Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

In the end, a show more interesting in concept than in the execution

Spoiler Warning

The Acolyte ends its run with a finale that highlights the flaws and the virtues of the show, after a second flashback episode which finally revealed what happened on Brendok.  I’m going to review each episode separately as they ended up very distinct pieces of story-telling, and finally, I’ll comment on the show as a whole.

Choice

I stuck with my decision not to review Choice as an individual episode because it was not utterly brilliant and that was my bar for investing the time to review it as its own separate entity last week.  The problem I realised this week is that the nature of the episode means it needs its own commentary although it is far from brilliant.

I’ve heard reports that the showrunner had said the show would play with the idea of telling the same story from different perspectives.  This isn’t a new concept but done well it can be a great way of showing how people arrive at different versions of ‘truth’ and is particularly great in the murder/mystery genre.  Knives Out (2019) and its sequel Glass Onion (2022) are great recent examples.

Since the first two episodes had set up the mystery of what had happened on Brendok, and Destiny provided Osha’s perspective on events, it was clear at some point we’d revisit it, and Choice ultimately is a re-telling of Destiny primarily from the perspective of Sol, with a sprinkling of Mae.

The problem is that it feels disconnected from the show.  At the end of the previous episode, Sol tells Mae that he’s long thought about what he would say to her if he had the chance, and then we’re simply back on Brendok.  There needed to be a better transition.  Perhaps if this had been an explicit retelling of Brendok by Sol with scenes back to the present with him and Mae it might have felt like Choice was actually connected to the main story-telling.  This lack of transition is compounded by the opening of the finale where it is clear that Sol hasn’t been retelling the story to Mae at all.

Beyond that, Choice doesn’t add much to Destiny.  We learn why the Jedi were on Brendok; we learn that they’re interested in a Force vergence; we learn that they made a series of bad decisions because Sol was overly invested in Osha and Torbin was homesick which culminated in them breaking into the witches’ fortress and killing the witches (although whether Indara killed them all to break their connection to Kelnacca or simply knocked them out and the fire/smoke killed them in the end is not really clarified).

The big reveal of Sol’s emotions driving events which end up in him killing Mother Aniseya and choosing to save only Osha is a decent subversion of character.  Sol has been presented as a model Jedi Master – patient, kind and empathetic, wanting to do the right thing.  (Even more so in comparison to Indara who from Osha’s perspective was presented as a stern uncompromising figure).  That it is Sol who really erred on Brendok, who led his fellow Jedi into assumptions and actions that ultimately contributed to the final conflict between the Jedi and the witches, is an interesting twist.

Unfortunately, there are still gaps – no reasoning on why Mae’s small fire started a fire that took down the fortress, no real foundation for Torbin’s homesickness prompting such an extreme response (or are we meant to draw the conclusion that Mother Aniseya’s mental seduction of him inflamed that desire to leave or was left as a compulsion?), and ultimately the reasoning on why the four Jedi decide to lie to the High Council is weak.  If the Jedi won’t accept Osha because she’s too old, that remains true whether the Jedi contributed to the destruction of her home or not. 

There is also a question left of whether the actions of Torbin and Kelnacca in particular really provide good motivation for their later realities – Torbin isolating himself in mental solitude and ultimately agreeing that his death is justified; Kelnacca isolating himself too.  Kelnacca was possessed and didn’t really do anything else beyond follow Indara’s orders.  Torbin was as whiny a padawan as Anakin, but ultimately his helping Sol break into the fortress to ‘save’ the girls was the height of his idiocy.  I question whether these Brendok actions are really enough to provide explanations for their characters’ later actions.

Indeed, only Sol’s motivation in wanting to save Osha is solidly presented throughout the episode acting as the driving force behind his actions.  Indara’s turn in the ship on the end from a model Jedi who continually refers to reporting and wanting to receive the guidance of the Council to a ‘no, we must lie about this’ is the most egregious characterisation/motivation inconsistency.  Again, the foundation for why she changes her mind just isn’t there.

The main positive of the whole episode is the fight sequence between Mother Koril, the witches and the Jedi, and later the possessed Kelnacca against Sol and Torbin.  The choreography is wonderful and there is a real sense of danger in Kelnacca’s attack. 

I very much felt with Destiny that it did not need to be its own episode; that the information revealed could have been shown in flashbacks, and I’m of the same mind here with Choice.  I think elements of this might have been better to have been seeded in the scene where Mae confronts Torbin or in a flashback for Kelnacca sitting alone in his hut to strengthen their motivations/characterisations and to really capitalise on showing different perspectives.  In the same way that Destiny strangled the pacing at the beginning of the show, I feel that Choice strangled the pacing in the drive to the finale.

I’m just not going to comment on the weird choice of music to play over the credits.

The Acolyte             

There are certainly more flaws than virtues to highlight in the finale and as I’ll finish with positives, let me start with the negatives.

Ultimately the primary story of the show turns out to be ‘how Osha who wanted to become a Jedi becomes a Sith Acolyte.’  Unfortunately, because the show is trying to hide that so it can make it an ‘ah-ha!’ moment when Osha kills Sol, it really ends up ruining its own story as it really doesn’t deliver on Osha, who has been consistently ‘the good twin,’ suddenly turning to the Dark Side and wanting to train in it.

If Osha’s characterisation is all over the place, Mae’s characterisation is also incredibly weak.  She goes from being set on revenge to simply wanting Sol to face justice so his crimes can be shown to the whole Republic.  Yet she ran from the Jedi and she runs from Sol.  The whole switcheroo of ‘good twin goes bad, bad twin goes good’ is so badly done.  Was it meant to reinforce the Osha and Mae are one soul/being separated into two?  If it was, still badly done! And why did this primary story really need Osha having a twin in order to be told? 

