'Skeleton Crew' Episode 3 Deep Dive
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We are not going anywhere until you tell us who you are. Friends of Jack? Well, you're not going anywhere without coordinates. Hey! Stop! You wanna know who I am? Yeah? You wanna know? I'll tell you. I'll tell you who I am. Come on. On the ship. Tell us now! The truth! The truth! The truth! The truth! The truth! The truth is I'm just like you! Okay? I'm lost! I'm alone! But you are a Jedi, right? I never actually said that.

Greetings, and welcome to House of R, a Ringerverse podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory Rubin, and it is my absolute pleasure to invite you not only back to Port Borgo, but also back into the House of R. Joining me today, pointing out that that's not a Jedi thing.

that the Jedi say. It's Joanna Robinson Crimson Joe. Crimson Joe. I love that. I love that for me. Do you want to see a quick impression of me watching this episode of Skeleton Crew? Sure. Yeah. It goes like this. Crimson Jack, you're looking well. Very well. Very well. Very well. Very well.

Oh, wow. I didn't know I'd get to podcast with Kim today. What a treat. What a thrill. Fantastic stuff. Who could be better than to, you know, she knows her lore. It's true. She knows a good looking pirate when she sees one. Boy, does she. She is a bit of a narc, but, you know, we can't all be perfect. She called in the New Republic before Jack even knocked. That was tough. If you can't tell.

from the frankly impeccable impression of Cat Owl Kim that Jo just did and the, I think, in the first minute and a half of this podcast, 17 references we've already made to how hot Jude Law is. We are here to talk about Skeleton Crew, episode three, diving into this delightful little episode. But before we do that, before we comment on the very well-made fuel line, some quick programming reminders.

Over on the Ringerverse. Listen, next week, in the middle of the week, the Midnight Boys, pew, pew, will be with you to talk about Skeleton Crew, episodes three and four. Before that, there will be some Craven the Hunter talk. Exactly what form it will take, exactly what the timing will be. Some active discussions going on right now. Could there be a perhaps...

meeting of the minds to discuss this meaningful moment in cinematic history let's all find out together it's entirely possible listen Craven is incredibly important Mallory has seen it I know what Mallory thinks of it you do I haven't seen it I'm

I'm excited to see it. And then we will discuss it either amongst ourselves or with some other friends. Perhaps both. Perhaps both. Also on the Ring of Earth next week, Mint Edition, we'll be chatting about Sonic 3. This is a movie that is so important to Jomie. He changed his holiday family travel schedule to make sure he could do this podcast. So tune in for that here on the House of R. Jomie, a legend. Truly. At the top of next week, we will be...

acknowledging the film Craven the Hunter, we will be talking about War of the Rohirrim, which I have not seen yet, but I'm very excited to see this weekend. And then later in the week, we will, of course, be back to chat about Skeleton Crew episode four. You can't watch full-

video episodes of House of R and Midnight Boys on Spotify. You can also watch them on the Ringerverse YouTube channel. So subscribe if you haven't. There is a little holiday carol from Jomie and Alea and the entire team waiting for you on the YouTube channel. Check it out. Jo, I really liked your...

witchy did you yes i did the direction i was given was like be witchy now you know what you fucking crushed it you nailed it you nailed it yeah we have some notes on the on the uh witch's hat that jomie was able to uh to source i believe alia said something in the vein of it's giving pharrell but you know what this is interesting this is where we are uh your contribution was to joanna and checking that out or following any any of it what would you recommend

follow the pod. Why don't you just follow House of R, Ring of Verse, anything your heart desires.

You already mentioned the ringer verse YouTube channel. I just want to shout out quickly. There's a new ringer TV YouTube channel, um, where you can find content from the watch from prestige TV. Uh, Chris, Chris Ryan, Rob Mahoney. And I did a little like sort of holiday stocking suffer, uh, binge, uh, extravaganza recommendations video. Uh, Chris and I might be doing some like video mailbag stuff in the future. So ringer TV is a, is something you might want to check out on YouTube. Um, follow us on social.

on TikTok, on X, on Instagram, all over the place to check out all of that. Also, listen, you can email us hobbitsanddragons at gmail.com. We got emails about merch. We got a lot of emails to talk about. Not a lot, but plenty of emails to talk about today. But please send us your thoughts on War of the Rohirrim.

We're going to want to know all of your craven thoughts, obviously, quite clearly. But this is a really, like, Skeletian Crew is a really fun fodder for emails from folks because there's just theories abounding. We love a theory show. So send us your Skeletian Crew theories, thoughts and theories, or also your pirate thoughts and theories. I am not as well versed in pirate lore as I am in witch lore. So I do have some pirates that go. I have some pirates.

stuff go for the pod today, but like, you know, if you are listening and you're like, but I have a degree in piratology, or at least I owned that book, Piratology, that was very popular many years ago. You know, hobbitsanddragonsachievement.com is where you can find us. Fantastic. What's our spoiler warning today, Molly Rubin? Thanks for asking. Here it is. Skeleton Crew, episode three. Yes. Skeleton Crew, the television series to date.

Anything that's ever happened in Star Wars. Ooh, okay. Anything that's ever happened in Star Wars. Could come up. It's entirely possible that it could come up today. I mean, especially when Ben joins us a little later on. Yes, exactly. Exactly. All right. Those are the programming reminders. I hear that we'll warm up when we start walking. So let's pod. I don't have a head covering or a scarf, but, you know, stretch our legs. Let's pod. Let's do it. Hanukkah's mere days away. Joe,

That's the emergency hole demolition sequence, you fool! It's time for the opening snapshot. All right, Joe. Episode three. Very interesting. As an astrogation problem. Written by John Watts and Christopher Ford. Directed, once again, just as episode two was, by David Lowery. 39 minutes. Minutes including the previously on and the credits. So, you know, it's again like a zippy episode. Mm-hmm.

What did you think? Give us your amuse-bouche opening snapshot, quick thought, table setting review before we dive in scene by scene. What did you think of episode three of Skeleton Crew? As I mentioned last week, I had already watched this episode when we recorded one and two, but now I have not seen any more and we are all on the same page.

I really liked this episode. Like I was a little wobbly and wanted to, and then I saw this episode and I was like, here we are, this is it. We've got Jude, we've got kids, they're dynamic together. Uh, we're zipping around, you know, we were, I mean, it was really fun to go to the pirate port. That was quite fun. The promise of like what we get here when we go and visit Kim, um, and, and her, uh, entire workshop and all of that. Um, the,

the promise of Mandalorian esque sort of planet hopping to see people from, uh, you know, Silvo slash Crimson Jack's, uh, past across the galaxy as we try to make our way back to Atten is a really exciting, especially if it's as fun as, as Kim proved to be here. Uh,

And so I'm thrilled. This episode thrilled me. And I think this should be like the pace and the tenor and the tone. We're just sort of like, we're moving. We're having little beats for like questioning loyalties or trust and all of that. That's all baked into the premise of the show. But mostly we're just like, we're light, we're zippy, we're going, we're adventuring. And Jude is just really...

Not just extremely attractive, which you and I very well, which you and I like definitely agree. But he's just, I mean, like the thing about, you know, he's playing essentially Long John Silver. And we'll talk about Treasure Island a bit more as we go. But like,

That particular role, whether or not you've seen it in Treasure Planet or Muppet form or whoever, Charlton Heston play him or whatever, for Long John Silver, you need just charisma to spare because there's no reason anyone should trust this person. And yet they wind up doing it anyway. And that's the magic. I can think of one reason. Okay. Yes. This is definitely our hottest thing.

long john we've had outside of black sales and so um i think you know that's persuasive but judelaw just is an incredibly charismatic performer and so he's just like extremely convincing even as the kids very rightly are asking all the questions that we've been asking at home about like why on earth would you let this guy on your ship with you you met him in prison um yeah

You know, or even if you've never seen a version of Treasure Island, this is in the Captain Jack Sparrow model of just sort of like he's a pirate. He's going to betray you probably in one form or another. But you're going to have a really fun time while he does it. So, yeah, I loved this episode. What about you? Yeah, I also thought this was fantastic. Just incredibly fun.

energetic, entertaining. I mean, I really liked the first two and found myself quite charmed by the tone of the show and the coming-of-age kiddo adventure that our space bike riders are finding themselves on.

You sprinkle in some Star Wars lore mysteries. This question of Ad Atin, the jewels of the old republic. You add in an incredible new owl who is a treasure collecting librarian. And then the straw that stirs that Star Wars drink is Jude Law doing all of the things that you just outlined. It's like...

wow. That's just a good, that's a, you, you, you like to, you like when I break out the Baltimore accent to say brew. That's, that's the brew of a special holiday treat. So this is great. Yeah. I loved the pace of this episode. I think that adventure of the week Mando comp was on my mind as well. And, you know, in part, cause we got to like Brutus setting the bounty where I assume going to have this very active, this is also like, you know, very bad batchy and,

uh the the the hunt is on not only like the quest that our characters are on but they are being actively pursued and that's like an effective engine week after week i love what you called out about the prospect of meeting these new figures from whether it's jodd slash silvo slash crimson jack's past or like who we're gonna meet from maybe like sm's past maybe no one because that

The hatch was buried. Again, not the actual hatch, but the rest of the ship pretty deep. But maybe there are all sorts of possibilities for who we would come across. And yeah, I'm just having a blast. I'm really excited to keep watching and keep chatting about it. It's been super fun. So we are going to today go scene by scene through this really fun episode that gave us not only a lot to...

gaze wide-eyed at and a lot to enjoy but also a lot to talk about a lot to chew on and noodle on just really quickly before we get into the deep dive I want to say we got an email from our listener Sebastian who wrote in based on we actually got a couple emails from my question about like what's a pirate versus what's a smuggler but Sebastian came through with a Thrones comp and we love a throne we can't resist the Thrones comps this is what Sebastian said you only need to look to Westeros slash Essos for the best example of the difference between a pirate and a smuggler it's Davos Seaworth and his rowboat full of onions and

and a pregnant Melisandre ready to birth Stanny Jr. and Salador San and his striped galleys. So Salador being a pirate and Davos being a smuggler. I mean, I still think the line is fairly thin, but I do appreciate thinking about Davos the Onion Knight. So thank you for bringing him up.

Never a bad time to have Davos on our minds. Absolutely. I'm not thinking of Jod as really anything but the word that was invoked in this episode. Scoundrel. That's the true archetype that we're operating inside of. And we love a Star Wars scoundrel, folks. Love a scoundrel. We love it. Okay, Joanna. We learned something last week, and it was that we all have a place in the great work. It is time for The Deep Dive. Joanna. Mallory. This episode begins with some concerned parents.

in an eerily quiet town who have gathered in a frankly beautiful living room. Well appointed. My goodness. The architecture and the interior design on Ad Aten is really quite exquisite.

Together to talk about their missing kiddos. Wendell is so stressed out that we enter the scene through the muffled sound that is conveying the state that he finds him in. Neil's mom, Numa, last week we were like, we got to see the kiddos. Are we going to get to meet Neil's parents? Let me tell you something. One beat with Numa, I know all I need to know. She brought a soothing drink.

over Wendell in his moment of need. This is a person of character and quality. Okay. I know that. I mean, how could she be anything but having raised Neil? What's the most soothing drink I could bring to you if you were ever agitated? Because I know you like coffee, but that's not soothing. So what would soothe you? Might do it on the season.

Perhaps where we find ourselves. You know, I... What's the context? Is it this? Have my children escaped beyond the barrier? Halo has escaped beyond the barrier. Oh, no. And you are in a full-blown meltdown, agitated state. Oh, jeez.

I feel like anything I would bring you, you might just actually fling the cup away and just say, like, we don't have time for beverages. Nothing could soothe me if Halo were in jeopardy. I do enjoy a beverage. Perhaps like an Irish coffee. Okay. You know, like a warm, soothing beverage. No, no, no, no, no, no. Not decaf. Did you say decaf? I'm telling you, I'm not giving you caffeine if you're in a... I already said. No. I'm not bringing you coffee if you're in a... I need to stay sharp.

and dialed in to find my missing family. PAMELA NUMAH NUMAH would never. PAMELA NUMAH NUMAH knows what's best for you and she would bring you something probably turmeric based, I would guess. PAMELA NUMAH That sounds nice too. PAMELA NUMAH Yeah. PAMELA NUMAH That sounds nice too. I enjoy like an Erewhon smoothie. It's a different vibe. No free ads. PAMELA NUMAH You really would. PAMELA NUMAH

Yeah, like, okay, you want to give me some healthy things? Bring me my orange wine. Let's do that. I do love an orange wine, as you know. Perhaps a nice sparkling rosé or a sour ale to prepare for what awaits.

KB's mom's very worried. And we are too after what we hear in this scene, which includes the note that her life monitor has cut out. Now, at first when we hear this, we're like, beyond the signal, you know, the, okay. Oh, she's chipped. Sure. Right. Yeah. But then later, after the security droid arrives and everybody is rightly panicking in response to the, you know what?

We're not going to look for your kids or call anyone to ask about them. Very urgent medical needs.

