The Acolyte: Episodes 1 & 2

Hello there!

Welcome to my first episode review for The Acolyte. The reviews will follow my usual format: an overview of the plot (so be aware, there will be spoilers!), my review of the show, then a few “Moments in Canon” – references that link to other media and the galaxy as a whole, though they may be lacking compared to usual as this will be my first foray into the High Republic Era, having not yet read any of those books or comics. Today, we’ll be looking at the 2-episode premiere, Episode 1: “Lost  / Found” and Episode 2: “Revenge / Justice”.

Plot Summary

Lost / Found

100 years before the rise of the Empire, the Acolyte tracks down a Jedi, Master Indara in a bar on Ueda. She demands the Jedi attack her as they have unfinished business, but Indara refuses, until the Acolyte begins attacking the other patrons in the bar. Indara is too strong and manages to restrain the Acolyte, unmasking her, but is shocked to recognise her assailant, allowing her to break free of her grasp. The Acolyte throws a knife at the bartender, which Indara stops just in time with the Force, however this was a distraction and the Acolyte throws another knife at her, killing the Jedi. As she leaves the bar, the Acolyte refrains from killing the bartender after noticing that their child is also present.

Osha Aniseya wakes up on board the Trade Federation ship upon which she works as a meknek. While she is working to repair the ship’s shield generator, 2 Jedi—Yord Fandar and his padawan Tasi Lowa—arrive looking for her. Returning to her room, Osha finds Yord already there and she notes that he has passed the Jedi Trials since she left the Order. Lowa arrives and the pair begin to question Osha on her past, both recently and also relating to her time with the Jedi (she joined the Order late at the age of 8 after a fire killed all of her family on Brendok, causing her to struggle because of her attachments) and they explain that Indara has been killed by someone matching her description. Osha protests her innocence, but Lowa brings in the bartender, who positively identifies her.

At the Jedi Temple, Master Vernestra Rwoh comes to speak with Sol as he finishes a class with a group of younglings. She informs him that Osha, his old padawan, has been identified as Indara’s killer and taken into custody. Sol feels that this is a mistake, but supports Vernestra’s intentions to keep news of a former Jedi killing one of the Order quiet in order to protect them from their political adversaries, resulting in swift and discreet action.

“You’re with me. I’m with you. Always one, but born as two. As above sits the stars… and below lies the sea… I give you you…”

“And you give me me.”

Osha is sent back to Coruscant on a prison ship, but the other prisoners stage a breakout, which results in the ship crash landing on Carlac. All of the other prisoners escape in the escape pods before the ship crashes, leaving Osha and her repair droid Pip to strap in and brace for the crash landing. While unconscious following the crash, Osha has a vision, during which she realises that her sister, Mae, survived the fire and is responsible for killing Indara.

Sol is found by his current padawan, Jecki Lon, who tells him that Vernestra is requesting his presence on the detainment level. The escaped prisoners have all been captured and from them, they find out that the transport crashed on Carlac with Osha still aboard. Sol convinces Vernestra to allow him to take a small group to track down Osha and bring him in, to which she agrees. Sol selects Jecki and Yord to accompany him. During the flight to Carlac, Sol tells Jecki and Yord about Osha’s past, including the fire that killed all of her family, which was started by her twin sister. Jecki and Yord are surprised about the existence of a sister as it was not in Osha’s file, and Jecki asks if it is possible that the sister killed Indara, but Sol is adamant that he saw Mae die.

Seeing the Jedi arriving, Osha flees the remains of the ship and begins making her way through a cave, while the trio chase her, Sol feeling her presence through the Force. Osha eventually finds herself following a tunnel that ends part-way down a sheer cliff face, which is where the trio find her. Seeing Sol, Osha protests her innocence, but then loses her footing and falls, only for Sol to pull her to safety with the Force. Mae tells him that Mae is alive, and he believes her. Sol takes her back to the others, but does not have them arrest her.

Mae returns to her master. The Master reminds Mae that if she attacks a Jedi with a weapon, she will fail, that an an Acolyte kills without a weapon.

Revenge / Justice

Mae infiltrates the Jedi Temple on Olega in an attempt to assassinate Jedi Master Torbin, however she finds herself unable to break through a barrier that he has created around himself with the Force as he meditates and she is forced to flee once her infiltration is discovered.

