This review contains full spoilers for Star Wars: The Acolyte Season 1, episode 6.
After last week’s thrilling, action-packed installment, it made sense that episode six of The Acolyte would slow things back down, giving us time with the new groupings we were left with by the end of episode five. The results, however, are mixed, with frustrating aspects to a couple of this week’s chapter’s stories. One is the clear standout, offering us a different take on a Sith – or whatever it is the guy I still call Qimir would label himself as – tempting someone to the Dark Side.
On a planet that sure looks like Luke Skywalker’s future home, Ahch-To, from the sequel trilogy, we got a lot of great interaction between Osha and Qimir, as he made his case for why his way, and not the Jedi’s, is the better path. Qimir underlines what we’ve seen building throughout The Acolyte, noting to Osha that the Jedi insist their way should be the only way to access the Force – to the point that those who leave the order, like Osha, then believe they lose their connection to the Force.
Is the Dark Side an easy, dismissive label the Jedi have come up with for anyone using the Force in a way that isn’t their own?
It opens up a lot of possibilities because, as Osha notes, everything Qimir is saying about using emotions like anger and fear to fuel the use of the Force is what she’s been taught is “The Dark Side.” But is that label too simplistic or, as Qimir calls it, just “semantics?” The witches of Brendok were perhaps doing the same thing to access the Force and didn’t seem evil, at least not in the way we’re used to the Sith being portrayed. So is the Dark Side an easy, dismissive label the Jedi have come up with for anyone using the Force in a way that isn’t their own? Have they gone too far in trying to stop those using the Force in a way that doesn’t follow their teachings? This running theme continues to be one of the best parts of The Acolyte, and Osha perhaps coming around to Qimir’s thinking builds well throughout the episode.
In a recent interview, when asked about Qimir and Osha, The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland said Obi-Wan describing Darth Vader as being “seduced” by the Dark Side always stuck out to her and that was very clear here. The Last Jedi had a notable flirtatious element to the interaction between Rey and Kylo Ren which is not just echoed here but expanded upon. Qimir and Osha were not communicating through the Force from far away but constantly in each other’s presence – including her seeing him naked, no less, as he allowed her to sneak up on him while he swam. (Between Andor and The Acolyte, we have seen a bit more overt sexiness and/or implied horniness in Star Wars of late than is typical.)
I like The Last Jedi, but always wished it had ended with Rey going with Kylo Ren, sending us into very different and exciting terrain in the middle of that trilogy. It feels like this time we might get that type of outcome with our lead character, as Osha sure seems to be listening to what Qimir is saying. The revelation that his cortosis helmet acts as a sensory deprivation device – allowing him to fully trust in the Force as he fights – was a terrific touch, setting up the final scene, as Osha dons the helmet for herself. The Darth Vader reference, as we hear her heavy breathing encased within the helmet, ain’t subtle but it is pretty awesome.
Also notable is Qimir saying he’s seeking “the power of two,” which has all sorts of implications. First and foremost is the Sith rule of two, of course: the Master always has an apprentice. It’s not clear how much Qimir knows about the Sith’s specific rules in the past, but perhaps he’s simply trying to find his apprentice because that is the way of things. Another intriguing possibility is he’s aware of the concept of a Force dyad and wishes to find someone he can form that bond with. When he found Osha in episode five he touched her wound, as though to heal it. We saw this week she was bandaged up, implying he doesn’t have that ability yet. But Qimir may feel like Osha is the person he can forge this bond with, gaining more power for them both in the process.
So yeah, if the entire episode had just been the dynamic between Osha and Qimir, it would have been great! Unfortunately there were a couple of other storylines that were shakier. The scenes with Sol and Mae, with her disguised as Osha, were frustrating. The constant bit of Sol trying to explain to the Jedi on Coruscant what exactly happened to his team only to be cut off felt belabored – just say communications are down and be done with it.
There were just a lot of circular moments here, with Bazil constantly sniffing the air, suspecting something was off with Mae. And when he finally attacked her, grabbing her leg, it just felt so slapstick and dumb – and then led to the ridiculousness of Mae seemingly ignoring that her cover has been blown and not running after Bazil. She didn’t seem concerned about him at all, in fact, stopping to reset Pip (more on that below) and then going to chat with Sol, but not worrying that her secret could have been revealed.
As is often the case on this show, there was a strong idea that felt poorly told.
Meanwhile, we had the Jedi on Coruscant, led by Vernestra, attempting to figure out what happened to Sol. This too felt stretched out, given multiple scenes when a couple would have sufficed. And, as is often the case on this show, there was a strong idea – this time Sol potentially being set up as the patsy who will be blamed for everything occurring here – that felt poorly told, at least initially. This one I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to, since there is still more time in the season, but even the fact that the Jedi were entertaining the idea so suddenly felt weird, since it wasn’t established before as something they’d have a reason to believe.
We’ll see if Sol’s big revelation to Mae about what happened on Brendok might, unwittingly, also set himself up as the fall guy. Presumably we’ll be getting these much-delayed details next week, not just because of how this episode ended with Sol capturing Mae, but because Kogonada, who directed episode three, also directs next week’s installment – likely signaling it will be the other big flashback to what happened that fateful night.
Other thoughts
Several Jedi traveled to Khofar with Vernestra, but you know who wasn’t with them? Freaking Tasi Lowa! Yord’s padawan remains completely forgotten since the series began and now I wonder if we’ll ever hear about her again. Qimir lived on what was amusingly only given an “Unknown Planet” label even as it’s clearly meant to evoke Ahch-To. If it is, it looks to be a Porg-free section, but the new little creatures we saw there were a great inclusion. The moment when two of them froze as Osha walked by, attempting to not be spotted, was a wonderful bit of creature fun, as was the more loving moment seen between them later on.Early episodes of The Acolyte had some pretty weak visuals, but many of the shots on Probably-Ahch-To were really good and properly cinematic, especially those where Osha discovered the environment she was now in, cliffs and crashing waves included. It’s a fine line in Star Wars over how much you can echo our world and still feel like Star Wars. Mae factory resetting Pip rode that line, clearly evoking our modern technology in a way that was a bit distracting. Then again, this is also a universe where a restaurant on Coruscant looks and feels like a 1950s American diner. It’s tricky!In the same episode where we see Vernestra use her lightwhip for the first time, we also see Qimir’s made by a whip, so it seems Vernestra may factor in as a more important character in the season’s end, after mainly serving as the one main connection to the High Republic books and comics up until now. In real life, Manny Jacinto is about a decade older than Amandla Stenberg, and unless his own falling out with the Jedi happened when he was a younger teen, there likely would have been some crossover between Qimir and Osha on Coruscant. But she doesn’t recognize him and he stresses this happened a long time ago in a way that implies perhaps he’s older than he appears. Is this because he’s a different alien species than the human he appears to be or could it be thanks to his specific uses of the Force? I saw some criticisms in the wake of last week’s episode that Sol and the other Jedi should have sensed that Qimir was Sith-ish beforehand, which felt weird given in the prequels we saw the Jedi constantly so unaware of Darth Sidious standing right in front of them, leading the entire galaxy. But for those with that complaint, at least you know you have a kindred spirit in Sol himself, who was angry at himself in this episode, thinking he should have sensed it too.