I'm stressed. I am concerned! Protect KB. Yeah, yeah. Does KB need to be home and why? And will that add to our ticking clock of getting back to Aten, KB's urgent medical needs? I'm worried. I'd also like to apologize to KB and the fam for saying last week, basically, I would not, as a middle schooler, you know, become a cyborg. Maybe that had to happen. Urgent medical needs. Who am I to know or judge?

I mean, we also, since we, they believe she has urgent medical needs, but like we don't, we don't believe anything that any authority has said, not the parents necessarily, but like medical advice they might've been given on this planet. We're not sure that we trust any of it. Could be one more lie to just keep them.

Keep them abiding? Yeah. Interesting. What did you think of Farrah, your fave, saying, don't worry, the security droids will find them. They always found me and my friends when we ran away as kids. Missing the law-abiding undersecretary like I tried to run away when I was a kid. Yeah, and she was crushed under the heel of compliance. And here she's become a functionary. No, I mean, I think Farrah and...

Wendell, I mean, maybe the whole crew, but I suspect chiefly Farrah and Wendell are in for, uh, massive awakenings about both the systems, but also their relationships with their, with their own children. Um, I do want to go back to KB one second and just, uh, close the loop and say, I didn't mention this last week, but I think that, um, if we're thinking a lot about the Goonies as we should be, this, this would put KB in this sort of like data, uh,

slot on the Goonies team, which I'm sure many people have said. Anyway,

Yeah, Farrah, you have a lot to learn. But it gives us a timeline, right, in terms of, like, how long have they been under the boot on this planet? And we think generations. Oh, yeah. Literally generations, hundreds of years, perhaps. Sure seems like it. Yeah. On that front of the awakening, the epiphanies that await for Farrah and Wendell, surely at a minimum, right?

I really like this idea, and I'm excited for this part of it. This was something that we talked about last week. We got different scenes from Farrow and Wendell, different specific moments with their respective kids, but this...

of parents just don't understand. Parents just don't understand. Exactly. And, you know, this safety droid who wanders in, claims the supervisor, capital S supervisor, sent him, reveals the kids have in fact gone in the starship past the barrier and meets their questions, Wendell asking whether they will contact the Republic. We, of course, at home say, but which Republic does he meet?

I said it just like that. Just like that. I assumed exactly like that. But we're in a dream! Just like that. Farrah saying, I'm going to petition for an audience with a supervisor. Both of our heads went to the same place. This was on your mind last week as well. This like, are we heading for a Loki season one episode four timekeepers-esque sequence where we have these robotic figureheads for whatever true force is puppeteering in the shadows? Yeah.

Whatever the specific things are, this droid came in and said illegal, forbidden, and security action a lot and didn't say anything about making sure that their kids were okay. And so the idea of these parents and these characters doing the things their kids did that they were worried about. You've got to say tops in your class. You have to get every single question on assessment right tomorrow so that you can lock in your career for the rest of your life. It's their turn now to violate protocol, right? And try to...

go into space and find their kids? I mean, one can only hope. And this is a classic, this is another sort of classic 80s, I wouldn't say Amblin specific necessarily, but like, I'm thinking of like, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Like, often you have the parental figures, I don't know, great movie, but like, you have the parental figures sort of like,

who are more by the book, you know, straight laced or whatever, get sort of swept up into the adventure of whatever it is. And they get a, they reconnect with their childhood wonder. But then you also have the kids on the other side, gaining better appreciation for the protection that their parents offered them. Spoiler alert for the Goonies.

the Goonies ends with all the kids sort of reuniting with their parents on the beach and having this just sort of like, I cherish you. No, I cherish you sort of important moment. I understand you better. No, I understand you better moment. And so I think that I'm excited. You're not too old for bedtime stories, actually. Yeah. Yeah. So I was going to ask you this, like, we're, you know, we'll have Theory Corner later, but

This is kind of what happened with Agatha and often happens. Like the theory corner is just going to be inextricable through the discussion of the pod today, and that'll be quite fun. So on this front, what is your prediction here? Do you think that the parental figures will actually go off on an adventure of their own, or will they maybe seek to get –

put in a brig of their own, a prison of their own. And like, are the, is the reunion happening outside of Ad Aten or will it not be occurring until the kids make their way back? Like I was thinking about the mines again, the Proctor and the mines and one of those fables that we heard, those, those exaggerated stories from Fern last week. And like, if those are based in some kernel of truth, like,

Are Wendell and Farrah and the others going to wind up down in the mines beneath the school because they tried to go find their kids? I mean, I don't know that they'll be sent there, but I can definitely see them sort of like eventually once Farrah reaches the dead end with whatever sort of like official channel she's going to try to go down. I can definitely see these parents

snooping and sneaking around in file cabinets or whatever they need to, to, you know, meanwhile, back on that, we're uncovering some of the vast conspiracy so that by the time that Jude and the kids get there, which I'm presuming is episode...

six something like that we already have some information you know yeah unlocked about what's happening on the planet they don't have to just like start from scratch once they land there um which i think is more efficient hopefully more efficient or feels like it flows better than the unraveling of information in the acolyte which we found uh quite frustrating it's an amazing streak that we have going of mentioning the acolyte on almost every pod

I mean, it's our most recent Star Wars effort, and there are things that the Acolyte did extremely well. Like if Manny Jacinto wants to, you know, travel through time, don't get touchy with me about the timeline and being suddenly in this show as well. I would not say no, you know? Who would? He could just throw on a scarf and join June on his adventure. Sounds great. Wonderful stuff. Joanna. Yeah.

As the observations about Mandy Jacinto and June Law have established, you have a keen eye. Oh, and I love a frozen, to freeze a frame. You love a frozen frame. And you have a keen eye. This mural, we talked a little bit about the artwork last week, the things in Neil's garage and Farrah's living room that were catching our eye, these feel significant. This opening scene with the parents is,

It is unmissable that this is taking place in front of this mural. Now, Star Wars fans, we love a mural. We love the mural at the end of Rebels that was incorporated into Ahsoka. When something like this is painted, it is capturing a meaningful moment in a consequential group of people. The style of what we see here in this home is unique.

It's quite similar to what we will see on the scroll that Kim unfurls later, the presence of the orbs and the symbols and the figures and almost like the prayer, reverence, a reverential state. What do you think we're seeing here? Are these the founders of Aten? Do you think this is some other moment in time? What do you think we're looking at here? Yeah.

Yeah, it's, you know, I'm sure you might have been thinking about Hogwarts and I wouldn't blame you, but I was also thinking about a very recent thing we saw, Wicked, where we get the, like, sort of the propaganda of the wizard having found everything shattered. We see a literal mural of the actual people who founded Shiz at university. And so this idea of, like, mural as potential propaganda, like, this is a peaceful, like, we see, you know, many different people

people come together to found this planet. So is this propaganda or is there like Fern's tall tales, a true story underneath here? I want to shout out our pal Ryan Airy over on Screen Crush because he did a lot of deep digging on the Arabush that we see on the scrolls that Kim unfurls. And I want to read some of it because I think it helps us

partially the arabesh is tough to translate it's cut off in some places it's backwards in some places so this is a very incomplete translation of the scroll but this is what ryan and his team were able to dig up um quote the senate so deemed it good and necessary the republicans so founded wither and the families were nourished and upon them settled various republic financial but as the jewel so the great work and at the great work

The Republic with Tranquility and Kinship. People of many Republic. The wands of the worlds that were open. Republic and the Republic closed the hidden Eve. I would say probably I, but maybe Eve. Ninth Ad Aden founder. And this day where the great work was great worth. So there's a lot that can jump out here, especially Republic Financial. That's something I think about is this like planet Fort Knox. Like what are we looking at here? But the,

many people of many republic i kind of like this idea of like whatever these projects were with these nine planets these hidden in jewels yeah uh you know we're colonists sent and we made sure that we had some colonists from this planet and some call you know so we see right four different species or races on this mural including um you know uh neil's folks on here um is is

Was it an intentional sort of melting pot effort to seed these planets with colonists? Yeah. Yeah. We see an Ithorian, and obviously we saw an Ithorian kid in the class, so there's like a matching going on here. But who is this art nouveau Muka woman? What is this woman doing here? I don't know.

Wonderful question. Han Solo's here. Neil's folks are here. And then there's a Mooka girl. I have questions. Great stuff. I find that the, because we have in the scroll, we have the nine orbs here. We have the one, presumably this is the At-At orb and the nine jewels are reflected on the other. So this idea that like, because the symbol that we see here on the orb in Farrah's living room

is the same symbol, right, as the one on Fern's top of class badge. And so then thinking like, well, what did that... Please tell the class what you have called it. The Palmarish numeral slash electric guitar thingy. Yeah, the electric guitar thingy. Which I do believe if you look at Wikipedia is the formal name. Yeah, the electric guitar thingy. I think I just have because I see

seen a complete unknown twice in the past week and I'm basically obsessed with it and it's all I've been thinking about and have been spending a lot of electric yeah exactly I'm Dylan at this period I'm like it's all electric guitars to me oh my god they just blew the doors off the Newport Folk Festival doesn't it look like an electric guitar

Pete Seeger was very upset. Oh, poor Pete. He tried to grab an axe. The safety droids wouldn't let him. They really wouldn't. Oh, man. No, I guess the safety droids are probably the... Is that what... Do you think Neil's ancestor in his hand in the mural has an axe in order to cut the... Yeah, what is that thing?

Looks like an axe to me or a hammer of some kind or a shovel. A shovel? It's like obscured a little bit here by the couch. To dig evil little mines under which to trap people? To hide the parents when they try to look for their kids. There appear to be gaseous clouds here. And the question is, we could have

It could be the four founders or it could be the three founders. And this woman who looks like Galadriel or a Mooka woman, if you prefer, is like this is a very like Mormon, like sort of the spirit. The angel came down and showed them where to dig. And thus they found gold. I don't know.

Is Galadriel here? Is Galadriel here? Is Galadriel here? Oh, man. Great stuff. So, like, is that, if the symbol is in the orb that represents that at, and it's also on the badge that Fern got for being top of class, is that, and these are numerals, proto-Republic, is that one? Number one. Does that mean number one? Let's start building a, ooh, a numeral. You're not number, you're not top of the class in number nine, are you? No, no, no. Certainly not. As Wim knows. Okay.

Okay. Our listener, Corey, speaking of the couch that's partially obscuring the mural here. Corey says, I barely started the third episode and was immediately struck once again by the 80s homages. I noticed the conversation pit in the scene with the parentals. First, jealous. Love them. Want one. Second, I find it interesting that the theory they are, quote, stuck in time as the galaxy changes around them means the decor and the architecture is probably reminiscent of old slash high republic. Yeah.

That said, conversation pits fell out of style around the 80s. So in a way, the set is alluding to a fixation on or refusal to move away from other ideals and styles. Just a random thought. Anyway, conversation pits rule. Thanks for reading. Fun fact. This is me, Joanna, speaking. This is exciting. No, I mean, it's not that fun. But like my best friend growing up, her dad had the like her parents were divorced. Her dad had a lot of money and was like a divorced dad trying to impress his kids. And he had the coolest friends.

craziest house and there was like a koi pond in the foyer that a spiral staircase went oh it was just like and I would spend all my weekends there because of course her dad had like a koi pond in his house um and uh was there a conversation pit there was an incredible conversation pit a massive conversation pit and I definitely watched a bunch of like Ewok based entertainment not to mention Care Bears from that conversation pit so uh I'm pro I'm pro shout out Care Bears remember when you scratch their bellies and they would smell

No. Like a thing? Like a fruity? Was that not a thing? That was true of My Little Ponies as well. Maybe true of Care Bears. I didn't have a lot of Care Bears, but I did have My Little Ponies. I had one, like a pink one with a rainbow, I think, on its belly. I feel like most 80s toys smelled like faintly...

Like chemically fruity. Yeah, chemical cherry smell. My aunt had a conversation pit in her living room in Cross Creek, Florida. Yeah. And it was a cool living room. There was also a spiral staircase, though it was perilous. I always was worried I would fall down it. I never did, though. And had I, I would have fallen right into the conversation pit and that would have been fine. There was a multi-story laundry chute in this place that we used to hurl our little child bodies down. As like a slide. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. Did anyone ever suffer a grievous injury? Probably. Or was it pure fun? Pure fun. I definitely knocked the wind out of myself somewhere in that house, for sure. Joanna, it's time to go to Port Borgo so that we can escape from Port Borgo, which just reminds me more and more of nowhere with each passing frame. Yeah. It's bustling as Jude Law and the kiddos are trying to flee the brig. KB, reasonably worried.

I'm going to get spotted. You know, if I try to cross the hall here, I'm going to get spotted. And Jude Law, I will be referring to him throughout the podcast as Crimson Jack, Captain Silva, Jod,

And Jude Law, interchangeably, with frankly no rhyme or reason to win. John. I know John is just, it is a little too close to Jude, so having all the other names is helpful. Seems to use the Force to create a diversion down the hall, a familiar maneuver that we've seen from our Force users in the past. How'd you do that? Practice. Ah, but not everyone is as keen as having Jude Law on their party as we would be, Joanna. Fern's like, we haven't agreed on this.

