House of R - 'Skeleton Crew' Episodes 5-6 Deep Dive

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

Just imagine a place where you could hear a patented Deep Dive on not one, but TWO episodes of 'Skeleton Crew!' That’s right—'House of R' is back in 2025, as Mal and Jo join with the shanty-singing Jod, KB, Neel, and the rest of the Skeleton Crew to discuss the two latest episodes of the hit 'Star Wars' series! After a rollicking Opening Snapshot going over first impressions (09:21), Mal and Jo dive deep on both episodes (21:59), with more than a couple sprinklings of Theory Corner to boot! Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson Producers: John Richter and Mike Wargon Video Editor: Cameron Dinwiddie Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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For at Atten, he did plunder. Greetings. And welcome to House of Ar, a ringerverse podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory Rubin, and it is my absolute pleasure to invite you not only to Lanupa, adults only, but also back into the House of Ar. Joining me today, ordering me to please show her bow. of my hands at the same time. It's Joanna Robinson,

my favorite build rat. Oh my gosh. Happy New Year. First of all, I would like to know what my, like, what are the competing build rats that I've beaten out for the prize of, of favorite and first? Great question. Secondly, happy New Year.

Happy New Year, my darling. I love you. I'm thrilled to see you. Our listeners may have heard us pod together as recently as a few days ago, but we haven't gotten to pod together for, a while. It's been a while, like two weeks, which is wild. Intolerable. I missed you desperately, fiercely. Feverishly. What a joy to be back in your arms again. Oh, my beloved. Just a fantastic way to start a

Friday. My favorite way to start a Friday with you on Zoom. Great. John Mike, happy New Year to you guys as well. We're very fond of you too. Yeah. Hi, John. Hi, Mike. Joe, we are here as promised before the holiday for a double dive. We are going to be talking about the fifth and sixth episodes of skeleton crew. But before we make our lives the ones we want to live, some quick programming reminders. All right, it's Friday. By the time this goes up, it's going to be Friday evening.

So let's talk about next week. What's to come on both feeds? Over on the ring reverse, loaded slate. On Tuesday, you will be getting one of the most anticipated button mashes of the year, which is the most anticipated games of the year. Then on Wednesday, the Midnight Boys, we'll be back on the onyx cinder as well. They will be catching up on episodes 5, 6, and 7 of Skeleton Crew.

And then on Friday, this has become a Mint Edition annual tradition, the 2025 confidence meter. So it's a loaded week over on Ringiverse. It's a loaded week here on the House of R2 because on Tuesday, we will be sharing a gift with each other. content. I can't tell you how thrilled I am by this current turn of events. This is great. The holiday gift swap, Joanna. You've named it. You've branded it. I have. What is it? So basically this. I got the best text message of my entire life.

Was it two days ago? Never before and never again will I feel the joy that I felt when Mallory Rubin sent me a photo of the interview with a vampire logo on her television screen. A lot of photos on my phone are of Mallory Rubin's television screen. It's true. So she and Adam are watching interview with a vampire, which is something that I've been like desperately wishing to have happen for a very long time. I'm thrilled and honored and delighted that this is part of Mallory's sort of like annual holiday. I'm going to catch up on things that are important to the people in my life. And it's just like, it's me. It's CR and it's the motion picture academy, the triple crown of influencers of Mallory's life. So Mallory is watching an interview with a vampire, which is thrilling to me.

And I believe I told her that I would watch something in exchange. And though we could not remember the exact details, what we believe is true, though you can check the public record, is that I shall be watching the show Landman, which Mallory has described parts of me. CR has described parts of me. Rob Mahoney has described parts of to me. And so that's what I should be watching. And so it's like a little like a gift exchange.

I'm watching Landman from Mallory. Mallory is enduring a bloody vampire like horror fest. I remember the time of my life already. For me. Two episodes in. It's fantastic. And we'll be talking about it. Is Landman House of Our Material?

Sure. It is now. Is the interview of the vampire? Definitely. Here's the thing. Here's what's house of our material. Sharing our passions. Share you.

Sharing is caring. Yeah. And so like, we're not doing a Nospheratu pod, though I have a new Nick Hold interview to send you if you haven't seen already. But we will be talking about vampires and we'll be talking about Texans and all they have in common. Yeah. That's the new. Myths and Legends, the Myth and Legend of Tommy Norris. It's going to be fantastic.

The new annual gift swap. And this is the thing, you know, we think we're going to do every year, like, over the holiday break, I watch something for Mal, Mel watches something for me. It's going to be fantastic. We don't know exactly yet what the structure of the pod will be. I'd say if you were like, oh, great, here's my perfect opportunity to catch up on season one of interview with the vampire or the ongoing season one of Lamb Man. Go for it. But you know what? It's never a bad time to catch up on those two properties. Isn't that the lesson? I think that's true. I think they're equal quality and people have equally good time with the both of them. going to have a blast. I can't wait. My only lament is that we're not together so that I could just ply you with Mickelow Boltra and Dr. Pepper in person. Soon you'll understand why I'm saying that to you.

I will. So this is a Sunday show. So I'm going to be watching everything up until... Let me tell you something. It goes up at 9 p.m. Pacific on Saturday. And I know that because the last four Saturdays in a run, that is when I have watched it, folks. Appointment television. That is when I booted on the Paramount app. And in fact, a couple weeks ago, it took a few minutes to load. And I was boot it. The Baltimore really came out there. I heard it. Even I heard it.

And it took like, it was not there at 9 sharp a few weeks ago. And I was absolutely panicking. Refresh, refresh, refresh. Joe, one of my favorite, genuinely, one of my favorite text threads is the one that we share with CR. Mm-hmm. You think it's vibrant now. Wait until he hears you've watched Landman. Okay.

Do you and CR have like a Landman download every week? It's pretty much all we text about right now to, to, to, be honest. I would say it's like 10% work stuff and 90% Landman. Bill is also watching it really enjoying it. One of my recent Saturday traditions has been to text them a random period of time until the next episode of Landman. So this past Saturday, I said 10 hours and 36 minutes till Landman. And it's honestly just when the spirit moves me to let them know. I don't think they're watching on Saturday night, but I do. You're a joyous person. And we're all lucky to know you.

So anyway, we will be. The real takeaway is I don't have a lot going on on Saturday night. And you know what? That's fine. That's fine. Should we talk about Star Wars? Let's do it. Joe, we're going to be talking about Star Wars on the programming reminders front next week, too. Of course, we will be back for Skeleton Crew Episode 7 at the end of next week. I can't believe we only have two episodes left. Genuinely, devastating. Genuinely, gutting.

Painful. Here's the thing, though. We're still covering it now. And you can watch full video episodes of our Skeleton Crew Podcasts of all episodes of All episodes of House of R and the Midnight Boys. on Spotify and on the Ring Reverse YouTube channel. Joe, how can everybody follow along? Oh, what a fabulous question. Listen, why don't you just follow the pod? That's the suggestion I have to you in 2025. Great one. It's been a few years that we've had our own feed, maybe if you want to follow it at this point. Falls on social. We're on TikTok. We're on Instagram. We're on Twitter.

We're on whatever you prefer. You will find us there. And also email us, Hobbits and Dragons. email.com. Send us your landman thoughts. Please. Send us your skeleton crew theories. This is like a kind of turning out to be a fun theory show. Yeah. I felt like some theories died a pretty fearsome death inside of these two episodes, but new theories were born in their place.

So that's exactly exciting. A vibrant garden always on the theory front here and here in the Disney Plus Star Wars streaming era. Spoiler warning. It's the same one as always. The most recent episodes of Skeleton grew, all of Skeleton grew, and all of Star Wars. Yeah, you nailed it. Right in one.

Right in one. All of Star Wars. All right, Joe. I don't have long spider legs like you, but I'll try to keep up. Let's climb. It's time for the opening snapshot. Joanna Robinson.

Molly Rubin, I have longer legs than you do, but you are a fast walker. We've talked about this before, but I just need it to be like a canonical fact. Malay Ribbon is a brisk walker. And I love that about you. I struggle to walk at a leisurely paste. Not sure what that says about me or my personality.

What can it be? I was definitely like the, I got to get to class quickly, kid. But not really because I wanted to get to class quickly, just because I couldn't handle walking slowly in the hallways. Yeah. If you're not a video viewer of this podcast, you missed Mallory's like little elbows out moment. and I can really see you sort of sharp elbowing your way through the halls. Yeah, absolutely.

Get the F-f out of my way. I've got a seat to claim. Joanna, we're here to cover two episodes of Skeleton Crew. Episodes five and six. You have a lot to learn about pirates and zero friends again. When I saw it, you have that feeling sometimes when you boot up Disney Plus and you see the episode title that you were just in for an emotional journey. before you have even seen a second of the episode.

And that was what happened when I saw episode. Six. Both of these episodes are written by M.J. Wessner. They're the only two of the eight episode run that are not written by Watson Ford. So that is really interesting. Episode five, directed by Jake Schreier. Yeah. Shout out beef.

Shout out Thunderbolts. And your most anticipated movie of 2025, you're spoiling your hype draft first round pick now? Perhaps. Yeah. Also, yeah, I really like Jake Shrier. Robote and Frank is a phenomenal film that I really love. This is an incredible director. It's one of the reasons I'm very excited about Thunderballs, but not the only reason.

Certainly not the only reason. Asterisk. Okay. That's right. That's right. I guess I have to start saying it that way, since they've made a very deliberate choice to brand it that way. Episode six, directed by suddenly the Star Wars episodes directed resume is incredibly robust. Bryce Dallas Howard, who has now, of course, directed an episode of this show.

Not just an episode of boba, but one of the two best episodes of boba. Chapter 5, The Mandalorian episode of boba. Yeah. And of course, three episodes of Mando as well as the Tales of the Jedi short. So just a long TV there for Bryce. One of my favorite Mando episodes, which is sanctuary. I love that one as well. Bryce. Bryce, like has yet to miss in any of these episodes that she's directed. And like she's an incredibly, I don't want to pigeonhole her in terms of like gender or anything like that. You know, not all female directors need to be like sort of very empathetic or anything like that. But she is an incredibly empathetic director when you hear her talk about the Star Wars episodes that she's directed, the way she talks about character and relationships.

Um, Sanctuary did such a good job with very little story time, creating sort of unforgettable connections between characters. And the way that, um, I'm just sort of zooming into sort of my opening thoughts about episodes five and six. Yeah, go for it. I liked both of them a lot. Um, and I really loved this one. I was talking, before you hopped onto the zoom, I was talking to, uh, Mike, who's our producer today about, how he's enjoying skeleton crew. And he was talking about how similar to me, he enjoys the show more when Jude and the kids are together. And that's how I felt in episodes one and two, 100%.

I, saying that, I think the KV and Wim sequence inside of episode six is one of my favorite Star Wars things I've ever seen. I think zero friends, what gets me on Zero Friends again is the again, part. I know. Just really gets to me. And I just thought, like, Neil, our beloved Neil, who was the star of the show, in episode four, obviously, like, you know, forever the king of our hearts, came be really coming from behind to, like, emerge as just a very, very, very important

character in a very important scene, saying something very important to, like, kids everywhere watching this show. I just loved this so much. And I just thought that like, and the fact that like Bryce is so good at these emotional relationship moments and then also really fun good action as well consistently sort of across her Star Wars directing career. Yeah, great. We got the whole demolition sequence. Yeah. Incredible. Chekhov's whole demolition sequence. Yeah, exactly.

And then Jake Shire, I thought, did an incredible job with episode five as well. And then MJ Wesner did a great job writing both episodes. So yeah, I really like this. And it's, I don't feel often with these Star Wars shows, which have been a mixed bag. This is around the time when we're like, uh-oh, we're in trouble. There's only two more episodes to go. What are we going to do? Or we're feeling a real lull in the middle.

