After the absolutely insane episode of The Acolyte last week, things calm down considerably in episode six, but that’s not a bad thing. Moving from the fast-paced and action-packed fights of episode five, “Teach/Corrupt” focuses in on Osha and Mae, who have switched roles. Mae is with Sol, and Osha is with Qimir, and both are therefore with new masters.
What follows is an interesting look at how pupils are trained – and seduced – by their masters. Let’s dive in to the review of the sixth episode of the series, and as always, full spoilers are ahead.
This episode was entirely different from the tone of the previous one, as it deals with the fallout of the massacre that happened at the hands of the Stranger. Sol is the only Jedi who survived, and I loved that the episode gave some time to focus on his mental state. The scene where he stands at the console, alone, in the ship and then bursts out in rage was terrific. Of course he’d be traumatized after all that just happened, especially in an era where there is no known threat of the Sith. Sol also says that he’s going to head back to Coruscant and tell the Jedi Council everything, but the ship then loses power. Which is a bit convenient, since he’s kept saying for the last few episodes that he’ll disclose it all, but I trust that will come next week (especially with how this episode ends).
Importantly, it keeps Sol as the only Jedi alive at the time who confronted the Stranger, meaning he’s the only Jedi alive (that we know of) who knows of the Sith’s return. I’m not sure it’s looking too great for Sol’s chances of surviving the series, but we’ll learn more when we discover what actually happened on Brendok next week.
I think that will all tie in to the bigger picture of the Jedi at this point in the timeline too. Leslye Headland has made it clear that this series will explore how the Jedi began to lose their way leading up to the prequel trilogy, and I think we’re seeing a much clearer picture of how that will happen. There’s a very important scene in this episode where Vernestra Rwoh speaks with a Republic Senator about a growing movement in the Senate wanting an external review of the Jedi Order, and it’s pretty obvious what the Senator wants: the Senate to have more direct oversight of the Jedi Order. The Senator she speaks with, though, says that the review is no cause for alarm, since the Jedi have always been truthful and forthcoming with the Senate. Uh oh.
I trust we can all see the foreshadowing on this one. The Senate is beginning to take more and more of an interest in the Jedi and wants more control of their operations, and it seems that what it would take for that to begin happening is for it to be revealed that the Jedi had been hiding things from the Senate – like, say, some mistakes that were made on Brendok? I think this scene is very important, but also really good. Because if this series ends with the Jedi having made some well-intentioned mistakes on Brendok, it doesn’t need to paint them as the villains to show why the Senate would (understandably) want more control over their operations. And once the Senate gets that, we’ve already begun our journey toward the state of the Jedi Order in the prequel trilogy and Palpatine’s influence. I really like this (potential) explanation of things, and I think that’s definitely what is being set up here. It all feels very natural and like a really good explanation.
Speaking of Vernestra, though, there’s definitely something suspicious about her, and I’m growing increasingly wary of her. She’s a hero from the High Republic books, but this is one hundred years later, and some of her actions don’t fully add up. She wants to keep all of this secret from the Jedi Council, and she is insistent that she go along with the team to investigate the disappearance of Jedi. She definitely knows more than she’s letting on. There is further suspicion by the fact that Qimir at least claims to have formerly been a Jedi (a long time ago), and he shows Osha scars on his back that he claims were given to him by his master. Now I think we should take everything he tells her with a grain of salt, but it’s interesting that this episode shows him being far more truthful and forthcoming with Osha than he ever was with Mae. Was he really a Jedi? Maybe. Did his master really give him his scars? Again, maybe – but he also didn’t say it was his Jedi master. Yet an intriguing – and horrifying – possibility begins to emerge. His wounds don’t look like a normal lightsaber wound, so why is it that in this same episode they showed off Vernestra’s light-whip? She just had to kill one of those creatures, which was a cool moment (especially seeing the light-whip in live-action for the first time), but I wonder if the fact that they showed both the light-whip and the scars together in this episode is intentional. What if Vernestra was Qimir’s master and gave him the scars, and now she knows it’s her former apprentice running around out there trying to tip the scales? I don’t think, as some fans have speculated, that Vernestra is the hidden Sith Master, but I do think it’s at least plausible she could have been Qimir’s Jedi Master and, true to the theme of the show, could have made some well-intentioned mistakes.
We’re now getting to the whole interactions between Qimir and Osha, which I thought were the best parts of the episode. Qimir brilliantly works to seduce Osha more and more to the dark side, asking exactly the right questions to get her to doubt the Jedi. He wants her to embrace the Force and the power that can be given through the dark side, and he wants her to believe that she has the potential and power that the Jedi never saw in her. I also think it’s interesting how Qimir is twisting so much of what the Jedi say and using it to seduce Osha to the dark side. He’s taking the truth and twisting it just enough for it to be convincing, which is exactly what the Sith do. Like, for example, how he tells Osha that when she puts on the helmet she’ll only have what she takes with her – the same thing Yoda told Luke in The Empire Strikes Back before he went into the cave. But where Yoda is leading and where Qimir are leading are very different spots.
It’s also interesting to think about what planet they’re on, because even though it’s listed as “Unknown Planet” it looks a lot like Ahch-To. So much so that it really well could be, but Leslye Headland said that it’s meant to look like it, but it’s not the same planet. Which leaves, I think, one obvious location: Bal’demnic. This planet showed up in Legends as an ocean planet known for being rich in cortosis – the same as this planet in the episode, which Qimir straight up points out to Osha. If that’s the case, there is more significance to the planet from Legends: it was the place where Darth Plagueis killed his Sith Master, Darth Tenebrous. I’ve suspected that Qimir is the Sith Apprentice, and that his master is Darth Tenebrous. But I also think that either Qimir has already been cast aside, or soon will be, and he’s looking for an apprentice – an Acolyte – to help him take the power from his Master. I would not be at all surprised for this to be the big reveal of the finale, as we realize who the Sith Master has been all along.
In short, I felt like this episode really continued some of the momentum from last week, just in a very different way. We saw the twins switched up and with a “new” master, and that led to some interesting dynamics at work. I especially liked seeing Qimir attempt to seduce Osha – it seems successfully – to the dark side. We’ve seen plenty of stories of Jedi pupils trained in the light, but far less about Sith pupils trained as Acolytes. It’s cool to see it all playing out on screen.
Star Wars Thoughts 