Wim goes into what I will be calling Lilia mode, a character that we absolutely loved and adored and were just completely taken with by the end of Agatha. But for a few weeks there was in a real like, you've mentioned quite frequently that you're not a fan of how witches are portrayed in culture. And that's where Wim finds himself in this episode. But his version of it is just saying he's a Jedi like.

Four dozen times. That's where Wim is. Here's my question. Do you feel like, based on how the show starts and sort of based on some of the advertisement, would you not guess that Wim is our main child that we're following? I feel like this was a smuggle. Yeah.

And then, like, Fern is our actual, like, protagonist child and Wim is also here. You know what I mean? I'm sort of wondering what the balance will feel like week to week because this, we talked, you know, obviously it was a two-episode premiere last week, but we talked about how, like, KB didn't really have the same...

of impact and screen time as the other three kids all did. And certainly Wim had, you know, a lot and so did Fern. We left those two episodes saying that Neil was the most important character in the history of television. Yeah. I think KB had a lot of minute. In all of fiction. In all of fiction. In the history of story and communication of any sort. The written word, the spoken word. Yeah. Neil. Neil.

No. But KB was kind of like, this was sort of KB's episode. So I'm wondering if they'll each kind of have like an episode that feels like it's more theirs and they come to the fore. And then the balance feels fairly even at the end. But yeah, I mean, you know, Wim is at the front of the speeder brigade on the, like you said, all the posters and everything. And certainly he felt like the most central in the episode.

the kickoff. Or it might just be more of like a Luke-Leia Han situation where like Luke is our protagonist, but Luke is the least interesting of the three. I mean, that's always how it goes, right? Always. Yeah. The KB's contributions begin in earnest right away because KB is the one who voices here. One of the things that we talked about last week, if Jude Law could escape the brig at any point, why didn't he? Now he says here, Joe, why escape without a ship?

I would point out the hundreds, certainly dozens of ships parked in the port that he was able to easily reach one that he had no prior awareness of with this ferry. What would have stopped him from stealing one of these other ones? I mean, like, aren't they manned? Aren't they people on there? They're all getting fucking high in the port.

The port. Harder to navigate than like... In the booze with the chocolate. Well, when you go to shore leave, you leave a couple people on the boat to like guard the boat. But if he is actually a force user, he could best them with ease. We already mentioned that he is a very weak force user. So this is evident by the wobble in the key. Well, this is my question. Do you think like he just wanted company? Do you think that that's the truth given what we heard at the top of the episode in our opening clip? He waited the force provided for ragtag children for him to... I'm alone. Yeah. Yeah.

Fern's like, listen, if you're after treasure, we don't have any. Right. I really enjoyed how frequently in this episode the character said out loud the things that we had questions about, had made assumptions about. That's a very... Not only is it a rewarding way to kind of forge a tether between the audience and the story, it's like...

It can be frustrating when the absence of that is occurring and you're like, wait, why are they not wondering thing X? It's like it makes you feel like the characters are with it. They're focused. Right. They're not stupid. Like if we just want like, I mean, they're kids, so we wouldn't call them stupid anyway. We would say they're naive kids who have never been off their planet, never seen a star, you know, like whatever. They're doing their best.

But, like, when they're asking these questions, then we're like, okay, Fern is smart. Like, Fern is on it. And, like, it sucks to be far ahead of the characters that you're watching. It can be frustrating to watch them scrabble around and realize five episodes in something you figured out in episode one. So, yeah, for her to... For them to at least be asking these questions is really important. And it feeds back in... Again, I'm going to talk more and more and more about Long John Silver as we go through. But, like, it is so important...

To understand that John Silver gets it over on people, not even people who like don't see it coming. They've been warned. Right. And he manages to pull it off anyway. And that's what's really important. Yeah. About this character is just sort of like they need to be questioning it. If they're just sort of like, oh, great. They're all whims. Yeah.

It's not as impressive when Silver manages to do what he does, you know? Yeah, yeah. And I like that each kid is occupying a different place than on the... Like, they're all having conversations about it, so nobody has the it-never-occurred-to-me excuse. But, you know, Fern, even though KB and John have some really interesting moments in this episode, as do KB and Kim...

Fern is the one who Jod has to clock, right? He's like, you're going to call me out on my bullshit. You're going to be a problem. I'm going to have to figure out how to operate inside of this dynamic. Like right here, when Jod's like, that's not what I'm after. Then, of course, later in the episode, it's like, you know, I'll do the right thing, but if you should offer up a small reward.

All our wonderful stuff. Wim, of course, mentions again that he's a Jedi and Fern's like, very reasonably. We don't have a fucking clue who he is. We don't know if he's a Jedi. We don't know anything about him other than the fact that he is a – now, she did not say this, but we're saying very handsome –

Stranger who wandered up to them in a shadowy crypt with manacles on his feet and asked to see their ship. That's the extent of what they know about him. And then he made a key move, seemingly made a key move. That's it. With a very thin string. Very thin string. For everything you just outlined about how important it is for us to learn something about the characters with the kid group in terms of how they're responding to this, what they're asking when, why.

equally interesting for us to see how Jod responds to this because he doesn't miss a beat. He takes the opportunity that, oh, you don't know who I am. Let's introduce ourselves, right? His name is Jod Na Nawood, which rolls right off the tongue, and I will never be saying in full again. Jod Na Nawood.

You know, Jude Law's full name is David Jude Hayworth Law. One of the most English things you've ever heard in your entire life. Fantastic. Yeah, really wonderful. But yeah, John, John Law, Jude Law.

Okay. I like it. Presumably we have not heard his actual real name yet and maybe we'll not for multiple episodes. I have some questions. I actually think this might be his real name. You think this is his name? So we've heard three names for him. Yes. And there's ways in which I could convince myself that I've actually only heard two names for him because there's John Ono. Please clap. There's Captain Silvo. Yep.

Let's say he's Captain John Silvo because it's John Silver. Long John is a nickname. So it could be like Crimson Jack Silvo. You know, John Silvo, Crimson Jack Silvo. Like that could all be one piratey name. I would also be delighted by the idea of him having a different alias in every single port that we go into. That would be really fun. You know, a girl in every port and an alias for every planet. That's fun too. Hopefully.

Hopefully both. We'll see what kind of story we're getting. We'll talk later with Crimson Jack. You know, this is a comics character from Star Wars comic who's appeared at a couple different times in the canon, the 70s, and then more recently the First Order versus Resistance run. I got such a kick out of the Star Wars website, the Star Wars Instagram, all the official Star Wars channels.

sharing that history and then just basically saying, I'm paraphrasing at the end, and this guy's a fucking liar and that's not who he is. When I watched this before I could talk to you about it because you hadn't watched episode three, I was like Wookiee PD and Crimson Jack and was so excited when an article came up weeks ago when I watched the episode. I was like, this is a guy. Probably not the same guy. Because you look at his story, you look at how he looks and you're just sort of like, okay, probably not actually...

And different parts of the timeline because the 70s comics, Marvel, Marvel, Star Wars comics run like that's basically a new hope era. And then the other one is the resistance era, neither of which are this era. But still very, very fun. Plenty of people have brought up the idea of like the Dread Pirate Roberts as like a title rather than an actual, you know, name for someone. Yeah.

That also feels like, you know, you had posed that last week, right, about Silvo. And I really like this idea that that's part of how he's working and worming his way into a given group. Part of it might be just the greed of trying to assume a certain station. But also, like, thinking back to our questions about, well, wait, why are we, like, why is Jude Law in a helmet to start this show? Yeah. You know...

And perhaps that's part of how he's smuggling his way in to certain scenarios. The other question is, like, okay...

You and I come out of episode one and two and we're like, this guy probably isn't a Jedi. And then there's so much in this episode that you and I both sort of swung the other way. And we're like, actually, maybe he is a Jedi. He's at the very least, we believe, a Force user. What do you make of the theory that he was never made a Jedi, but he was a Padawan when Order 66 happened? That seems most likely to me. Yeah. So let's say he was a Padawan and they get one of Jude's very...

attractive children to play him in a flashback or something like that. Like, so he was a Padawan. So when he says at the end, like, I never said I was a Jedi, like he was never actually a Jedi, but he's still on the run in the way that a lot of the, the hidden Jedi that we have met across the galaxy, uh, we're on the run after order 66. So let's say his name is,

John Nava. That was his actual Padawan name or something like that. So Crimson Jack or Captain Silver or all these other names that he has or the helmets that he wears or the hoods that he puts up and all that sort of stuff is just to keep... Because he's been on the run since Order 66. Yeah. I think that seems likely to me. Even things like his...

Very Din Djarin-coated feeling about droids. We got the great little moment when he's going through the repair workshop where he briefly interacts. It's the third droid he interacts with. It's a B1 battle droid whose head immediately falls off. That's just such a Clone Wars tether. Like this question of whether his particular trauma and history with the forces, you know, of the Clone Wars era, et cetera. Yeah, that all feels...

That all feels right. I agree. I think the just level of like,

I like the Padawan theory because it would explain why he is so weak in the force. Like he never was like fully, he can like make a slight diversion. He can like make a key wobbly move through the air. Like he, you know, he has learned some of what it means to connect to the force, but he has a been disconnected, you know, in many, in many ways for so long and be never really got to a level where he was proficient, you know? Well, and also just like, if you're,

in hiding after Order 66 and you can't... Anytime you use the Force, it's at the threat of your life. It's at the threat of detection. So, you know, that would... A little rusty. Yeah, connect to why he wouldn't want to just...

And that's like a potential very clear answer to my question of why not just charge through Port Borgo using the force to beat everyone, right? It's like, because then they know you can use the force. That would be a potential thing you didn't want at various points in your life, whatever the equivalent of a Port Borgo scenario would have been for him throughout the years. So the charm with which he said after Wim and Neil shout their names and the girls remain silent, iconic. Now we know each other. Just this like devilish smirk.

Fantastic. So many great moments of the episode. That was one of my favorites. Yes. And what he, yeah, it's like so charming, but it's also like, this is what I've clocked about you. That Will and, Will and Neil will say, what, that's easy. That's going to be easy no matter what. You're in my pocket. Burn a KB. We got some work to do. You two are going to be the ones blocking my entrance to the Onyx Cinder at the end of the episode. Yeah, exactly. He does his best Han Solo impression by hot wiring open the barrier. Yeah.

Very amusing sequence where everything he does, Wim's like, you're using the Force, and builds a couple minutes later to when KB is the one who's like, hey, a probe droid is coming. We got to be quiet and desolate to the wall. And Fern's like, I guess she can use the Force too, huh? You fucking liar. And he's like, the Force is lovely.

wonderful stuff and to whim to continue to further ingratiate himself with that already very captive audience you know much of the force it's just a pleasure to watch this grifter and con artist work like it's just so fun and how how how do you well so all of that okay I'm going to talk about Long John Silver again the

A way that John Silver ingratiates himself to Jim Hawkins and the entire crew of the Hispaniola, like when they meet him in Treasure Island, is he claims that he was once part of the Royal Navy, that he lost his leg as part of exploits in the Royal Navy. So he's constantly talking about his stories of being part of the Royal Navy. So this like, this false...

you know, association with an institution that is venerated, you know, is, I thought, like a nice little parallel of just sort of like, he's an absolute fucking liar. He was never in the Royal Navy. He's a pirate. But, you know, if he says, I was once in the Royal Navy, I was once a Jedi. Again, Jod says later, God, Jod is such a bad name. Yeah. Sylvil says later, I never said I was a Jedi, right? But he is certainly...

uh, coasting on, on the fumes of Wim's expectations. Exactly. He's letting, he's letting Wim like print the legend for him and just rolling with it. And that's, that's working on that front on the Wim front. You know, when there's this great little editing moment in the episode where Jod chases after like the, the, the passerby and Wim is touting to his fellows, you know, championing the, the quality of the, the Jedi, right. Defenders of, of justice, justice,

Keepers of the Peace, and then we just audibly hear Jod pummel the dude he pursued and return with his blaster. Incredibly amusing. I have no notes. But, you know, we talked about this a lot last week. What is... Because Wim is a Jedi obsessive, right? He worships the Jedi, the idea of the Jedi. And where do you think now, one more episode in, this is heading? Is it that...

But given the particular character that Jod is, that if he does in fact – if he is in fact a Force user, has a tie to the Jedi Order or not, that Wim has to confront, okay, not all Jedi are like heroes to be worshipped. It's more complex than that. Or are we – or maybe not or, maybe also, are we building toward a more direct thing that Wim is going to have to confront about his hometown?

