Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Episode 6 Pays Tribute To Disney's Pirates Of The Caribbean

This article contains spoilers for "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" episode 6, "Zero Friends Again."

The last day of 2024 brought us the sixth episode of "Skeleton Crew," the "Star Wars" series following a group of kids who are lost in the galaxy and trying to get home. Along the way, they meet Jod Na Nawood (Jude Law), a scheming pirate with a dozen different names and identities who is wanted by bounty hunters, his old crew, the New Republic, and many others. In the last episode, he betrayed the kids, took control of their droid, SM-33 (Nick Frost), and made off to steal their ship, the fabled Onyx Cinder. As this new episode, "Zero Friends Again" opens, the kids escape Jod's treacherous clutches and he's free to grab all the treasure he can carry and head on his merry way. As such, the kids are forced to spend this episode trying to claw their way back to their ship without the help of their adult companion (even as they start to get more and more on one another's nerves).

Along the way, there are more revelations about the show's young heroes, particularly KB (Kyriana Kratter) and her medical condition, which forces Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) — the group's sorta-not-really leader — to  help her do maintenance on her artificial intelligence unit because she's too afraid to show that weakness to her buddy Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). As for Jod, he quickly finds out that his past life has caught up with him. The crew he'd escaped from after they mutinied against him in the series' premiere manage to capture him once more, and have every intention of making him pay for his shenanigans. It's there that the old pirate codes of the "Star Wars" universe take center stage in a turn of events that feels ripped straight from another well-known Disney franchise.

Once Jod's former crew have recaptured him, their now-leader Captain Brutus (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) sentences Captain Silvo — one of Jod's many aliases — to death by airlock. However, before that can happen, he is swiftly granted the right of "Equal Time" to plead his case. It seems this is something in their pirate code that gives Jod a chance to speak on his own behalf in his defense. Although he receives a stay of execution and the pirates agree to go to At Attin to seek the treasure there after Jod rouses them with a jaunty rendition of a tune about an old pirate myth and the planet itself, he is ultimately still their prisoner, tossed in an airlock, and ready to be killed at a moment's notice.

It's a development that's immediately reminiscent of a situation in 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," in which "Captain" Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) gets a meeting with his treacherous former first mate Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) by invoking the right of "parlay." The term "parlay" was in the "Pirata Codex" and allowed a temporary truce between pirates that allowed them to speak without fear of harming each other, which usually ended with them negotiating satisfactory terms and being allowed to go their separate ways. Like Jod (or Captain Silvo, depending on who's talking to him), this particular parlay doesn't go that well for Jack, and he remains Barbossa's prisoner after being thrown into the brig.

With "Skeleton Crew" putting so much focus on the pirates of the "Star Wars" universe, it's no wonder the Disney show has now included several homages to the company's other mega-successful swashbuckling franchise. The series had already tipped its hat to the original "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme park ride, so it only stood to reason it would eventually pay its respects to the "Pirates" movies as well. You can also trace the inspiration for "Skeleton Crew" back to an even older Disney work in the form of 1950's "Treasure Island," itself a major film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 1883 novel. It's a story where the rules of pirating come into play as well, especially that of the "black spot" (itself a way of officially signaling that a pirate has been sentenced to death by other pirates). Plus, there's no missing the influence of nefarious "Treasure Island" buccaneer Long John Silver (whose name is remarkably similar to "Silvo.")

"Skeleton Crew" has been such a fun ride, combining a pastiche of older "Star Wars" projects and their serial adventure style with a dash of hope and optimism countered by the various perils and cliffhangers it's served along the way. It's simply been an utter delight to watch Law herd a group of kids through the perils and pitfalls (and inevitable betrayals) of a galaxy far, far away out to get them and the treasure of their planet. The young actors behind the children themselves, including Robert Timothy Smith as the kind, peace-preaching Neel, have similarly delivered strong, enchanting performances while going up against some truly great talent, and all of them look like they're having the time of their lives battling pirates, particularly in this episode.

New episodes of "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" drop Tuesdays at 6 pm PST on Disney+.