Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

A flashback episode which takes the story nowhere

Spoiler Warning

On one hand, this is a well-constructed episode – neatly written, well-acted, and certainly delivers on the world-building.  On the other hand, as a flashback episode, this really adds nothing much to the series as it simply retells the event that we already knew about from Osha’s point of view.  Maybe it will have more meaning in the future, but here and now, having praised the show for a strong thought-out story last week, I am going to criticise it for essentially stalling the narrative this week.

Let’s talk about what I enjoyed about the episode first. 

Firstly, it is on the whole a well-acted episode especially given its reliance on child actors Lauren and Leah Brady to carry the weight of young Osha and Mae.  They do a sterling job in delivering facial and performance nuances that show the differences in their characters – Mae’s body language confidence to Osha’s lack of interest in her slumped form; Mae’s temper writ in an ugly frown versus Osha’s childish selfishness in her pouting whinyness.   

Jodie Turner-Smith turns in an excellent performance as the wise and indulgent Mother Aniseya who sees the future of her coven and legacy in the miracle of the twins.  Turner-Smith adds a gravitas and strength to the performance which lends weight to selling the character as a leader and as a counter to Carrie-Anne Moss’ Master Indara.

Margarita Levieva is also great as the stern figure of Koril, the twins’ other mother.  She provides a neat yin to Turner-Smith’s yang, mirroring the duality of Osha and Mae in some ways.  She is more of a disciplinarian than Aniseya; less indulgent and much quicker to anger and action.

The characters are interesting and the world-building here of the coven – a witchcraft variant of Force users is well-done in the main.  Their life in the fortress outside of the Republic comes across strongly in costume and set design. The tale that they have been persecuted for their use of the Force, and their hostile reaction to the Jedi provides interesting context and I especially liked that the confrontation between the Jedi and the coven explored a little the idea of the Jedi as children stealers as they challenge the coven’s right to teach children their view of the Force.  I also loved that small scene showing how the coven view the Force as a thread connecting everything and how the power of its use is amplified by many and less weight is given to individuality. 

I did find the whole Ascension ceremony to be a little heavy-handed in the whole chanting, weird hand gestures, and cultish tone aspects.  It comes across more like everyone is over-acting in a school play about witches than a well-executed scene of a professional TV episode – and for all I’ve praised a lot of the acting, this scene does make me cringe for everyone.       

Additionally, I do feel all the Jedi characters come across as stiffly acted in comparison to the other characters.  Some of that maybe a deliberate direction to emphasise the difference between the coven and the Jedi, but it doesn’t really showcase any of the great actors.  Lee Jung-jae gets the most to do as Sol and his decision to try and emulate Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn is very evident in these scenes – both in his kindness to Osha, but also in his intent desire to have her trained as a Jedi.     

In and of itself, the episode is a well-constructed narrative of what happened to Osha on Brendok.  It explores in depth the tale that we had already been told; that the Jedi were involved somehow in what happened, that Mae started a fire, that Osha and Mae both believed the other had died, that Osha went on and became Sol’s Padawan.

What it does show more explicitly is that Osha wanted to leave; that she wasn’t happy in the coven and being so tied to her sister’s path; that she wanted to be a Jedi.  It also shows us just as explicitly that Mae had a temper, wasn’t particularly kind; that she enjoyed being special and wanted to one day follow in their Mother’s footsteps to lead the coven.  It tells us explicitly that the twins were created through witchcraft, and yes, elaborates on the world and culture they came from including why there was hostility with the Jedi.

Did we need a whole episode to explore that?  For me this whole episode feels completely unnecessary at this point. 

While I have noted what it added, there is no reason why smaller flashbacks in an episode which continues the future events already started couldn’t have served the same purpose.  Just that opening scene of the twins at the tree shifting into their darker confrontation on different sides of the broken bridge before they both fell (with maybe some changed dialogue)…that kind of a singular flashback as a dream/nightmare Osha wakes from would essentially have been enough to get the majority of the information about what we learned about the twins across. 

And I’ll say perhaps a second flashback at some point showing the confrontation of the coven and the Jedi at the Ascension would likely add deeper context for any future reveal of what really happened between these two groups ultimately.

For me, I would either have had these flashbacks or if I really, really wanted this episode to be part of the story, then I would have had it as the first episode (especially given the two episode drop at the beginning), changing the subsequent episodes to have less exposition and explanation about the backstory elements we’d already been shown, alongside dropping the whole twin tease that Lost/Found attempted at the beginning. 

Finally, do I feel like the existence of the essentially fatherless twins diminishes Anakin Skywalker/the Chosen One mythology?  Nope.  The twins are not part of a wider prophecy to bring balance to the whole Force; they are magically constructed to enable the coven and its’ practices to live on.  Nobody really knows how Anakin came to be except that he was born of the Force, retaining his ‘specialness,’ and I feel his story of Fall and Redemption remains a powerful one, not at all overshadowed or diminished by this tale of twins.      

In conclusion:

For all this episode is a decent single episode of television, I think it was a misstep in telling the wider story.  I’m hoping we’re back to the main narrative next week, and I’m also hoping that it will move the story along rather than simply exploring what we already know.