Did we really need eight episodes? This feels like filler in the middle. I didn't feel that about either of these episodes. I thought, I feel like we're, I feel like Watson Ford have really paced the season very well. again, I said this before, like, episodes one and two felt like a little bit of a slow start to me. But ever since three, we've just been sort of like going, going, going, not in a way where there isn't time to breathe and have character moments like the KB and whim, like, interaction. But in a way that I'm just sort of like, here we go. And now we have the coordinates out at and we've got two episodes left.

Presumably we're going, we're all going home, the pirates and the kids. And let's see what happens there. And I feel confident. We don't know the runtime of those final two episodes, but I feel confident that this is going to wrap up in a way that feels exciting and satisfying versus the accolade when we were just sort of like felt very lost at this point in the season. Not to keep throwing the accolade under the bus, but like there are other Star Wars shows where we felt similarly like lost at this point in the season.

So I'm feeling like really high on the show and really confident about this being just like a solid season. which is such a relief because it was so tiresome to be like, well, at least we have Andor, you know what I mean? Like to have this as another flavor and such a different flavor from Andor, this kid's adventure flavor is really hopeful for, you know, Star Wars, which is just on fairly rickety footing right now to see, you know, where they can go in the future. Yeah. And episode seven, the penultimate episode next week, is directed by, I believe.

Isaac Chung, which is just, like, thrilling. I mean, so exciting. Obviously, he's directed Star Wars before he directed Chapter 19 of The Mandalorian, but, you know, shout out Minari Hive. What a beautiful film. Oh, man. Yeah. Not a, not Twisters.

You know what? I watched Twisters recently, and I had fun. It was fine. I had fun. I typically have fun watching Glenn Ball and movies. It was absolutely fine. I caught up on Hit Man over the break. Speaking of Glenn Powell, delightful. I share the all pie is good pie stance, and I know you don't agree. So you were on my mind as I watched it, ma'am.

Aren't I always on your mind while you're watching everything? You are, honestly. You are. What do you want to say about five and six? Yeah, I agree. And you know, the thing about, you mentioned runtime, like episode six is the second episode of the six that we've gotten so far that was 33 slash 34 minutes listed, but that really means it's 26 minutes of actual story when you strip away the previously on and then the end

credits. And it felt so full still, so full emotionally and so full in terms of where we needed to advance the plot. I was border. I was happy to have a few days to chill. But I was borderline despondent last week to not get to talk about episode five together in real time because I loved episode five. I just thought it was a blast. It's like such a great Jude Law episode. That was really, really fun. But now I'm glad actually that we get to talk about them together because they are they are such a tidy little pair in terms of this stretch of the story, the joining together, the betrayal, the separation, the way that the groups splintered and fractured. You know, we got, obviously, I agree with you that the KB Wim stretch was just extremely touching and very, very special

and important. The time that we got with Fern and Neil was shorter, but even that gave those characters, and the people viewing a really important lesson and emotional moment. The kids had fractured off in other pairings earlier in the let's go try to find the sigil stretch. So we just got to spend time with like different groupings inside of the group than we had previously. You know, getting a little moment like Jod sitting down, which we're going to talk about very soon at the deep dive, Jod sitting down with Wim, you know, following him in to see where he went. We got a lot of relationships inside of the larger group dynamic in this stretch, which was really fun and exciting. Just some incredible Jod over these episodes. Remarkable.

I believe the last text I sent to anybody in the year 2024 was to let you know that Jude Law sang a verse of a pirate shanty in episode six of Skeleton Crew. That's the last correspondence I had with a person other than Adam in 2024. I got that text message from you of sitting around. I was getting ready to ring in the New Year, sitting around a fire pit with a bunch of people. There was adult beverages, heated discussions of like politics and the monoculture. And all I can think of like was tomorrow I get to watch this episode of Skeleton Crew and see Jude Law singing a sea shanty. It was one of two Jude Law texts that you sent me that evening. You also sent me a shirtless photo of Jude Law.

Where on your television screens? So, like, it's a great time to be in the group chats with you, Mallory, Rubin. And Jude Law singing a sea shanty. Wonderful. It's one of the most important things that's ever happened on film or television or in storytelling, full stuff. And the main issue is that it's too short. I agree. I agree.

I agree. I agree. It needs to be a full song. So if we could get in the finale, perhaps or maybe next episode when all the pirate crew you know captain by

Jod or whatever you prefer to call him is on his way to add at and just get the whole ship singing the full you know ballad of run out of song would you settle for

an end credits full song or do you do you is it important I mean obviously it's important to see Jude Law singing it to be able to see, not just here, but would you consider that acceptable? I wouldn't kick it out of bed. It's very, it's very, um, Kevin Klein sings La Mere at the end of French Kiss over the closing credits.

Like I wouldn't, I wouldn't be mad about it, but, um, I think we all deserve. Like, if we're going to do however long that, like, it was like two and a half minutes of the Ballad of the Witches Road on Agatha, like, I think we deserve the full sea shanty in skeleton crew. I agree. When it started, I just gasped. And I was like, I have to text Joanna immediately. I felt certain that you had plans on New Year's and we're not sitting at home watching television like I was. But I needed to let you know. But I kind of regretted that I wasn't. I was like, if only I were with Mallory right now, watching Skeleton Crew. Let that be a lesson. Let that be a lesson. Don't leave the house in 2025. Noted. Okay, we're going to do the pod slightly differently today because we have two episodes to catch up on. So much like the first pod of the Skeleton Crew run when we talked about episodes one and two together,

we're not going to be going quite as beat by beat. We're going to group this discussion today by character instead of going chronologically through scene, we'll sort of loosely go, mostly go chronologically inside of the character discussions. There's only one place to start. It is time for Jod Talk in the deep dive. Joe, it's Jod time. I mean, it's always. It's always Joddcast here at the House of our.

Should you just call this a Jodcast from now on? I would love to. I would love to. Let's start at the beginning of episode five. Here on the Ringar Jodcast Network. I have no notes. Think about what our Instagram presence would be like. I see the vision.

Yeah, I bet. Let's start with this revelation that we get early in episode five where we learn about, tack Redad and the onyx cinder we knew the name of the ship

long ago from the Lego set but here it is confirmed in the cat and at last it's time to power up

SM33 and here with apologies to Gordon Shard legend always a guy who

sounds like an actual pirate king here Mike can we hear this clip making promise he's not

going to attack us again I will not harm you Those were the old captain's orders. Old Captain Renan. But what about... What? Captain Renard? Attack Renan. Aye. The very same.

This ship is the Onyxinda. You don't appreciate how incredible this is. Tag Renard's the most infamous pirate the galaxy's ever known. For years, he roamed the skies. Plundering, terrorizing, whole star systems. Anything he wanted. The story goes, he was after the treasure of Ad Adon. aboard the mysterious ship, the onyx cinder,

when he just disappeared ship. Really loved the way that you'd love, said poof. So good. This is not the first time we've heard Renaud because he said Renaud's ghost in episode four, and we were so... You were so enamored about it as just like, it felt like a random piece of world building.

In fact, it was a seed that they were planting, but it still works. as evidence that Captain Renaud, Renaud's ghost, Renaud's ghost, was on, you know, on Jod's minds, at least as recently as an episode ago. And we mentioned we were talking about that in episode four, that Renaud is likely a nod to Dick Donner, Richard Donner, who direct the Goonies.

But the TAC Renaud, well, so a couple things. is tack Renaud cat Donner which I think is the name of Richard Donner's daughter which would be really fun and I do think it's either way Renaud is a Richard Donner reference but it also sounds like Renard which is Fox

and like which is it's funny I was looking at I was like was Renard the name of the villainous pirate captain in the seminal 90s cartoon Tailspin but I looked it up and no that is Don Carnage

which by the way he was a fox but he was and he was an air pirate but his name was Don Carnage which is just we can all agree an incredible character name but Renard the Fox is like

is like a you know like a famous trickster folk hero from French legend in fact like the Renard which means Fox again spelled differently, but like, is foxes are called Reynard because of this character from folktales, sort of like similar to the Native American like coyote sort of miss is sort of like trickster loki-esque kind of figure. But foxes are called Reynard because of that character, like, which replaced

what foxes used to be called in the French language, which I think is an incredible bit of the potency of storytelling. But I, you know, I think we are meant to. to a vote. And Renaud, whether it is Renard or Richard's honor or whatever, Takranad is like just an incredible pirate game. Just so good. Really good. It's great. It is really awesome. 33 shares more insights here about Skull Ridge Mountain. He very affectionately calls at his home. He's longing for it. He's appalled later to see a hotel in a spa where he expects to see corpses melting in acid. Stay tuned. He shares the tale of this first meet who, went mad with greed. This, of course, sounds very familiar to us, having watched a little bit of

the Brutus Jod pirate crew activity so far. Talks about a concubine who stabbed Renaud with his dagger. The crew died when Renaud locked them all on the ships. He got the last laugh. We just simply cannot go on without remarking on the moment when Fern says, what's concubine? says that's enough story time for now. Absolutely delightful. We get a follow-up later with the what's a pleasure yet. So really, John has gone from the babysitting protocol into having to explain things to the kid or choose not to pretty quickly here. But on the theory corner front, and we are, you know, we're we've kind of organically done this, but we're formally stitching theory corner in as we go today. Right. 33 goes out of

of his way to say that the crew all died. Now, the kids have found skeletons a plenty aboard the onyxinder. Presumably, those are members of the crew who died when the captain trapped them. Does not say that the captain died here in this rundown. Anything on the theory cornerfront that felt new to you after this little bit of Lauren insight, and obviously we'll talk more later about the captain's log that we see in here, do you think that that's... the captain is still on at Atten in some form? Is he the supervisor? Anything

anything cooking for you there? So is Renaud the supervisor or is the captain of the onyx senator? The supervisor has been like one of the most common older theories in the show. By older I mean a few weeks. Few weeks.

Yeah. It's an internet time. Is Renaud still alive? Because we have timeline questions, right? When did the onyxender crash? and could physically could whoever was captaining that ship

still be alive on the timeline Right Because we don't see the species, right? We don't see like a clear face You see what looks like a little bit of hair Yeah On the shoulders Yeah

That being said There's a fun little theory that SM 33 is actually Captain Renaud And we'll come back to that when we listen to the audio clip of him talking. Yeah. But it has to be something, right? For sure.

The supervisor reveal has to be something. And who is Captain Renaud? Because his face is obscured from us has to be something. Yes. So it has to be either someone we recognize. It has to be someone we recognize, honestly. Yeah. That's what I think.

Or a big actor that they're holding back. Those are like the two options, essentially. Yeah. It could potentially be a tie to another Star Wars story, but it feels like given the way this season has built, the reveals are going to come from inside of the house. Right. So this idea that it's like, could it be Neal's species is a common theory, but like I have some questions about that because of, I don't know, the murals and the statuary and stuff like that that's on at Adon. But I don't know. I'm currently kind of enamored of the SM33 theory only because or that he's a droid in general, like that the captain is a droid of some kind.

In terms of like he's still alive when this feels like ancient lore, that's a question that I have, you know? Yeah. So you think he was always a droid or that he like uploaded his consciousness to continue on? Or is it the rat inside of SM 33's head? I don't know. All these are a big finish from Rattie. For sure. All of these are compelling theories.

I loved the moment in the Wim KP sequence when Wim saw a discarded droid with like a critter crawling through his eye and he's like, I hope 33 is okay, just immediately. It was really funny. We're called Rattie and 33 and how could it not? I don't know. Like it definitely, the fact that we saw the hologram and the. the face is obscure, definitely confirms that whoever Renaud is, he still has a role to play somehow in the future of this show.

Something. Yeah. Exciting. I feel like Jod's going to be able to handle that situation a little bit better than Brutus, based on what we've seen from Brutus so far. Something you've jotted down on our notes here that, you know, and we don't ever always read every single word that's in notes, but I want us to circle back to, because this is your idea. I want to make sure to give you credit for this.