Sol updates Vernestra on the belief that Mae is alive and responsible for the killing. Vernestra says that she is inclined to agree as she has received word of the infiltration on Olega and notes that Osha could not have been in two places at once. Vernestra sends Sol and his group to Olega, and to take Osha with him.

Mae visits an associate of hers, Qimir, who has set himself up in an apothecary to blend in. At Mae’s request, Qimir creates a poison for her. She notes that after Torbin, she has 2 more Jedi to kill, and will kill one of them without a weapon to please The Master.

On the way to Olega, Sol and Osha discuss the possibility of Mae being alive, the events that happened on Brendok and her time in the Order. making their way to the Olega Temple, they speak to the Jedi present, who have caught a street urchin that Mae paid for assistance infiltrating the temple. The urchin positively identifies Osha as the one she assisted.

Mae infiltrates the temple again, this time directly to Master Torbin’s quarters. Torbin leaves his meditations as Mae gives him the choice of confessing his crimes to the Jedi Council or taking the poison she offers him. He chooses the latter, asking her for forgiveness.

“Forgive me. We thought we were doing the right thing.”

As the group make their way through the temple, a vision of Mae causes Osha to split from the group and she arrives at Torbin’s chambers ahead of the others to find him already dead. When the rest find her over his body, Yord reveals that he followed Osha when she split from the group, and confirms that Torbin was dead upon their arrival. They note that Torbin was poisoned, and Osha recognises the poison as bunta, a poison from Osha’s home planet that she and Mae were taught to use for hunting.

Making their way to the nearest apothecary, the local Jedi note that the apparent owner (Qimir) is not the owner they recognise. Guessing that he may be part of the plot, Jecki suggests using Osha’s resemblance to her sister to catch Qimir in a confession. Mae agrees, using Pip as a comms unit for the Jedi to overhear and disguising herself to look more like the descriptions of Mae. Upon her entering the store, Qimir calls her Mae and asks if the poison worked, while also referring to another figure, “he”, before realising that he is speaking to Osha. The Jedi catch him and allow him to go with just a warning as long as he cooperates. Qimir explains that he is simply Mae’s survivor, but evades questions about who “he” is and if Mae has a master. He tells them that Mae wants revenge on 4 Jedi and will be back that night.

As the Jedi wait for Mae’s arrival, Osha notes that if Mae is killing 4 Jedi, there were 4 on Brendok 16 years prior, at the time of the fire: Inara, Torbin, Kelnacca the Wookiee and Sol. Sol is disappointed by the anger Osha holds towards her sister and reminds her of the difference between justice and revenge, hoping that he can still save Mae. Mae arrives and is confronted by Sol. Mae attacks him, but he easily defends himself, attempting to discover the identity of her master, but realising that even she does not know their identity. As Sol speaks, Mae discovers that Osha is alive, though she believes it to be a lie. Yord and Jecki arrive to arrest her, with Yord confirming the truth about Osha. However, Mae uses the Force to throw up the sandy ground, allowing her to escape unseen. As Mae attempts to escape the city, she steals a speeder, but finds herself face to face with Osha, who allows her to go, to Sol’s disappointment.

Sol updates Vernestra, who convenes a small council, feeling the need to strategize if there is a trained outsider attacking the Order. Sol argues that they know where Mae is going next but Vernestra orders him back.

Having sneaked back into the city, Mae attacks Qimir for betraying her, but he makes it up to her by revealing that not only can he help her out of the city, but he can help her get to Khofar, where Kelnacca lives. As the local Jedi realise that they have lost track of Qimir, the pair escape the city.

On Khofar, a pair of scavengers come across the remains of a ship and plan to take parts from it, but are chased off by Kelnacca, who is using the ship as his home.

Review

I’ve been looking forward to The Acolyte for a long time now and getting more excited by everything that I have heard, and I’m happy to say that so far, it is a massive hit for me.

Visually, this looks stunning! Everything looks and feels like Star Wars, but also with just that slight difference to what we’ve seen before that we recognise this as a different time within the universe. This especially hit home to me on the prison ship with the cyborg prisoner and the guard droid that would not have looked at all out of place had this been made in the 60s or 70s, while ideas like pilot droids that retracted into seats if an organic pilot wanted to take control were brilliant, as was the note of the changing from organic mekneks to repair droids on ships. But not just that, the Jedi Robes and the Jedi Vectors looked just like all the illustrations we have seen for the High Republic.

