Skeleton Crew Episode 8 reveals the connection to Palpatine

This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Crew, Episode 8, The Real Good Guys.

The final episode of Star Wars: The Crew of Skeletons Season 1 (there is no final word yet on whether a season 2 will happen) concludes this story. The pirates reached Attin and Jod Na Nawood (Jud Law). a chance to meet the Supervisor (voiced by Stephen Fry) in the main tower above Athens. With Fern (Ryan Kira Armstrong) and her mother Farah (Kerry Condon) hostage, Jod is able to knock down the barrier and give access to Atin Wayne and the other pirates, who are rounding up civilians to use as laborers to load up all their national loans.

Fortunately, each of the show’s young heroes brings their own special talent and can work together to turn the tables on Jod. Thanks to his empathy in At Achrann, Neal (Robert Timothy Smith) is aware of the turbolaser batteries on the school roof, which he uses to fire at the pirate ships just in time to allow Onyx Cinder to escape and call for help. Kay Bee (Kyrianna Crater) and her ability to remember information combined with assertiveness are then able to get the ship past the barrier and get the message to Heem (Alia Shaukat). Meanwhile, Fern was able to use her powers of persuasion to convince her uptight mother to join the cause, while Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) managed to overcome his idealism and become a hero.

Together, the kids are able to stop Jod, though not without learning a lot along the way. In fact, after Jod introduces himself to the Overseer as a Jedi, an important revelation occurs that changes our understanding of Attin and reveals an important connection to Shiv Palpatine.

After Jod brandishes his lightsaber and announces himself as an emissary of the Republic and a Jedi Knight, the Overseer is instantly suspicious. That’s because, he tells them, the last transmission he received from the Republic declared the Jedi traitors. Although it does not appear to be common knowledge to the people of Attin, the Overseer certainly knows this and it has been transmitted to the planet. This means that Shiv Palpatine, who was the Supreme Chancellor turned Emperor at the time, was the one who declared the Jedi enemies and was responsible for sending that message across the galaxy.

Since getting messages across the barrier to Attin is no easy feat, that means the Republic and Palpatine himself also needed to know how to get those messages to the mythical planet. Leaving Athens a deep secret only for the most important elements of the Republic makes sense. But it also means that Palpatine had even more secrets than we knew, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. His plans were always complex and contained secrets within secrets, extending to places people might not expect. After all, who would have guessed that the first step in his grand plan to eliminate the Jedi would involve taxing trade routes to distant star systems and a blockade of his home planet? He may have had other plans for At Attin if he had survived (or could have used it to finance further operations).

Seeing Skeleton Crew fit into the events of the larger tapestry of the Star Wars universe was a much-needed tie-in for the show. ​​​​​​While some have seen the great strength of this series is how disconnected it is from the rest of the galaxy, it really needed something more to feel tied to the larger events of the rest of the franchise. Season 1 mentioned how out of touch the kids are with galactic events and even mentioned that they hadn’t even heard of the destruction of Alderaan and missed news of the galactic civil war (not to mention the fall of the Old Republic). To see that little thread being pulled so obliquely and in an instant – and you’ll miss it – was the right way to go. We didn’t really need to to see a connection, just a bit of dialogue that helps us create images and spin stories in our heads about how it fits and why it might.

However, the Season 1 finale leaves us wondering: What will happen to the planet now that the barrier is down and At Attin is exposed to the entire galaxy? Will more pirates come? Will Attin join the New Republic? Will they finance the upcoming war against Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) in Ahsoka Season 2. or another future star wars title? As Master Yoda says, “The future is always in motion.”

Star Wars: The Crew is available in its entirety on Disney+.