Skeleton CrewChildren get their first taste of a Star Wars staple last week when they learn that not everything around them is exactly in their best interest. So naturally, this week is about some of them getting a little closer to their bonds do existence, and putting them to the ultimate test. Which happens to involve a giant trash crab?
“Zero Friends Again” sees Fern, KB, Neel, and Wim literally thrown on the scrap heap after they narrowly escape Jod having to add “turning Anakin Skywalker on some young people” to his list of crimes of the pirate–and of course, being kids, the first thing they have to do is argue about what to do next. But there's something different here than the usual little spats this quartet gets into throughout Skeleton Crew for now: Jod's betrayal of them, as well as the intrusive reality of their situation when they find themselves truly abandoned as Brutus and his men drag 'Silvo' out of the world for judgment, the quarrels between their connection begin to show. This is especially true for Fern and KB, when the latter struggles to explain to the former why he didn't agree to a risky plan to climb a massive cliff to get back to their ship.
Why he doesn't make it clear as KB decides to follow Wim–who immediately decides that a nearby consortium of trash crabs is certainly lead them to someone who can help–in one direction, as Fern and Neel head for the cliffs. KB's augmentations were damaged by his time in a wet environment, slowly killing his motor function. Star Wars There has long been an interesting history with the depiction of cyborgs and the disability that parallels it, and more often than not that history was filledfrom the moment Darth Vader is referred to as “more machine than man,” to how often Skywalker's legs are removed. But in an incredibly tender scene–aced by Kyriana Kratter and Ravi Cabot-Conyers–as a drained KB guides Wim through the process of replacing his corroded fuses, we probably get what Star Wars' best view of disability and chronic illness.
Not only do we really see the reality of KB's lived experience of his upbringings–not just the immediate threat that the alternative without them is death–but his frustrations with the people in his life, especially Fern , trying to treat him as competent. of doing anything even though he clearly needs accommodation and understanding of his abilities as a person with a disability. It treads a fine line that all disability narratives have to walk, and avoids many of the pitfalls that can occur in those narratives. It wasn't about why KB was bitter about his augs, or about other people telling him what he should and couldn't handle: it was about him saying those terms himself, and people listening to him. Fern's desire to accommodate her best friend by telling her that she can do anything any child can do (including climbing a certain cliff!) doesn't match the reality that the KB of help and the space to set his own boundaries, and own struggles. to communicate that is a perfect match for Wim's own empathetic nature, allowing him to have that idea himself as he repairs his upbringings.
It's not a “very special episode” kind of moment but a real bit of bonding between KB and Wim, one that interestingly parallels the other team ups between the kids. So obviously we cut to this candid conversation about KB setting her own limits on Fern and Neel, with the former deciding that the only response to Neel's complaints that she can't climb as fast as she is to find a rope and tie it. they were together so that he could almost drag her along at his own pace. And there's even a parallel to Jod's plotline in the episode too–carted off to face Brutus' judgment and given pirate-code-mandated time to appeal a stay of execution, what Jod offers instead is a sales pitch about Attininstead of any serious or meaningful connection with his former crew, who infuses them with promises of loot and the dreams they've always dreamed of. The “zero friends” of the title may be a line from KB, fearing that if he's faithful to Fern he'll lose his best friend, but it's actually Jod:a lonely con artist playing one trick after another, while the children he left behind are more united than ever.
That means, after a giant crab almost ate them and a giant junk-slagging droid. It's a little odd to go from one big set piece to the next right at the end of the episode, but it's the crucible that allows these kids to really shine as a unit (especially after having a nice little that KB and Fern reunited). Together, and understanding each other's strengths, they can achieve the impossible–and do so not only when Fern and Neel save KB and Wim from the crab trash, but when they all climb the Onyx Cinder and managed to free it from the hands. of junkyard droid. Maybe not Star Wars if their reward for strengthening these bonds is a better mutual understanding, of course: to escape the droid, they must all trust that Fern knows what she's doing when she presses a button on Cinder's controls that SM-33 had told them never to touch, blew away the ship's haggard hull plating to reveal a sleek, shiny version of the vessel hiding beneath its grimy exterior .
They now get their chance to get home (thanks to the co-ordinates stored in KB's augs, of course), even though Jod and the pirates are looming on the horizon. But they can face it with a better understanding of each other, one that will encourage them to feel like they can handle the whole galaxy… which they might need at the end of it all.
Want more io9 news? See when to expect the latest Amazing, Star Warsand Star Trek release, what's next for DC Universe in film and TVand everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