While on the visuals, it’s also worth noting how great it is to have 2 major characters in this series be non-human creatures. Granted a Mirialan and a Theelin-human hybrid are some of the easiest non-humans to do with paints and minor prosthetics, but it is still a major upgrade to most live action shows where the non-human characters are tertiary at best (other than Chewie and the classic droid companion).

Sticking with the characters and I love how everybody feels unique, with all the actors doing an incredible job. Vernestra feels every bit the revered master, Yord is very much by the book, whereas Sol feels similar to Qui-Gon as the better Jedi, who trusts his instincts in himself and others rather than just following the dogmatic path that the Order is setting out, while Jecki feels like a mix of Yord and Sol, having learned from the same teachings as Yord, but now finding a more open path with Sol as her master. As for Osha, she hasn’t really felt much like a former padawan so far, but if she only spent 10 years in the Order and has now been on her own for 6 years, that makes sense, and I imagine that we will see more of the “Jedi” side of her come out as she spends more time with her old master. And Mae seems very driven by emotion, while much of her is still hidden by mystery. 

And now a word on that reveal of Amandla Stenberg playing sisters Osha and May. I must admit that I expected this to be the case as on one of his trailer breakdown’s Alex Damon of Star Wars Explained theorised as much and his evidence made sense, so as soon as it was mentioned that Osha had a sister, I guessed that this theory was right. I do however find it interesting that all of the build-up that I saw called Amandla’s character Mae rather than Osha given the nature of the reveal. However, that is far from the only mystery, as we still have the identity of The Master (as a Doctor Who fan, that feels weird to write here!)  as well as the truth of what happened on Brendok 16 years ago. Why did Mae start the fire? Why did each sister think the other was dead? Why did Sol think that Mae was dead? Why did Torbin feel the need to apologise? To me, that is the big mystery of this series and I can’t wait to see the truth unfold over the coming weeks!

Finally, a quick word on the action, and I think that the show is doing a great job with the fight scenes, making them familiar with the martial art styles that we see in other stories, but also having it’s own unique style, with much more unarmed combat, really giving the feel that if a Jedi is only using their lightsaber as a last resort, whereas the Jedi we are used to have always been quick to draw their weapons. Again, I look forward to seeing how this progresses through the series to the inevitable clash between our heroes and The Master.

“I want justice.”

“You want revenge. Look what revenge has done to your sister. I couldn’t save her when you were children. Let me try now.”

A few final thoughts on the episodes:

• While I may not be overly familiar with Michael Abels’ work, having only seen Get Out and Us, and each only once, but I thought that he did a great job of invoking the same familiarity but difference as the visuals.
• I’m interested to find out the reason for why Mae must kill one of the Jedi without weapons, this feels new, and makes me wonder if The Master is actually the apprentice in the Rule of Two, and has set this as a test to find someone worthy of becoming his apprentice to help overthrow his master.
• While I didn’t mind the lack of a crawl in Rogue One, I do appreciate how shows are finding a way to bring this back but in their own ways.

Moments in Canon

“The Jedi live in a dream. A dream they believe everyone shares. If you attack a Jedi with a weapon, you will fail. Steel or laser are no threat to them. But an Acolyte… An Acolyte kills without a weapon. An Acolyte… kills the dream.”

• Legislation has been put in place that only droids can make repairs tot he outer hull of ships in space, explaining why the Naboo cruiser had a batch of repair droids (including R2-D2) stationed aboard years later
• The show is said to be set 100 years before the rise of the Empire, placing it at the end of the High Republic Era
• Vernestra Rwoh is a character featured heavily in the High Republic books and comics, which currently show her in her younger years. She was promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight at the age of 15, making her the youngest Jedi to hold that rank in a long time.
• Torbin had taken the Barash Vow: an oath taken by Jedi who completely refrained from all activities related to the Jedi Order as a form of penitence, disengaging from anything but the Force itself and committing themselves to gaining ultimate communion with it. A few Jedi who have taken the vow have appeared in the High Republic books and comics, as well as the 2017 Darth Vader comic. While Wookieepedia states that Obi-Wan Kenobi took and kept to the way of the vow in his exile on Tatooine prior to the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi, I would question this as the show made it seem that he kept little attachment to the Force beyond occasionally attempting to reach out to Qui-Gon Jinn
• If you compare the Jedi Temple in this show to that of the Prequel Trilogy, you will note that a few more layers of the city grow in the area over the 100-year span between the two

What did you think of the episodes?

Thanks for reading. May the Force be with you….