But I really like it. You wrote down this idea that like Jodd speaking wistfully about Renod and piracy is similar to you, the way that we heard Wim talk about Jedi wistfully, heroically and stuff like that. And so I really like that point because it was really interesting to think about as we continue to talk about Jod inside of these two episodes and our theories about where Jod came from and, you know, his origins to think about him as a kid. What did he think about when he looked up at the stars or the binary sunset or whatever? and what was he idealizing? What adventures did he want to have? And what is he, what is he hungry for?

He gives this great hunger speech later, which we'll talk about, but like, what was he looking for? And I think, you know, I was like, I don't know,

spending time in the, in the quagungeon trenches, as we often do. And Dave Falunia has this quote where he's just like Star Wars is about family, full stop. And it just feels like, you know,

whim who feels, completely cut off from his father and his family, his mother's dead. He has no connection inside of his, his households are very cold. And so he's looking for that, like, belonging to the order, belonging to something, belonging to a legend, belonging to history. And, and Jod, like, that idea of, like, the pirate family, the found family of, like, the pirate crew. And Jodd is the provider. I just, I just think that's a really interesting thing to think about as we as we barrel towards the end here. Yeah, and we're about to talk about this lovely little and fascinating Jod Wim sequence.

And so, like, I love that as a way into it. It really, it really struck me like it, the awe in Jod's voice when he's talking about this legend and that idea that like he's seeking something. Everybody's seeking something. And so, like, you're saying, like, what was? Jod seeking, I think with Jod, part of our question is, and how did that change? You know, and when did he start to seek it and why? Because we still have so many question marks about his history. So, you know, if he was a Padawan, then it's entirely possible that all of this is something that

he started to think about and crave and year for after, potentially, again, we're in Theory Corner here, order 66. Like, this isn't necessarily, maybe he grew up as a young kid like when looking up at the stars and thinking about this. But maybe he grew up. this became like his lifeline. I need to find something new. And we'll get later, when we hear him say in this next stretch here, make your life the one you want to live, that feels very, like, connected to this idea to me, this sense that maybe like, okay, what does that tell us? That this is the life that Jodd wants to live, this specifically, where every interaction we've seen from him is terrible. It's like fraught. People hate him. He's betrayed them. He's left me. He's left.

this trail of wreckage in his week. Broken hearts. We hear him say on the Star Wars is about family front, and this is why, of course, the decision that he makes to betray the kids at the end of episode five is like, not only for the kids, but for John and what we are, of course, inclined to like start to hope we see from him. So crushing. Yeah. We hear him say, it was so fascinating to hear him talk about pirates.

Like, right, it's not life that they value. It's treasure. And we hear him say, a captain never trusts his crew. So you have this idea, not only because he has actually experienced a mutiny, his crew did turn on him and he's very ready to weaponize that tendency to try to get them to enlist with him again against Brutus in episode six when he sings a shanty, a verse of a shanty, but it's almost like he's seeking to surround himself with other people, a pirate crew, a team. That's what I'm saying. A gang that you're always with.

But he's also not allowing himself to believe that that's viable, like that that's real. He's always ready for it to fall apart. And he almost seems to be like a self-sabotor, right, where he's like letting people down before they can let him down. In the very beginning, we first see him with the helmet on right before the mutiny, right? What he says to his crew, he says, I know these cycles have been lean that some of you've all but given up on me, your good old captain. It's all forgotten now because at long last I brought you the only thing that matters cold, hard credits. And then, of course, it's a disappointment. But like,

on the one hand, yes, like he can't trust. It's like the providing, providing money. Yeah. It's capitalism, baby. The ability to give them gold is he thinks the one thing that will like keep them, keep their loyalty, keep them sticking around if I can provide. And that's very sort of like, you know, dad-coded and stuff like that. But just sort of like, this is the one thing that matters is cold hard cash, because cold-hard cash is the one thing that's going to keep my crew around me. And keeping my crew around me is very important to me because, oh, I don't know, maybe something very traumatic happened to me when I was a child.

And I lost the, quote-unquote, crew that was around me when I was a young, perhaps, Padawan. Speaking of a young, paduan of a sort. Yeah. Let's follow Wham along with John into this little course. where Sweet Wim is sitting with his iPad reading his Jedi stories crying. The, oh, oh dear, response from John when he is confronted with these tears, quite literally wrinkling his nose because he is not emotionally prepared to have to deal

with this situation. Yeah. But then, and we'll hit this from Wim's side later in terms of what he's saying and how he responds to this. when he hears Wim talk about how this adventure isn't what he thought it was going to be, and then hears Wim talk about his parents, and then specifically respond by saying, I'm not going to see my mom again. John knows, okay, I've got to, like, go and sit down. And we would love to hear, Mike, if we can, this exchange.

All right. Here's what you do. Forget them. Your fears, your anxieties, your parents. and what you call attachments and they're the last thing you need forget them that's what I did

I can't do that you have a powerful imagination when you want to you can see grand adventures even in a rotten galaxy like this remember your focus determines your reality you have vision

embrace it make your life. Joe, I thought this was a wonderful scene. Really wonderful. There's a lot to unpack here. Quigon has entered the chat. What a thrill for us. Two Quigon heads.

We're always ready. Does this on the theory corner front confirm for you that Jod has a Jedi temple past or do you think it's possible that he could have absorbed these teachings about attachment, literally quoting Quigon

with your focus determines your reality in some other way and that this could be part of the identity he is assumed. Where are you on this now? I think it's the word for word quagon quote that makes it really improbable that he was not raised with Jedi teaching somehow. Like I agree. I take it like I think that would be kind of a fucked up misdirect, honestly at this point. There's like I'm willing to accept any kind of sort of like, is he or is he not? But if he's literally quoting word for word, like on gin, then I think we have to stop asking the question, you know? Yeah.

And it also like, I don't know that it would make sense. If we're thinking about the timeline for him to latch onto, like, Wim is different because Wim, the kids don't know what has happened in the galaxy. Missed the War, did you? Right. But John knows what's going on in the galaxy. Jod resents, as we will hear later, the state of Galactic Affairs. Right. So the idea that he would be, because this, when we hear from him here is not a ruse. This is like a sincere insight into how he has lived his life, right? And so why would he latch on to a Jedi teaching in the wake of the Jedi being destroyed? That just seems like very improbable, like you're saying. So I'm with you. And I think the time, you know, I love an ABI and a BBI. And so it is just. It was your bees and your one.

It's super fun. Like, the math just starts running through our brains when we hear Quigon quoted because Anakin was 45 in Return of the Jedi, which is for A.V.Y. So John could easily be Anakin's peer. He easily could have studied at the same time at the Jedi Temple and learned from Quigon. Or he could be Asoka's peer because Asoka is around 45 in Mandalorian season two. entering the live action, could have learned from Anakin.

Do you feel like Jude Law is supposed to be passing for about 45? Is that? I mean, so he's what? Fifty-two in real life? I like what I'm saying, is what? Pretending, I don't know, exactly. He's what? He's like 52 and a Capricorn? I don't know.

I couldn't possibly be me, who knows? So he could be playing anything from like, you know, early 40s to late 40s for the character. All of which is to say, though, he could be Anacin Spirit. He could be Asoka Spirit. Either way, if we feel as we do that he was the paduan of the temple, he would have been around

when not just, of course, attachment is to our ongoing lament and eternal Jedi obsession, but learning from Quigon specifically, it does actually track. Very exciting. Very exciting. What did you think of this specific way? Because these performances from Jude Laar just so wonderful,

the comedy, but also the emotion, the way that he said the last thing you need. It just really felt like, again, somebody who had, talked himself into that outlook out of necessity. Forget him, that's what I did. Forget him. That's what I did, right?

You don't need them. You don't need people. You cold hard credits, that's it. Yeah, it's devastating. Yeah, absolutely. And I think really well performed by Jude and really well written. It's all there for us, you know?

That's great. So you're not having to. To confirm you're not into the... He's using magnets theory. When he zips the datapad and the knife and the key and the lightsaber and the plunder. I mean, I was sort of... We were like, what's in the gloves? I was a little bit in on the...

Oh, what's in the gloves? Why does he keep wearing those gloves? I know. And I was all out of the... And now I'm back in because that's dumb glove thing. I went back to the key scene because he's not wearing them, as you had pointed out in that scene. But he does have, like, kind of a wrapping around his wrist. It's not impossible.

I don't want the magnets thing to be true. I feel like I know we've seen him use the force other than around metal objects. He has like blocked things. Like it has not just been metal stuff, but those damn gloves. I know. I have some questions about them. It is wild. I won't be the end of my world if he is using magnets.

Like either way, I think no matter what, he's extremely weak in the force. And I like that. Strong in other areas, though. Because, well, no, I like that because there's so many times when we meet someone, they're like, oh, secretly, an Uber powerful force user. Like, you know, you thought Luke was the only chosen one. Guess what? Right. The galaxy is lousy with chosen ones.

And so I like this idea that he's just like kind of a shitty force user. Maybe he needs madness to, like, enhance his innate force ability. These are a little VIED, so he's choosing. Yeah, Viagra for his force powers. I don't know that John needs Viagra, but if he does. For his force powers. I support it. That's great.

Let's meet Professor Gorlox. It's time to arrive on Lanupa. What was your favorite alternate name for Lanupa? Mine was definitely Demons Rest, which is sick. I mean, that was remarkable. Incredible stuff. Will you be calling your home office Demon's Rest from this point for? That's you bug, you're the demon, I guess so.

Just what's a bug like curled up in her little like cozy little nest. Yeah, that's that sounds right to me. Demon's rest. Did bug remark upon the fact that it took Jod legitimately like less than a second to identify the other vessels on L'Nupa's pleasure yachts? He's like, oh, I, he knows his way around a pleasure yacht. I've been inside a pleasure yacht or two. Yeah. Yeah, Linupa as this like sort of Nassau once was a pirate.

Lanupa is a fascinating place because you've got this like, you know, incredibly luxurious spa. Love a spa personally. Wonderful. And then mere steps away a massive trash heap. The trash crabs were thriving. Yeah. Absolutely thriving. Yeah.

Just like right next door to the world's biggest junkyard. But they're up on the hill so they can't see it. Is that a metaphor for something? Exactly. One of the many potent commentaries on offer in these episodes here. John, clearly familiar with the adult-only offerings here on Lanupa. That's apparent. The kids, he's like, I need you to fork over the remaining dadaries, right?

Great little moment of comedy when he accepts the lay and the cocktail. Like, they're trying to take away the weapons they do. He'll use the force end-door magnets to get the plane back. It's very 10th doctor, like, going to see the dude with his, like, with his lay and his sunglasses and stuff like that. Fantastic comp. And what a comp to earn. My goodness. But the highest phrase, truly. True. Ten. Sheesh. Took a sip of that cocktail. And he's like, you know what? Fair. It's fair. It's great stuff. I love the little, they're basically all wearing, like, their version of Gandalf robes,

the kids, is they pretend to be wise elders. Delightful stuff. I love that one of them, I think it's whim has like a like a long draped sort of cloth in front of the face that looks very like Bill, you know, Bill and I like Davy Jones from Pirates in the Caribbean, like the tentacles

sort of thing. But mostly it reminded me of Ang and Qatar dressing up an avatar as like old people when they're clearly children. And they're just so excited in the lobby obviously later when they're alone in the suite and they're like remarking on the view

and jumping on the bed having a pillow fight but down in the lobby the hotelier is just like these are just clearly children what did you think of 33 was like they're walking through the lobby he's appall again and he's like

you can't play a pirate shanty on a harp I mean you're an expert on the pirate shanty so did you agree you can definitely play a pirate shanty on harp so you have some feedback for 33 here I do I do expand your minds I wouldn't

It wouldn't be the first instrument I would reach for Mostly because I can't play it But you know Yeah you want mostly you want like a fiddle And you want a concertina If you're going to shanty But you can make do with the harp The adult only question I have is

Is it adult only because of like pleasure barges And like other like central delights? All the time. Or is it like the weddings where they're like kindly leave your children at home. We want to have, we don't want anyone like, yeah, we don't want anyone running around the mud pits sort of thing, you know? A little bit of column A, little bit from column B. I think, you know, like, nobody seemed to mind too much other than obviously the banking clan officers and the on site security who were quickly on the case here.

