The Acolyte Is Between Heaven and Hell
Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen
Created By: Leslye Headland
Mae: “You’re with me, I’m with you”
The Acolyte “Destiny” (Season 1, Episode 3)
Osha: “Always one, but born as two”
Mae: “As above sits the sky”
Osha: “And below lies the sea”
Mae: “I give you, you”
Osha: “And you give me, me.”
The Acolyte is the most divisive Star Wars series since the last one. Jokes aside, many are unsure what to make of the show. Set a century prior to A New Hope, the show focuses on an assassin hunting Jedi and her estranged twin sister.
Does The Acolyte deserve the scorn it’s received or is it a diamond in the rough? Let’s find out.
Scene Select
The Good
Shining Beacon
Sol: “I trained her. If she is guilty, it is my failing. Let me take accountability.”
“Lost/Found” (Season 1, Episode 1)
Vernestra: “…A small team. Be discreet.”
The Acolyte’s greatest strength is its distance from The Skywalker Saga. There’s no Boba Fett swooping down or Luke Skywalker riding to the rescue, just heroes blazing a path for followers.
Osha is the ensemble’s viewpoint character. She is a failed Jedi who left the Order to find her own path. Osha is forced to investigate a Jedi’s murder after being mistaken for the killer. Her placid personality allows more colorful characters to interact with her.
Master Sol is Osha’s former teacher. He recruited her into the Order and became her surrogate father despite other Jedis’ disapproval. Sol leads the investigation when Osha is accused. Extra credit to Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae, who learned English in only four months to prepare for the role.
Master Verenestra is the Jedi’s political representative and Sol’s boss. She assigns two knights to assist him and Osha, rules stickler Yord and more casual Jecki. The Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss plays Indara, the victim with ties to Sol, Osha, and the murderer.
Encroaching Darkness of The Acolyte
Mae: “I’m running out of time.”
“Revenge/Justice” (Season 1, Episode 2)
Qimir: “You’re running out of Jedi. And if you think a sleeping monk is tough, good luck defeating a Wookiee.”
The Acolyte’s main villain was never a Jedi Padawan. There are other forces in the galaxy that bide their time to bring the Order low.
Mae is the murderer and Osha’s identical twin sister. She bears a grudge against four Jedi Masters for ruining her life and has trained to kill them. Mae is quick to anger and uses cunning to compensate for being weaker than her targets.
Qimir is a drifter who arms Mae for her assassinations. He’s quick with a joke and acts irreverant, often annoying other characters. Qimir asks questions for the audience’s benefit and gives Mae someone to talk with.
The Stranger is Mae’s master, a masked Dark-Sider molding her into a weapon. He appears infrequently, but always ratchets up the tension by acting as a Force-wielding Jason Voorhees. The Stranger also wears armor that disrupts lightsaber blades.
Interfaith
Mother Aniseya: “All living things are connected by the same Thread. A Thread woven through all of existence. Some call it a Force and claim to use it. But we know the Thread is not a power you wield. Pull the Thread. Change everything. It ties you to your destiny. It binds you to others.”
“Destiny” (Season 1, Episode 3)
Jedi are not the only ones to use The Force. The Acolyte explores other methods and doctrines.
Long before the main plot begins, Mae and Osha were raised by a coven of witches. Rather than discipline and emotional control, the coven emphasized connections to others and The Power of Many. They also demonstrated unusual powers like the ability to become mist, control victims’ minds, and create life.
The Jedi discovered the Coven and learned that the children were Force Sensitive. Their actions frame the Jedi in an unusually dark light after they barge into a sacred ritual, demand to test the children as potential Jedi, and threaten The Coven. These Jedi more closely resemble The Knights Templar in The Acolyte.
Mae’s faction also bewilders the Jedi. With the Sith long extinct, the Order can barely comprehend evil Force users, much less that they are a threat. The Jedi themselves are portrayed as robotically stoic aside from Master Sol. The Order is at its zenith and slowly falling into arrogance.
Crouching Jedi, Hidden Acolyte
The Stranger: “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.”
“Lost/Found” (Season 1, Episode 1)
There’s one thing about The Acolyte that everyone can agree on: the fight scenes kick ass.
The Acolyte wears its Wuxia influence on its sleeve. The first scene features Mae in a veiled ninja costume fighting bare-handed through a bar to reach Indara, who refuses to draw a weapon against an unarmed opponent. Acrobatic kung fu gives way to Mae telekinetically controlling throwing knives as Indara wields her lightsaber.
More intense fights are seen in later episodes. Mae has been ordered to assassinate one of her four targets without weapons while the Jedi must capture her alive, justifying the cast eschewing guns and lightsabers. Osha is the only one without a decent fight scene because she never finished her training. Osha’s stun gun is surprisingly handy against unarmed foes though.
The lightsaber fights are among the best in the franchise. They’re fast, acrobatic, adapt to their setting, and incorporate martial arts. The Stranger shines during fights, mixing speed and brutality into massacres.
The Bad
Pace Yourself, Acolyte
Yord: “I didn’t know Osha was a twin.”
“Lost/Found” (Season 1, Episode 1)
Jecki: “It’s not in her file. Do you think that…?”
Sol: “No. Mae is dead. That was her name. I saw her die.”
Tempo is vital in every TV show. A fast pace may be jarring, but the sluggish pace in parts of The Acolyte are dreadful.
The third episode is spent entirely on a flashback to Mae and Osha’s childhood. The twins explore The Coven’s religious practices, witness the Jedi’s intrusion, and drift apart until a disaster separates them. All of these are important, but slow the present day murder mystery, which had previously ended with an exciting battle.
The seventh episode is even worse. It shows the same flashback from the perspective of the Jedi, outright retconning several things viewers had seen in episode three. It doesn’t make that episode unimportant, but it slows everything down right before the finale to say “no, we lied. this is what actually happened.”
Both flashback episodes are important, but kill the pacing of this eight episode series. I’m not sure how they could have done better without creating new problems. As is, the flashbacks are an albatross around The Acolyte’s neck.
Leap Before You Look
Vernestra: [last lines] “Sorry to disturb you, Master. We need to talk.”
“The Acolyte” (Season 1, Episode 8)
We live in an era of continuity. It’s a given that any remotely successful show or movie will get at least one sequel. That type of thinking is a trap that The Acolyte blundered into with both eyes open.
Many episodes leave dangling plot threads. Characters perform an action that makes no sense until a flashback several episodes later. Others disappear after their episode with no hint about their condition. Long-term plans and mysteries are set up with obvious intent to not resolve them until next season.
The season finale dives headfirst into this problem. Many new characters are introduced, including two vitally important figures from Star Wars lore. Conflicts are teased with major factions while a main character’s story is left up in the air. The writers seem so certain that they will get a second season that they haven’t prepared The Acolyte in case it only gets one.*
The Verdict
The Acolyte is a flawed gem. The characters, action scenes, and examination of other doctrines wrapped in a murder mystery are good. The pacing is bad and too many plot threads are unresolved. The Acolyte won’t set the world on fire, but it isn’t the steaming pile that haters demonize it as. Is it worth your time? Maybe, if you don’t mind the flaws.
- Unfortunately for the writers, and any dedicated viewers, The Acolyte will not be returning for a second season.
Image: Mae (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.
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