REVIEW: The Acolyte – Season 1, Episode 8, “The Acolyte”

Television Reviews

***SPOILERS***

In “The Acolyte,” Osha sees Mae kill Sol, and Qimir removes his helmet from her head. They agree to find Mae. Sol takes Mae to Brendok to prove to the Jedi that there’s a vergence on the planet. Mae stabs Sol and runs away on an escape pod before he can explain himself. Basil compromises the ship, rendering it and Mae’s pod useless. Back on Coruscant, Master Vernestra meets with Senator Rayencourt, who expresses concerns about the murder investigation and the Jedi’s intentions. Osha turns down Qimir’s offer to train her. Master Vernestra sends a secret message before learning Sol’s whereabouts and pursuing him. Osha and Qimir arrive on Brendok as Mae and Sol breach the Witches’ fortress separately. Qimir catches up to Sol before he can find Mae, and the two masters duel again. Osha and Mae come face to face and fight as well. However, Mae takes her opportunity to run off and find Sol and Qimir. Sol insists he did the right thing but admits he killed Aniseya loudly enough for Osha to hear. She Force chokes Sol to death and bleeds his kyber crystal, turning his lightsaber red. Vernestra and her cohorts arrive on Brendok, and she immediately senses Qimir’s presence. Qimir wipes Mae’s memory so he and Osha can leave together without the Jedi tracking them. Mae is taken in by the Jedi, but she doesn’t remember anything past her mother’s death 16 years ago. Master Vernestra pins the murders on Sol at the Senate meeting, chalking it up to him keeping the Brendok story quiet. Privately, Vernestra asks Mae to help her find Qimir, her former Padawan.  

There’s a lot to talk about, so I’ll get the few good things in “The Acolyte” out of the way first. David Harewood is decent as Senator Rayencourt, the one requesting some type of investigation into the Jedi. I don’t like this character or what he’s asking for, and his dialogue gets downright silly. But this guest actor, in a scene that lasts a minute or so, takes his role more seriously than some of the show’s principal players. However, that doesn’t include Lee Jung-jae and Manny Jacinto. Lee Jung-jae has been surprisingly delightful for most of the show, injecting The Acolyte with some much-needed heart and personality. They’ve ruined Master Sol in the last 2-3 episodes, but Jung-jae never slacked off playing the role. Manny Jacinto took quite a while to grow on me; his initial weasel apothecary shtick wasn’t impressive until we saw what he really is. This actor has range, and Qimir could have been a great villain if slightly tweaked and competently written. Sol and Qimir are by far the most interesting characters, and they always steal the show, which I don’t think was Headland’s intention. The original score by Michael Abels has been a highlight of the season, and “The Acolyte” is no exception. The music in this episode is cool and atmospheric and does a lot of the heavy lifting in “emotional” scenes, like when the twins say goodbye. I even quite liked the creepy chanting Master Sol hears when he returns to the Witches’ fortress; this should have been their chant in the first place! It’s so much cooler than the “Power of Many” nonsense. Finally, the big fight between Qimir and Sol inside the fortress is awesome. It looks good, there are actual stakes, and they’re both capable fighters. I only wish Mae and Osha didn’t have to interrupt this with their silly fight and eventual intrusion. This show should have been about Sol and Qimir and reworked from the ground up based on that premise. 

Now I have to be mean again. I don’t like to be overly negative or harp on things like a TV show, but The Acolyte brings that out in me. Amandla Stenberg doesn’t really convey much convincing emotion with either sister. When they’re face to face and fighting each other, I don’t feel anything because I’m not convinced the girls feel anything. I also don’t feel like I know either of them as people, so when they switch character alignments, it feels like nothing. I’m not sure I blame Stenberg; the direction in this series is horrendous, and most actors probably can’t pull off a dual role like this. I blame Headland, the directors, and casting directors Carmen Cuba and Nina Gold. Two opposite sisters played by the same actress could be intriguing. But the writing and acting would have to be completely changed, just like I said about Sol and Qimir. Most of the acting is stilted and lifeless; it’s just unfortunately under a spotlight for Stenberg, as she’s not one but both main characters. Rebecca Henderson isn’t very good as Vernestra Rwoh, and if you thought she was a bad person and Jedi before “The Acolyte,” just you wait. She is horrible in this episode. She betrays her friend Sol in his death just to hide her own failure, her former Padawan Qimir. She covers up the Brendok cover-up with a worse, more confusing one. Ol’ Vern blames all of the murders on Sol, even though everyone already knows Mae killed Indara. They have eyewitness testimony and everything for that one; I don’t understand how that can be denied or covered up. Furthermore, Sol was on Coruscant when Indara was murdered! They know where he was because he was at the temple teaching Jedi younglings at the time. Make it make sense. 

