– Spoiler Review –
After the bloodbath of “Night,” The Acolyte‘s sixth episode “Teach/Corrupt” understandably slows things down, as Osha and Mae confront two very different Masters as their past and futures collide.
I was very excited to see the “/” and two words return to the episode title this week, if only because it immediately told me something about the episode: the twins, Osha and Mae Aniseya, were splitting apart once again. The first two episodes had them on opposite sides, having not seen each other for 16 years, and after they were together or knew of their existence, ready to face one another, the episode titles dropped the slash and only had one word. Now they’ve split again, Osha unwilling to choose her sister Mae over the Jedi, and the slash has appropriately returned, while so too do the questions: which word describes which twin? Or can they be assigned to both? “Teach/Corrupt” is an interesting word choice pairing with the episode featuring Osha with Qimir, the Sith-ly stranger unmasked as Mae’s Master, and Mae with Master Sol, Osha’s long-time Jedi Master, in a Star Wars Master Trap, as while one would think it would be simple to claim Teach is about Mae being with Sol and Corrupt is Osha with Qimir, but it honestly felt like it was the opposite. Sol, and Lee Jung-jae’s continued stellar performance, is my favorite character on the show still, but I don’t know how much I can trust him anymore, from how the past tears him up inside to the pain he feels now at his team’s loss, including his latest Padawan, as he’s definitely blaming himself for their deaths due to what he’s been suppressing, which in hand has been dampening his considerable sensing abilities. Add in the truth of what happened in the past, which he’s never been brave enough to share it with Osha, but now he plans on doing so with Mae, filling her head with his truth of what happened, a corruption if you will, and whether it’s the actual truth or what he’s been telling himself will be very interesting to see when we go to the past and uncover what really happened next episode. Qimir, on the other hand, has been honest with Osha, as far as we know, as they spend more and more time together on the unnamed planet,* teaching her to be herself, to embrace herself, her feelings, her connections, in a way no one else has ever done besides her mother all those years ago. It doesn’t feel like corruption when she’s allowed to make her own choices, almost more like she’s teaching herself, not stuck under the umbrella of rules the Jedi offer instead. I imagine the slash won’t be in next week’s episode title, only because it’s another flashback, but I look forward to its return for the finale (again, just a hope), as it’s been fun to dissect the meaning behind the titles. Otherwise, overall with the episode “Teach/Corrupt,” the sudden swipes throughout messed with the overall pacing, as while I was enthralled by the conversations unfolding between the two groups, the jumps back and forth sort of jolted me out of each one.
In the best way possible, as it remains my favorite Star Wars film currently, The Acolyte‘s “Teach/Corrupt” felt a lot like The Last Jedi in some regards, though whereas Rey was splitting her conversations on the Force and her place in it with Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren, the twins are only getting one side of the conversation, but it’s the opposite of the one they’ve been immersed in for 16 years. We’ll start with Osha’s experience, who awakes in a strange cave, her wounds tended to, and water/food freely open for her to take, though when she rushes outsides, she realizes how isolated she is on a largely water covered planet. But then she sees the Stranger/Qimir taking a leisurely stroll, so she follows him, not quite sure if she wants to kill him or bring him in after his bloodbath of her friends, watching and waiting until he’s the most vulnerable to have an advantage. Taking his lightsaber, which he left by his clothes before wading into a calm pool of water, Osha prepares for his return…only he decides he’s done waiting and reveals he knows she’s been there. I had wondered last episode if he knew if he had Osha or not, I assumed he likely did, and it doesn’t take us long to learn he knows exactly who he has before him, each of his actions calculated with such knowledge in mind. What stops Osha from taking him down is not only his nonchalant demeanor, but from how quickly he hits on her feelings, picking her emotions out, one by one, and making her feel seen in a way she hasn’t for 16 years. The Jedi offered a life of her own, to be anything other than what everyone else wanted her to be, to not do the same as her sister, but her compassion and love was the one thing Osha couldn’t let go of, which we saw in the way her and Jecki Lon were on the verge of being a thing (which Qimir points out), how Yord, despite his willingness to take her in for a crime she didn’t commit, was still compassionate to her and wanted to see her grow, and with Master Sol’s absolute delight at being reunited with her