It’s all about to hit the fan in The Acolyte.
It’s been a slow build over the first four episodes of the series, but if the ending of the fourth is any indication, things are about to get really crazy and really intense. While the main intrigued about this episode is about what comes next, there’s still plenty to discuss in “Day” as well, so let’s dive in to our review!
Before we get to the epic cliffhanger ending, let’s back up. We get a scene of the Jedi meeting in a room to discuss Mae’s mission to kill four of their own, and Vernestra Rwoh doesn’t want to take it to the Jedi Council for fear of the Senate finding out. I think it’s questionable to not inform the Council (and I kinda thought Vernestra was on the Council herself), but I think that’s the point: it seems she’s fearful of a scandal like this becoming public and threatening the reputation of the Jedi. I think that’s noteworthy, and probably will be relevant as this series shows the Jedi grow closer to the Jedi we know from the prequel era. She knows that Sol is hiding something about Osha and Mae, and that, combined with the murder of Jedi, is enough for Vernestra to think they need to keep it under wraps a bit.
But what no one in the room expects is that Mae’s master is a Sith, including Ki-Adi Mundi, who makes a cameo appearance here. I love his inclusion, and think it’s fitting. After all, in the prequel trilogy, he’s one of the glaring representations of the Jedi’s overconfidence. He’s the one who boldly (and wrongly) thinks the Sith couldn’t have returned without the Jedi knowing, as they’ve been extinct for a millennia. He’s the one who thinks that Count Dooku couldn’t have been responsible for murder, since he was a former Jedi. In the prequel trilogy, Mundi’s whole role is precisely to show how the Jedi have become so overconfident. So it makes perfect sense for him to be in the room when the Jedi are so confident that Mae was trained by a former Jedi. They don’t even throw out the possibility that it’s the Sith, because, after all, they dealt with the Sith nine hundred years earlier. It’s probably hard for us as Star Wars fans to grasp this, since we’re well aware of all this, but it’s just really possible that the Jedi history lessons didn’t make as big of a deal about the Sith since they’d been gone for so long. After all, how many of us would know a ton about what happened nine hundred years ago? We might just know that the Sith existed ,fought against the Jedi, and were defeated. This is all going to show how overconfident the Jedi have gotten, and how that leads to short-sighted decision-making all over the place.
Knowing they have to do something, though, the Jedi assemble a strike team to travel to Khofar to find Kelnacca, next up on Mae’s hit list. But unbeknownst to them, Mae and Qimir are already there, with Qimir guiding Mae to the Wookiee Jedi’s location. Along the way, he’s quite curious about their master, and their master’s obsession with Mae killing the Jedi without a weapon. There are glaring alarm bells going off all around Qimir; I’ve thought since some of the trailers hinted at it that he’s the most likely option to be the masked Sith, and after this episode, I think it’s beyond obvious. In fact, it’s so obvious that I wonder if they’re setting us up for a misdirection… but, I mean, c’mon: he just so happens to be on the same planet, and out of sight, when the master shows up? That’s more than a coincidence.
I think the whole idea of killing a Jedi without a weapon comes into view here too, because I’m beginning to think it’s about more than just physical killing. Without a weapon, you can kill the idea of the Jedi. Tear down their reputation. Make the galaxy think the Jedi can’t be trusted. That’s exactly what Palpatine did so brilliantly in the prequel trilogy, and I wonder if we’ll see some seeds beginning to be planted in this show of the Senate’s distrust in the Jedi Order. That could be an interesting twist on the Sith’s instructions to kill without a weapon.
Meanwhile, the Jedi strike team pursues Kelnacca as well, and some interesting conversations happen along the way. Osha tells Yord to make sure Mae is killed, which is curious. I wonder if Osha will begin to be tempted by the dark side, especially since Mae in this episode is ready to give up her dark ways. It would be tragic irony to see them both switch sides at the same time, and I wonder if that’s what we’re heading toward. Another conversation Osha has is with Jecki, which I think is instructive. Jecki tells her that as Jedi they aren’t defined by what they lose, but what they survive. It seems reminiscent of what Yoda told Luke in The Last Jedi, or what Obi-Wan told Maul in Rebels, and I think it’s terrific. It’s an important theme of the Jedi: though they endure loss, they continue to remain faithful to the light. It’s not that Jedi can’t mourn those losses, but they aren’t defined by them and aren’t held captive to the fear of them like those on the dark side are. What makes a Jedi is that they continue to persevere, continue to hold to the light, continue to fight to be better, continue to survive. I think that could be relevant with Sol, too, because he promises to come clean to Osha once this whole adventure is over -which doesn’t bode well for him surviving the encounter with the Sith. We know that Sol did some shady stuff in the past and made some mistakes, but that doesn’t necessarily make him a bad Jedi. He might be set up to take the fall for it all, but he’s nonetheless seemed to remain true to the light. He’s had losses – some, it seems, of his own making – but he’s still survived.
Well, at least so far. Because the ending of the episode raises the stakes for everyone, and there’s going to be losses. Plenty of them, I’m guessing. The episode ends with the introduction of the Sith, and it’s absolutely epic. The way he menacingly floats down behind Osha, the fear on the Jedi’s faces as they see the red lightsaber ignited, and the sheer power to repel the attack with a movement of the hand were all haunting, and terrific. The introduction of the Sith was perfect, but the ending of the episode was far too abrupt for my liking. I’ve been thinking throughout the first few episodes that this series might be better as a binge-watch than weekly release (though I’m thrilled Disney+ does the weekly releases; this isn’t a statement on that). Each episode has ended rather joltingly, and the editing of the series leaves much to be desired. I really appreciate the desire to end with a cliffhanger, especially here, but it just felt too much.
But that’s my main complaint about the episode. I thought it was a good one, but it’s one that obviously serves to build toward what is coming. We’ve reached the breaking point in the series. We’ve gotten to know the characters, there’s been plenty of intrigue and mystery that’s been set up, and it’s been a slow build to get here, but it looks like next week it’s all about to break loose. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Star Wars Thoughts 