Obviously, anything he's confronting with Jod at this point is direct because they're on the same journey together. But, like, do you think we're building towards some reveal that the Jedi failed at Atten in some way? Does that feel like something that's going to be in the mix or not necessarily? Maybe. It feels like a lot. We only have a few episodes. We have to, like, figure out how to get home, all this sort of stuff. But maybe. But definitely, I mean, Wim is due for a rude awakening. I mean, like,

The way that Luke had to learn things about the way that the galaxy works and the idea of who his father is and, and all of that, you know what I mean? Like that's,

that's crucial the the in the same way that like fern's mom farrah has to learn like you know these institutions these ideals that we have put blindly put our faith in that the the four the fairy tales that we've consumed whether it's jedi legends on our ipad or you know whatever it is uh we learned in school about the supervisor um

what's the truth at the center of all that? And I mean, similarly to Jim Hawkins and treasure Island, who's like, it's important for him to learn that pirate adventure is not all it's cracked up to be necessarily. So, yeah. Yeah.

On the important to learn front, what do you think we were supposed to learn about Jod from the, should we go the way where there are a bunch of people or the way where there are no people and the kids want to go where there are no people? And he's like, it's going to be easier to blend in where there are a bunch of people. Is it supposed to show us that he's really savvy, actually? Like a left field, but innovative thinker? Is it supposed to just show us that he's like

and a thrill seeker? What did you make of that? That seemed more savvy than reckless to me. Yeah. Like, you have in our notes a reference to the Obi-Wan show and the scene where Obi-Wan... Well, you were talking about when he leaves Tatooine and just, like, walked past the guards without, like, obscuring his face or whatever. I can believe a lot, but...

Just pulling up a hood leading to people not recognizing Jude Law and Ewan McGregor is not a thing I can accept. I was thinking about when Obi-Wan smuggles Leia out under his coat in one of the worst things I've ever seen on... Like, the most comically dumb thing I've ever seen on screen. But a reason why...

The coat was more offensive to me than the transport, the earlier transport scene that you were talking about is he's just all alone in a massive empty, you know...

like gleaming off the black polished walls and floors space. And that is just so much more conspicuous than trying to make your way, making your way downtown through the, through the crowds here. I, I honestly thought the odder part of this in an episode that I broadly loved was the kids who had been very publicly arrested after a chase through Port Borgo, just like walking through the crowd again and everyone being like, okay,

Cool. That was sort of strange. Quite fair. Is it possible that Jodna is using some feeble, you know, these are not the droids you're looking for, force shielding of them through the crowd? It could be that. It could be that he's like, they're hitting the bong hard out there. They're not focused on us at all. The bevs are glowing. She would be right. Because it's not until he has to go back for SM33 that they have a problem. They get aboard. They get aboard.

the fairy. Listen, am I happy that our adventure is moving forward? Yes. Am I sad to, at the end of this episode, no longer be with our wee ferryman in Port Borgo? Also, yes. Wonderful stuff, as always. Did you see who's voicing him? The wee ferryman? Who is it? Sam Witwer. I mean, of course it is. I mean, of course it is. He's the Alan Tudyk of Star Wars. To be Maul and wee ferryman is just... Yeah.

I mean, it's the achievement of a lifetime. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that. You know? Oh, God. Joe, usually, because Fern says, and I was like, too easy. And as we just observed, it probably was. But I was, I kind of paused on this moment for a minute because usually in Star Wars, if Leia or another character dies,

says something like that, then typically, whether it's in the original trilogy or Rebels or anywhere else, what we build toward is you've been tracked, you've been followed, they wanted you to go. That doesn't seem to be what happened here. It's only when Jod goes back to get

SM-33 that they're found out. So did you think there was something more to this or no? Just again, Fern is like, Fern is the skeptic. Well, I mean, there might be a tracker of some kind on the Onyx Cinder that has yet to sort of reveal itself. We don't know one way or another. It might be why Brutus looks so unbothered. You think the Weave Ferryman is a rat?

You think he's going to tell you what I heard? I hope right now you're getting well, actually emails from being like, well, actually, it's not a rat. No, I know what you mean. I think that... Sorry. Well, surely they know what ship they came from, right? So they had so much time to slap a little tracker on that ship if they could make it their way through the stink cloud. But...

Also, I think it was a way to maybe like lampshade exactly what you're talking about, which is like, why would no one, you know, they're determined to lampshade everything. So when they're like, maybe it was a tiny, a very thin string that he used for the force. That was too easy for us to get through the crowd. Just on the heels of you, Mallory, being like, wasn't it too easy for them to get through the crowd? So if the show says it, then, you know. Okay. I like that. But we'll see. Jod.

On the way to the Onyx Cinder. He's not familiar yet because he has been in the brig, so he's not current on the latest Lego releases like we are. He's not familiar with the Onyx Cinder yet. He's very greedily like, which ship are we heading toward? Whim, real like,

yeah, my parents got me a car, but like, I don't really want to drive you to school because I don't want you to see it energy from him. Fern is just outright like, it's a piece of shit. KB adds in, it should not fly. And then Neil, always the best, helpfully notes that it freaks. The stench is unbearable. I just love these kids. This was such a charming little sequence. It was so great. And Jod is like,

It can't smell as bad as. And then he sees it, basically a gas plume in the distance. Yeah. What do you think he was going to say? It can't smell as bad as what? What Jon story were we just cheated out of? You think they smell as bad on the outside, you know? I love that. That would be another nice bit of Han DNA in Jon. I like it. Great one.

They're aboard. They're aboard, Jo. And Jod is like, you know, not that Wim needed another reason to love him, but he's basically like, let me just press every button and pick up little pieces of broken machinery and toss them into the middle of the bridge without any concern for the consequences of what I'm doing aboard this vessel. But it seems like he knows what he's doing.

As opposed to Wim, who's just sort of like this shiny thing, this leather. This guy's been around. This guy's been around. Yeah, he knew just how to tell Neil later. Yeah, I am going to ask you to fly a spaceship, even though you've never done it. Just like, you know, just jingle it a bit. Evade. Who needs driver's ed? You're good. Evade. Have you seen the, whatever the intergalactic version of Crimson Asphalt is? Then you are ready to go, my guy. Oh, wonderful stuff. He tells them where they're heading.

An old friend of his. I always love when anyone in Star Wars is like, I'm going to take you to see an old friend of mine. Expert on star maps, lost planets, that kind of thing. She's royalty. Kim, to me, she's royalty. Dude, when Kim said at the end to KB, call me anytime, I was like, thank God. Thank God.

They gave us a checkoff's call any time because I feel hopeful that that means Kim will be reaching out. Kim will return. Or KB will be reaching out to Kim and Kim will be back in the story. I'm not prepared to say goodbye to Kim. If Amy Sedaris can be in like five different episodes of The Mandalorian, we can get more Kim. This is exactly right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Though we do go to Tatooine more than...

We should. Kim's moon. At least to this point. Who knows? What'll change in the future? Neil, because he is the purest life form who has ever existed, asks about SM33. He's like, we can't forget about SM33. Thank God someone said this. None of the other kids said this. That's why Neil is our guy. The heart.

The same wise Gamgee. He really is. My God. Jod says, we're not going back for a droid. Later on in the episode, he will basically say, never trust a droid and you'll never be disappointed. He says, fuck a droid. Yeah. He says, fuck those droids. Puts his empty dinner bowl down and tells SM, clean this up. Woof. A lot of anti-droid stuff.

Not only energy, but outright moments and lines from Jod in this episode. We know a lot of droid racists in the galaxy. We do. We sure do. Fern, you know, never thought to mention that they should go get SM-33, even though he helped make her captain. She did not bring this up before Neil. It's true and fair, but also uses this as an opportunity to call out Jod once again and is like, I thought the Jedi never left a man behind. And...

I loved this because he starts to get impatient, starts to snap, and then catches himself. You're conning children. You're conning children. You got to con these children. Calmly says, first, it's a droid, which is very rude. But then, second, that's not a Jedi thing. The Jedi say. And I love that because even though he's quite unconvincing as a fake Jedi...

We don't, you know, we don't know ultimately if it is like a true charlatan act or if he is more of a, like a hustler and has the history that we're sort of theorizing that he does. And also like, he's right. This is like not a thing that we think about the Jedi. Yeah.

At all? Yeah. But it then made me think, like, was it? Like, is Fern just calling bullshit on him yet again? Or is this one more little data point about the moment in time at which Atten was frozen? Nice, you know, in the High Republic, perhaps, or the Old Republic, they would never leave a man behind. How many iPad Jedi stories do you think Fern has read? That's a great question.

Very few. I think very few. Yeah. Very few. She's reading the manuals on, on converters and how to brainwash her own droid. I was just about to say, now I'm thinking about how she is like the Lex from Jurassic Park. And that makes Wim the Tim who like has read all the dinosaur books and knows all the dino facts, but she knows that it's a eunuch system. So yeah, very important. Yeah.

Great stuff. The kids are like, fine, we'll go if you won't. And he, as he'll say later, like, you're the map to your planet. So he can't really let them out of his sight to head back into Port Borgo. He can only leave them out of his sight if he's going back to Port Borgo. So he does to find S-37-1. Close. Great stuff. And Neil, the best.

comes through in the fucking clutch. The clock is ticking down to zero. The game is on the line and he says, don't forget to look for the rat who lives in his eye hole. This is why Neil is a legend. This is why he is the best thing that has ever existed in all of his human history. And dare I say, perhaps before humans existed, there were legends of Neil. Later on in the episode when he's feeding Ratty with a spoon. Yeah.

That's the true Grogu-esque, like, most important moment in the history of television for me. That was just great. I'm sorry to say it. It might seem blasphemous. I think I might prefer Neil to Grogu. It's early. I mean... Neil's an actual character. So is Grogu!

Oh, Jo, what did you think of Beef? Speaking of actual characters, did Beef make an impression on you as Jod went back to Port Borgo and Beef was screaming in very Taserface fashion about how pissed Brutus was and how Silvo needed to be found? Did you like Beef? I didn't care that much about Beef one way or another, but I do care that you reminded me about Taserface, and that's very important to me, so thank you for doing that. Never was an opportunity to mention Taserface, nor did that Guardians film, so...

What do you think of this little sequence in the repair shop? We get a couple interludes with some droids. We have Ben Jarpranic entering the fold. Alfa Marlena. Voiced by Alfa Marlena. Yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful. A reminder that John Watts, of course, did the Spider-Man films. So could have, you know, been, hey, Al, I know you're having fun playing Doc Ock, but do you want to be in a Star War? And he said yes. And he said yes. Yeah.

Ben Jarpranic. Yeah. I don't know if this is the exact... I'm just on the lookout for Treasure Island names at this point. But Ben Gunn is a famous associate of Long John Silver in Treasure Island. And so here we go with our Bens. Ben... I liked this because Ben narks on him. Yep.

but also very obviously likes him. Prefers him. Yeah. Just like clearly enjoys him. And so it's just sort of like, though he, so what that means to me is that there's potentially a future where Silva sort of in, you know, entices members of his old crew to come join his new cause, right? They're loyal, they're loyal to him in their hearts. Yes. And,

I think that'll be important. Yeah. Hopefully, you could hire Alpha Molina for one scene or you could hire Alpha Molina to come back and do more things in Star Wars and why wouldn't you? That'd be great. Yeah, he like tries to entice him with the big score I always talked of and who knows, like you said earlier, how many other figures from his past were going to come across. Like, he went, he sought out Kim knowing that she was

had him on her shit list. So no history, however fraught, is going to stop him from seeking what he needs from anybody. So there are going to be a lot of opportunities for moments like this. You know what she didn't do that is one of my favorite staples that you see in Willow or Pirates of the Caribbean or whatever is like, he's going to meet some hopefully woman, man, whatever, I don't care, goes up and talks to his wife and then just gets slapped in the face. You know what I mean? The sort of like,

so-and-so, I haven't seen you in so long, blah, blah, blah. It's been ages. I can't wait. It's so good to see you. And then just get a hearty crack across the face. And then we get the spin of his face towards the camera and that sort of jaw moment. I'm praying for it. We didn't really get to luxuriate in Kim clawing and batting at the top of his head as she's escaping from his blaster fire. We didn't really get to enjoy that. She doesn't have the anatomy for slapping. And I appreciate the scrappy clawing, but I need an open palm slap. Yeah.

I think that is what I deserve and you deserve as well. It could happen as soon as next week. I'll be thinking of you if it does. Talents crossed. No, they can't be crossed. They need to be wide open. Wide open for slapping. For that slap. This season on Naughty Yotta Island. When we were new, they spoiled me. They even gave me a phone. But then it's like I didn't exist.

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IBM, let's create. John flees after this encounter with Benjar. And as the fairy chase is ensuing and he is making his way back to the cinder, we get a great, genuinely great moment with the kids. We cut back to them and they're debating what to do with the new member of their party. Can we hear this clip, Mike? He floated stuff. There's a million ways to make it look like something is floating. Name one. Repulsor lift. Tractor beam. Magnets. Mirrors. String. String? Like, really, it didn't string.

Joanna. Last week we debated which of the kids was most like us. Fern listened to your string insights on House of R and just did this on Skeleton Crew next week. This is just so fun. Like, this was so fun to hear. I absolutely loved this. Did you enjoy this moment? I loved it. Like a really string. String!