The lack of consistent and muddled characterisation between Osha and Mae definitely impedes Amandla Stenberg’s performance in the finale.  She does do a solid job overall, especially in the scene where Osha and Mae are fighting, when she finally gets to know the truth from Sol and in the final scene saying goodbye as the sisters. 

But, why can’t they go off together in the end?  I’m not sure why Mae and Osha don’t just steal the Jedi’s ship and take off out of there on their ownsome.  Qimir’s offer isn’t exactly strong, Osha has had some training in the Force, it’s not like she’s a novice.  It really isn’t clear why Osha signs up for Sith training and goes with The Stranger/Qimir, having previously been firm in her decline as they walked to the ship.  (I knew as soon as Osha walked to Qimir’s ship decked out like Mae that she had seen herself killing Sol rather than Mae.) 

Speaking of incomprehensible turns of character – Bazil the tracker.  Why does Bazil sabotage Sol’s ship when he’s in pursuit of Mae?  Has he somehow telepathically realised Sol did some terrible things and wants Mae to escape? Does he not like the ship and wants them to land it?

Of the characterisations and motivations only Sol and Vernestra have some continuity – and Mog (the human equivalent of Jar Jar Binks) who manages to continue to be irritating as comedic relief when tonally it doesn’t fit the scene (like in arresting a mind-wiped Mae). 

Sol’s continuing character subversion does work; it’s clear that he is still driven by his emotions and now has a need to justify his decision to intervene on Brendok.  Lee Jung-jae’s performance is good throughout and sells Sol’s ‘conflicted but determined that he did the right thing’ attitude.  The truth of his betrayal and the selfish justifying of his actions to Osha is enough to make it believable that he enrages her to the point where she starts to Force choke him, (even if they don’t quite add up in my opinion to her actually killing him after his gasped reassurance that it’s fine if she does).  The counterpoint of the kyber crystal bleeding red with Osha’s pain is well done.

Vernestra’s characterisation as a Master Jedi trying to maintain the reputation of the Jedi with the Senate and Republic, obfuscating the truth if needed to do that, has been consistent throughout the show and is played out with the earlier foreshadowing of blaming everything on Sol.  Here the political struggle comes more to the fore with the introduction of the Senator who questions the Jedi as an institution and their control.  It might have strengthened Vernestra’s positioning had this confrontation come earlier in the show rather than through hints in her earlier dialogue.  The less than surprising cameo of her going to see Yoda to talk over things is fine and adds to that layering of how the tension of outside politics and internal lies within the Jedi contributed to its failings at the time of its fall.

The reveal of her as Qimir’s former Jedi Master was also telegraphed with the whip and Qimir’s scar so not a surprise, but good to get confirmation.  And maybe there are potentially hints of why Qimir went evil when she talks of how Sol’s feelings for Osha twisted his actions.

Talking of Qimir, the character also suffers a logic fail when he attacks Sol in the fortress.  Why he doesn’t lurk in the shadows (like the weird wraith of Darth Plagueis back on the ocean planet making a very surprise cameo) until Mae confronts Sol as Osha had seen so he can validate that she can kill without a weapon?  Still, the character of Qimir has been a solid addition to the pantheon of the Sith and Manny Jacinto’s performance has been a delight throughout. The moment where he struggles to free Osha from the helmet is very well-acted.

The battle between him and Sol is one of the highlights (which almost forgives the logic fail) as is the space chase of Sol and Mae through the asteroid rings.

Series conclusion:

I will say that the production of the show in respect of set design, costumes, make-up, stunt-work, fight choreography, and the vast majority of the CGI has been well-done throughout the show.  I give kudos for exploring the galaxy, for having scenes on ships and in space, as well as on a number of planets.  I give kudos for not having Tatooine anywhere in sight. The fight sequences are some of the best I’ve seen in Star Wars.

The acting has also been very solid for the most part, with most actors delivering on their characters well, even if I’m not a fan of some of the choices (I find Rebecca Hamilton’s Vernestra very stiff, but I can appreciate the consistency which ultimately delivers a cohesive Vernestra).  Where there has been a disconnect in the acting has for the most part been because the dialogue and characterisation has been poor or inconsistent.

I started this show praising it for what seemed to be a thought-through storyline underpinning the show and giving it a good spine.  Unfortunately, I think later individual episodes did not live up to this early promise and indeed the structure of the series (the sequences, content and length of each episode) stifled the story-telling and led to weird choices that damaged the execution of its narrative. 

It ultimately muddies its main storyline – how Osha becomes an acolyte – with trying to be too clever in places (different perspectives, character subversions), and with introducing too many competing story threads (the whole ‘good and bad twins’ trope, the ‘what really happened on Brendok,’ the backstory of the witches to simply show off the world building).  It fails to deliver on consistent characterisation, particularly with its main characters, Osha and Mae.

What it does deliver in spades is interesting concepts – the witches’ and Qimir’s want to use their power freely and to train others, who is good and who is evil really, the notion of whether the Jedi are good or bad (or whether like any institution they are a mix of good and bad people who simply make good and bad decisions), the early pressures of the Senate watching the Jedi and creating a pressure point which drives their behaviour, the idea of the twins being one and created by the Force, the power of two…

All interesting ideas. 

Unfortunately, the concepts remain better than the delivery overall.  If the show gets a second season, I would suggest that they try for simpler story-telling and to focus on strong characterisation so that the characters make intuitive choices that fit them rather than choices that simply serve the plot. 

In summary, I have enjoyed parts of The Acolyte very much and I applaud the time and effort of the cast and crew. I’m not hooked enough to be waiting for a second season with enthusiasm, but if one comes along, I will give it a fair chance.