The seventh episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte attempts to give more answers about the past, in hopes of making the audience understand more about events in the present. But while we are given a different perspective on past events that reveal the truth, an ensemble of bigger problems makes an already rocky situation feel devoid of logic. Character inconsistencies, questionable actions with drastic consequences, and confusing explanations for how and why things happen end up completely dragging the episode down in quality. It’s very debatable if this is the worst episode of the season for The Acolyte, but it’s not a good one.
The penultimate episode of the season goes back sixteen years to the events on Brendok, with the incident between the Witches and a group of Jedi. However, we’re shown the events from the point of view of the Jedi, which includes Master Indara, Sol, Torbin, and Kelnacca. The Jedi are on the planet searching for a vergence in the force after Brendok was said to have no signs of life, which they find to be untrue. In the middle of their survey of the planet, Sol finds a young Osha and Mae and follows them to the facility where the Witches reside. After reporting back to Master Indara, the group goes to confront the Witches and find out about the children.
After a tense standoff, they agree to have Mae and Osha tested, which eventually leads to debate between the Jedi group. Torbin wants to return to Coruscant, and Sol wants to take the children back to the temple, but Indara wants to defer to the Jedi Council’s ruling and leave the Witches alone. But after Torbin rashly goes back to the Witches’ facility to get the children, the group finds themselves at odds with the Witches and a fight breaks out between them, shortly after a fire sparks up from within the area. This leads to the Witches being devastated and all of the Jedi injured, as well as Mae being lost while Sol takes in her sister Osha.
The series of events on Brendok from the Jedi’s point of view is a compilation of poor decisions and out-of-character moments, most of which make little sense. From the start, the apparent connection that Sol claims to have with the young Osha is both questionable and illogical, even by the show’s standards. Nothing that Sol or any of the Jedi discuss gives a clear explanation for why Sol makes any sort of connection with Osha or Mae, other than the worry of something bad happening to the girls. Yet, the way The Acolyte portrays Sol’s actions makes them appear to be rash and inconsistent with that of a Jedi, especially one we’ve seen later on who is calm and collected. The ending of the episode makes Sol look worse, as he not only lies to the young Osha about what happened but makes him complicit in lying to the Jedi Order years later about what happened.
But Sol is only one part of the larger mess that comes from this episode. Each Jedi, except Kelnacca, is made to be the root cause of the entire situation on Brendok. Torbin’s actions are irrational and way too reckless after Master Indara gets a response from the Jedi Council, all because he wants to go back home. It’s very unbelievable that a Jedi padawan would be so quick to instigate a situation like the one on Brendok, and even more unbelievable that their superiors would so quickly go along with it afterward.
It can be argued that Torbin was compromised after his mind was probed by Mother Aniseya during their first encounter with the Witches, but the episode doesn’t show anything specific to make that the case. Even worse when we see Torbin years later, he has enough regret to commit suicide because of his actions on Brendok. And yet, what we see in this flashback doesn’t offer enough of an explanation to show why the character would do such a thing. Even with Torbin being responsible for his actions here that led to the entire conflict, nothing shown with him or the events that followed is enough to justify what we are shown from him in previous episodes. There are either portions of the incident missing, or there are even more inconsistencies with the writing of the show.
The most disappointing of the group in this episode is Master Indara. While it’s great to finally see Carrie-Ann Moss get more screen time in the show, the impact her character’s actions have on the incident and their implication later on are very messy. At first, Master Indara wants to abide by the ruling of the Council and avoid the Witches on Brendok but ends up later covering up Sol and Torbin’s actions from them and encouraging Sol to lie. While the results of the conflict are devastating, it makes no sense that Indara would not report what happened to the Council, especially when many of the actions taken by the Witches were volatile towards the Jedi. At the same time, Indara’s arrival at the facility to save Sol and Torbin from a possessed Kelnacca leads to a very lackluster outcome.
