Skeleton Crew Episode 6 Fixes A Pirate Mistake In The Star Wars Universe

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

"Star Wars" is one of the biggest fictional universes in film and TV, having been fleshed out with countless legends, stories, locations, and people. Like Middle-earth, it is a place that can support almost any kind of story. This is also why "Skeleton Crew" feels so fresh; the existence of an all-ages coming-of-age adventure set in the same universe as "Andor" is nothing but good news for the sustainability of "Star Wars."

More than just "The Goonies" in space, "Skeleton Crew" has taken the franchise somewhere it's never been before by telling a story about a group of kids longing for adventure and throwing them into a world of ruthless pirates and the search for a legendary treasure. (It's essentially the "Star Wars" version of "Treasure Planet.") Where "The Mandalorian" promised to take viewers deep into the "Star Wars" underworld only to become far more concerned with connecting to and setting up other "Star Wars" projects, while "The Book of Boba Fett" utterly failed at portraying the seedy world of criminal cartels operating on Tatooine, at last "Skeleton Crew" (like "Andor" before it) is fulfilling the promise of George Lucas' never-made live-action "Star Wars: Underworld" series. Indeed, it's already shown us a darker side of a galaxy far, far away — one that's full of constant dangers and killers out for riches or a big score.

Not that this is the first time pirates have been a part of a "Star Wars" project. Han Solo himself was referred to as a pirate back in "A New Hope," while the "Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels" cartoons introduced plenty of pirate crews with their own styles and ruthless ways. And yet, it wasn't until "Skeleton Crew" that we finally got a crucial piece of pirate iconography that "Star Wars" had been missing for decades: a space sea shanty.

In the latest episode of "Skeleton Crew," titled "Zero Friends Again," Jude Law's Jod Na Nawood (aka Crimson Jack, Silvo the Mad Captain, Dash Zentin, Professor Umiam Gorelox, and Jodwick Zank) is captured by his former pirate crew in order to be sentenced to death. Before that happens, however, he is given the chance to parlay for his freedom à la the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies — an opportunity he takes to convince the crew to join him in search for the great treasure of At Attin. He even charmingly explains how he found a recording from legendary captain Tak Rennod that spoke of the planet of eternal treasure.

But when words aren't enough, Jod starts reciting a shanty about Rennod and his legendary feats on board the Onyx Cinder. That's right, we now have our very first space sea shanty in "Star Wars," and it's one that virtually everyone else on the crew knows and joins in singing, suggesting this specific shanty is popular enough to be well-known throughout the galaxy. Suffice it to say, this rules; sea shanties are great, catchy, and help paint a colorful picture of the pirate life in a given time period. It's likewise the secret ingredient that made "Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag" one of the best video games in that franchise, giving you as a player all the more reason to spend hours simply sailing the seas with your crew listening to sea shanties and forget about the main quest.

Of course, there's also the fact that the shanty about Rennod is yet another undeniable reference to Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island," the classic novel that serves as a huge source of inspiration for "Skeleton Crew" (from the legendary treasure both the show's young heroes and the pirates are after to Jod initially presenting himself as an ally before revealing his true colors to the kids). In "Treasure Island," the song "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest" is not only a popular tune amongst pirates, but it's also a major clue as to the location of the titular location. Perhaps there is another verse to the Rennod song that holds a clue as to the fate of the pirate legend.

"Zero Friends Again" also brings back a pirate tradition in the form of walking the plank — or, rather, being thrown out of the airlock of a spaceship. It's a method of execution that's been used in "Star Wars" for years, particularly in "Clone Wars" when pirates and bounty hunters (particularly Cad Bane) threaten to chuck others out into the cold abyss of space. In "Rebels," though not technically a pirate, the war criminal Chopper is constantly killing people by throwing them out of airlocks like the twisted fiend he is.

More than space cowboys and outlaws like Han Solo and Lando Calrissian, who care primarily about themselves and tend to work alone, pirates are all about their crew, having fun pillaging and plundering, and are mostly just weird little guys like the werewolf Shistavanen Brutus (Fred Tatasciore) on "Skeleton Crew" or the Swamp Thing lookalike Gorian Shard on "The Mandalorian" (one of the best characters "Star Wars" has introduced in years). Space travel is an analog for sea travel, so it makes sense for the "Star Wars" universe to be full of pirates. If "Skeleton Crew" has proven anything, it's that there can never be too many pirates in outer space.

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