It's like, yeah, that's what we were saying. String. It could have been string. The other thing on the Fern front that I found really interesting in this moment was how she just assumes that KB will force a tie with her and the boys, right? She doesn't want Jada to go with them. The guys do. And she never asked KB what she thought. She

She just said, it's us against you. And then KB's like, I, you know, and we'll see that KB really mistrusts him throughout the episode, but she's like, we're kids. Like, we can't do this on our own. And not only was that interesting inside of this specific discussion, more broadly in a coming of age story, like this is always such a rich text, but

The assumptions of young friendship and like, you're going to side with me no matter what. And it's like, well, actually I'm becoming my own person too. And like, when do those things kind of heighten each other? And when are, when do those, those people find themselves then in conflict with the person who's their best friend, who they thought they could count on. So I, this made me excited for like more, not that I want the kids to be at odds with each other, but I do think that like kind of has to be present in a story like this. And it can't just be,

Fern and KB versus Neil and Wim. It has to be Neil being like, you told me we weren't going to get in trouble. And like, this is so bad. He has to be the one saying that to Wim. We're in so much trouble. Yeah. And KB being like, actually, I don't just like think the thing that you think because you think it. I hope for more moments like this. It's very Goonies. This happens like throughout that movie of just sort of the like,

breaking apart and reforging of various alliances. Yeah. Anything about the actual escape of the Onyx Cinder that you'd like to comment on? Yes, I would. Thank you so much for asking. They're caught on fuel lines and it's a, you know, it's a very well-made fuel line, all this sort of stuff like that, which is just like, there's so many moments. Again, this is more pirate stuff go. There's so many clever moments where,

that John and Christopher have figured out how to work in piratical tropes. So like the fuel lines... Piratical, just wonderful. Well, it's like these are the mooring lines of the tall ship. You know what I mean? It's just sort of like, you know, if you've seen Pirates of the Caribbean or anything else, it's just sort of like, oh, we're still moored to the dock. What are we going to do? Hopefully take a hatchet to the line and cut yourself free or something like that or just really go for it and snap it. But like,

to go back to the, is it deterion? Is that what they are? The, the, the credits, uh, batteries. Thank you. Batteries. Um,

Like, I don't think we, I don't, I think I forgot to mention on the last pod, like, these are, these are just, like, perfect gold doubloons. Like, these are golden doubloons, like, and very specific ones. Again, to say Pirates of the Caribbean, but there's a million versions of this. Like, in Pirates of the Caribbean, those doubloons are marked with a specific thing so that you know it came from the...

bootstrap bill and the treasure and all of that sort of stuff. And so like the these particular ones are Marcus in time. Right. But it is still like these are doubloons from a store of treasure from a tall tale you know that they only sing about in pirate shanties. But I just love the way that they're working in again these like very pirate hallmarks inside of um

A galaxy far, far away setting. Delightful. Wonderful. Are you familiar with the pirate ship at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Stadium? No. I'm going to send you some

Some clips. There's this cruise you can take on a tall, like a real tall ship around the Maritime Islands. And I've always wanted to do it. What's stopping you? I don't know. Let's go. Let's go. What's stopping us? Just want to like. The answer is nothing. Sing shanties and go around the Maritime Islands. To be clear, I'm not. I'm not.

as into pirates as I am into witches I'm not pretending I am always like knowing everything about pirates I'm not but like a tall ship in the maritime islands sounds incredible to me what would your pirate name be oh I thought it was Crimson Joe do you like that do you want that to stick I do fantastic what about you I think Mal is Mal really lends itself to something piratical yeah

Yeah. Maroon melt. No, I don't want to be marooned. I don't want to be marooned. That's not a vibe I want as a pirate. It's a boat's ill for my vessel. All right, we'll noodle on it. We'll noodle on it. Should we do the next Delta Crew episode dressed as pirates? Hobbsanddragons.gmail.com. I feel like I need both. I can't patch it up. I need both eyes for this particular endeavor. Speaking of outfits.

It's mealtime and it's clothes shopping time with John. This is a remarkable sequence in the history of television. The kids boot up SM33. We get a very now familiar exchange about whether they can trust John. The only difference is that he is like in the foreground of our shot. And so they can't see his expression as they are talking about these things, but we can. It was interesting to like observe him in that moment. But yeah,

We can't possibly linger on that because we have to talk about the next thing that happens, which is that he moves back into their midst, holding a bowl.

That he is stirring up and absolutely housing a meal. Another Guardians vibe here. This like kind of like blue jello, like quick snack. I was thinking of, oh, I guess it's piratey as well. I hadn't thought about that, but in Hook, you know how they like eat the like cool whip that is like brightly colored. Great call. Man, I should rewatch Hook soon. I love that movie. Neil's stomach, much like us at the end of a long recording often.

I was like, I have been where Neil is, audibly rumbling and groaning as they all sit there ravenous. Remember, they didn't get to enjoy the lobster gut noodles. They had to toss those onto the open flame to attempt an escape. True.

Now I want noodles. John, at the end of this, sounds fucking great. John, at the end of this, will be like, there's more. But he waits until he has finished his meal as they sit and watch him. I just thought this was perfection. I have multiple things to say about this. One is a reference that I'm really excited to share with you, a newfound common ground. And the other is...

Yet again, a Treasure Island reference. Well, let me ask you, if you were to guess what Long John Silver's role on the ship, the Hispaniola in Treasure Island is, what would you guess it was? Is it Cook?

He's the cook. He's the quartermaster. And there's this line that he has, at least in the Christian Bale film, where he says, come lad, I expect you're hungry. A person like you is always hungry as sharks. So like this idea of like nourishing and feeding and sort of providing, which made me think of, I don't know if you've heard of this TV show, Survivor, but...

It's Survivor. Let's fucking go. Cook Islands, which is a very piratey season of Survivor. You've got Rupert, right? Who's just like fishing up a storm. This is one of the best moments of my life. Fishing up a storm and providing to make yourself...

To ingratiate yourself, to make yourself the provider of a group of hungry castaways is a very powerful thing you can do on any season of Survivor, but maybe very specifically on that one. Or in Lost, John Locke goes into the forest to hunt boar because he is a provider of food for the tribe. Blue goo is no freshly caught fish or boar from fresh out of the forest, but it is providing...

for these children and sort of luring them in that way, the same way that John does with poor hungry Jim Hawkins. I love that. Come lad, I expect you're hungry. A person like you is always hungry as sharks. You know what I mean? Like hungry for adventure. Let's go. Yeah. Wonderful. If you were on Survivor, would you try to use the fishing gear to go catch fish?

No, I would be that dummy in Cook Islands who loses the tip of the spear somewhere in the ocean. Spear fishing seems really hard. Not as hard as when they just have to use the nets, but really, really, really hard. I might be able to net something. I would try to use the machete to open a coconut, but I think that would be the extent of it.

I'd be bad at it, but I would try to learn. I could definitely pry muscles off a rock. That's something I could do. Yeah. If you had the, if you got the chickens at some point, would you just let them lay eggs? Oh, you gotta let them lay. Yeah. You gotta let them lay. Long-term investment. Yeah. Why would, why would you? Such an interesting test of patience every time it happens. Yeah. When they cook the chicken, you're like, but why?

One thing that happened in the current season of Survivor that's airing presently is that I'm sure this has happened. I could not remember ever seeing this. At a challenge where there was a bag of rice as like a weight element,

And it was a time element. It was cut open, if I'm remembering correctly, and the rice was pouring out and they were racing against that. One of the contestants took grains of rice and shoved them in her pockets to try to bring food back to camp. And I was like, this is the most inspired thing I have ever seen. And then Jeff was like,

Rachel, did you put rice in your pocket and made her take it out? And I was like, you should be rewarded for that. Let her keep that. Yeah. I feel like that's the exact kind of thing that Jeff likes. I know. It's like ingenuity. That's exactly the word I was about to use. I couldn't believe he didn't let her take the pocket, the filthy pocket rice home and try to boil it. Yeah. Anyway. She's trying to provide for her tribe. Yeah. Great stuff. Wonderful stuff. You need food. You need clothing. Yeah.

And I'm curious who Jod reminded you of more as he took boots off a dead man. The Hound or Isildur?

This is like, I'll give him the Isildur bump. Why not? All right. Took a knife. He seems thrilled to have it. And then SM comes in and confronts him. I love the moment when SM, because John is talking to his shit. He's talking to his shit. And SM made himself tall. And then John was like, friendly tap on the shoulder. Yeah. Did you enjoy when SM felt compelled to peek back around the corner another time to tack on one more eye? Yeah.

directly after saying I won't repeat myself. This is the moment I put in my notes here, but I couldn't remember if this is the exact scene. Is this where SM says again, can't say I remember no at Adden? Yes. Okay. Yes. Let's talk about this for a second.

He says word for word. Yeah. The exact same thing he said before. Can't say I remember no at Atten. In a way that to me sounds programmed. Yes. So. Yeah. A couple questions. Yeah. Has he been like programmed? Not I don't know where at Atten is. It's I can't say I remember no at Atten. It's also a double negative. So I'm always on. But it's very piratey to double negative. But.

But if we want to look out for linguistic traps, let's just note that there's a double negative here. Can't say I remember no at Atten. Yes. But can't say, because I've been programmed not to say, that I know where Atten is. And it's just the way that he says it, the exact same way that I think pinged it. Great observation. Yeah. And you asked last week, like, how we thought Fern's aptitude around droids would come into play. Like, maybe that's the way. Also, KB's...

tech savviness could be how they break through whatever programming. Right, because KB also can talk to technology. So maybe she can access something. Or maybe perhaps...

Our good old eye rat will chew through the right wiring inside of his head and unleash this information. I mean, ratty is full now because this is when Neil feeds him, but he's going to need another nosh at some point. Yeah. So in this scene, we cut back to the kids. They're snacking. They have a fascinating conversation. Like, well, wait.

is there a treasure back home? This was like much like when Elrond was like, well, according to lore, this is just a real Neil has the formal invitation to come on House of Armon because he's like, wait a minute. Let's like look at the facts. What do our parents all do? Okay. What are they analyzing exactly? He says, as we did last week and everybody, the whole internet was talking about like, well, maybe the treasure has to do with the great work.

He's trying to piece it together. There's the fun little moment where they're like, wait, does it have something to do with money? We talked last week. We were clocking the volume of...

math and counting and metric driven moments on that. Yeah, we have a rule, no math. Couldn't be me. No math. No math. But it leads to even Wim is like, shit, I better cover these credits with this bowl. So this is something we're going to talk about later in the corner with Ben, but what do you think about all this?

Before I say that, Wim covering it with a bowl and then Neil tipping his bowl over to make it look less suspicious that Wim has done so. It's the best partnership. What about? I love this so much. He's wonderful. He's wonderful. How worried should Neil be? And how worried are you if this is, in fact, a funding center?

What those funds are going to be applied toward in this stretch of the Star Wars canon. This also reminds me, like, so if this is funding the First Order, and we'll talk a bit more about this with Ben, but, like, if they're funding, if they are a money planet, surely that's not how they started, according to ancient scrolls, you know, that Kim will roll out with her talons a little later on. But, like, surely that's not how they started, but maybe that's, you know, they were taken over. It reminds me a lot of...

This is a dumb comp. I'm sure there's better comps. But I was thinking about the television series Alias, where we meet the spy Sydney Bristow, and she believes she's working for the CIA. But she's actually working for SD6, which is a villainous organization. Don't worry, that's not spoilers. That's the premise of Alias. But she and everyone she's working there with

thinks they are employed by the cia and they're like we're working with the cia uh and they're doing all the things that they're doing but they think in the name of the cia and the u.s government and so like if everything if all the analytics or whatever is happening all the abacus crunching uh that's happening on um on at aton is um they think for the great work and for the republic but it's actually for the first order yeah but the first order is like why bother like

You know, yoking them to sell them a sell them a false narrative, sell them a dream and let them think they're working for good. And then we don't even have to worry about keeping them in line because the story keeps them in line. Right. We're bastardizing the original intention and mission of this place. And they just have no idea. Right.

Sheesh, it's going to be a tough one for Farrah to have to confront. Possibly. Boy. It's a theory. Hold them loosely. Hold them loosely. Hold it loosely. Hold your pillow loosely, too. It's time for bed. Fern's like, I'm not tired! And then immediately we cut to her snoozing. But we in this stretch get...

Second on the list after Neil feeding Ratty, the most important moment in the history of television. Mike is producing for us today and he has kindly doubled the length of this clip so that we can hear it twice. Mike, can we please hear this? It is, of course, unmistakably the sound of sweet Neil squeal snoring. Just...

I feel like this moment in Skeleton Crew is, like, the most... Like, the epitome of House of R because we get... Oh, my God. ...jawed in, like, this...

slutty blue shirt uh you know with some like chest hair fantastic peeking out so like a slutty shirt for jod and then like an adorable critter snootin and snoodling and snoring all of our greatest passions it's it's everything we are you know wonderful the the little dusting like a constellation of stars of chest hair is my favorite the blue i feel like i've never seen stars before

It's like when Jorah got a new shirt. Oh, my God. It's an exciting day. Remarkable. Yeah. Like when he finally got the little, you know, the teal of the little neck cloth. The neck cloth. The color. It's the next great stuff. KB is awake, though. And KB and Jod have a...

