't remember. It's that he was told by his former master not to. It's as simple as rescinding that directive.
SM-33 remembers. And what he remembers isn't very nice. His old captain killed anyone else who saw the coordinates to At Attin and commanded SM-33 to erase the inscription and block his own memories of the planet. Finally, he was instructed to kill anyone who goes looking for the information in the future. Like what's happening just now.
Here's an easy contender for any forthcoming list of Scariest Star Wars Moments.
"Pull 'em apart!" SM-33 bellows, reeling around. The Daniels employ a SnorriCam effect here like you might see in a ghost hunter documentary, as though the camera is mounted to the droid's chest and turned on his leering face. "Pull 'em apart! Limb from limb!"
SM-33 lumbers toward Fern, KB, and Wim, who fall backwards on the floor. He's a mindless automaton at this point. Suddenly a small stone glances off his head. "Hey!" Neel shouts. "Leave 'em alone!" The droid turns on the tiny elephant boy and begins sprinting toward him. Fortunately Jod — a real one? — leaps at SM-33 and slaps the off switch on his back. The droid powers down in a predatory crouch atop Neel. The children race to their friend, and even as they laud him with thanks and praise, he faints.
Next week! A new writer steps in along with the director of the upcoming Thunderbolts*!