Yeah. But no one was like, get these clearly young children who are walking through the mud baths and their robes away from me. Yeah. It seems more like, yeah, they're trying to. to maintain a certain experience. You know, when you're going into a sensory

gymnasium. Yeah. As you do. As one does, do you want young children around? Perhaps not. I don't know. I got to say the hotelier, I loved this performance. Great stuff. I thought she was incredible.

Deaths the bribe very, very well. The actress I do know from Better Call Saul, but just like the way that she looked like slightly, like, harassed Marina Baccarin and just, like, the, like, barely veiled disgust on her face when the, like, junky exterior of the ony cinder, like, touches down on her pristine, landing strip. She radios and a call to be ready. Yeah.

That's just incredible. Also, what I love is that every time we think that John has used the last of the dataries, like, more appear, right? He's like, we're like, oh, surely he used them all. Wait, there are more. Who knows where he's keeping those? Yeah. He's like, he's like, oh, we need something for the acid. Oh, I have some to show the pirate crew when I'm convincing them that there's treasure somewhere.

He's just got them like secreted all over his body and every orifice. It's incredible. Well, I mean, you know, we've seen his garb so he's not actually wearing like a grandmaster-esque robe with all of the hidden pockets inside. But I'm sure he's got some sort of set up. It's working well. Not that we needed more convincing that the onyx cinder is quite old, but we do hear from the hotelier, like, ancient pirates built these baths, right? Ancient. And 33's like, what?

I don't recognize any of this. Right. What is all this stuff doing here? So it's been a minute. So how old could Renan be? Like he would have to be, if he were humanoid. Yeah. I don't think he could still be alive.

So that's why I like the droid theory or I really have no other theory other than the droid theory. I mean, certain species live long, long lives. You know, and just kicking it, you know, into his 900. Oh, that's what he's, he's of the Yoda species. And he's just standing on jokes most of the time. Oh, man. That's what we're doing with. Like the acolyte, this is going to end with a Yoda reveal.

Love that for us. Okay. Boy, every time you remind me about. It's a joy. At the end of the accolade. It's painful. It's a pure joy. Speaking of pure joys, just as Jod claims to be Professor Gourlachs, our queen, Kelly

McDonald arrives. Joanna, please take a moment to explain what pocket means to you. A lot. Okay, literally this. Literally someone yesterday asked me like what my, she, the question she asked me was like, what was your first crush? And what she really meant was like sort of like, what was your sexual awakening? What was the moment where you were like, wow.

Yeah. And I was like, well, it's Ewan McGregor, and it's specifically Ewe McGregor in Trainspotting. And she was like, train spotting. And I was like, before things get really gross, he has an encounter with Kelly McDonnell at the beginning of trade spotting that was quite formative. The way he like snaps off the condom or whatever. I was just sort of like, I was a child that was like, what's happening? It was a lot to me. So Kelly McDonald has been like in my life from a very important.

age, obviously, you know, has showed up in a ton of things. People know her from Boardwick Empire or Harry Potter or, you know, Brave or, you know, no country for old men, et cetera, et cetera. Or one of the best films all the time, Gosser Park. But she's just one of my favorite actresses. I think she's got one of the best accents I've ever heard in my entire life. Having heard a lot of Scottish accents, hers is like my favorite. And so, to let her use her natural accent, to give her this incredible styling of the braid. I just, I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled that they called Kelly McDonald to be in the Star Wars.

I'm thrilled that this is her styling. And I'm thrilled that she got to play this really cool, sexy, mean character. I loved this. Absolutely delightful. No antenna sticking out of her head, but I did still get Aura Singh vibes from her character design. Yeah. It is so clear, just as it was to me, when we saw Jod and, or excuse me, I guess we should be using the crimson alias for calling back to episode three, Kim interact that they had fucked. It is very clear that Jod and pocket have fucked. When we get to episode six and the like matronly pirate is like, well, wait, hold on, let's think about this. I'm like, have they fucked out? What do you think Jod's number is? The limit does not exist.

It's got to be astonishing. The limit does not exist. I think it's sort of similar to Denzel Washington's, what Denzel Washington said about his character and Gladiator, too, was just sort of like, oh, he'll fuck anything. Anything. A cat owl doesn't matter. That's a nice moment here to say, you know, hashtag make solo two happen and think back to solo. Oh, it works. Oh, it works.

Hashtag leave Solo out of it. I would love and respect to the Howard family. But, like, I was thrilled. I was so dismayed when we got the, like, release the acid moment. And I thought that, like, both Kelly McDonnell and Jaliel White were off the table. I thought those people had died. Pocket and Gently live on. And I was just, like, thrilled to see them alive and thrilled that Pocket could show up again

in some other space. This is what we wanted for Carrie Russell. Don't give us a cool actress playing a cool, like, gunslinging character and keep the helmet on her head. Like, give us a luxurious man of hair. Yeah. Hiding Carrie Russell's hair is still one of the great crimes. And there were many in Rise of Skywalker. It's a high on the list.

But it's a long list. It's a mighty list. We got another name here. When Pocket arrives, she says, do my eyes deceive me or is that Dash Zenton in the flesh? Obviously, familiar with Dash Zenton's flesh. Lucky. Lucky pocket. Incredible. On the list of these were amazing moments from Jude Law in these two episodes, his

what an unexpected delight. And not remembering her name was maybe like, pooh. Stalling buying time. It's pocket. Pocket. Pocket. Oh, man. We learn, in addition to getting yet another name here, that he stole her bounty.

and left her drowning in a pit of leeches. No hard feelings, not whatsoever. So the bounty hunters are here. She is working for a private client, Joe. No more guild jobs for pocket. None of these puck jobs for her. No, thank you. We also hear from the officer later,

Jodwick Zank, very close, obviously, to Jod. Does that confirm for you that Jod is his actual name? The fact that he has, yeah, yeah, I felt the same. The kids are clocking this man. Fern, when she hears Silva later, she's like another fake name. Like, the suspicion is mounting. How could it not? Pocket also says, I tried to find you and no one knew that name.

So this is just really putting all of his dirty laundry out there in front of the wise elders here. And just like him, Dash Zenton is fantastic. I love the name, Dash. She just says outright, do not trust him. Calls him Slemo. Great stuff. our guy Ctholops

hanging out in the grotto later he takes one whiff of Jod and he's like, you're right, don't trust him. Tough stretch for Jod who of course earns their suspicion and doubt in mighty fashion.

But you know, hey, is there any part of you that's like maybe he felt like, hey, they don't trust me already. Why not let them down? I'm willing to make

so many excuses for Jod. We'll get to it. But I have a lot I have a lot of ways in which I can bend logic in order to make excuses for good old John in this show. He's anxious, Joe. He's going to make the right choice in the end, right? Here's the deal.

I don't think I have a character like Brutus unless you need Jod to like have a face turn. Do you know? That is my hope and feeling as well with, as you said, all character sets converging on at Madden. Jod surely having to make a choice between saving the kids either from Brutus or the supervisor or maybe both or tapping into that mint and taking all the coin he wants. I would be so crushed if he doesn't make the right choice there. It's going to be a real like reaching for the for the grail on the on the cliff and then just being like. Junior. God.

Indiana. We've seen enough of the pure heart for me to feel that he's going to do the right thing. Well, I almost, okay, we'll get, we'll get to it in the betrayal sequence. I'm using air quotes. This is a video pod. I just use air quotes. Betrayal. Betrayal. He's like, pockets definitely going to call on our bounties, mine and yours. Let's go. I'm frost in the glass. You can't enjoy the view. Stop pillow fighting on the bed. This is serious business. really didn't get to live long in that moment where he thought he was going to get to enjoy a private banquet in his up. In the room, tough come down for our guy, John. Yes.

Who has it really tough? Professor Gorlocks, who was going to have a really, really nice time. What do you think happened when he showed up? Are they like, okay, obviously we know that this was an imposter so you can still have your accommodations? Or are they like, sorry, professor. They toss them into the trash heap. Throw him to the crabs. I don't know.

Sheesh. That would be brutal. I mean, despite how it all went with Mama trash crap, I thought the little baby trash crabs were just wonderful. I like when would have been due to the second. Oh, they're adorable and they're chirping friendly. Yeah. Lead me into Arrogog's lair.

It's just exactly how it would have gone for me, no doubt. Joanna, they reached the acid pit. We're going to talk from the kids' perspective later about some of the little adventure stretches here. Jod cracks the riddle after KB, shout out KB, spots in his shares. All who enter paradise must make the greatest sacrifice. And the kids all assume this is going to be like basically the soul stone on Vormair, right? We're going to have sacrificed one of us, someone we love, a life.

And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. For a pirate, it's treasure, not life. So are we feeling confident that this will flip for Jod at the end of the season? and her pride life over treasure? We have mere minutes left of this show, two episodes only, but I feel like it has to be. Unless we're getting another season, in which case, I'm fine if this is a longer arc. That's fine by me. That would be great.

Would you, after the acid, credit tossed in, the acid whirlpools away, would you have just walked right down those steps, the acid slicked steps? Would you have put some sort of cover on your boots? I would need a hose down, just like a quibund. rinse a roo of the acid-laden steps. I was expecting things to, like, sizzle as they walked. It was just, like, vaguely steaming, essentially. So we enter Renaud's lair. It's just chock-a-block full of condoms.

No, sorry, that's from love, actually. Chaka-block full of treasure. Happy holidays. Booboo-trap, just like the tunnels. Jod's like, don't touch a thing. Okay. Don't touch a thing. Yeah.

this is definitely like, Cave of Wonders. Like, this is definitely Aladdin, right? And this is definitely Indiana Jones. Like, this is definitely like all these things you've seen before. But I just need you to know,

in my journey back through the great works of Quagong Jin, this is something that Quagin Jin says to Jar Jar Jar. Yeah. Don't touch anything. Yeah, the hero of Star Wars, obviously, Jar Jar. But anyway,

I love a cave of wonders and I love this cave of wonders There's like Easter egg's the Lord Frick and Ark of the Covenant is here Where isn't the Ark of the Covenant? It's constantly on tour But I loved the visual of the giant skull

slash helm It was like both a helmet and a skull at the same time. So very pirity but very Star Wars also at the same time Also for I mean on the whole like E's Rednaud the same species as Neil,

there's statue of, of like a figure that looks like Neil's species in the Cave of Wonders, which is interesting. In terms of like bucket list set deck moments, I feel like every single production designer set decorators like give me a fucking Pirates booty Cave of Wonders to drape in like

jewels and gems and, to balloons and statues and all sorts of stuff. That sounds so fun. This is so cool. Yeah. And then to get to make a costume design at the top of the next episode. We did a tiara. A tiara per 33. Yeah, exactly. Oh, man. Oh, poor 33. What a stretch for our guy. Love him. He activates the data port to reveal the captain's log. And Jod immediately orders him, as you alluded to earlier, to flood the outer chamber with acid so that the pirates who are pursuing cannot reach them. Now, and we hear Gudgear go like, ah!

So I guess they just ran back up the steps really quickly. Maybe John assumes they will run back up the steps really quickly, but this is some pretty, like, easy, casual. Very sinister. Let's just melt all of our pursuers and acid attempted murder from John, and it was alarming. I would be more okay with it if I hadn't been so worried that Pocket was with them. I was like, Jalilil White and the rest of the of the pirates, maybe.

