Looks like this is a Christmas gift for Lucasfilm fans skeleton team This year, the show was treated to its best episode ever for the big day. I’ve said that this show works best when it focuses solely on the pirating aspect and the fifth episode highlights that aspect in a big way.
The only thing that really felt off about this episode was how quickly they went over the whole SM-33 thing wanting to kill everyone. Once it was turned off, KB reconfigured it and it was as good as new. While I was expecting a bit more conflict here, this quick resolution ultimately allowed 33 to evacuate the ship and its former owner’s belongings. The ship they are currently on is called the Onyx Cinder, which was the ship of the feared and famous pirate Captain Tak Renaud. I love how Jod takes in all this information, paying attention to 33’s every word like a child during story time. Being a pirate himself, he knows the legends and is a fan of the originals to the core.
33 revealed that the crew had rebelled against the captain, but he deliberately crashed the ship, killing everyone on board. I guess Renaud is that mysterious supervillain we keep hearing about on Etienne. Speaking of, the parents are committing their own acts of theft to try to convey a message to their children, which can only be discovered by the supervillain’s CCTV droids. Thankfully, Fern’s mother has hidden the plot, but there is something strange going on with this planet and system.
So why would Renaud (which sounds a lot like the French word “renard”, meaning fox) want to live at Etienne? We learn this even today, as 33 says that the Captain’s log will be hidden in his safe in one of the planet’s pirate bays. Only to be told that the planet is now an adults-only spa, for 33 is extremely disgusting. To get in, Jod bribes and disguises himself as children, telling the staff that they are elders who do not speak Galactic Basic. Jod “talks” to them in nonsensical gibberish, which continues the great streak of humor in this show. This and Wim asking Jodd what a concubine is during the storyline in episode 33 was pretty funny.
After being tagged by a bounty hunter played by Kelly Macdonald (Brave), Jod and the children (who have separated to find the herd under the mud bath), end up escaping from the staff, along with some pirates who show up after being tipped off. But Jodd and the kids finally got in and we got a lot raiders of the lost ark The sequence of opening as we go deeper. There is a group of skeletons lying there that were victims of various traps left by the old pirates. One such trap involved sacrificing some gold into an acid tank, which Jod later asked 33 to activate once again inside the vault in order to melt the pirates pursuing them. Dark stuff.
But that’s to be expected as Jod straight-up betrays the kids when they uncover the coordinates of Eight Eight and learn that the planet is the last mint for Old Republic credit, so there’s unlimited money in the wrong hands. Over and over again, everyone told the kids (and by extension, us) not to trust Joad and it turns out that this was accurate information. He challenges Fern to a duel to the death to claim the captaincy, but urges her to yield so as not to hurt him. He even holds him at knifepoint to make his point and 33 refuses to intervene, as the challenge is legal according to the pirate code. I like that the writers keep Jod away from being evil at all; If it was him he would have killed the kids on the spot, but he has this limit where he tells Fern to bow out because he doesn’t want to kill her. I’m not even sure he would have done it if that were the case, but regardless, Fern concedes defeat and Zod is now captain of the Onyx Cinder, with coordination from Eighteen.
Last week, it was Neil who stood up to save his friends and this week, Wynn took it forward. Earlier in the episode, Joad and Wim had a heart-to-heart, mainly about how real-life adventures are not the kind Wim has read about in his stories. I really liked this scene, because life is very rarely how we imagine it to be and when we are kids, we never realize how good we have it. Now Vim just wants to go home. But when faced with betrayal, Vim takes up the lightsaber inside the vault to confront Zod… and activates it in reverse. It’s a great comedy or two, but also devastating as Wim loses his chance to save his friends, resulting in a last-ditch effort to escape by opening a trap door. Jod then grabs the lightsaber and the episode ends on the same note.
The episode struck a perfect balance between fun and adventure as well as characterization and furthering the mysteries of Eighteen and Jod. Jod’s short conversation with Vim reveals that he was a Padawan who possibly survived Order 66, as he talks about abandoning attachments. I love the pirates and the stories surrounding them in the show and I especially love how many weird things there are in the show, like a giant alien in a mud bath who just wants to hear great stories. It all works. The VFX are also very good, be it practical or digital shots of the ship landing in the spa. I’m very curious to see where we go from here now that the kids are separated from Jod and 33. I hope/wish they get help from another pirate, maybe one Hondo. clone wars,rebelsOne can only hope. Stay tuned for the next episode review in the new year!