It's an excuse to get us to talk about Han saying, never tell me the odds, right? They have a little conversation about calculating the odds. I calculated the odds, KB says in response to Jod pointing out that she does not trust him. Not everything in the galaxy can be calculated, he says. Sometimes you have to trust your gut. Now, later, Kim will just say to KB, like, did he tell you to trust your gut? So we get the sense that this is a move of his, right? This is part of how he maneuvers.

But the way that he said not everything in the galaxy can be calculated, there was a somberness there that felt a little bit distinct from the energy we get from him elsewhere in the episode until, of course, the like, I'm also lost, I'm also alone moment later. Felt like a real I have been through some shit and my worldview and my code have been forged in response to that insight, however fleeting. And he looked great doing it. He did look great. It's time to go meet Kim.

They fly to a moon that is in the shadow of the swirling white and blue and purple of this planet. And there was a little moment where Wim is coming down on a cargo lift and Jod is basically like, this is his version of Wendell being like, aren't you too old for bedtime stories? Like he's like, stop fucking around, which made me sad. And I wonder if there will be more moments like that that lead to Wim feeling a little bit less enchanted with him. We're treated to another. What does he say?

What does he say to him exactly there? It's like, it's a, it's a cargo lift. Like, just makes him feel kind of bad for playing, for engaging in playing. What are you doing? We're playing. It's a cargo lift. Come on. Okay. Yeah, I hear what you're saying. It's not, it's not, please stop touching those buttons and those levers, which is what everyone is saying. It's slightly different. It's a whole

What's you fool? He, K-Boo points out, it's pretty chilly here. It's brisk. And Jude Law sweeps a scarf around his head and ears for warmth and then tells the kids, like, get to walk in and you'll warm up. But a cover match wishes. His Sherlock wishes he could. Oh, man. This was sensational stuff. You know, they do this, like, beautiful walk across the lake of the moon scape and stuff like that. That's incredible. It's giving...

It's giving Stand By Me. It's giving all this other stuff. It's giving Hakuna Matata. It's giving whatever you want to see. Oh, yeah. But also the shot of him outside of Kim's door. That's the first promo. That's like the main promo shot you've got. That's right. Yeah.

The lower of the... Skeleton crew. Yeah. Yeah. We've been waiting for it for years. We truly have. It has been a long time since we glimpsed that and the shot to the top of the hype meter. He has this, like... He obviously doesn't trust her. He tries to position it to the kids as, like,

I don't trust her. She might stab us in the back. You know, oh, no, not literally like you'll understand when you're older. But really, it's like he knows that she doesn't trust him. So he's prepared for conflict because he knows what standing he will be found in. And before we even get to meet Kim through Crimson Jack's eyes, we see her call in the New Republic to have him arrested. She's like, did he kidnap these kids? Like, this is not a person that she holds in high esteem.

I want to mention Kidnapped really, Kim and Kidnapped really struck me because like, so Kim, which has a Y but not where you think. But like,

A proud Disney Plus tradition. Great one. Kim made me wonder. So Kidnap, I mean, Kidnap is just a word you can use, but Kidnapped is also a Robert Louis Stevenson boys adventure book. And Kim is the name of a Roger Kipling boys adventure book from like a similar time period. So I don't know if they were trying to like invoke Kipling and naming this owl cat Kim with a Y, not where you think.

I was just like, I was like, oh, Kim said kidnapped and we're in Treasure Island. And these are all sort of like boys adventure. It's something, you know, I've been obviously digging into my Treasure Island lore to prep for this and something that I saw someone like analyzing the character of Long John Silver in a way that really struck me is Robert Louis Stevenson, of course, also wrote Jekyll and Hyde. And so this idea of like the duality of man, Long John Silver is such an

such a compelling character because he like does have a genuine soft spot for Jim and does have like genuine, like he's not just a villain sort of thing, but he's, and you, and you just kind of like can't always parse the motivation for what he's saying. And he's similar to like what we love about Loki. Yeah. There is like genuine heart there, but there's also constant schemes there. And, uh, yeah, the sort of like Jekyll and hiding, uh,

you know, prototype, I think is really interesting. I love that. I also loved when he lowers his hood and Kim said the thing that you opened the pod with, like, you're looking well. Very well. Very well. I also wonder, okay, so the...

You wrote in our notes, and I thought of this as well, the Avatar. There's the owl who is the librarian in the library, in the hidden library in Avatar, the last airbender. I was also thinking about Archimedes from the Disney animated Sword in the Stone. And then also just the way that Alia Shawkat, who voices Kim, is

She sounds, are you, were you, you're not exactly my age. Were you a watcher of the dark crystal? Did you watch the dark crystal? Hmm.

Not really. Okay. Yeah. So towards the beginning-ish of The Dark Crystal, our gelfling hero, Jem, while he's on his way off on his adventure, encounters this wizened old woman named Augra, who sounds a lot like, you know, she was like, a thousand years ago, that was a great conjunction. That's when the crystal cracked. That's when the Skeksis appeared. You know, like, the voices.

that Aaliyah Shawkat is doing here is so Agra-coded to me. And there's a moment in... So he follows Agra into her sort of like...

workshop and there's a moment where he walks in and there's this like huge astrolabe like moving around stuff like that and it just like reminded me a lot of them walking in and Kim's on her like sort of whirling telescope sort of contraptions stuff like that so I was wondering while we're in the 80s mood if we are doing a little dark crystal along with everything

I love Agra, one of my all-time favorite puppets that has ever existed. Sensational impression that you just ripped off. Right off the dome you did that. That was great. She's quite a character. I love the Dark Crystal. My dad used to do this really scary impression of the Skeksis that would, you know, Skeksis is very terrifying. Did you get any Citadel Library vibes from this when she flies up to get the scroll later? Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Citadel leads to me as well. We're always invoking astrolabe. If you're ever invoking astrolabe, I'm going to think about this. How could you not? For sure. How could you not?

On the long list of things that establishes Kim is just an instant icon. I think her saying, you've brought some children, why, Jack, they aren't all yours, are they? Has to be high on the list. Yeah. This was frankly remarkable. Once again, Kim is also excited for the open-hand slap that is surely awaiting Jack in one of these courts. She can't wait. She's like, I could try it with the wing, but it wouldn't be as effective. It wouldn't. What do you think the history is between them? Because he's like...

I know I left it in such a mess between us. I couldn't come back until I had something really special. Did he fuck her on a score? Did he fuck her in some other way? Like, did these two fuck? I got some vibes. Do you think these two...

I bet if we asked you, I bet if we asked you law, he would say yes. I felt that there was a past between them in many respects. In many respects. Very, very Marian in Indiana Jones sort of situation. Yeah. Did you notice? Did they take, did anyone tickle an elbow at any point? I didn't clock it, but did it happen? It could have. It could have.

You know, she's got gadgets and gizmos and plenty of trinkets and tokens from a thousand different worlds. It feels like you stole something from her. That's what I would guess. Yeah. Yeah. Either not bringing her something that they had agreed he would bring her or stealing something, feels likely. Do you want a Kim spinoff to learn how she got the trinkets and tokens from a thousand different worlds? Feels like something we deserve. Yes. Yes. I agree. Our listener Jenny asks, asking the important questions.

Just checking to see if Mallory gassed as loud as I did when we first saw Kim. Kim is everything. And yes, I already checked. And there's a Funko Pop. And yes, I already bought it. Wow. No free ads for Funko. I had not looked into the Kim Funko Pop yet, but I know what I'm doing when the pot ends. I'll tell you that much. But maybe hold off. Adam, if you're listening. Also hold off.

No, no, no. I didn't get you, Kim. I have something else for you that I'm very excited about. I'm not buying you. I already bought you a Funko Pop this year. I feel we should cap it at one. You did. You got me an incredible Funko Pop, though. Like an all-timer. What did I get you? You got me the Viserys with the gold mask. I know. It's like the best. I just wanted you to tell the listeners what a good friend I am. You're wonderful. It's a cherished possession of mine. I absolutely love it. Adam, you have time to... Yeah.

It's true. Wrap him up and put her under the menorah. So isn't it on Christmas? He's got a couple of weeks. He's got a couple of weeks. All right, Adam. Get on it. Don't say I never gave you anything.

Adam doesn't need my help. Adam's the best gift giver that's ever existed. Well, he's, I would say, the second best gift giver in this household, but he is a great... We're very competitive, as you know. We get very competitive. I do know. Very competitive about the gift giving. He is a great gift giver. I don't get photos of Adam's haul. I get photos from you of your haul, but you...

That's true. This year at Hanukkah, you should do a photo of Adam Paul so I can see, I can judge who's the better gift giver. Oh boy. Okay. That's a great idea. Now I feel a lot of pressure. This is good. This is the fire under my ass that I needed. Make a boast, a claim like that. You got to back it up. It's true.

It's true. As I've told you before, I think I'm like 85% really great gift giver and then 15% this is just something I want for myself. Like when I signed him up for a wine club and he was like, yeah, this is not for me. So I would like to go back and say I think that Adam is the best gigger in your household. I don't think he's buying endless shirts in your size for himself. You know what I mean?

It's true. Do you guys work on the Legos together or is it a solo project? We've tried a couple times. It hasn't gone well. I know that'll shock you to hear. I know that'll shock you to hear. Well, it will last like six minutes and he's like, just fucking by yourself if you don't want me to help. I'm like, cool, great. That's sort of the outcome I was hoping for. Oh, man. Yeah. Oh, my God. I can see it now. Oh, wow. Amazing. Oh, God.

Kim, she asks what the kids are there for. It's not to build Legos. It's to find Ad Adin. And she basically does the dragon screech sound effect and vanishes and comes back with the scroll. And she drops a doozy on us. Mike, can we hear this? Ad Adin is very interesting. As an astrogation problem. Is that enough? No, my dear boy.

You see, your home has been purposely hidden from the rest of the galaxy. There is no map to Atat'in. No, this scroll depicts the jewels of the Old Republic. Planets of wonders kept hidden for their protection. Long ago, they were all destroyed, except for one. Atat'in.

Now only remembered in children's stories, pirate shanties, and rumors believed by fools. But I've always believed. Great stuff.

What do you make of the fact that our babe Kim has like literal scrolls? Because you don't see scrolls a lot in Star Wars. Yeah. So it's a more digital pursuit typically. Yeah. We're looking at data files and like, you know, digital archives. So this is like old, old, old. And this is another spot where when we get like jewels of the Old Republic, this is something we were tracking last week. Like this is capitalized. It's not like small O old. It's like the Old Republic. Yeah.

Like, we will hear her say when she's talking about the symbols, like, proto-republic, when she's talking about the numerals. Like, we are way linking to something way, way, way, way, way, way, way back in the history of the galaxy. So that's all, like, really interesting. We're going to talk about all of this and what this might mean with Ben. Ben! Ben! Benja! Benja!

Is there anything else before we dive into it with Ben, though, in this stretch here that you want to observe or hit on? I think, once again, in sort of like a piratical language, calling them the jewels. Yeah. We're not literally calling them jewels, but calling them the jewels is really fun. Yeah. Yeah. And, oh, yeah, you know.

In school, we learned about Coruscant and Alderaan. Alderaan missed the war, did you? What war? Fascinating. Oh, no. Part of the great work is that we're supposed to stay inside the barrier. Great work? Barrier?

No child left behind except all the children of Adat who know literally nothing about history. It's concerning. Yeah, they're building the mystery here in a great way. They really are. Sarah McLaughlin would say, listen, Neil describes the barrier, right, as this cloud, like the cloud swirly barrier thing, which again takes me back to

my Brigadoon comp from last week. Again, the shrouded in mist. Yeah. Uh, is something that I really like. Um, but also I was thinking about, I was thinking about the M Night Shyamalan film, The Village, which again is like, uh, you know, a generation is shielded from the outside world. They're, they're all constantly shrouded in mist in that village, but like they're shielded from the outside world by a generation of people who think they are doing the right thing by keeping them sort of locked in. Right. Yeah.

Right. Spoilers for The Village and M. Night Shyamalan, a movie that I actually genuinely love. Yeah, there you go. Deal with it. Signs of the Village are good films, and I will fight anyone. Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Signs. Yeah. In addition to the...

In addition to Alderaan and Coruscant and the Palmarish numerals that we briefly mentioned before and are going to talk about more with Ben, I also just thought, I mentioned this already, but the you are the map moment with Jack really stood out to me because obviously he says that right before Kim engages in a little bit of like,

to try to narrow the scope of where this might be. That's very effective because they get down to just 10,000 planets in a jiffy. But that gave me really, really strong Chiss Navigator. Hmm.

