In a Star Wars show about twins and the Force, it’s appropriate that The Acolyte has two sides with both on display in the most recent episode. Unfortunately, like the twins, one side is bad. But with the show, the side is not dark or evil, just bad.
Spoilers for The Acolyte episode 5 “Night”
The first half of “Night” gives us some of the show’s highlights, especially the action. While it has been sparse so far, the fighting has stood out. This week brought some amazing lightsaber duels between the Jedi and the mysterious master.
With that fight, stakes have also been raised. After the tease last week, it seemed obvious that most, if not all, of the newly introduced Jedi would be killed in this episode. But not only did they kill those unnamed individuals, the evil master brutally killed both Jecki and Yord.
While I’ll spend time praising Manny Jacinto’s Qimir and Lee Jung-jae’s Sol below, Dafne Keen’s Jecki has also been a bright spot. Having already established the character work, she demonstrated deft handling of action in “Night.” While I appreciate the weight her death adds to the story, I hate that we won’t get more from her character.
Sol, already in a broken emotional state over what happened when Mae and Osha were young, has now lost his current and previous padawans. Sol will likely blame himself for the death of all of these young Jedis. When the master killed Jecki, he voiced what Sol was likely already thinking: “You brought her here.”
The reveal of the master as Qimir was also another positive. The more Manny Jacinto the better. Along with Sol, he has been the most intriguing character. Now, with the reveal of him as the evil master (“I have no name. But the Jedi like you might call me ‘Sith.’”), he can mingle the quirky traits of Qimir with the evil cunning of the master. The quips and questions he tossed out during the fight were more deadly than his weapon.
The reveal of him under the helmet seemed obvious, so I’m glad it wasn’t stretched out beyond this episode. In fact, most of the mysteries have been done well so far, which may be because they’ve answered the questions quicker than expected.
The show was marketed as a murder mystery. Who killed these Jedi masters? But that was answered immediately. The identity of the master had been another big question, but now that’s been solved. These quicker reveals have helped to push the plot forward and made room for the next big question to take the spotlight. Now our primary questions are what really happened on Mae and Osha’s home planet and is anyone else working with Qimir.
Unfortunately, the other side of the show, the negative aspect, is the twins themselves — Mae and Osha. The motivations of Mae, in particular, are convoluted and inconsistent, going from hating the Jedi to wanting to turn herself in to the Jedi to fighting the Jedi trying to arrest her. All of that happened in less than 24 hours. She says everything changed because Osha is alive, but we’ve never seen them be particularly warm toward each other. Even as children, Mae said she would kill Osha before letting her leave. Their reunion conversation felt forced and melodramatic.
While the dialogue and plot have hindered the characters, even the acting has seemed off in spots. To impersonate her sister, Mae uses the lightsaber to cut her hair with a motion and expression that felt like it would fit more in a TikTok video than a multimillion-dollar television show.
Amandla Stenberg, playing both roles, has not been given much to work with. The dialogue, more than the other characters, seems wooden. “I can help you return to yourself” and “You’re a criminal, Mae. You must pay for your crimes” feel hollow, especially after some of the chilling line delivery from Jacinto’s unmasked master in this episode.
Much of the criticism for the show may be unfair and overblown, but it has yet to find its rhythm with all the elements. Jacinto’s Qimir and Jung-jae’s Sol can carry emotion in dialogue and energy in fight scenes. More interactions between the two can only improve the show. But regardless of any other highlights, success is hard to come by when the lead doesn’t emotionally connect with the audience.
The Acolyte is fighting an uphill battle, due to both the current state of fandom but also self-inflicted wounds. “Night” again proved there are positive elements to the show, but those can’t escape the negative.
Mae's actions were confusing to me too during this episode. She's just decided to betray her master and surrender to the Jedi and then...fights Jecki instead of surrendering or trying to talk and explain? Didn't seem consistent with the huge decision she'd just made.
Really enjoyed the action in this episode, and agree that Qimir and Sol were standouts...but it was very...grim. Didn't really find myself excited for where the remaining episodes are going.
Interestingly, the response that I've seen on Twitter so far has been almost unanimously positive, with few criticisms even from people who have up till now been very critical. But I'm still very much mixed personally in response to the episode and the season overall.