But my precious pocket, like, leave her be. So, you know. Pocket is also just such a great name. PEO K-K-I-D, just delightful stuff. They're having a blast and so are we. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued, ask your doctor about zebbound, terseptite. The first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea,

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This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Ripp are back in a new series Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole Houser returned, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger, and a ruthless rival ranch, willing to protected secrets at all costs. Legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives. Dutton Ranch starring Colehous or Kelly Riley,

Annette Benning and Ed Harris now streaming on Paramount Plus. He goes from attempting to melt all of them in acid to like half a heartbeat later, just asking 33, is the treasure real? Show me the log. He is on a mission here. He is dialed in. The greed has gripped his heart anew. And we are going to listen to this clip,

not necessarily because there's a ton of new information here, but because we do want to hear the voice and theorize. Mike, can we hear the next clip, please? I have the ship, clod and armor and ready. but my crew still doubts at Atlas Wheel. What's wrong with the picture? Quiet, all hands to seize the treasure. No one knows it is the last old Republic mint.

Okay, we'll talk about the mint part in a second. Who does this sound like to you? Were you able to identify the performer? It sounds like Nick Frost doing more of a pirate accent to me. Yeah. Even more than you. For the first three words, it's like, Brian Cox. I was like, oh, my God.

Well, here's the deal. I think, and maybe they have a way to circumvent this for spoiler secret protection reasons or whatever. Right. But I believe for Screen Actor Guild rules, you need to credit every single person in this episode. There's no one credited as the voice of Takranod. But if Nick Frost is already credited in the episode, then you don't need to credit him again in this sense. There is an additional voices credit. Once again,

Frickon Sam Whitwer, who like crops up and everything is under the additional voices list. But there's no other names under the additional voices list that looks from one. That's like nine screens deep in the credits. I'm like,

what am I doing of my life that I'm still like pouring over nine screens deep into credits of a Star Wars show? Living it well. I mean, you're thriving. I'm thriving. I don't think legally you can have this voice

and not credit it unless that actor's voice is credited elsewhere. So it feels very frosty to me. I was with you. I was pouring over those credits looking for any other name that could be a candidate. Okay, so we're both in the, this is Frost. This is some sort of 33 tie a territory here. Is it going to be necessarily 33 or are we going to get to see Nick Frost as a human as a pirate?

Yeah. And did he upload his consciousness to SM 33? That's where I am. Like carry on my legacy in your brain as Raddy slowly eats it. Yeah, because the thing that The thing that Troubled me a bit about the Like, is this actually just a droid theory?

Was the hair? No, I'm not here to tell you that droids can't wear wings. They can. Come on. You are on this earth for the moment when we get to do a wig watch about a droid. What? What? But if you deserve that.

33. Longs Raggley gray wig on. Yeah. Singing maybe a shanty, my life will be absolutely complete. Yeah, I feel like this is maybe, yeah, it sounds like Nick Frost to me. I could be wrong, but it does sound like Nick Frost to me. So, you know, that's exciting.

I love that Nick Frost has been cast in this show. I love the way that he has been used, but the idea to use him even more to get Nick Frost in the flesh would be really exciting. So, yeah. We love Nick Frost. We, like Jodd, love the idea of just endless treasure. And since we heard in episode three, this exchange, Neil saying, so what do they analyze?

And whim saying something boring and then playing with the dataries and saying about money, we have felt fairly certain that when it comes to the jewels of the old republic at Atten's role was money planet. And here we go. This is confirmed the old republic mint. Oh, the other thing we should say to go back, sorry, I would go back to that clip of maybe not, but probably Nick Frost. It starts with, I have the ship clad in armor, which is a nice little like preview for the emergence in episode six. Shed that armor and let that sleek little body of the shiny new onyc cinder emerge. Okay.

They just want to make multiple Lego sets, and I am not here to complain about this. going to ask you, like, how do you feel if you bought the Lego set of the original Onyx cinder and you're like, oh, man, there's another onyx cinder set? It's a little soon, but I feel, I probably ultimately always feel fine about just having the opportunity for new ships and new merch. You know, when they exploded the razor crests, like we had had a little more time with it, but of course you're just like, now we get a new ship for Dinn and Grogo. It's more merch. I think this is just, this is the ship economy that we're that we're in these days. So I,

I don't mind it. I don't have this Lego set. So who knows? Like, is there, is there an alternate kit inside of it? That would be so cool. If that were the case, if, like, you can make the crust, the grotty crust of the Onyxsender and then have the, like, sleek version underneath.

It reminded me of, and not for the last time inside of this episode, these episodes, reminded me of one of my favorite seafaring, stories, which is Master and Commander, and in Master and Commander, they disguise their ship to make it look

not like, you know, one of the naval vessels. And, you know, you got to love that. You got to love a disguised ship. Don't pay attention to me. We're just a trash sheep. And I like that idea that, like, if the Onyxsinder is a famed ship,

a question we could have been asking this whole time, is like, why has nobody recognized the onyx cinder, one of the most famous ships. And if it was like covered in literal trash to disguise it, I think that's a cool sort of added wrinkle. It's delightful. It was so fun to see it explode at the end. I know.

I was like, we're in Toy Story 3s. Everyone couldn't be okay. And then just boom. I was just sort of like, how are we going to? Oh, it's just a crust. It's just a trash crust. It's very me at the end of 2024 when like I haven't had to be on camera for a week. And I'm like, hmm, it's just a nice crust of trash around me.

Listen, I hope that it's not too singed for Mama Trash Crab and all of her babies to make good use of it. You know, continue to add to the casing. You're pro-Mama Trash Crabb. You're pro-Lady Tetris Tennis. I am not going to be anti a hand-built model. Okay. That included Archie DTC 3Bio and Pied. Imperial Walker and the Millennium Falcon in its trash shell.

Okay. On the one hand, sure. Valerie and I support that. And we all love that they use stop motion on the crabs. We're all thrilled by that. But let me follow with this other question. That trash crab wanted to eat, William KB. Yeah.

A bummer. What if the trash grab had snapped her claws anywhere in the vicinity of Neal? Would you feel the same way about her? No, I would have set out for Linoopa directly and with haste. Yeah. To have a good old fashion Maryland crab boil. You'd pack your old bay and you'd be boiling that crab. That's exactly right. We love steamed crabs. We love crab soup. We love a crab cake here at the House of Our. And we also love when we get some space crab and Star Wars. Right, Joe? We do. All for PG reasons. Ezra, you're always on our mind. You and your crab cloth. back to John. His face when he hears about this mint,

it's like an eerie, calm, a purpose and intent. And then another moment, we've gotten a few of these words, back has turned to the kids can't see him as they talk about this. Oh, I guess it really is the planet of eternal treasure. And that greedy smile appears on his face.

Joanna, then he invoked the pirate code. He challenged the captain. Paulet. Yeah. The code, I was. like, oh, check off pirate code. When will this come back into play? And then it's immediate, it happens right away in the next episode,

right of last appeal. Do you like that this idea, I mean, Pirates Code is obviously a thing that has shut up in other properties before. It's not new. But this idea of like code, like a Jedi code or a pirate code. You're not a fan? No, I'm just, like, just thinking about to go back to your earlier point about like, Jod thinking about the pirates the way that Wim thinks about the Jedi and this idea of like

not just like a family institution but like a code a way to live your life. And also for Jod, this idea of like adhering still to these Jedi teachings, but you know, at least of what we've seen so far, his relationship to the pirate code is. How can I leverage it to benefit me in a given moment? And so that feels very fitting. I would argue that's just pirates. Yeah, exactly right. Exactly right. 33, what choice does he have, Joey sanctions the challenge?

The kids are, of course, dismayed, distressed, appalled. Fern Jodd is like over and over and over again. Just say you yield. Just say you yelled and that I don't have to hurt you. He's not trying to hurt these kids. Dude, but it didn't sit in a chill down your spine when he was like, and then I don't have to hurt you. Like, it was a possibility. I mean, I didn't think he would.

I don't think he would. ever would. I agree. I agree. I don't think so either. Honestly, I think he was just sort of like, yes, the greed. Yes. He wants to get to add and yes, he wants to get those credits. But like, I think part of the whole like, let's transfer the deeds over to me. Let's make me the captain now is as much about like efficiency and let's go than it is anything else. You know what I mean? I was with you there for sure. The only thing that gives me any pause is the fact that he's like, you know, he apologizes. I'm really sorry about this. I really am. It seems sincere. When he wins, when Fern yields, he tells 33 to take them all prisoner. And I guess that's part of

that efficiency, too. It's just like all of the arguments and interruptions and like, is this a theater of debate and democracy? No, we're going to do this my way. We're going to do it quickly. I think that that all seems right. But it still felt it was just so crudely. Of course. My heart sank, and the kids looked so... I'm just saying, as John's lawyer, a famed practitioner maritime law, as I am, I will say in his defense, I think there's a way in which he was trying to actually protect the kids in making himself the captain. Okay.

He didn't stop him from hitting that stool and sliding down the shoot, though. The bad guys are on their heels. It's true. He's like, we got the coordinates. Let's stop fucking around. I'm gonna have to now. I don't know how many I melted an acid. Take these kids prisoner so that they can be safe.

I'm not just going to leave them here. He could just left him there. That's true. He's taking them with him. And he's like, I'm going to deliver them back to their parents. I'm going to scoop as many, like, datearies as I can. And I'm going to call it a day. But we got to go now.

And now he has no choice but to enlist a fucking pirate crew because, you know, his back is against a wall, but I do think that, like, I'm sorry, I, I'm willing to let Jude law do me once again, but I just feel that there's like, this is how he wound up leaving so many people with stolen boundaries in a fucking pit of leeches. God damn it, drowning in a pit of leeches, but I'm like, John was right. I, I, I'm honestly, I'm with you. I was so crestfallen by this, but I think in a way that was very effective, especially on the heels of episode four where we had really seen this like

what seemed to be unity and support. It was just great. It was a great wall up in the middle of the season. It's a fake episode six heel turn of an eight episode season. How could it not be? I'm all for it. Just as I was all for him emerging, positively bedazzled in all the treasure he could carry.

Some wonderful stuff. Sadly, it's not just the hotel crew in front of him. It's Gunther and Coe behind them. Didn't melt them after all. The New Republic X-Wings have arrived. I guess these are the same ships from Kim's Moon. Yeah. This was one moment of clumsiness, I will say, when, like, was it, it was a woman was like, she called them X-wings?

And I was like, okay. But then we got to, like, but John said they're bad. It's like, no, they're like, good guys. Yeah. Oh, God. X-Wings. Well, it's time to go. Gunter's like, we've got to get out of here.

We're not going to get attacked by X-Wing. Let's bounce. And so it's time to go to Brutus' Theater of Justice. Shocker to everyone, the verdict is guilty, and the penalty is death by Airlock. Did you think for even a moment that we might get a little Princess Leia moment from Chad? My mind and heart was, as it always is when we mentioned, Air Locks with Battlestar Galactica. Of course. It's an instant association.