again. The one thing they all couldn’t do however, like her mother or her sister could do, was reciprocate, as while they could love her back in their own way, it couldn’t be something which led to attachment, so their love could only go so far, robbing the young girl of something she was used to, recalling Anakin Skywalker’s own struggles given the age he was brought into the Order. As the dark side is often a seductive path, Qimir not only leans into Osha’s penchant for love, calling her out for why she’s always trying to love those who can’t love her back, but his easy-going movements, muscular body, and willingness to let her take what she wants are all part of his attempts to pull her towards his side, and what person wouldn’t be into someone like him, with the way he looks, acts, and the substance of his mindset? It’s an enticingly different way of watching a dark sider seducing someone to the cause, not by simply leveraging knowledge they want, but offering physical and emotional connections as well, where it comes down less to choosing a side but choosing what the person wants more. Sure, Anakin chose between the life of his wife or the Order, but Palpatine ensured there wasn’t many other options, while Qimir’s offerings to Osha are so apathetic in tone, it’ll feel like her choice to take him up on his opportunities or not. Manny Jacinto impressed with his ripped body, deadly fighting, and sudden turn between personalities in “Night,” but this was a showcase where he earned the fervor he’s caused in the fandom, as not only are his good looks helping Qimir convince Osha, but his performance against Amandla Stenberg’s shows the power of a wolf in sheep’s clothing (he is wearing white…).
I found it interesting how Qimir digs into why Osha left, claiming the Jedi saw the anger and pain she had and cast her away, not she chose to leave as she always claims. It’s through this act he says they are linked, as he claims he was once a Jedi too, but was also cast out, letting Osha making the assumption the scars on his back are from his Jedi Master discarding him (I highly doubt he was a Jedi or it was Jedi Master who cast him out, but the episode seems to set up it could’ve been given a different character’s role, but we’ll cover that later). By losing everything, which Osha did between her family and later leaving the Jedi Order, Qimir says they are finally free, free from worrying about the many rules of the Jedi or the semantics of how to access the Force. It goes back to the notion Osha keeps loving those who can’t love her fully back, with the suggestion being the same happened between Qimir and his Master, but now that he’s free, he won’t let anyone stop him from being what he wants and having what he wants. Is Qimir the right someone for Osha to connect with since he can go as far she can with her love, as like I said earlier the Jedi can’t love to the level non-Jedi can, or will this help her realize her sister’s love is the one to embrace after all this time? Or will it be too late for this realization, as Mae may eventually change her mind? As Qimir points out, he made a mistake with Mae because he thought she wanted more than simply revenge, but as we saw in “Revenge/Justice” first and later both “Day” and “Night,” Mae’s desire for revenge was slowly fading the moment she knew her sister was alive. In fact, it’s only really Osha’s choice not to chose Mae which led to the situation we’re seeing right now, as Mae is only back to revenge because it’s the Jedi who once again took her sister from her, their teachings to Osha what caused her sister to turn away from her. With Sol keeping Osha at arm’s length, never telling her the truth to avoid the pain it could cause, like making her not like him or the Order potentially, Qimir’s advice she should trust herself shows he knows what to do with her, because like I said earlier, there’s more to what Osha wants than Mae ever did, as trying to get justice for the death of her family has so many more emotions and complexity to it than a simple revenge story. As for what Qimir wants, he claims it’s the power of two, a sly reference to the Rule of Two, and it makes one wonder if he needs the power of two to face his Master, as Sith often like to do, or because he’s looking for his apprentice, like he said last episode, potentially because his Master is already dead. The episode ends for Osha as she puts on Qimir’s cortosis helmet, its sensory deprivation feature encasing her with herself, her thoughts, and the Force, all shown in a claustrophobic and somewhat rare point-of-view shot from inside the helmet, hinting at how she’s finally ready to face her past, face her failure with the Jedi, and face what she knew and thought was right actually isn’t all it was cracked up to be. Hopefully, if episode seven is a full flashback, we don’t skip too much into the future of this scene when we come back to the present for the finale, as I’d love to see more of this process, as it won’t be a one episode and done turn, at least I don’t think the show would do it too quickly.
