This post contains spoilers for “Skeleton Crew episode 5.”
In “Skeleton Crew,” the coordinates for At Attin are harder to come by than pirate’s treasure. After being directed to the nearly identical “Fallout”-coded planet of At Achrann and coming close to being torn limb from limb, the titular crew decides to override SM-33’s memory drive. Episode 4 revealed that the droid’s former captain had erased his memory of At Attin’s coordinates, so the crew’s latest mission is to retrieve the hidden coordinates from a physical location. This leads Jod (Jude Law) and co. to the pleasure planet of Lanupa, which used to be a dangerous pirate base that has now been modeled into a spa.
The intensely “Indiana Jones” coded adventures that unravel here warrant separate discussion, as there’s a lot to unpack here, including the “Star Wars” version of a popular Lovecraftian (!) entity. However, most of the emotional gravitas in episode 5 stems from Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), who realizes that going on space adventures isn’t as fun as he had envisioned. Ever since Wim and his friends had accidentally left their home planet, he was the only one who relished the idea of exciting, risk-laden adventures across the galaxy, thanks to his idealism of Jedi heroism. However, after things get a bit too real on At Achrann, Wim is forced to confront the truth of the situation: he and his friends are lost in space and are in constant danger until they find a way to go home.
When Jod sees a disheartened Wim, his initial instinct is to flippantly tell him to just get over it. However, once Wim opens up about being scared and vulnerable, Jod comes through with extraordinary pearls of wisdom and sincere comfort. What’s surprising here is that he quotes an iconic Jedi Master, — Qui-Gon Jinn — drawing parallels that reveal a bit more about his mysterious past.
Wim’s Qui-Gon quote in Skeleton Crew might hint at his elusive roots
This is not the first time “Skeleton Crew” has made references to “The Phantom Menace.” Wim’s steady adoption of the term “wizard!” is a direct callback to Anakin’s pod race, and the kids calling Republic credits “dataries” reference Qui-Gon (Liam Neeson) using this particular term in the prequel. “Your focus determines your reality,” Jod advices Wim, highlighting that his vivid imagination is one of his many strengths and that he can overcome obstacles with bravery. This is a direct quotation of Qui-Gon’s advice to young Anakin (Jake Lloyd) before his tragic death, where he emphasizes that Anakin must “always remember” that a Jedi’s focus defines their worldly perception and strength of character. Sadly, Anakin loses focus of this profound piece of wisdom in the years to come and ends up charting a bleak, complicated legacy with galaxy-altering repercussions.
While Jod’s advice to Wim does not hold such tragic connotations, it reveals the former’s probable connection with the Jedi way of thinking, or an alignment with their philosophy, at the very least. So far, Jod has danced around the presumption of him being a Jedi, but his Force-wielding abilities raise questions about his past. Sure, not every Force user has to be a Jedi, but it is not farfetched to envision Jod as a young Padawan or Jedi Knight who turned to piracy after the Purge. Jod’s insistence on not forming attachments is also very Jedi Order-coded, and it remains to be seen whether it is an ingrained belief or a philosophy he happened to adopt much later.
There are whiffs of Sith-adjacent behavior as well, as it is a tiny bit evil to frighten and threaten a bunch of kids after earning their trust. However, I’m inclined to believe that Jod is neither Sith nor Jedi in the strictest sense of the term, but a secret, third thing that functions as the morally grey worldview of someone who is jaded by the galaxy’s cruelty. The fact that he picks up a lightsaber with familiarity towards the end further complicates matters, but we have to wait and see how this delicious mystery chooses to unravel.
New episodes of “Skeleton Crew” premiere on Tuesdays at 6 pm PST on Disney+.
