– Spoiler Review –
In “Day,” the fourth episode of The Acolyte‘s first season, the show returns to the series’ present, where Mae and Osha converge on Khofar to track down the Wookiee Jedi Master Kelnacca, but everyone involved gets far more than they bargained for, leading to a memorable cliffhanger that makes next week’s episode feel years away!
As much as I enjoyed the jump to the past in “Destiny,” and all the new mysteries it brought with it, I was eager to see more of the present again, to see how Mae and Osha would deal with recent revelations about one another. “Day” doesn’t disappoint, as while some of the disjointed editing came back, our time with the characters and further interactions deepen the story and emotional connections between them and us in the process. With Osha, she starts the episode saying goodbye to Jecki Lon, whose semi-flirtatious demeanor with the ex-Jedi is on purpose but I hope they manage to be more explicit in the future, ready to go back to her life as a meknek since she cleared her name. It was surprising to me she was so willing to leave it all behind, not pursue her sister, but what she tells Jecki makes sense for her, as to her she thinks of it as a Jedi problem now and knowing her sister is alive, and dangerous, is enough for her to back off. While Jecki might not quite agree, and wants Osha to stick around, she’s understanding enough not to push her friend, yet inquires if Osha will say goodbye to Sol as well, which is when we find out she plans on ghosting her old Master to avoid causing him more pain.
In reality, it felt like she was worried Sol will convince her otherwise, and he does when he manages to track her down before she leaves. He requests she come along on the mission to help find Mae, knowing she can get through to her like no one else can. It’s a slightly selfish gesture, as Sol won’t be able to go if she doesn’t come, but his intentions are noble enough, as he wants to make sure they can bring her in safely and he doesn’t think the other Jedi on the mission will be as willing to go easy on Mae given her Jedi kill record so far. Osha’s resistant at first, but Sol pulling out a familiar quote, about how there’s good in her, is enough to convince Osha to go along and make stopping Mae not just Jedi business, but her business too. It really is her business, whether she likes to think it is or not, but it’s not until two more conversations we learn more specific reasons for her unwillingness to confront Mae again. It starts with Jedi Knight Yord Fandar, whom despite their different paths and his hoity attitude, have had a bond since being younglings together, so he offers an almost uncharacteristic softness when she confronts him about the situation before them. Osha knows she’ll hesitate again like the last time they saw each other on Olega in “Revenge/Justice,” so she asks Yord to do what she can’t if Mae won’t listen to her, taking her down before anyone else gets hurt, going against Sol’s belief Mae can be saved in the process, as it’s an idea which Osha doesn’t subscribe to, which makes sense given their time apart and what we saw in “Destiny” informing us of her point-of-view on the past. Yord doesn’t say no, but I think he’s right when he tells her why he believes Sol had her come along, thinking she’s likely to face herself and her own feelings more than being here to face Mae, something Sol later doubles down on before the big climatic cliffhanger. Before she chats with Sol towards the final moments, Jecki and Osha have another small but even more impactful discussion than before, as the two unpack their run-in with the local fauna and what it means to be a Jedi. As Mae confesses she’s never been able to get past the family she lost, which is why she never felt she could be a Jedi, Jecki imparts some Jedi Master level wisdom with a quote that feels like a variation of Yoda’s words to Luke Skywalker on Ahch-To, “We’re not defined by what we lose. We’re defined by what we survive.” Osha’s been focusing on what she lost, not what she survived, and it’s been holding her back, but as she begins to sense the Force a bit more again here, and is heading towards facing her sister, maybe she’ll rise above her past and define herself. We can only hope, because I’ve been curiously wondering if Osha and Mae will switch allegiances before the season is through, a theory building from how Osha’s anger at seeing Mae probably scared her more than anything else she’s telling her Jedi friends she’s feeling, as well as the potential for Sol to reveal the full truth of what happened in the past, which he promises to do before someone very dangerous appears. Or maybe Osha’s been the problematic one the whole time, deceiving everyone? Plenty of theories to kick around!
