This article contains spoilers for "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" episode 8, "The Real Good Guys."

The final episode of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Season 1 (no definitive word yet on whether a second season will happen) concludes this story. The pirates reached Atin and Jod Na Naud (Jude Law). able to meet the supervisor (voiced by Stephen Fry) in the main tower above Athens. With Fern (Ryan Kira Armstrong) and her mother Farah (Kerry Condon) as hostages, Jod is able to break down the barrier and allow access to Atin to Vane and the other pirates, who are rounding up the civilians to use as cargo workers. to all their republic credits.

Fortunately, each of the show's young heroes brings their own special talent to the table, and they can work together to turn the tables against Jod. Thanks to his empathy for Ahran, Neal (Robert Timothy Smith) knows about the turbolaser batteries on the school's roof, which he uses to fire at the pirate ships just in time to allow Onyx Ash to escape and call for help. KB (Kiriana Crater) and her ability to memorize information, along with her sangfroid, is then able to pilot the ship out of the barrier and get a message to Kim (Alia Shawkat). Meanwhile, Fern is able to use her powers of persuasion to help convince her uptight mother to join the cause, and Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) is able to overcome his idealism to become a hero.

Together, the kids are able to stop Jod, though not without learning a few things along the way. In fact, after Jod presents himself as a Jedi to the Overseer, there is a major revelation that changes our understanding of Atin and reveals a major connection to Shev Palpatine.

After Jod swings the lightsaber and declares himself a Republic emissary and Jedi Knight, the warden is immediately suspicious. That's because, he tells them, the last transmission he received from the Republic declared the Jedi traitors. Although this does not seem to be common knowledge to the people of Athens, the supervisor definitely knows this and it has been transmitted to the planet. This means that Shev Palpatine, who was Supreme Chancellor at the time, became Emperor, was the one who declared the Jedi enemies and would be responsible for sending this message across the galaxy.

Since getting messages across the barrier to Aten is no easy feat, that means the Republic and Palpatine himself would have to know how to get those messages onto the mythical planet as well. It makes sense to leave in Athens a deep secret only for the most important elements of the Republic. But it also means that Palpatine had even more secrets than we knew, which shouldn't surprise anyone. His plans have always been complicated and contain secrets within secrets, extending to places people might not expect. After all, who would have guessed that the opening move in his grand plan to eliminate the Jedi would involve taxing trade routes to distant star systems and a blockade of his home planet? He may have had other plans for Athens if he had survived (or could have used them to fund further operations).

Seeing the Skeleton Crew fit into the events of the larger tapestry of the Star Wars universe was a much-needed connection for the show. While some feel a great strength of this series is how divorced it is from the rest of the galaxy, it really needed something more to make you feel attached to the wider events of the rest of the franchise. There were mentions in season 1 of how disconnected the children are from galactic events, even going so far as to mention that they hadn't even heard of the destruction of Alderaan and that they missed that news of a galactic civil war (to say nothing of the fall of the Old Republic). Seeing this little thread being pulled in such an oblique and blink-and-you'll-miss-it manner was just the right way to go. We didn't really need it see link, just a little dialogue to help us conjure up images and spin stories in our head about how it fits and why it might work.

However, the season 1 finale leaves us wondering: what will happen to the planet now that the barrier is down and Atin is exposed to the galaxy at large? Will more pirates come? Will Athens join the New Republic? Will they finance the war against Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) in Ahsoka Season 2 or some other future Star Wars title? As Master Yoda says, "Always in motion is the future."

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is now available in its entirety on Disney+.