But it's a really fun sort of like space. pirate way of saying like walk the plank I think. Also I want to shout out John Hodgman who plays the sort of like pirate court Harold and his John Hodgman, who I love, his Star Wars name

is snobvious knee. Classic stuff for good old Judge John Hodgman. I love this for him. Again like when you see someone like John Hodgman who's like probably like pals with you know Watson Ford or whatever and they're like we're going to let you be in our Star Wars show. Delightful. You get to say two lines and we're going to call your character snobby a sneak. That's just fun. And you get to watch Jude Law Singh. Yeah. When we, well, he probably wasn't there. But, you know, theoretically. That's a good point. But when you and I make a Star Wars show, think about all of our friends that we can like put in. in and give them fun little Star Wars names. That's just like all the like joys of getting to make a Star Wars. That is just like got to be high on the list. Guess what? You get to hold a

lightsaber. So then we skip past the fact that like John activates a lightsaber. He activates it. We don't see it. We don't see it. We don't see it. We hear it. That was a thrill to me actually. That was great. We're building to the foreplay is strong and skeleton crew. They're edging you. They're a jetty. They're going to build up. Um, no prep time from John. Brutus is like, okay, this is the, the, one of the many people who John has presumably had a sexual Congress with in the past that says he's got the right for equal time. Brutus right away, he just hit, he activates the plasma hourglass. You know, this guy loves a lava lamp and he's like, you're on the clock. I need one of these. This is cool. Are you a lava lamp? Are you a lava lamp? I haven't had one since I was in middle school or high school probably, but I loved my lava lamp. I had on the desk and I just like had it on all the time and I loved it. I had a couple back in the day. They're great. I love a Lavely. But like this plasma hourglass,

so cool. And Lucaslores the merch. This is one that I would want. You're the merch queen, but like, but this is like merch. Could I use it? Sure. Yeah, sure.

I actually have an hourglass. But could I use another one and should it be plasma? Yeah. I love this. I love this for you. I love this for us. Thanks. I don't think I could use after all.

I don't think I can. use a helmet or there's like a bunch of stuff that I can't really use but I could use an hourglass. A loki notebook and a plasma hourglass. This is my list of my merch list. TVA, we're still waiting. Yeah. We're still waiting. Useful merch. Give it to me. Joanna, much like Anatar, Jod's like I'm always ready to improvise in a moment of need. Let's go. I'm ready to work the room. I don't need prep time. Yeah. Mike, let's hear it. I'm hungry. I've been hungry. since I can remember. It's all I ever had ever scraps. I don't say anything.

How long have you been hungry? How long? How long have you been left behind in the junk heaps of the galaxy fighting over crumbs? Enough of this glitter speech, Silvo. The words of a dead ram are worthless. Plasma still runs, sir. We're all! Because credits are scarce. There's never enough.

There's never enough. What if there were? Just imagine. What if they were replaced? We didn't have to divvy up your take because your take never ran out. Imagine that. Just, just imagine.

Joanna, I don't know much about Chad's platform, but you're in. But I'm in based on this stump speech and a couple other factors. I'm in. You had, you were speaking. very recently about this idea of hunger and how central it seems. So this is, here it is. Yeah, this idea that Long John Silver is a, is a cook and this idea of feeding and as, as seduction.

And again, that goes back to sort of like the provider role. I can provide for you. You're hungry. I'm your real captain. I can provide for you. And I love the language of this show. you know, enough of this glitter speech is really fun. Plasma still runs, sir. Incredible. It's also incredibly good. Yeah, really good. And also, I don't know if you know this.

Judoah is a great actor. And like, just makes a meal out of this scene. Not to belabor the hunger idea, but just sort of like, you know, between the song, between the sort of modulation of the speech, what he builds to and stuff like that, this is just a delight to watch. Just a joy for us. From the moment we heard you, Law was in a Star Wars, this is like what we want. It's been a good.

An absolute thrill. It really has lived up to our expectations, which is kind of amazing because they were quite high. Yeah. And these days, Star Wars has had some trouble with that. So, good job, Star Wars. Good job. Good job.

You scrapped me upstart. You finally broke through. You had crazy kids. Different overall. energies, but I did get some polytides has gone south vibes from John here to just the way he went like person to person. Now, here he's making an appeal, not trying to debilitate them by allowing them to glimpse his power. But, you know, he's like, dude.

Dune. Duke, correctus. He's like, you want this. you could have a whole ocean. You want this. I let you down. You should have an entire fleet, right? He's making these, like,

there's not only this grand, broad appeal, but this direct appeal to remind them of their history and presumably the fondness they all had for him at some point because he's so charming. To me, it reminded me most of our, our guy I was copying, like, those fucks up in their tower, drinking their orange wine. What do you deserve?

What I know for sure, what I know for sure, about John after watching him sip that cocktail is the first glass of orange wine he got a chance to enjoy he would relish oh yeah he would relish that's what Oz would do he would relish and he would step over every other pirate that he just promised something to get to it yeah boys you like my story in like my story oh how did it feel to you to hear John say just a virgin gleam of brand new old Republic credits. Just a virgin gleam.

How did it feel to you? My goodness. It felt powerful. Great. Oh, boy. The pirates all remember. They remember the kids. They remember their credits. And John's like, it's true.

I heard it from our guy, Tack himself. It's true. All of it. As we heard of the top of the episode, he sings. He sings the song, just an incredible thing, a treat, a joy. we were elated. And he knows, not just because of the power of song, but because of everything else about being a pirate,

that he has them. He knows he has them. And the thing is, Brutus knows that John has them too. Because he's like, fine, we'll go to Hadd Adden. We'll give it a look. And it's going to go well for everyone. But if I can't find my mint in my eternal treasure, it's the air lock for you,

pushes him against the wall. presses its cheek against a frosty glass. Parallus times for Jod. John's been in that position before, but in certain circumstances. Do you feel like pocket put him in that position before? Certainly. Certainly.

Okay. Anything else on job before we get to the kiddos? Nope. Okay. Just a couple notes on the group before we go kind of kid by kid here. We've chatted already about the fun that they were having. It was delightful to see them just like we are actually children. or even though we're on this kind of harrowing adventure.

We talked about the different pairings. We talked about the whole demolition sequencer. But we have not yet mentioned that part of what happened when the new cinder emerged is that Wim from up in the gun said claimsies on the new ship. And obviously, you were a huge fan of the claimses exchange at the beginning of the season. So as we begin to talk about the kids, I just was thrilled for. for you that you got another claim Cesar was great. Also a great, another great like skeleton crew.

Hey, that's the name of the show sort of moment where we've got like KB in engineering, you know, two people on driving the ship and then whim on the gun. You throttle, I'll steer. And I love that too because especially on the heels of Jod challenging Fern's captaincy, but also just in general, all the moments

at the beginning of the season where it said, no, I wanted to be captain. Are you going to be captain? I'm feeling a lot of pressure and burden in this leadership role. No, I should make every decision. The fact that they were just all working so seamlessly as a team, no one person was in control. No one person was in command, and it felt right. And of course, Sweet Neal had said, guys, we're going to need to work together. And they did. It was beautiful. Everyone was helpful except for Wim.

It's like, I'm going to go shoot some stuff. I'm going to go shoot some stuff that I definitely can't shoot. A whim, sweet whim. We are going to talk about whim, but let's start, of course, with KB. We have a lot of warning signs, as we have and now with real, like, clarity of hindsight throughout the season. But inside of these couple episodes, initially, when Jodd is, like, really pushing, we need to move quickly. Here's the mission.

KB's like, I can't go down there. Fern asks, are you worried about the corrosion from the steam? KB pretends at least initially that that's not the case. Dad. Down when they're looking at the carvings, the Neal, KB, Jod team, When the kind of burst of steam hits KB in the face, we hear a groan. When they first emerge from the shoots down into trash crab territory. Even when she's going down the shoot, when she's going down the shoot, she's trying to, like, hold her head forward.

So her, like, tech doesn't hit as it goes down and you can sort of hear it malfunctioning as they go. It's so sad. I have a question for you, my darling friend, as someone, have you always had asthma? Or is this? Yes. since I was a kid. This is not the same and definitely there are like, you know, more debilitating things that people have had that they've talked about sort of seeing inside of KB inside of this episode. But like for you as a kid with an inhaler, like, is this something?

Like, did you pretend like you were fine, you weren't winded, you didn't need your inhaler, like any of that sort of stuff around other kids or your family? Sometimes, yeah, especially like when I, because I played a lot of sports when I was a kid. Like I played soccer and I played basketball and then a little bit later briefly played field hockey and tried to play lacrosse before realizing I wasn't good enough to compete in Baltimore. That was not. But yeah, I used to, and just like playing around the neighborhood, but especially when I was playing soccer and basketball, there were times where I was like, yeah, I need my inhaler and I feel embarrassed or I don't want to be taken out of the game or something like that. though if I'm being frank, there were probably just as many times when I was a young little asshole where I would use it as an excuse. I can't my asthma.

I can't. I'm sorry, I can't. My asthma. Yeah. But the other thing that I really remember is like when I was at sleepaway camp, like a different climate, different air. There was one time where I got just like a cold at sleepaway camp and it was, it hit me so hard. And I had to like spend a couple nights at the nurses.

the station and I was like on all the breathing like just like trying to it was so bad and I felt like I was really missing something that all of my other friends at camp were getting to enjoy and then right after I got better I got stung by something and had an horrible allergic reaction of my wrist and had to go to the hospital very very sad oh that was a bummer yeah okay yeah um all right so yeah okay me i was just the e-bunior-in-healer but like yeah this idea that like like KB who's so on top of everything,

the movie that she makes with a wrench to save them and like Love that. Knock those fuckers straight down into the mud baths. She's the one

who like, you know, at least notes the riddle if not the one who solves the riddle and all that sort of stuff like that. Like she's so capable. She's so wonderful.

But like I think observant, thoughtful, sharp. To a certain degree all all she can see. see her limitations. And I think what really, like, what really hurts, you know,

in her exchange with Fern here, what really hurts in all of this, it is ultimately uplifting, but what really hurts in all of this is like, she doesn't feel like she can tell Fern what she needs. Even Fern is even, like, has asked her specific questions about it. And Fern knows and has been through this before with her, like, has asked her specific questions.

even then she can't trust, similar to what we were talking about with, like, Jod and trusting his crew and stuff like that, like can't trust that Fern will be there for her if she needs any, if she needs something, she can't trust to ask for it. But that Neal, who, like, has grown up inside of a household where, like, Neil, who comes from the most functional family, where it's just sort of, like, if you need something, you ask for it, and it's given without any strings attached.

with her parents as much as like we understand it, there's a lot of like fretfulness around her needs and her illness and stuff like that. And so Neil just doesn't know anything different other than to ask for what he needs. And he just asks for what he needs. And then Fern willingly gives it to him. Yep. You know, like eventually gives it to him. And so the fact that like Kee could ask Fern for what she needs.

And Fern would give it to her, but KB is too scared to ask for that. Just in case it means zero friends again. Yeah. Devastating. This was so crushing. And, you know, as is often the case in our favorite genre stories when they're operating at the highest frequency is like, okay, we don't have augs. We're not on a space adventure. Right.

We didn't grow up on a secret planet, not. understanding what was going on in the gaffir-for-your-out. Yeah. Like, the particulars are distinct, obviously, to this story. I grew up in the Bay Area, a liberal bubble. So, like, same, same. Same, same. Look as Film HQ.

Yeah. But these things are so relatable. Yeah. Like, this idea that you might be left out, that you just want to be a part of things, but also entwined with that, the resentment that the person who is maybe closest to you in the world. doesn't quite see something clearly about you or understand, even though I think what you're saying is right,

that Fern is ready and asking and prepared. There's that, like, fear. Yeah. And I loved, I really loved the moment when Fern, they're like, we got to get back to the ship, because KB has the coordinates. We can get home. We just need a vessel.

And Furr says, perfect. Let's just climb, right? Points up at the top of the clip to the ship. The ship. And the way KB says, that's not perfect. It's impossible. Like, it just shattered really quickly, right? The ability to kind of keep that all in.

And that felt so true to me, too, that, like, you just hit that moment eventually. And then even then she's not prepared to say why, because it feels like this, the risking the great currency that, like, sustains you emotionally. She's loves to this. Two things about that. First one, she says, like, later she says, like, later she says, like, you know, like, you're not. Like that Fern, she doesn't have patience for that. And that's just not true. Like that Fern would, but like there's something about KB that she's decided she's too much.