Despite the lack of a “/” in the episode title, we get plenty of time with Mae, and Qimir, for some surprising, but understandable results. Whereas Osha expressed rage and anger over Mae and her supposed part in their family’s death when they saw one another, even if she was going to leave the coven to become a Jedi, Mae was originally full of disbelief and later shock over seeing Osha alive again. Someone lied to her for all these years, and whereas she had the Jedi to put her anger on, she has nothing but misgivings likely with what happened between her and her sister. The seeds are laid pretty early on in “Day,” as she begins questioning Qimir about their ‘Master,’ his relation to the masked man, and doubting the constant, difficult demands. Qimir’s responses feel like red herrings to me, as he’s far too obvious, especially for this show, sounding more and more like he’s the one behind the mask. I could be wrong, maybe only from a certain point of view (which we’ll talk about that in a moment), but be it his moment of saying he cares, the way he pleads with Mae after she strings him up (which we’ll also cover soon), as well as other little gestures or ticks, he definitely knows more than he’s letting on but he’s not their ‘master.’ As they rush through the woods, trying to find Kelnacca before the sun goes down, Mae grows tried and pushes for a rest, which Qimir shoots down (because he might know something she doesn’t). She begins to pick and pull at their ‘master’s’ demands, especially the seemingly impossible task of killing a Jedi without a weapon, saying she’s less upset about it because it’s impossible, but rather he’d kill her if she fails and now that she knows Osha’s alive, would revenge be worth the risk when she can be with her sister again?
She decides to find out if their ‘master’ is as dangerous as Qimir and she suspects, pulling the squirrelly scoundrel into a trap after he went off to get her water, stringing him up and revealing her allegiance is to Osha, not Qimir or her ‘master,’ who were both just a means to an end. It seems the desire for revenge is trickling away with the potential for beinf reunited on the horizon, as she tells Qimir she’ll surrender herself to Kelnacca, despite his pleading against it. Eventually finding Kelnacca’s home, not before running into the cutest little tracker Bazil, who alerts everyone he’s seen her, she finds Kelnacca had a visitor already: her ‘master’!! She’s on the right path by giving up revenge, but will Kelnacca’s dead body and the appearance of her ‘master’ threaten to undermine her attempts at reconciliation and redemption? Will she get it but lose her sister in the process, like my guess of them switching sides, with Osha giving into her anger as Mae’s fades? I’m nervous yet excited to find out!
Before we sink our teeth into Mae’s master’s arrival, we have to go back to earlier in the episode, where Jedi Master Vernestra Rowh (never tired of getting to write that!) had assembled her mini-council as promised. Her explanation for doing this instead of bringing it to the High Council makes it already feel closer and closer to the prequels, saying the Council would be duty bound to reveal the events to the Senate, therefore miring the Jedi, and the Republic, in a scandal. They still aren’t required to do so or have a representative of the chancellor on the council itself, but the bones of what’s to come can be seen here, though I’d like to know more about the current state of the galaxy, and the public’s opinion on the Republic and Jedi, to get a better sense of why this could be such a damaging scandal. I get it’s scandalous because Vernestra, and the others with her (including Ki-Adi-Mundi!!), believe whomever taught Mae was a former Jedi, so it would certainly look bad, but is there a reason they don’t think the Republic/Order could bounce back from such reveals, or is public opinion fine, they just don’t want to ruin their reputation for selfish reasons, so their enemies or any new ones wouldn’t have something on them? I hope the show digs into this a little more, whether it’s this season or any potential second or third seasons, as it would help give us a bigger picture of this era and the politics of it. Speaking of Vernestra, I felt like we got a nice glimpse of the character we’ve known in the books, as she’s rather upset with Sol he didn’t tell her about Mae and the smallest potential she could’ve survived, as she’d have reacted to their reports from Brendok far differently. Knowing she could help others, or had the potential to do so, sounds very much like her. To have all these Jedi on this mini-council know about this incident and this masked Stranger who is teaching Mae, especially the eventual High Council member Ki-Adi-Mundi, who will go on to say a famous line about the Sith being extinct (which I mentioned in a previous review), means whatever comes next, whatever they find, whatever they think they uncover, the real Sith behind it all will remain safely anonymous…
Because holy smokes does Darth Teeth, the masked Stranger which Mae calls her ‘master,’ makes one helluva showy entrance, creepily floating into the frame behind Osha as the sun sets, the silence of the jungle and his red blade piercing the night and abruptly changing the tone of the episode in the best way possible. His movements aren’t smooth, almost jerky, unnatural, which has led to a lot of speculation he’s almost like a puppet, the real ‘master’ controlling the body from afar. This could be how Qimir is the one in the mask, as if the real Sith puts him in it and controls him, therefore misleading anyone who happens to defeat him, so I could still be right he’s literally a red herring, whether he wants to be or not. I love the theory of the puppet idea, otherwise my only other guesses include: it’s a Jedi and he’s fallen, somehow, using a red lightsaber he found somehow/way, but isn’t a Sith…only play acting the part, upset about something else, maybe even in connection to what happened on Brendok; or it’s one of the coven, so the voice modulator masks it’s a woman, coming for revenge on the Jedi for what happened as well, hence why they are training Mae and don’t kill Osha when they have her dead to rights. I’ll be curious to see if next week we go back to the past or pick up with this cliffhanger, Darth Teeth/the Stranger Force (or maybe ‘Thread’!!?) pushing away all the Jedi…either way, I guarantee there’s a reason the Jedi still think the Sith are extinct despite what will happen here.