Sky-Walker vibes, like from the Thrawn novels, where the Force-sensitive among the Chiss, like, the way that they can navigate through space is by using the Force. And I'm like, is that going to be how they find Ad Atten, the jawed,

as a force user or if like whim ends up being a force user or something like, is there, are they priming us for something perhaps a little bit more like literal there with the children's connection to this place being how through the force they are able to like make their way back. I don't know. You're just asking questions and I. I'm just asking questions. You're just asking questions. I'm just asking questions and saying signs. Yeah. Oh, Joe, it's time to evade capture because John's like,

Did you solve it? And Kim's like, yes, I mean, no. And he realizes that she's stalling. Finds the radio transmission. It all goes bad. Wow. It all goes very bad very quickly. And she says, Crimson Jack is a scoundrel. All he wants is your treasure. She says, Crimson Jack is a scoundrel. All he wants is your treasure. Um...

Oh, man. Which reminds me of, again, in Treasure Island. You're really good at that. What? That voice. You're really, you have it down.

That's great. In Treasure Island, there are many people who tell Jim not to trust John Silver. Like Billy Bones, most famously, says, keep your weather eye open for a seafaring man with one leg. You know, like they're told, these children will be told, I'm sure, again and again, not to trust Crimson Jack. And like whether or not this whole thing ends the way that Treasure Island ends,

which is different depending on which version of Treasure Island you're watching or reading, that really fed into me my...

my Loki comps, right? Everyone's telling them that Captain Jack is a scoundrel and he's a bastard and he will cheat them and, you know, rob them and all this other stuff like that. It's like... Use your head. Get the truth. Can a leopard change his spots? Can a, you know, what makes a Loki a Loki? Can you change? Can you grow? Or will you only ever betray? Key lime pie? No, it's just blue goo in a bowl. McDonald's? Any McDonald's? No. Okay. No, no for yet. So,

I just noticed that you and Sean Fennessey do that exact... Okay. You guys both do it the exact same way, and I'm wondering who stole it from whom. No Frias? No, no, no. No, no, no, no. Okay. That's a very Mallory and Fennessey thing. Okay.

Great question. I bet he stole it from you. That's my guess. That's my loyal guess. And Sean doesn't listen to this podcast, so who cares? We probably both got it from someone else. Who knows? We've known each other for as long as Kim and Crimson Jack have known each other. They run. The X-Wings are in pursuit. We already talked about that little moment with KB and Kim, but if there's anything else you'd like to add on the Kim front before we leave for... Not on the Kim front, but...

Jodna. Jodna. Calls on the goons. Kim's goons. A visit, a good old visit from the goon squad. Yeah.

Our friend of the pod, Matt Midovich, who writes the TV line, did a great interview also with the showrunners of the show. He emailed us to be like, the goons? Goonies? And I'm like, I'm not mad at it, Matt. I support it. But what I also love is in A Pirate Tale, the...

And pursuers are usually the Royal Navy. And so I like that it's like Blue Squadron is here. And Blue Squadron are the good guys. But we're on the pirate side of things. And so we're like, these are the antagonists here. We got to evade the Blue Squadron in order to keep having our adventure, which is what we want to have. And so I really like positioning like that.

ships that we recognize as being noble and all this other stuff like that, but they're the pursuers. And it's another Mando tie too, because obviously Mando will work with some of these pilots at some points in the three seasons so far, but also...

Correct. Scoundrels of Lent. Why do he and Grogu end up tumbling into the icy, spidery abyss? Because he's like, you know, trying to evade the New Republic. So yeah, that feels like a nice kind of like thing that's happening in this timeline as well. And of course, even though we have New Republic figures who are

in other slices of the story people were rooting for and aligned with. Like we are, as we've talked about across all these shows, building toward the crumbling of the New Republic and, you know, the failure for the New Republic to thwart the rise of the First Order. One might argue the British Empire, also not something that you necessarily want to fully rubber stamp and endorse. Indeed.

Indeed. We get toward what we hear at the top of the episode, Jo. KB and Fern refuse to let Jod board until he tells them who he is. It's the clip at the top. The truth. The truth. The truth is I'm just like you, okay? I'm lost. I'm alone. But you're a Jedi, right? I never actually said that.

Anything you want to add on this? Obviously, we've talked a little bit already about where we both are on the theory front regarding his past. But what about that, that, you know, I'm lost, I'm alone, anything else beyond maybe being a post-Order 66 in hiding? That feels true. That just feels true. Yeah.

Love this guy. And like any, like any con artist, whether or not he's like, you know, to what degree is the con knob turned up to 11? It's always best to hide those things inside of a truth, you know? Yes, absolutely. Much like when he was offering up the deal and the partnership, you know, the truth is I would like that reward. The con is I'll do the right thing, but maybe you will at the end of the day. That would be nice. That would be nice. Uh,

The pilots and Kim have a little exchange. She's like, I cannot believe you let this fucker go. They're like, we didn't want to shoot down the kids. I will note that Wim and Fern, who were arguing over who got the shot, who landed the shot, didn't but easily could have killed a pilot of the New Republic. They were firing freely. That was wild to see. But the onyx cinder made its way to the other side of the moon.

rising sun and jumped. Our crew is safe. They are ready to head into another adventure next week. Will the bounty hunters who Brutus sent arrive? Will Kim be back? Will Jod find another incredible scarf, pale blue hue to try on? Who can say? What we know is that there are a lot of hidden planets in the history of Star Wars to talk about. And so we are going to do that now with our own Ben Jar, Ben Lindbergh.

He's here. It's Ben Lindberg. It's true. I'm here.

Ben, there was a Ben in this episode. Alfred Molina, voice, Benjar Prennik. So would you like us to formally start calling you Benjar Prennik? Do you have a thought on how this fits in with your other Ben nicknames? Benjar Lindbergh? Yeah, that seems like a demotion to me. I'm going to keep Kenobi if it's all right with you. All right, fine. Fair enough. The space pirate energy isn't for everyone. Up to you. It's a pirate life for me. Ben, we have a rich text today. You were here to chat with us about...

A brief history of hidden planets in Star Wars, given the thing that we had all theorized about last week that was confirmed in this episode. What a rich, nebular, gas, obscure text. Help us penetrate these swirling, sometimes visible only at night clouds. What do we need to know?

So obviously, Skeleton Crew is an ode not just to Amblin Entertainment, but to Treasure Island and by extension, Treasure Planet. Sort of the same story. In those series, you have the protagonist Jim and pirate Long John Silver. Here we have protagonist Wim and pirate Silvo, one of the names that he goes by. And I guess we could connect at Atten to any number of lost civilizations in myths or in fiction outside of Star Wars, like Atlantis or Shangri-La or even...

Neverland, where we get pirates and Smee and in Skeleton Crew SM-33. But there is a long lineage, as you alluded to, of secret locations and lost planets and treasure hordes in Star Wars. So if we can quickly run through a few, it could come in handy because you never know what could be a clue. Let's do it. How are you going to bucket these, Ben? So I think we can cover movie versions of this and then...

versions outside of the films. And then we can venture briefly into Legends. We can just dip our toes into those deep waters. Are you starting with movies because that's the only way to get a Star Wars movie in our life?

Like right now? Is that why? Yeah, desperate times. And this tradition of secret places and hidden spaces goes back really to the beginning of the franchise, if you think about it, which I have. In A New Hope and Empire, we have hidden rebel bases in remote locations. You got your Dantween and your Yavin 4 and your Hoth. So right from the start, the good guys have to take shelter in ancient ruins like Legends of the Hidden Temple.

And in the prequels, of course, Kamino is a planet that's been deleted from the star maps in the Jedi Archive. Contains a whole hidden army. Lost a planet. Master Obi-Wan has. My namesake. Quite careless of him. I think you mean Detective

Yes, exactly. The Kenobi mode. Led to a treasured arc for that character for all of us. But in the sequel trilogy, we have Octo and Exegol, these secret, sacred worlds of the Jedi and Sith, respectively. And just to get to them, you have to hunt for a wayfinder or piece together clues from old texts or...

Daggers. Daggers and hold them up to the ruins of the Death Star and get a droid to translate the forbidden Sith texts we all remember.

Unfortunately. Unfortunately. Ben, not to venture into the hidden planet that is Theory Corner right away, but what do you make of the theory that Ad Aten is actually Exegol, that will become Exegol? I mean, it seems like a lot would have to happen in a fairly short span of time for this planet to transform into the Exegol that we know and love. Some planets are...

swampy bogs now. It's true. Yeah, exactly. Sulfurous, swampy bogs. How different really is the frankly resplendent tub that Neil was luxuriating and bathing in from the little crane that was holding clone palpy? How different are those things really? Despite the barrier and the swirling crowds, I'd say the climate on Ad Aden is an improvement over what we've seen of Exegol. Do you think that dome that we see in the wide shot of Ad

And by Ad Aden, I mean, of course, the one town that stands in for the entire planet. Right. Yes. That dome could be the arena where we are chanting and ominously murmuring in. Wow. I don't.

Love it, but I don't hate it as a theory. Is Clone Palpy the supervisor in this scenario? Ooh. Jeez. Let's ask the security droids. Let's get them to say something other than illegal. I'm certain they will be very forthcoming. Yeah. They seem like a forthcoming team. I could see... We got some, like, to open this episode, some nice shots of the largely empty town. And, you know, you could see Kylo Ren just running down those streets in his all-black athleisure. It could happen. Sure. Sure.

We do have like Wim and the kids do a slide very similar to the to the Ben slide. And, you know, just just keep it in mind. Yeah. Lots of parallels here. You're picking up on something compelling. But these planets, Octo and Exegol, they contain treasures like cloning equipment and a massive fleet or porgs and green milk. Also treasures in their own way. Yep. Yep.

And there's even more of this trope in the current canon outside of the movies. How much did we discuss Mortis and Paridia during Ahsoka season one? And I'm sure we will return to those topics in Ahsoka season two. I think I did a lore segment about Paridia being in another galaxy recently.

except by space whale or the eye of Scion because of this galactic barrier of hyperspace anomalies. So that's an example of what we're talking about. Or Mortis, the home of the Mortis gods, is seemingly outside of space and time entirely. So you can't really visit voluntarily. It's kind of invite only even more so than Ad Aden seems to be. And Mal, you reminded me off air about

Lirassan, the original homeworld of the Lassat, the species of our boy Zeb from Rebels and also the Mandoverse. Callus is always on my mind, you know? And so Lirassan is always on my mind. Callus is on your mind for all manner of reasons, I'm sure. All sorts of reasons.

Yeah, but that's the original homeworld of Zeb's species, the Lassat, hidden behind a nebula, mythical, forgotten even by other Lassat. Also, Jedi survival players may be reminded of Tanalor.

This peaceful paradise in the Outer Rim, which was discovered by Jedi during the High Republic era and was the site of a Jedi temple until the Nihil. Those marauders we talked about last week invaded and drove the Jedi out. And stop me if this sounds familiar, but centuries later, not long before Skeleton Crew is set, Tanlor is remembered as a mythical treasure planet.

until it's rediscovered and set up as the endpoint of the Hidden Path, the underground network for Force-sensitive refugees. So I've seen the is that at Tannilor connection and speculation out there because basically in Star Wars, anything that is akin to something we've seen already, we immediately leap to the conclusion that it is that thing, which to be fair, is often the case. It is often the case. But here's my question. Do you want it to be? Like, you know, we already, obviously we already have, um,

connection to other Star Wars properties with our very favorite character, Vayne, crossing over from Mandalorian, Mando season three. But like, how much, you know, we talked about this a lot. We talked about this a lot. We talked about Acolyte. We talked about Andor. How much do we want this to connect to the larger storytelling, the Skywalker saga, or how much do we wish to keep it in its own little pocket of the universe? Yeah.

I'm generally in favor of keeping things separated, and I'm almost always disappointed. So I expect to be disappointed once more, although it is nice to be reunited with Fane. It's been too long. It has been. Sure has been. It's an interesting episode to ask that question inside of discussing because we got –

You know, we have the first, like, my treasure's from a thousand worlds and Fern's very innocent. There are a thousand worlds. But then we build toward, okay, let's eliminate, let's deduce, let's narrow the scope. They've gotten it down to 10,000 worlds. It's like, fuck, that's a lot. Actually, no, we eliminated 99.9% of them already. I thought that was an interesting way inside of the episode to remind us of how big the galaxy is, how much is in it, and how...

how titanic the task of trying to find this one place would be and so yeah kind of like marry the show's very uh clear snapshot of that math and that challenge with the reality of often the same handful of this somehow palpatine return handful of things coming into play is it's kind of like fascinating to to think of those things in tandem i think i think a um a trade-off

I was thinking, I was like, oh, I don't want this to connect with anything bigger. I want this to be its own little cozy story. And I was like, then again, this all feeds into somehow Palpatine returns or has to connect to Thrawn, et cetera, et cetera. I was like, well, then...

Do I get Jude Law and Neil in the movie? And if that's the case, is that a worthy trade-off? Oh, my God. What about Ratty? Can Ratty be there, too? I guess if Neil's there, we should expect Ratty to be there. I was thinking about if the movie feels like an Avengers movie where all of these TV shows are feeding into it. Wouldn't this be like the Guardians of the Galaxy come in and we get the piratical...

