Spoilers The Acolyte
- Thread starter Gordie
- Start date
My biggest complaint about this episode is that, for an episode that seems to set itself as "explaining what happened," it falls well short of that. Failing to explain how the rest of the coven wound up dead is number one on the list of unexplained things.
I could surmise that there was some sort of power system malfunction caused by the fire that had been started by Mae, the fire that appeared to have accidentally gotten away from her, actually a cascade of power system malfunctions, if you will, that ultimately resulted in an fatal explosion. Such an explanation seems to have been implied, but there are several moving parts there that require the viewer to connect some dots, and I'm left wondering, did they literally run out of money to show us the 'splosion? Why couldn't they simply show us a 'splosion? Why get coy? Is there still actually more here going on? Is the rest of the coven not actually dead (as some have already speculated)?
Well, I thought that was a highly satisfying follow-up to "Destiny." After that episode, I thought maybe the Sith had been in the background all along and helped "grease the wheel," so to speak, to get the coven and the Jedi at each other's throats so he could snatch one of the twins for himself, but clearly I was wrong. I would like to find out how Qimir and Mae found each other. He must have been on Brendok at some point; how else would she have left?
Sol claimed he had noble intentions, but I think he allowed his desire to serve a higher cause than merely studying some plant samples--locating this miraculous vergence in the Force--to cloud his judgment. He convinced himself that it was his destiny to train Osha to be a Jedi to the point that he lost sight of everything else. When Mae arrived in the courtyard looking for help with the fire, Sol mistook her for Osha, and then when Aniseya started doing her mist thing and disappearing, Mae began to as well, and Sol clearly mistook this for Aniseya possibly trying to complete the "sacrifice" that Mae told him and Indara about, so he panicked and attacked, thinking he was defending Osha. And then everything snowballed from there. It's interesting that Sol has been compared multiple times to Qui-Gon Jinn, because he could have used the same advice that Qui-Gon gave to Anakin: "Always remember, your focus determines your reality."
Granted, the coven didn't exactly help matters, since it was Aniseya's messing with Torbin's mind that caused the poor kid to become so obsessed with leaving Brendok and returning home that he grasped at anything that would accomplish that as quickly as possible--namely, taking the twins as proof that there was indeed a vergence in the Force on Brendok. And then there was Koril encouraging Mae to get angry and do whatever it took to prevent Osha from leaving, on top of stirring up the rest of the coven and preparing them for a fight, making the whole situation even more tense when Sol and Torbin arrived.
Koril must be coming back in the final episode. She's the only witch who's still unaccounted for after she did the same disappearing act that Aniseya tried to do. Maybe she was Qimir's master? It wouldn't really explain his hatred for the Jedi, though. Unless Koril found him and trained him, claiming to be a Jedi herself. But that doesn't seem very likely to me.
The witches taking over Kelnacca was pretty terrifying. Definitely an "Oh, crap!" moment for me. And the following fight scene was brutal. That was great.
I do agree that while this episode was purportedly meant to answer all our questions, it feels like it just left us with even more. And with only one episode left, I worry that we might not get all of the answers we're looking for.
Sol claimed he had noble intentions, but I think he allowed his desire to serve a higher cause than merely studying some plant samples--locating this miraculous vergence in the Force--to cloud his judgment. He convinced himself that it was his destiny to train Osha to be a Jedi to the point that he lost sight of everything else. When Mae arrived in the courtyard looking for help with the fire, Sol mistook her for Osha, and then when Aniseya started doing her mist thing and disappearing, Mae began to as well, and Sol clearly mistook this for Aniseya possibly trying to complete the "sacrifice" that Mae told him and Indara about, so he panicked and attacked, thinking he was defending Osha. And then everything snowballed from there. It's interesting that Sol has been compared multiple times to Qui-Gon Jinn, because he could have used the same advice that Qui-Gon gave to Anakin: "Always remember, your focus determines your reality."
Granted, the coven didn't exactly help matters, since it was Aniseya's messing with Torbin's mind that caused the poor kid to become so obsessed with leaving Brendok and returning home that he grasped at anything that would accomplish that as quickly as possible--namely, taking the twins as proof that there was indeed a vergence in the Force on Brendok. And then there was Koril encouraging Mae to get angry and do whatever it took to prevent Osha from leaving, on top of stirring up the rest of the coven and preparing them for a fight, making the whole situation even more tense when Sol and Torbin arrived.
Koril must be coming back in the final episode. She's the only witch who's still unaccounted for after she did the same disappearing act that Aniseya tried to do. Maybe she was Qimir's master? It wouldn't really explain his hatred for the Jedi, though. Unless Koril found him and trained him, claiming to be a Jedi herself. But that doesn't seem very likely to me.
The witches taking over Kelnacca was pretty terrifying. Definitely an "Oh, crap!" moment for me. And the following fight scene was brutal. That was great.