While Qimir and Osha get cozy, Mae and Master Sol have their own moments aboard the Polan, as communication with Coruscant is difficult this far out in the Outer Rim and ship itself seems to be having issues. Whereas Qimir knew which twin he had with him, Sol does not, even despite his considerable abilities to sense things or people from far away, as we’ve seen in almost every episode besides “Night” before this, but when he does figure it out, the episode takes an interesting turn. Before then, Sol’s emotional state, already full of remorse and sadness, has taken such a hit over the death of his Padawan and the other Jedi who came with, he eagerly embraces Mae when she’s sneaking into the cockpit to kill him, thanking her for saving him, and then has her fly up to the Polan’s hyperspace component as he looks after the communications issues. When he’s down there, Lee Jung-jae delivers a helluva scene without a single word, the pain and torment over the loss Sol’s just experienced, with some hints of how he blames himself thrown in there for good measure, warp across the Jedi Master’s face before he composes himself and returns to the cockpit. The ship experiences more issues, so Sol asks Mae to look into it, considering he thinks he has the meknek Osha before him, but she’s initially at a loss until she finds the head of Osha’s PIP droid in the maintenance area…alongside Bazil, who’s been sneaking around the ship, and was the one to place the droid there. He tries his valiantly best to take her down, with a little help from Pip even, but she reboots the droid to factory settings and scares off the cute little tracker, ending the threat of her reveal for now; I wasn’t totally sure why Bazil didn’t bother coming to Sol with his suspicions, or doesn’t immediately sneak him out once he’s confirmed Mae’s aboard, not Osha, but I’m hoping that’ll be explained later.
When Mae returns to Sol, having used the reset Pip to fix the ship, he’s still dealing with his complex level of feelings over everything that’s happened. It’s those feelings which are blocking his ability to sense who he really has with him, while his earlier state after having Osha back and Mae being so close is what prevented him from sensing Qimir’s true intentions when they met before, so it does prove a lot of the Jedi Order’s rules about attachments since Sol can’t let them go and it’s preventing him from getting the full picture of the Force around him. Mae pushes Sol in their conversation, pressing him on Osha’s behalf but also out of her own curiosity, as for why her sister had to give up a lot of herself to become a Jedi and if Sol told her what really happened on Brendok, and just when he’s about to finally tell her, as he’s been teasing for a few episodes now, the power comes on and the moment’s over. She rushes off to the cockpit, about to send a message to the Order, but he stuns her, having now realized it’s not really Osha. Whereas Qimir gives Osha more and more freedom to do what she wants, even allowing her to point his own lightsaber at her, Sol takes such freedoms away from Mae, much like Qimir claims about the Jedi, locking her up. It’s an almost scary scene, the otherwise emotional Jedi Master is now calm, calculated, and assured as he tells Mae he’ll let her go…after they save Osha and stop her Master and he gets to tell her what he’s been rehearsing for over 16 years. I’m not saying there’s a hint of evil here or anything, but it’s such a change from the tortured soul (sorry not sorry) we’ve had the last few episodes, it’s almost startling, like this is his Qimir vs the Stranger personality change, as clarity has come to him, for better or worse, by having Mae with him now. The episode ends before we hear what he has to say, before we finally learn what happened fully on Brendok, but the wait likely will be over thanks to the seventh installment.