Here are a few other things:
- The opening segment of the episode was a better show of Kelnacca’s life on Khofar than the somewhat oddly placed stinger at the end of “Revenge/Justice,” almost making that feel redundant compared to what we got here. I get the audience needed to see him be less calm than they could in “Destiny,” but it just feels weirder now after “Day.”
- If I’ve heard any actual criticism of this show, which I’ve leveled some in my reviews, it’s not as widespread or as nasty and disgusting as all the bad faith arguments about the show would like the public to think. Like the response to The Last Jedi or Obi-Wan Kenobi (which led to Ewan McGregor commenting on the hate), these are a small but vocal section of people who claim to be fans but most certainly not, giving into hate, racism, bigotry, and other heinously reprehensible viewpoints and trying to claim their distaste for The Acolyte holds any merit or weight. You just need to see how they sent their bots and fellow reprobates to review-bomb a student film from 2008 with Acolyte in the title, as well as a Star Wars fan-film, instead of the actual show to see how bad faith anything they say really is, though the content of their discontent should be the deadest of giveaways. Ki-Adi-Mundi’s inclusion in this episode is what seemingly set them off this week, screaming about his Legends age compared to his newly updated canon age, but between no such backlash to Andor’s change to Cassian’s age and the fact much bigger things have happened before, like when George Lucas had Even Piell killed in The Clone Wars when a book had him living past Order 66, so this is just another excuse to try and drum up hate against something they don’t like for a variety of reasons. They aren’t worth anyone’s time and The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg roasted them the best with their quickly and slickly produced music video with some biting and well-written lyrics. We don’t deserve someone like Amandla and they’re word is the final one on the subject, so don’t give them any more time, as they’ll come back again and again, despite always claiming Star Wars is dead.
- “Day” features an incidence of non-binary pronouns being used, which while in publishing has been rather prolific in books and comics, but this is the first-time on-screen Star Wars has done such a moment. Pronouns are part of all our lives and this attempt to be more inclusive with them was a delight to hear, though you can imagine more of the above-mentioned backlash included this brief, almost forgettable scene in their shouting. However, the quality of the moment is something to dissect, and a non-binary writer from Polygon did a great job of it, pointing out how using it with a silly non-human and sort of playing it off as a joke misses the mark, so let’s hope the next time the franchise says more inclusive pronouns out loud, they try to be a little more natural. Since showrunner Leslye Headland is queer herself, which she recently commented saying she’s not trying to make the show, …“queer, with a capital Q…” but including stuff like this is nice and welcomed in a franchise which needs to push harder for on-screen rep.
- The episode guide (after a Tweet earlier) helped reveal the Kel Dor in the Jedi travel group to Khofar is actually a female member of the species named Ithia Paan!
- Prior to the episode’s release, an interview with Neal Scalan, creature & droid FX creative supervisor, helped reveal Bazil, the cute Tynnan tracker who helps the Jedi on Khofar! It’s the first live-action appearance of the species previously introduced in Legends all the way back in 1979.
- Victoria Monét, who’s music I hadn’t heard before, made a great song for the show, which touches on Mae and Osha’s journeys, and will eventually be used in the end credits for an upcoming episode (the finale, I presume).
- Also, the soundtrack for the first four episodes is now live on Spotify!
- Over on Reddit, someone complied Claire Kiechel’s open and honest responses to fan questions about the length of the episode, Dave Filoni giving notes, and more! They are a writer for episodes 4 and 5, and it’s cool to have a glimpse behind-the-scenes.
The Acolyte returns to the present with “Day,” the halfway episode of season one which pushes Mae and Osha in interesting new directions and ends on a wallop of a cliffhanger, leaving only the promise of revelations in its wake.
+ Mae’s cooling revenge
+ Osha’s path to reckoning with her past…or the potential to pull away
+ Darth Teeth’s spooky, powerful entrance
+ The little scenes between characters really let the actors have their moments
– More abrupt editing
– Left hoping we’ll get more of the larger political picture while it comments on it
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, Twitter @MynockManor, and Instagram @mynockmanor.
THE ACOLYTE REVIEWS
Season One: 1.1/1.2 “Lost/Found” & “Revenge/Justice” | 1.3 “Destiny”