I do agree that while this episode was purportedly meant to answer all our questions, it feels like it just left us with even more. And with only one episode left, I worry that we might not get all of the answers we're looking for.
Given the budget this thing had, I think we're going to have to go with "fanatically committed to ambiguity" over "not enough money for an explosion."
And if I was making a show where a fire was really devastating, I probably would have set that fire in a structure that wasn't made of stone.
That was like watching a rerun with a deleted scene. Total waste of an episode.
ETA: forgot to mention that the idea that if Torbin & Sol had stayed at camp, or if Sol had brought Torbin back as he was supposed to, then everything would have been fine is not entirely true. Koril independently took it upon herself to encourage Mae to "get angry", which led directly to her starting the fire.
Had that played out without the Jedi, the fortress would still have burned, and Osha may have been the one to fall into that abyss (which incidentally, we *still* don't know how Mae survived.) Some of the coven could have survived, but since Mae destroyed the platform control panel; escape options before the fire consumed them would have been limited.
So yeah, between all of that and the fact that a planet with twin suns was a consistent element in every major draft; Lucas clearly had twins and siblings on the brain all through the creative process and kept trying to find ways to make them fit. Not surprising given his interest in mythological forms, and twins are indeed an oft repeated trope in various mythologies.
As for the "there is another" of it all: Lucas had mentions of Luke's "lost sister" in some of his early notes for 'Empire', and has said that he wanted to develop the character more. Playing with the idea that Anakin had twin children, one taken to live with an uncle, the taken to the other side of the universe for both of their safety. In his words: -
There was even the idea that Luke would become aware of her though his training (presumably a vision of some sort.) I think it was indeed Kersh's idea to ultimately par all of that down to just that one rather ambiguous line.
There was also a Wookiee Jedi in the EU books, so he by no means had an outright ban on them as a concept, but I think he was reticent to allow them to become commonplace since Wookiees have their own cultural relationship with the force and he didn't like the idea of that being subsumed by Jedi philosophy. There was even a line in Clone Wars where Yoda remarks to Gungi how rare his kind are to the Jedi.
If I had to guess (and it is just a guess) I'd say that Lucasfilm are respecting that wish, and it's probably official policy to restrict the appearances of Wookiee Jedi to a "one at a time" basis. Or ar least "no more than one per generation" when dealing with stories across eras.
Had that played out without the Jedi, the fortress would still have burned, and Osha may have been the one to fall into that abyss (which incidentally, we *still* don't know how Mae survived.) Some of the coven could have survived, but since Mae destroyed the platform control panel; escape options before the fire consumed them would have been limited.
My guess is that they're intended to be a physical embodiment of the dichotomy of nature, the force, and the cosmos. Literally the power of two. They may also be an attempt to replicate the Mortis twins, if only symbolically. To what end though? I guess for a religion that (according to them) has been oppressed and hunted, the idea of creating a leader that is both extremely powerful, and is literally in two places at once at all times feels like safety and an assured continuation of their cult (and I use the word cult in the classical religious sense, not the loaded modern sense.)
Yes and no. There were twins and non-twin siblings present in one form or another though several of the various drafts of the original movie. Sometimes Leia had twin younger siblings, sometimes Luke had the younger twin brothers, and Leia was their cousin. At one point Lucas even revised the second draft so that Luke and Leia were merged into a single female protagonist (still with the younger twin siblings) because he didn't like how Leia's role had been minimised over the various drafts and felt the movie needed a strong female presence.
So yeah, between all of that and the fact that a planet with twin suns was a consistent element in every major draft; Lucas clearly had twins and siblings on the brain all through the creative process and kept trying to find ways to make them fit. Not surprising given his interest in mythological forms, and twins are indeed an oft repeated trope in various mythologies.
As for the "there is another" of it all: Lucas had mentions of Luke's "lost sister" in some of his early notes for 'Empire', and has said that he wanted to develop the character more. Playing with the idea that Anakin had twin children, one taken to live with an uncle, the taken to the other side of the universe for both of their safety. In his words: -
"She also becomes a Jedi—she’s doing the same thing simultaneously that Luke is doing. Eventually in some episode, not this one, we could cope with Luke and his sister, and how she is the female Jedi and he is the male Jedi."
There was even the idea that Luke would become aware of her though his training (presumably a vision of some sort.) I think it was indeed Kersh's idea to ultimately par all of that down to just that one rather ambiguous line.
I think the time for a Yoda cameo if there was going to be one, was in this last episode when Indara spoke to the council. They even had the perfect opening for a "I spoke to Master Yoda directly" name drop and opted not to use it. That tells me they're deliberately avoiding it.
In one particular instance Lucas nixed the pitch for a Wookiee Jedi as the protagonist for a video game, though he liked where their heads were at when it came to the idea of a super-powerful Jedi character and told them to lean more into that instead, which is how we got Starkiller and 'The Force Unleashed'.
