Skeleton Crew Episode 5 pokes fun at the popular Star Wars lightsaber meme

Contains the following spoilers for the final episode of Star Wars: The Crew of Skeletons.

“Skeleton Crew” is a delight. For now it’s as far from Andorra as a Star Wars show.it still manages to deliver fun, quirky and often scary adventures in a galaxy far, far away, week after week. Skeleton Crew also combines the world-building and iconography of Star Wars with the jaw-dropping fun and danger of titles like Treasure Island, Indiana Jones, Peter Pan and The Goonies.

While this could be an all-ages show with kids, it is many creepy moments can be found in “Skeleton Crew”. After all, the kids in the series are up against bloodthirsty pirates more than willing to skin their enemies alive and boil their guts for fun.

The Skeleton Crew also doesn’t need lightsabers and Jedi, even if one of the main characters can use the Force. Still, Jude Law’s sketchy pirate with a dozen fake names is one of the best new Star Wars characters in years, a scoundrel who acts like he has a heart of gold but is more likely to leave you in a ditch. than to shoot. in the face He is also charismatic, funny and has a great relationship with the young characters of the series. Jodh (Law) has particularly good chemistry with Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), a wide-eyed kid who dreamed of becoming a Jedi and going on adventures but now regrets leaving his home planet.

Their stories come to a boil in the final episode, “There’s a Lot You Need to Learn About Pirates,” in which Jod finally reveals his true colors and betrays the children in an attempt to collect Attin’s treasure for himself. After seeing Jod threaten to kill one of his friends, Wim decides to stand up to the criminal and help by grabbing an old lightsaber in the pirate treasure they ended up in, finally becoming the Jedi warrior he’s always dreamed of being. Except things don’t go as planned and instead we get a lovely tribute to the popular Star Wars meme.

The final episode of “Skeleton Crew” is a big tribute to “Indiana Jones”, complete with a series of mine traps and puzzles inspired by The Last Crusade that lead to a great pirate treasure. At the very end of the episode, Jod takes a knife to Fern’s throat to force her to give up her position as captain of the Onyx Ashes. In an attempt to save her, Wim grabs a nearby lightsaber and sets it on fire. However, not realizing that the real thing is not like the pictures or holograms, he lights it upside down. Turning the wrong way, the lightsaber nearly impales Wim in the leg.

It’s a hilarious moment of misdirection and an honest mistake made by a kid who reveals that being a Jedi or going on a space adventure isn’t quite what he expected. But what makes it so good is that the scene is very reminiscent of the popular meme of Mark Hamill on the set of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope pointing his lightsaber right in the face like a clown.

“It makes me cringe every time I see it,” Hamill once said of the meme during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I don’t remember doing that in the movie. I think it’s just production, or Obi-Wan wouldn’t look so surprisingly indifferent.’ Granted, the popular image is taken from the set and not from the actual film, but that hasn’t stopped it from becoming a meme that pokes fun at Luke’s naivety and incompetence in wielding such an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

However, as funny as this moment is, it does reveal one undeniable truth: no matter how cool we think we’d all be if we went on a big Star Wars adventure, the chances are that most of us accidentally will kill himself with a lightsaber.

New episodes of Star Wars: The Crew premiere Tuesday at 6pm PST on Disney+.