Whatever, you know, whatever she needs is too much and she's not allowed to ask for what she needs is devastating. Especially inside of a moment where the only reason that you have the coordinates at Aten is because KB is so special. She has like, addetic memory and could just see the coordinates once projected on the captain's log and be like, oh, I got him. that they couldn't get home without KB and her ability to do that. They would be stranded on a fucking spa planet. And so I just, that's so I love that. That it's like inside of the same moment where KB's Oggs,

which is what she considers a weakness, is like the very strength that they need to get them off the planet. And all she sees is it's a liability. Right. Yeah. It's something that's holding me back. And I worry other people will think it's holding me back too. I loved, too, the way that it's very much about what is happening here and how KB feels physically and emotionally here. But also it does definitely feel like it's about other things as well.

And that also feels so true to life and true to friendship to me, right? We're like, we had talked earlier in the season about those moments where Fern just assumed, assumed that KB was going to stand with her, assumed that KB was going to vote with her, assumed that KB was just going to have the exact same thought and preference and desire that Fern had. And that's part of the, that's part of the arc that Fern is on. Absolutely. Exactly. And so like when KB said, you know, because if you're actually interested, like you listen for once and maybe we talk about something. And then like you said, Fern's like, well, okay, I'm listening. Let's talk.

But clearly there's more than just what is happening in this moment, like fueling that kind of comment. Yeah. From KB and all the things that, you know, whatever that one chief anxiety or fear or insecurity is, so many other things then can be. like can wrap themselves up in it, right? And so you hold on to other things, or maybe there are other moments or other circumstances

that you're not as honest about in your relationship with somebody because of this like one driving thing. This just like, it not only felt very true to like youthful friendships and those formative friendships because those in particular feel,

you know, they're like the buttresses of young life, right? Yeah. But this just, to me, this, like one of the things I love so much about the Fern KB fight, the scenes that we get with Fern and Neil, the scenes that we get with KB and Wim, is that this just felt kind of like eternal and universal.

Like it's very true to those coming of age years, but it's not the kind of fear that ever expires. Like I think people, I don't ever stop feeling like, oh my God, this is not a relationship. I want to, like, risk losing. That's not something that goes away. I had a, as you know, we had our like annual Lord of the Rings, like, watch party at the end of the year. in December. And it was like bigger than we normally do it. And so it was just sort of like a lot of logistics.

And I was having my like usual type A spin out. And my co-host was having her usual like, I'm vibing. I'm fine. And it was just like, this is how every single it goes every single time. And we had this conversation where she was just like, I just wish she felt comfortable asking for what you need inside of this. And I was just like, oh, what? What?

What? And these are just like lessons we continue to learn and learn and learn and learn, which is sort of like you're not alone in this and you can put it all on yourself. This is like low stakes. They're trying to, I don't know, save their plan or get home. That's high stakes. This was just like a Lord of the Rings viewing party. But no matter what, like you can just, it's so easy to sort of get locked into this sort of like, I can only depend on myself. And it's scary sometimes to like ask for help or depend on someone else.

And so like the fact that this is just like built into these kids. arc here. Yeah. Which is like very much, you know, like, baked into the Goonies as well, this idea of just sort of like. Stranger Things for sure. Yeah. Stranger Things.

Kids on bikes genre of just sort of like kids figuring out how to be like their own little society and how do we rely on each other and how permanent do these bonds feel when kids grow up and change and move away and all sorts of stuff, you know. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's obviously very, the particulars are different, but this made me think a lot of Mike and Will and those like really key moments in as their friendship, as they are changing and their friendship is saying and what they are comfortable saying or not saying to each other about what they need is changing. KB's like, I'm with Wim.

Fern is astonished to crestfallen. For good news, you could spend time with Neil. Who rules? I mean, come on. Geez, as Consolution Prize is going, getting to hang out with the best dude in the entire galaxy is pretty tough to top. Not too bad. It was also a great little touch when Fern and KB were off on their own for a minute,

and Fern was like, I know Wim's going to fight me. Not you. I think Neil's going to have a hard time. Not you. Like, she is anticipating these barriers, but just not the source of them, I guess are an additional source of them. Mike refuse time, Joe. Yeah.

This is an incredible, I love this trope anytime it's used. This is like, it's not often necessarily like a person with a technical in their head. Augmentation, though it can be if you're Tony Stark, but like when you think about

when you think about, when you think about Jack and Law, or if you prefer maturing in Master and Commander or the medic in saving private Ryan, this trope of like, I know how to fix me and I am barely hanging on and I'm going to have to talk you through surgery or whatever it is, always gets me. It's always like sad and harrowing and scary and like especially here because like in, especially in the case of saving private Ryan,

which I think about all the time, like that's devastating because, like, he figures out that he can't be saved in the midst, spoilers for saving private right, in the midst of that sequence. Yeah. For KB to play it as like, she's so weak.

She's, like, just fading. It's not like, William is obviously, like, feeling somewhat frantic, uh, clearly, but that she's just so faded here and so, like, barely hanging on is just like, what was really well done, I thought. And that theme, you know, we were talking about it with Jod and obviously just now with Fern and KB, but like that theme through these two episodes, that idea of being the provider, like, this idea of reliance, right? And like for KB to fear whether somebody will be there and accept her fully and then have to rely on another person to see her in this circumstance was just really, really effective. And we learn from KB here that she had an accident.

Ever since my accident, she says. She's talking about how Fern doesn't always live in the real world. That's how KB puts it. Fern always assumed I could do anything she could. Like, I'm not different. And Wim, we'll talk about Wim later, but I was just saying here, like, I loved his response when he said, okay, well, that sounds good. And, like, of course, that's true and right, that, like, not making you feel different

because of any limitation or disability or whatever particular circumstance you might have. That would be a gift of friendship, right, that somebody would make you feel the same. But then the fact that we were able to balance these perspectives in this one exchange and get to KB saying, but I am different. And like, that's true. And that means that she has like needs that are specific to her and that the people close to her in her life have to be able to like understand and support that. and part of her journey will be figuring out how to talk to them about that.

Like, this was just really, really potent. Of course, it makes us understand from, like, her parents' perspective, we had gotten the scene with her mom's, like, couldn't sense her life monitor. What did it mean? We had built over the episodes. We theorized a couple weeks ago about the increasingly popular theory that maybe part of the horror on at Atten was, like, suppressing force powers. I think now that seems off the table.

Yeah. Absolutely dead. Yeah. Agreed. No. It would ruin what is very good about these episodes. Yeah, something happened. She had an accident and now this is life for KB.

Let's hear the rest of this exchange. Anyway, pretending I can run around on a freezing cold moon through a bunch of steam, climate cliff after days without maintenance. that's just not reality for so then just tell her that I can't do that why know because

she doesn't have patience for that you know how she is and then I have zero friends again zero friends again Karyana Kretter is the name of the young actress who's playing Kaby and I just think she's wonderful in this and then even when she's like

Even when Wim does it and she's better and she gets up, there's just something like, I don't know. I am like, my heart is completely with this kid. I know. Just completely with her. This was so gripping and just like absolutely heart-wrenching. And I loved the little smile on KB's face when Wim's like, you can be friends with me and Neil. It's just like, God, I want to talk when we get to Wim about what she says to Wim and what that means to him. But this was just really wonderful.

And then the grace that Fern and KB have for children, I feel like I was thinking back to being like a young person, frankly thinking back to right now in my life when I'm like incredibly dug in and stubborn and routinely unwilling to admit when I'm wrong in a conversation or argument with the people closest to me. But like, I know. It's shocking for everyone to hear. It's like this was. I don't know. This is a really big thing. It's a big thing to say you're sorry, and it's a big thing to accept it when somebody else tells you they're sorry. And I just loved that we got that and the sweetness and love and gratitude of like the way that they said you're my best friend and wrap their arms around each other was just like really, really, really, really, really lovely. I loved it. What a show. What a show. Fern. she had some lessons for her she's on i thought it was interesting that she is on jod watch from the go here after the breakthrough in episode four it's like that was like okay maybe but she

never stopped doubting oh yeah or watching has been from the jump has been the most skeptical absolutely absolutely 100% and like throughout episode five it's just it's it's it's constant She's constantly, like, challenging him, reminding him of their agreement, worried that he's one reveal or one opportunity away from abandoning them. And the tears in her eyes when John challenges her. That's the thing is, like, for a personality like Fern to be, so she's proven right. She was right. Right. She was right.

And she's devastated also. And being right means that she, from her perspective, lost, right? Like, he bested her. I love that because it felt like all of that was on her face. Like, being let down. I love the way she said, you're a grownup. You can't fight us for just kids. It's not fair.

Yeah. That's just so sad. That's very labyrinth, Princess Bride, of like, you know, whoever told you different is selling you something. Like, life's not fair. Fair. You said anything about fair, you know? That's not what this is.

Oh, man. Fernie continues to be a great problem solver. You know, all of these kids are very observant, very astute. Wim is going through his journey right now. Oh, I'm always wrong about everything, huh? But, you know, they're gathering down. Ignites the lightsaber upside down. Dude. That was like perfection. What a great touch. I'm like, wow, we're going to get to see Wim stand tall with that lightsaber wheeled. No. He's just like, fired into the ground, freaked out, jumped, and like basically threw it. Fantastic stuff. So, so that, that, keepy Fern stretch from Fern's perspective

anything else that we didn't hit already that you want to hit from the Fern side of things I don't think

so other than to say that the legend the icon the man of the hour Neil always

like you know teaching Fern a lesson inside of this and again Fern being like frustrated

but willing and like you know good problem solving technique from her. They're halfway at the side of a cliff. I can't do any problem solving up, like even a step up a cliff, let alone halfway up a clip. And she's like, oh, some random rope. How can you? It's not for me. I'm with you on this one. I would again, personally. Team trash grab. No. Team trash grab. I thought it was interesting too that Fern, you know, in episode four,

when they're up in the tower, like, and she has that really raw, vulnerable moment of saying, like, I don't want to always have to be the one who figures it out, despite her desire to be the captain, desire to be in charge. We, you know, we shift then back in this episode to this is what we're going to do. And I like that the show has made room for both of those polls, you know, with Fern and the way that she's operating inside of this group of, of pals. That Neil stretch was such, like, tidy, efficient, economical storytelling for both of those characters. because Neil continues to be the character who is finding his courage and finding a way to say something hard out loud. And so, like, for all of the kids in the show, for all of the kids watching it home, for the adults watching it home, it's like it is a really powerful thing. And it made me emotional, like thinking of the kids who would be watching this show and see Fern say to Neil, like, it's not that hard.

and Neil say like it is for me. We're not all built like you. Yeah. I can't reach between the wrongs. I'm sorry, but not everyone can do things the same way you can. And for Fern to be willing to hear that and like receive it and accept it just for both of those characters. And then obviously the benefit that that has for KB and Wim as well when they're reunited, that was just really cool. So they're all growing.

I feel like we, though, in all overgrowth so far, though, I feel like we haven't had a Fern episode. Like, doesn't this feel like the KB episode to a certain degree? For sure. And we got the Neal episode. And I would say WIM got like the first, you know, couple episodes or like the WIM episode. But like, is episode seven going to be like a Fern episode? Like, obviously her having an important conversation with her mother is going to be integral to her growth and stuff like that. But I'll be interested to see.

I mean, they've all had moments throughout, you know, it's not as, as. as siloed off as it is in a TV show, like, lost where it's, like, very much the so-and-so's episode. But I'll be curious if we get, like, a very fern-centric episode before all of a sudden, then only two more episodes to go, though, so I don't know. I'm frankly despondent. Yeah. Whim. That exchange that he had with Jod that we already talked about from Jod's perspective,

I just thought it was so heartbreaking from Wim's perspective. And I continue to love the way that the show is, like, moving Wim and his dad torporated. each other moving Fern and her mom toward each other. Like Wendell is back on Atatton, flouting authority, breaking the rules. Sure is. Doing all of the stuff that he was riding Wim for, not adhering to authority in the letter of the law. And Wim is here, like, all I wanted to do was have an adventure and get away from home.

