Max Nocerino 
I was blown away by how everything new in The Acolyte was weaved so well into what we already know and presented the fuller picture of the events on Brendok.
People critical of The Acolyte must check out the seventh episode, Choice. We are cast back 16 years to that fateful mission to Brendok that ended in the death of the Nightsister coven and the young Force-sensitive Osha being inducted into the Jedi Order. Some may complain about another flashback episode, but I feel it is logical to show the REAL story, not just the parts that Osha experienced.
LIFE THROUGH A LENS
Like so many stories before it, the episode does a behind-the-scenes-esque tale, showing us some parts we are familiar with and then adding in the “missing” parts, mainly those that deal with the Jedi. It’s cliche, but the story does it so well that there are no complaints.
We see Sol, Indara, Torbin, and Kelnacca on Brendok, doing science scanning with retrofuturistic scanning devices. We quickly learn that they are surveying the mysterious abundance of life on Brendok, as it suffered from a hyperspace disaster some time ago, which had exterminated all life. Or so they thought. It is back, and Indara believes it may be because there is potentially a Force nexus on the planet. Casual viewers may feel like they are hearing gibberish. Yet Force vergences are very common in the Expanded Universe. They are areas with high concentrations of Force energy.
Jedi also love to study them, and everyone seems on board except Torbin, who whines and complains that he can’t go back to Coruscant. His Master, Indara, scolds him to be patient, but the young man is impatient. His youth is shown in this episode, and he was hyped up early as a potential catalyst for disaster.
WHAT HAPPENED ON BRENDOK
It feels like the mist obscuring the eyes has lifted as the truth of what happened to Brendok is revealed. They say there are three sides to every story, including the truth, and the truth is quite disturbing. Indara is the leader of this group and cautions against confronting the Coven. But Sol is stubborn and thinks the children are in danger. The Jedi meddling I mentioned in my other reviews has one epicenter: Sol.
Sol is not a conventional Jedi. He shows anger, and he becomes attached. He is a Grey Jedi-esque character who seems to straddle the line between light and dark. His actions ultimately doomed the Coven and sealed the fate of Mae and Osha. Torbin also plays a role in this disaster, and we finally understand why he voluntarily committed suicide years later when Mae gives him poison. Sure, Mother Aniseya did get inside his head. She tried to seduce him (as we see finally today) into leaving the Jedi, preying on his frustrations on not being allowed to return to his familiar home. Jedi are not perfect beings, and it saddens me that they sometimes cause more problems than they solve.
THE JEDI WERE WRONG
Also, we got everything WRONG. We were wrong about Mae. We were wrong about Mother Koril. They each played an almost “opposite” role to what we initially believed. Koril had encouraged Mae to fight back, and Mae didn’t mean to set that fire. Sure, she meant to lock her sister up, but the fire was mostly an accident by a young and frightened little girl. And Koril… She is just as detrimental to this event as Sol and Torbin, as she instigates Mae’s anger and starts a physical conflict with the Jedi.
These new revelations show how, like even in the real world, history is mainly told by the “winners,” and what happened is obscured through the actions of unscrupulous individuals and the silent voices of the victims. Sol is the former. He accidentally murders the Coven mother. Because of his emotional connection to Osha and selfishness in wanting her to be his apprentice, he saves Osha and sacrifices Mae. The strain of telekinetically lifting both proved to be too much for him.
SOL’S FATEFUL DECISION
How does this man live with himself? He let one girl die and saved the one who meant something to him. It’s un-Jedi-like and almost like a classic Sith move: Pick the strong and thin out the weak. I don’t like Sol after this and feel his day of reckoning cannot come sooner.
I was blown away by how everything new was weaved so well into what we already know and presented the fuller picture of the events on Brendok. Also, I read another review online complaining about the waste of a Wookiee Jedi in Kelnacca. Yeah,…..it’s gone with this episode, and we also learn why we shouldn’t give a powerhouse Sasquatch monster a glowing plasma stick.
VERDICT
I hope the fans will see this episode, as it proves The Acolyte was always good. However, I still want the real Sith to hide in the shadows, as guessing Qimir was too easy. But this team can deliver a satisfying conclusion to this series (or season). Your move, Disney. Stay tuned. A++
The first seven episodes of The Acolyte are streaming on Disney Plus now.
Our team will cover this series comprehensively, providing traditional review coverage and prominent character posters, bios, and teasers. To stay updated and never miss a story or review, please subscribe to our mailing list on our homepage.
FORCE FACTS
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Indara and her team had been on Brendok, surveying it for the source for life for seven weeks already, and were (presumably) far from done. Yet, how could four individuals search a whole PLANET in a reasonable amount of time?! Sometimes, Star Wars forgets the scale of planets- they are treated more like cities or countries, and I wonder if, in-universe, their scanning methods are just that far more advanced than ours.
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Kelnacca uses a very “Earth” metal detector in his surveying.
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Other powerful Nightsisters, like Mother Talzin, can turn into a cloud of smoke, which was cool to see as it was the first time we saw it in live action. We also saw that Mother Aniseya could enter the minds of other beings AND speak to them in real time while speaking to more people in the real world. This ability is very impressive, and it also implies some sort of time manipulation on a very intricate scale.
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Kelnacca is very much a Wookiee and uses his slicing skills to hot-wire the elevator of the Nightsister fortress.
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Aniseya warns the Jedi that their actions will one day lead to the end of all Jedi in the galaxy. Is she seeing the future? Because that very much happens over a century later.
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The M-counts of Osha and Mae are confirmed to be VERY high, but we haven’t been given a specific number. Darn. I like power-level scaling! Yet, the symbiotes in both girls are completely identical, which is impossible without some type of purposeful “tampering.” Indara speculates that the Force vergence on the planet may have allowed the girls to have been created and made twins from one consciousness, split into two bodies. Insane.
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The reason why the whole Nightsister coven died was NOT because of the fire. It was because the Nightsisters joined their powers together to hijack the mind and body of Kelnacca, turning him into a weapon to be used against the other Jedi. The strain was what ultimately killed them, explaining the lack of burns or asphyxiation on their bodies.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