I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm just saying this would be a consolation for me. I love that. As long as Vayne makes his big screen debut as well. But this is sort of a familiar explanation, this Tanelore explanation. It's inside a nebula. It's hard to navigate to. And when the kids in Skeleton Crew describe the barrier, our Owl Queen Kim speculates nebular gases. Perhaps that's why the planets were made hidden. Not sure if she's right.

because the barrier does seem to have a technological component to it. And it's wrapped right around the planet like a regular cloud, not a nebula or maybe an artificial cloud of some sort. But I can see why she'd think that because there's plenty of precedent. One more canonical example in the High Republic era is a place called Planet X.

Not to be confused with Groot's homeworld, speaking of Guardians, or the possible ninth planet that some scientists think exists somewhere in our solar system. There might be a secret treasure planet in our own solar system. I'm not a crank. This is actually true. You think it's just full of dataries? Maybe. This is, yeah, this is actual science. There might be a planet nine out there that we just haven't been able to spot yet. And there's going to be some dumb billionaires.

billionaire who gets there first and not like NASA. But the planet X in canon in High Republic, it's a living world. It's protected by a barrier called the veil, which is sort of a sentient immune system in a way and is beautiful and disturbing in kind of a scavenger's reign or raised by wolves way. And

And lastly, I'll just shout out a few locations that were prominent in Legends, all of which are kind of canon now in that their names have been mentioned at least. And don't want to bore anybody by just listing a lot of unfamiliar names, so I'll make it quick. There's the Maw, the cluster of black holes that surrounds the planet Kessel, as we see in the very fun movie Solo, A Star Wars Story, which we all agree is great. Shout out Solo, A Star Wars Story. Yeah.

Hashtag make Solo 2 happen. How's that agenda going for you guys? How's that agenda working for you? The campaign has stalled slightly. It's run into some problems lately. It's been a struggle.

We will persevere. It's the great work we're all devoted to. Exactly. And in Legends, there's this Imperial research station called the Maw Installation that was hidden in there and served as the site of super weapon testing and a Death Star prototype. It's like the Los Alamos of Star Wars or the Bikini Atoll or something. There's also a place called the Hapies Cluster. It's Hapies.

I feel good. I should probably pronounce that very precisely. That's very rich and isolated because the stars are clustered so densely that it's tough to navigate. And then there's the Stygian Caldera, a nebula that protected the Sith Empire and interfered with hyperdrive's

And there's also a planet called Dilalt, which dates all the way back to the Han Solo stories published before Empire came out. And in that story, Han and Chewie search for the mythical treasure of this ancient tyrant called Zim the Despot.

which is a very descriptive title for a despot. And that was in this isolated reason called the Tion Cluster, which is also, and I'm really just clutching at straws here, but it's the source of a script in Star Wars lore called Tionese, which is essentially Star Wars Greek.

just sort of Greek characters in the Star Wars universe, which is interesting because that's what the characters on Fern's badge kind of look like. And those also show up in the Jedi texts in The Last Jedi. Although, as we learn in this episode, they have a different name, right? The valedictorian sigil, it's a numerical system called Palmerish.

which Kim says she's never seen used in proto-Republic artifacts. And Christopher Ford, co-creator of the show, told TechRater, it was our way of trying to say there are more ancient levels of lore that goes way back and is potentially separate from the purely Republic or basic stuff we've seen in the past.

He also said introducing some potentially powerful and ancient lore was something we worked really closely on with Dave Filoni and the Lucasfilm story group. The idea was that we didn't want to establish anything that would contradict or step on Republic history. So the idea would be that it is its own system of planets from long ago and has been largely forgotten. So the plot thickens, the mystery deepens.

I love this. I know. And in episode one, when Fern tries to scare Wim by saying the last kid who skipped assessment, the proctor took him down to a secret chamber under the school to make him work in the mines. Yep. Seems like she's making it up, but maybe the mines element of that, maybe there's some kernel of truth there. That's Mal's pet theory. I love that. I think so. Yeah. I feel like everything she's saying in these tall tales stems from some real thing in the history of the planet. Yeah.

Yeah. Maybe her mom told her about that at some point. Maybe she watched Silo. Oh, yeah. She also loves Rebecca Ferguson. Yeah. And in Treasure Island, some of the treasure is missing and never found. And in Treasure Planet, they realize that the whole planet is a machine and the treasure is inside its core. And then in DeWalt...

That planet I was just talking about, the real vault of Zim the Despot, is buried underneath the empty vault. So I suspect that whatever the treasure turns out to be, if it is some physical sort of treasure or some technology and not just the friends we made along the way, then it won't be quite what or where it's expected to be or what Jad has in his mind. And we have a whole planet full of accountants seemingly here. Yeah.

And analysts. Are they managing their money, safeguarding their stash? Is this where the First Order's funds come from? Is that the connection? That's very top of mind, I think, after this episode. That's a very popular and convincing theory. That this is like, where did all those ships come from? Right. Yeah. And the question still, I mean, we're only three episodes in, but at this point,

We can be asking, we're worried, right? Okay, boy, if this is like a funding center, it feels like that is going to be one of the bits of connective tissue. Does that mean it already is? All of our speculation about the supervisor and these very nefarious security droids, is this already part of a funding apparatus or will it be taken over? Is the act of breaking out-

Exactly. What draws the attention of Thrawn, et cetera. To expose this place. It's Starkiller base Wim's fault, essentially. Great. Hashtag blame Wim. He wanted to make an impact on galactic affairs. And so, you know. The death of millions, billions, trillions, the Hosnian system. It's all on Wim's hands. All drawn a nice little preview for what's to come. Yes, exactly. Because he just...

Couldn't just go to school and take his assessments and get a nice accounting or analyst job. He had to go gallivanting off to the stars and doom countless citizens of the galaxy. And I meant to mention last week, because I know you always appreciate a Star Trek smuggled show, that this does remind me very much of one of those planets that the Enterprise stumbles across and there's an away team that goes down and it's clear that something sort of

nefarious is happening here and there's some sort of AI, some supercomputer that is maybe benevolent or began as benevolent, but now it's on the fritz. It's malfunctioning or maybe the people, the inhabitants have forgotten how to manage their own affairs. So it sort of seems like something like that is happening. Like we need Kirk to kick the

computer and stop it from smoking or something. I love that as a Star Trek reference. I went, I went Dr. Who, we were talking about this last week a little bit, like this idea of yeah, tech, rogue tech that thinks like, thinks it's doing good, but is doing ill or, you know, is either evil tech. I love a story about evil tech or is, you know, tech that has misunderstood the prompt and is, is keeping everyone on track.

because it thinks it's what is good for them or is what it's supposed to do. But in fact, it's just trapped them on a planet, unfortunately. Yeah. And over the eons, they have lost some capacity to control their own destinies and forgotten how to do stuff without the helping hand of the computer. I just, I love that there's so much to chew on in this series because I was not expecting this. And John Watts told the LA Times, co-creator, house of our guest,

He told the paper just this week that the revelations in episode three are just the tip of the iceberg. Exciting. So clearly there's more here. How many more kitten owls do we get to visit in the galaxy for information? Hopefully many more. Are we going to get to hear Jod say just the tip at any point? That's really the question. That's the real question. That I have. Yes. That would be great. The Star Wars website databank did not identify Kim's species and just said...

It's just an unknown species. This is like the Yoda Yaddle species. The owls and the little green people are just hanging out somewhere. Neil, I think we have to call it a cat owl or an owl cat. It can't just be an owl. Like the eyes, the whiskers, the nose. Oh, it's definitely an owl cat. This is a cat. Yeah. And then it flies like an owl. Yeah.

Neil's folks also don't have a species, right? So I'm excited. I'm excited. Why not? Yeah, me too. I love just being confronted with new stuff in Star Wars. So this is the nine jewels of the old Republic or the Palmerish numerals. All of this is new. And obviously there's a lot of related lore that perhaps inspired this in some way. And we can speculate about how that might apply to the show, but yeah,

there's a barrier around the mysteries here that's pretty opaque to us too. And again, this is a surprise to me because I expected Goonies meet Star Wars. That's what this was built at. This is what it's been. And it has executed on that mandate very well and does that really well. And if that's all it was, I would still be enjoying it and having a fun time in the Star Wars world. But...

There's all this other stuff for us, too. Just super obscure Easter eggs and lots of lore and fodder for Theory Corner. And I just did not know that the show would have that element to it, that it would have that kind of depth. So something for everyone. Thrilling stuff. You know, in this episode, we heard Jod say of Kim, you know, an old friend, expert on star maps, lost planets, that kind of thing. It's like how we talk about you. Yeah.

Yes. It's all really coming together. Are you more intrigued by the true nature of Jod or the true nature of Ad Adon?

I think you know the answer. We're too broad. This podcast is nothing if not on brand. By true nature, I mean, I just mean his background, his training. That's solely what I'm referring to here. Yes. Exactly that. Just so. No, I think genuinely like the fact that we have multiple compelling mysteries that we

feel like they're operating in the perfect harmony like at just the right frequency with the charm and rhythm of the the show so far is like such a wonderful surprise so we have a lot of questions that are fun to talk about and noodle on and it's also just been really fun to hang out with these characters for three episodes so far i'm already sad we only have five left hope we get to meet some cool bounty hunters now that the brutus my guy brutus has put a bounty up your guy

You love an evil pirate wolf? Let me say this about Brutus in the interest of candor. As you know, I had some questions about Brutus last week. However, when the very well-made fuel line was swinging in to Port Borgo at lethal speed and Brutus just stood his fucking ground, I was like, that's sick. Yeah. I also...

I also was not expecting the caliber of the action set pieces that we're getting in the show. This is just one of the best looking Star Wars series we've seen lately, which is maybe a low bar. But nonetheless, I'm impressed. It's almost like they didn't have to go this hard with the show. And yet they are. And it is fun to hang out with these characters and also with you characters. So I'm glad that I have an excuse to talk to you. Thanks, Benjar. You're the best. Thanks, Benjar. Bye, pal.

All right, Joe, we hit Theory Corner throughout the pod today. We hit Theory Corner with Ben. So let's go to Easter eggs. Did you have a favorite Easter egg in this episode of television? Crimson Joe Robinson. It's got to be Hondo's ship at Port Borgo. Our guy Hondo. Thrill of my life.

The thrill of my life. The potential. Are you content to settle for Hondo Easter eggs or do you need the fucking genuine article? Like I said, genuine article. Like I said, I don't need this show to connect strongly and I don't need a lot of cameos or crossovers or whatever. So actually, I'm happy with just a ship. I don't need Hondo to show up. What about you?

uh i think in a certain i i'm i everything we got with hondo and clone wars and rebels is so perfect that i feel sustained for life however i i am prepared to stay on this podcast and others in the future that if we get like 18 episodes with vein in live action um we're gonna need to balance that out at some point with the return of hondo we're gonna need to we are are you saying that like if you were to encounter you from the past

And you from the past is like, which Star Wars pirate will cross over to multiple TV shows? Would you say, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me.

I would either say that in my best impression of you impersonating Kim, or if I went back and encountered myself from the past and the purpose of the interaction was to talk about some sort of Star Wars pirate thing, I would probably say in December of 2024, you guys are going to get an email at Hobbits and Dragons where you learn that a bad baby thought you were talking about Vane the whole time instead of Cobb Vanth. That might be what I did. Oh, okay.

Speaking of bad babies, can I tell you a quick story? We have all the time in the world, right? Our listener, Kenny. I don't know if Kenny's listening to these episodes and if Kenny is still listening this far into the podcast, but Kenny, if you're still listening. Kenny wrote an email saying he was talking to his wife about how House of R was his most listened to podcast on Spotify Wrapped or whatever. So thank you again once everyone to tagging us on their Spotify Wrapped. And his wife goes, oh, so you're a bad bunny then.

Which is just so sweet. So Bad Babies, if you also want to be called Bad Buddies, let us know. I thought that was really cute. Absolutely wonderful. Yeah. She was like trying to like, like she knows the podcast and she was like trying to connect with him and she got almost, almost right. And I love that. So thank you to Kenny. Shout out to Kenny. Shout out to Kenny's wife, whose name I don't know. And y'all love us. Bad Babies, Bad Bunnies, Bad...

Cat owls? Owl cats? I don't know where we landed on that exactly. Yeah. Everyone's welcome here. This is great. Today, we had a few people who we welcomed in. Mike Worgon, here with us today to produce this episode, and definitely our smoothest start to finish, no interruptions or anything Mike has to rearrange in the edit that anybody could have had on a Friday. Smooth as silk. Smooth as a bowl of blue goop. Just...

So thank you, Mike. Thank you, of course, as always, to John Richter. Thank you to Arjuna Ramgopal for production supervision, Jomia Deneron for the social media, and today, Cameron Dinwiddie for video editing. We will see you next week for Craven. Somehow. Somehow. In some form. Rohirrim. Mm-hmm. Skelly episode four?

And then we're going to be together even more than that next week because we're banking pods for the holiday. We are. I get to just soak up so much Crimson Joe next week. I can't fucking wait. It's going to be great. War of the Joe-herum. Let's go. Incredible. Until then, we really just have one request. Don't forget about the rat that lives in his eye hole.