And I miss my dad. I miss my mom. Like, I miss my room. And the way that he responded, like, to forget him. That's what I did with. I can't do that. Like, that's Wim's journey. In addition to the, okay, what does it mean to be a force user?

And I'm confronting who I think a hero or who I think a good guy is. Like, his dad was not a perfect dad. We talked about that. But there is a love. And there is a sense of like comfort and safety and peace. And like, that's my home and I miss it. And for Wim to embrace. race that and want to go back feels really meaningful.

And also the sense of like, again, speaking of like silos, that they were siloed in their individual grief about the loss of his mom. Yes. You know, like his dad has thrown himself into work and is, you know, to your point, like sort of riding women and stuff like that. But like the possibility of this absence and how it can bring them together, which you, you know, you and I were talking about from the beginning. But I'm really.

eagerly anticipating a moment when Wendell gets to wrap his arms around Wim and they get to talk about his mom. You know? It's going to be beautiful. Dude, you know what I fucking love thinking about? I'm already like considering this just an absolute certainty. It hasn't happened

yet, but okay, so we have this great little stretch where they're going through the mud baths, they're making their way to the grotto, they're wearing bathrobes that basically look like Jedi robes. Like Wim is basically he's radioing to Jedi Tud. He's basically in a Jedi robe. And they make their way down to our dude instant icon catholops.

Yeah. And Wim has his emotional moment with John. He's like, this adventure isn't what I thought it was going to be. But then here, this exciting, weird new stranger he met out in the wild, says to him, if you survive, I'd love to hear the end of your story someday. And like, Wim is in one of the stories that he loves to read. Like he is. That's happening.

Yeah. It's so cool. The great stories, you know. They never end, do they? They never end, Joe. And, like, to have, you know, the misfire with the lightsaber where it's, like, not cool and not perfect and, like, botched and awkward, but also still, he figures out the slapping of the stool and how to free them. Not just the slapping of the stool, but, like, that's the thing that he did at the beginning that everyone was like, don't do that with. Push every button.

Push every button. And he's like, guess what? I'm going to push every button. He's not even the one who is... You called it, though, that Firm was going to be the one who pushed the whole demolition. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was very fun. She's like, I'll be the one that pushes the button.

I'm not supposed to push. But he saves them with the, like, with the button pushing, you know, skill of his. And I and, yeah, like, Wim is maybe the kid that I feel like the least connected to, but I don't know. I like thinking about, to your Catholic's point, I love thinking about this idea of, like, legends and stories and living legends. And like, especially as we as we bat around the various theories about what at Aden is funding and is it funding like a project to make sure that somehow Palpatine returns, like, is it connected to that like that kind of dark side twisted pursuit of

immortality when there's this other kind of immortality, which is like the way in which we live on inside of legends, whether you're a pirate captain or. a Jedi on an iPad, you know, and I mean, like, these stories are how you live on and on, you know, like Quagon, of course, you can sort of connect yourself to the, you know, the living force and live on in that kind of way. But like, this idea that legend, story, what's more important than story? I have to ask you. Is a way in which way. Sorry, I need you to be in manacles when you ask me that. I'm emotionally in radicals. I'm in, I'm in, I'm in, Always traumatized by that moment, Manacles.

But I like this idea of like story and legend and myth and how that's its own kind of immortality. I love that. And I love too how for the kids right now that's rooted in their relationships, right? Of course, there's like the grand sweeping spectacle of breaking through the barrier and going on an adventure in the attic cinder and to pirate poor. and planets untold, but when we're with Wynn at the beginning of the season, and they're having their very creepy lesson in class about how they have to pick one thing they want to do and do it forever, he's like, I want to really help people, you know? Yeah.

Like if there's danger or something. And his teacher responds to him by saying, that's not a career. That's what safety droids are for. And when he saves KB here, and she says to him, like, I bet you didn't think that saving someone's life would feel like this, right? He doesn't even realize what's happened. And she says to him, thanks Jedi. And it's like, for Wham, he got to do it, right?

He got to realize his dream of helping somebody. And it was like by being there to help his friend. It wasn't actually by wielding a lightsaber in some grand fashion. It was just like by listening to the person right across from him saying, this is what I need. Can you help me? And he did. And like the smile on his face when he heard, thanks Jedi. I thought for K.B.

To say that to him was just so cool. Because she's really cool. Yeah. A wonderful gift to give him. I loved that. Just a quick tip for kids at home, though. I don't believe sticking a cylinder inside of some sand. She'd be quite hot still, I think.

Yeah. Well, no, but before that, when she's, like, poured into the mold, I was like, yeah. Do you think none of the sand rushed in to fill that crevoss? I don't think so. Very dense sand. Moist sand. Fresh Crab Island. Oh, boy.

We talked about the X-Wings already. We talked about, we talked about Wim having to confront the fact that he's always wrong about who the good guy is. We hit most of the lovely Neil stuff. I mean, my guy, Neil, just immediately activated the decapitation laser the second they went down into the tunnels. That was dumb, but it just made me love him even more. He spotted the fake roast. Yeah. Very, very last crusade.

Even in a show that is already, I mean, very goonies, very last year I said, very booby traps. More things should have booby traps, to be honest with you. And why not? Did you like the kind of like hover spikes? Yeah. That was great. Come on. Yeah.

We're having a great time here in 2025 with skeleton crew. Oh, sweet Neil. He's absolutely the best. The look of just despondents in his eyes when John was like, I'm the captain now, I might never recover from the pain. The pain in Neil's glowing eyes. What a beautiful soul he is. I love him.

The parents. Anything else about what we saw on Adat? And we talked about Wendell a little bit. So Neil's mom, Numa, is the one who arrives at Lumen HQ and she's like, here's a thumb drive to put into your terminal and get what we need to send a message beyond the barrier. What's going on with Numa? Like, how does she have this? How does she get it? How does she know what they need?

Right. It's a good question. I hope it's conspiracy and not just sort of like yada, yada, yada, storytelling. Here's the dongle. Here's the goober that you need to do this, that, and the other thing. But Wendell, our shot of Wendell at work, which I think we had seen in the trailers. But like I was struck, you wrote in our notes here and I was also struck like how much it reminded me of Cyril Karn and or. I think it's because they intentionally in these various cubical. spaces inside of these Star Wars shows. They're making the cubicles circular and giving very like cog in the machine sort of imagery, but that was repeated from Andor over here. Filled me with joy and reminded me that

Andor's season two is a gift that we get to give ourselves this year. Can you believe it? April. Soon. So soon. Oh my God. 2025 is really a gift. the hype draft is going to be out of control incredible this year i i can't wait we're all going to be taking bangers in round five what a time what a time to be us i enjoyed the comedy of the the droid and wendell

like sir there was an energy surge at your terminal and like can you show me both hands at once very funny oh um yeah that uh not to invoke kevin klein twice but why not uh he is the pirate king after all from Pirates of Pansans. But that's a fish called Wanda Bit. And, you know, show me your hand, the other hand. Like, that's the whole thing. That's a fish called Wanda bit. I love it.

I really needed Wendell to just, like, tuck that into his back pocket or, like, waistband or something. But also when it ends well, because it leads to him being brought for punishment to the Undersecretary up in her lavish office, which is Farrah. So that's nice because they're in Goots already. It was interesting. see just for it's a very brief exchange but Farah is not

quite where Wendell is yet on the I'm ready to rebel path and he also talk her into it but she does she's been dosing on a higher frequency of Kool-Az. Nassie digs. Yeah. That office is nice. Yeah it is.

It is. Wendell's like fuck my cubicle. She's like but my office. I have a mini fridge with Edelis LeCroix here. I cannot give it up, you know. I found the, remember I told you I had like a little mini fridge that I knew I had somewhere. That would be perfect for just stashing like six cans of La Croy for you during a recording. I found it. So when you're here, I'll see you for White Lotus. I will be bringing it for you.

For White Lotus, do you think I have to drink the like tropical lacroys or can I stick to the classic Cranras? No free ad for Leroy here, except constant free ads for LeCri. Just going to sponsor us already. of a crayor housing camera now. Oh, man, that's a great question. You know, I think you should always drink the flavor that you want. It might be, I've told you before, I've revealed to you in our safe space of friendship before you, me and Steve have talked about this, that it's not a daily indulgence,

but every so often, every so often, it's the worst. It's the worst thing about you. It hits the spot, and I do think, honestly, if that's the worst thing about me, I don't, I don't, I'm... You and Ron Mahoney are real... real maniacs when it comes to your LeCroy taste. And I love you both dearly. But I'm mostly, I'm mostly a LeCroix Pure, as you know. That's like I have one to two cans of pure a day. It's great. Pure is great. It's wonderful. I love a key lime. I used to be a peach pear enthusiast.

What happened to no frame? We're raining it in. Okay. Before we wrap. Easter eggs. Do you have a favorite from episode five or episode six? I already told you mine. It was It was Tetanus' mama trash trap having a miniature R2D2 and 3PO. The pieces of the Falcon and the Walkers just like baked into, as you put at the trash crust, which I loved. That's got to be mine. What about you? Let her do it. I have to go with, I think it's the Empire Shoot Escape.

not just because them going down the trash shoot, which is, again, very Goonies and very Luke Luke and Empire, but also like the moment in empire that Luke goes down the trash shoot is the moment when he's been like betrayed, right? They're like, no moment, you know, so it's like it was a very no moment for everyone but Fern who was like, fuck, I knew it, I knew it, I knew your bad news. Pocket said so. And when does pocket lie? Never.

Everyone said so. When will the adventures of... When are we getting the adventures of Pocket? Here's the thing about Skeleton Cruise season two. I don't know that I wanted in that... Someone to, like, I wouldn't want a Goody season two. Like, these kids need to have this big adventure. And then those kids need to, like, go live their kid lives.

Yeah, they need to have kid lives. It can't be Cavett Cove where there's, like, a murder every week. Like, oh, you know, it can't be fucking only murders in the building, blah, blah. But we should be with John and Pocket and Kim routinely. John and Pocket. It's not called Skelton Crew these kids. It's called Skelton Crew. So if it's Skeleton Crew, John and Pocket fucked their way through the universe.

Oh, my God. It will be a confusing right turn for the brand. But who says no? Oh, man. That's my favorite Easter egg. Great. Now it's mine, too, after that. Boy, you know, we got to see a hut in a mud bath.

That was also great. Wonderful. Now that Jeremy Allen White has been cast as Rada, I'm like, was that Rada? Could have been. I don't know. Did you, did it? Sweet stinky. Did it, like, offer you a perfect original beef sandwich or, you know?

Could it have been one of the twins from Boba? I remember the twins. I do remember the twins from, I remember everything from Boba. I remember everything from Book of Boba Fett. How many days has it been since we've seen Cobham? Marl Irvin, it's been 1059 days since we last saw Cobb-Van.

Not okay. Not right and not okay. Deeply bad. Deeply bad. I feel bad about it. And so should you. Joanna. It's not good to hear that updated

Cobb-Vant tally, but as 33 would say, it's so good to have me memories back. Pillaging and ransacking, carousing, potting. So thank you. Thank you to our

skeleton crew. Mike Wargon here with us today producing. John Richter. Producing as always, two legends. Cameron Dinwiddie

on the video edit today. Thank you, Cameron. Arjuna Ramgapal. Production supervision and everything, always. Innovator. And Joe Me Adonon on the social.

We will see you next Tuesday for our holiday gift swap. Interview with the Vampire Season 1. Landman season one. I can't fucking wait.

And then later next week, Skellas and Crew, episode seven. Until then, you take the sensory gymnasium, Professor Gorlocks.