There’s a lot of such dumb logic in “The Acolyte,” as there has been all along. For one thing, if Sol wants the Jedi to follow him to Brendok, why didn’t he just tell them that? Why does he have to travel there to prove the girls are a vergence? I don’t know why Sol is even so sure he will encounter Osha there. After all, Osha and Qimir only go to Brendok to save Sol from Mae. It’s almost cool how Osha actually sees herself killing Sol and assumes it’s Mae, but it ends up being dumb for a few reasons. Why can nobody distinguish the twins, not even them? And don’t give me the whole “they’re the same person;” that’s dumb, too. And besides, they have different tattoos and markings. How does that work if they are one and the same? Next, the actual death of Master Sol is unbelievable. Osha kills her father figure of 16 years right away without asking any questions. And how can a Force-choke death be chalked up to a suicide? Sol doesn’t even explain the events that led to Mother Aniseya’s death. His actions made perfect sense in the context of the situation and protecting Mae, Osha, and himself from… whatever Mommy Dearest was trying to do. But instead, he confesses and lets Osha kill him. Sol was The Acolyte’s only likable character, so of course, they had to humiliate him, dumb him down, and ultimately kill him. And his demise comes at the hands of a failed would-be Jedi, one who admits she can’t even control her emotions. Why is a person like this able to take down a seasoned Jedi Master? I found his profession of love for Osha to be endearing, and after seeing all eight episodes, I believe he did what he thought was right. He wanted to save the girls from a bunch of weirdos who tattoo children with magic and turn into dust for no reason. This show was marketed as being about how the Jedi abuse their power, and I don’t see that message with Sol at all. The main character guilty of this would be Vernestra Rwoh, and she gets the last laugh. Disney’s attempts to ruin the Jedi or “expose” them aren’t just offensive and obtuse; they’re tired. This is so old and overdone that it’s boring. 

Master Yoda and Darth Plagueis make cameos in this episode because they have to do something to make us want a season 2. I think simply telling a good story well with good acting would have worked better, but this is what they went with. Yoda is my favorite Star Wars character, so I guess I should be happy he never speaks; they didn’t get to ruin him. But he is nonetheless sullied by appearing on The Acolyte at all and by the implication that Vern is about to tell him about the Jedi cover-up(s). Are you for real? You can not implicate my man Yoda in this. They probably thought it was super cool to show Plagueis for two seconds in the shadows, watching Qimir and Osha fly away. This is actually cheap and rather pointless; most people won’t know him by his appearance, and even if you do, what did this do for the story? We don’t even know why he would be watching from Qimir’s cave, whether he’s his master or an opponent. These attempts at “fanservice” are laughable in a show that seems to detest its own fans for existing, a franchise deadset on self-destruction. I used to think of much of the Disney canon as “the lesser sons of greater sires,” but that’s tired, too, now. It’s all so exhausting. 

“The Acolyte” simply being titled the show’s name is fitting because it is emblematic of everything wrong with The Acolyte. Poor acting seasons a stew of vague, incomprehensible dialogue, unknown character motivations, and narrative inconsistencies. By the way, keeping the episode’s title a secret is odd when it’s just the series’ title again. Big spoiler alert there. Season 1 of The Acolyte ends by trying to interest us in a season 2 with the promise of new mysteries. What is Plagueis doing on Qimir’s planet? How are they connected? What is Vernestra’s past with Qimir, and will they meet again? How will the sisters find each other (again) and reconnect (again)? How are Osha and Mae the same person; how was it done, and what does it mean? It’s giving “dark science secrets only the Sith knew.” The problem is, this season wasn’t good at all and offers no reason to watch a second one. I don’t care about the questions and mysteries because I don’t like the characters, and they killed the only good one ignominiously after running him into the ground.