There was also a Wookiee Jedi in the EU books, so he by no means had an outright ban on them as a concept, but I think he was reticent to allow them to become commonplace since Wookiees have their own cultural relationship with the force and he didn't like the idea of that being subsumed by Jedi philosophy. There was even a line in Clone Wars where Yoda remarks to Gungi how rare his kind are to the Jedi.
If I had to guess (and it is just a guess) I'd say that Lucasfilm are respecting that wish, and it's probably official policy to restrict the appearances of Wookiee Jedi to a "one at a time" basis. Or ar least "no more than one per generation" when dealing with stories across eras.
Last edited:
The Star Wars galaxy has a population of about 100 quadrillion, and in all of that about 10 thousand Jedi. So one person in 10 trillion is a Jedi. Since the Wookiee mostly live on a single planet, they presumably have a population several orders of magnitude smaller than 10 trillion. If they have even one Jedi, they are greatly over represented.
No it wasn't. It shed new light on the events we saw before.
It's the Rashomon effect. (this is confirmed in the Episode guide)
Rashomon effect - Wikipedia
They're dead from what Indara did to break the connection to Kalnacca, but she didn't kill them intentionally.
It appeared to me that she was trying to hurt, if not kill, Osha.
Yes. They were killed when Indara broke their connection to Kelnock. That was my interpretation and confirmed by Lesley Hayland in an interview.
She was trying to save Kelnock and in doing so caused the witches to die when she interfered.
We saw fire, and an explosion. What else is needed?
According to Heyland "if you don't see a body then they're not dead"
She also said there was no connection between the witches and Qimir.
-----
What I love about this show (and would even better if they had an extra 10 minutes to breathe a little) is that is shows the Jedi as arrogant.
Well meaning, peace loving (motherfu**ers) but critically flawed. Had Sol and Torbin not interfered, none of this would have happened. They should have buggered off when told to.
The witches were defending their home and way of life. They said no to the Jedi and that should have been the end of it, but it wasn't and the Jedi caused the unnecessary deaths of 50 people.
Shades of American Colonialism and the treatment of Native Americans et al.
And after this unfortunate incident, they whitewashed it. "Oops my bad, let's go bring peace and order to some other unfortunate souls"
Last thought: If Qui Gon had been there instead of Sol, it wouldn't have happened. in TPM, Qui Gon was determined to train Anakin, but he played by the rules. He convinced Shmi and bought his freedom.
“No one could have survived that fall” makes no sense in the first place.
Even in our galaxy, people have fallen out of planes and survived if they were lucky enough to land right on a sufficiently forgiving landing spot. In the Star Wars galaxy, it’s especially common for Force sensitives to fall astonishing distances and land on their feet no problem.
The initial interference yes, but the later one when Torbin ran off, the fire still would have happened, Mother Koril had already told Mae to go off before they broke back in.
However without the Jedi distracting them, they probably could have evacuated some of them before the fire spread.
No, her dropping that lantern was an accident. All she wanted to do was burn Osha's book.
It wasn't totally clear in the episode, though. Shouldn't need an interview to clarify.
More questions yet to be answered:
When Torbin emerges from his trance, he tells Mae that he’s been waiting for her. When did he discover that she’s alive, and why doesn’t Sol seem to know? Do Indara and Kelnacca know?
Indara is adamant in “Choice” that they not take Osha’s dream of being a Jedi. Yet ten years later, she recommends that her training be terminated. What happened?
When Torbin emerges from his trance, he tells Mae that he’s been waiting for her. When did he discover that she’s alive, and why doesn’t Sol seem to know? Do Indara and Kelnacca know?
Indara is adamant in “Choice” that they not take Osha’s dream of being a Jedi. Yet ten years later, she recommends that her training be terminated. What happened?
The titles come in pairs:
Lost/Found & Revenge/Justice
Destiny & Choice
Day & Night
Teach/Corrupt & Ep 8
If the pattern holds, it will be another slashie, a positive term followed by a negative term. Since the first three slashies consisted of adjectives, nouns, and verbs, I’m guessing Ep 8 will be adverbs.
Any guesses?
Lost/Found & Revenge/Justice
Destiny & Choice
Day & Night
Teach/Corrupt & Ep 8
If the pattern holds, it will be another slashie, a positive term followed by a negative term. Since the first three slashies consisted of adjectives, nouns, and verbs, I’m guessing Ep 8 will be adverbs.
Any guesses?
It would seem she became a poor candidate for acceptance into the order over time. When she first became a padawan she had great potential but turned out to be a less than optimal student. (Probably relating to the trauma of her families death)
It was pretty clear to me. *shrug*
I also thought it was pretty clear. If they were just unconscious, the Jedi would have tried to save some of them.
But even if it’s not totally clear in the episode, it doesn’t need an interview to clarify, because it’s not something that needs to be clarified. Whether they died instantly or died in the fire, the story is pretty much the same. If it’s ambiguous, the ambiguity isn’t a problem.
Similar threads