Like I’ve wondered about in previous reviews, especially “Day,” both the political climate and the overall state of this era has left me curious, since we’ve only gotten hints or simply not enough, but “Teach/Corrupt” offers one such glimpse when Vernestra Rwoh is brought into the story. Before her ‘intern’ Jedi Padawan Mog comes to tell her about Sol’s garbled transmission, we see her in a conversation with Abednedo Senator Isedwa Chuwant, who’s telling her about an ambitious Senator Rayencourt and his desire to have an audit of the Jedi Order. In the part of the High Republic era which the publishing initiative takes place, the Jedi Order and the Republic normally choose to work hand-in-hand because they have common goals, but they are still separate entities so the idea of an external audit of the Order would be impossible, meaning this is just another display from The Acolyte of how much the two organizations are slowly entangling, leading us to where they are in the prequel era. Vernestra isn’t too excited about the idea, but Chuwant says the Jedi are always transparent with the Senate so they shouldn’t be worried, though the irony of him telling her this, as she’s helping to hush-up a potentially scandalous revelation about Jedi deaths and someone killing them, is not lost on us or her at the moment. Will Rayencourt be important to the story going forward? Is this just an off-handed mention? Is he a Sith Lord or someone loyal to them, could this be their first attempt of sliding into politics to mess with the Order? Regardless, it was a welcomed mention of the larger politics at play, and hopefully a second season could expand on that in some degree. Vernestra, Mog, and two other Jedi travel to Khofar in an attempt to find Sol and learn what happened, though Sol has already left the system, but their investigation of the dead Jedi leads them to some curious questions. Mog even goes so far as to blame Sol for the deaths here, but Vernestra seems to have a look in her eye she knows it’s definitely someone else, going so far as to whisper “Something to tips the scales,” leaving us viewers curious what she knows and what she suspects. If Qimir was telling the truth and he was a Jedi before being cast out, which once again I doubt, could Vernestra have been his Master, as he did claim it was some time ago he was training? Does she maybe know who was Qimir’s Master if it wasn’t her, if he had actually been a Jedi? If it was Vernestra as his Maser, it does bring up a concerning situation where Qimir’s comments about love and being thrown away would suggest Vernestra’s canon aroace identity, aka experiences little to no romantic or sexual attraction, could be used, as it unfortunately often is in media, to mean she can’t love, when that’s furthest from the truth. Hopefully The Acolyte doesn’t go down such a path with Vernestra, as she could easily be Qimir’s old Master and simply have cast him out due to sensing his darkness inside or any other number of reasons, though how she went about it, if she really gave him those scars on his back, point to another moment where she’s made a mistake. I have to thank James on Twitter for even pointing out the show’s verbiage about what happened could be used by the fans/be setting up an aphobic storyline and once I heard it, I couldn’t unsee the unfortunate potential. Vernestra is tied for my top Jedi of the publishing initiative, so I enjoy the character, flaws and all, and I look forward to seeing how the show adds to her overall story, though even I will admit The Acolyte hasn’t done enough with her yet to make her seem memorable to non-readers just yet (and even I want more from her here). But I did enjoy her problems with hyperspace, given the visions she’d typically have while travelling through it, and finally seeing her lightwhip in action, even if it was only for a bug, was a true delight!
Here are a few other things:
- Also speaking of Vernestra, the episode guide revealed she named her ship after her first Padawan, Imri Cantaros!
- ∗My first thought about the “Unknown Planet” was Ahch-To, given its visual similarities, and I even was trying to claim migratory patterns of Porgs for why they weren’t on this island on the planet to my wife (who thought that was a step too far and I agree), but showrunner Leslye Headland has confirmed it’s not, so Legends may hold the answer instead, especially given the vein of cortosis ore we see towards the end: Bal’demnic, which in Legends was the site of Darth Tenebrous death at the hands of Darth Plagueis, himself the Master to Darth Sidious…showrunner Leslye Headland knows her Star Wars lore, so this seems almost like a shoe-in for where this was set. She’s even teased we’ll see a second Sith this season, so let your mind and theories run wild!
- Everyone was hearing Kylo Ren’s theme at the end of “Night” and Headland confirmed it was done on purpose, claiming it’ll be revealed later. Did she mean for this episode or in the rest of the season? Because the scene where Qimir takes his own lightsaber, in Osha’s hands, and pushed it up against his stomach, telling her to kill him, reminded me a lot between Kylo and Han Solo in The Force Awakens, so could it be the thematic connection? Or how things go for one of the twins coming up? Something more? Hopefully it’ll be clearer what using the theme was hinting at or Headland confirms the moment it was hinting at in a future interview.
The Acolyte‘s season one, episode six “Teach/Corrupt” pushes the twins in an interesting new directions and blurring the lines between who had the better Master.
+ Qimir and Osha’s conversations…
+ …and their chemistry
+ Sol’s slow change over the episode
+ Seeing a glimpse of the bigger picture
– More halting swipes disrupt pacing
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” | 1.4 “Day” | 1.5 “Night”