While trying to subdue the Jedi Wookie had some brief good moments, it’s what comes right after that ruins the entire scene. After using the force to clear Kelnacca’s mind from their control, the group of Witches all fall dead. Whether this was the result of Indara’s force abilities or the consequence of the Witches’ powers is incredibly confusing and the episode does not make it very clear. In addition, Master Indara is made to look very bad when fighting with Sol back on the Jedi’s ship right before pushing Sol to lie about what happened. It’s a very messy and poorly thought-out series of actions that feel inconsistent with the values and concept of Jedi in the Star Wars franchise. As much as the show tried to build up Master Indara as a great and wise Jedi master, this episode paints her in a very poor light and almost contradicts much of what we learned about her up to this point.
The majority of episode 7 focuses on the Jedi, but it also doesn’t shy away from showing more of the Witches on the planet Brendok. During the scuffle in the facility, we see that Mae was the one who truly started the fire that burned everything down, even though the show tries to make her actions sympathetic and without real intent. Unfortunately, this is yet another example of how inconsistent Mae’s character has been throughout The Acolyte, as well as the show’s inability to decide whether she is evil or not. The logic of how the entire facility burns down is rough enough, but the constant swinging between anger and regret for Mae makes everything that comes after feel like a poorly constructed storyline.
Mother Koril encourages Mae to get angry and use her power against the Jedi, but not only does Mae never encounter them in battle, but her anger over everything doesn’t even follow through to the climax of events that take place. It would be one thing if Mae truly started the fire and came to regret it way later, but her place even during the events going on feels just as inconsistent as her attitude and motivations throughout the entire show.
The Witches themselves are also not without their issues in this episode. The powers they display are confusingly inconsistent from what was shown in previous episodes, with a black mist being a new thing they can change into. While Mother Aniseya is killed just before she escapes with Mae from the Jedi arriving, Mother Koril fully transforms into the black mist and possesses Kelnacca, causing him to attack both Sol and Torbin. What makes this entire sequence weird is that it’s never clear how the Witches can do this, let alone what happens to them after the transformation. Mother Koril is not seen again afterward, nor has Mae shown any kind of display of this same power throughout the entire show.
It feels like a random power thrown in at the last second to make actions seem vague enough to cause Sol to make a critical decision, leading to disaster for everyone involved. While Mother Aniseya seemed to be clear with her intentions back in episode 3, none of her actions seem consistent with that when the Jedi are in front of them just before everything takes a turn for the worse. The display of her power looks very hostile after the threats from Mother Koril and the rest of the Witches there, rather than just talking to Sol and saying what she had decided. The actions of everyone involved appear to be more to heighten the drama and push the plot forward, rather than lining up with what we know of these characters at this point.
Outside of the conflict with the Jedi and Witches, the episode also frustratingly doesn’t put forward any details on how Mae and Osha were created, nor their relevance to the plot back in the present day. Nothing that happens in this flashback harkens back to the Sith or Qimir in any fashion, and we still don’t have a full understanding of how the Witches created the twins. When testing the blood of both girls, Torbin and Sol notice their midichlorian count is high and the details of their blood are almost identical, leading the Jedi to conclude they were artificially created.
While this treads dangerously close to Star Wars canon and someone being created through the force, it just barely misses it by stating Mae and Osha were created artificially. However, the Jedi get no answers on how this happened when they finally confront the Witches again, nor does the episode point out in any way how this was done. At this point in the season, this feels like information that should have been littered throughout each episode, or at least detailed in a better fashion for the audience to understand Mae and Osha far better. But as it stands now, this seems like an undercooked idea that goes nowhere.
The very end of the episode will have many people divided. The deceptive implications of every Jedi in the group will have viewers questioning if the show truly understands anything about the Jedi in general. Much of The Acolyte has attempted to show the growing folly of the Jedi Order and how their actions plant seeds for their eventual downfall. But the show hasn’t made a strong case for this, especially when the actions of nearly every character in multiple episodes are inconsistent with how Jedi are portrayed in Star Wars canon. Things just happen for the sake of happening to get to certain plot points within this story, and it makes everything within the episode feel lackluster. By the time Sol speaks with Osha on the ship after leaving Brendok, it’s a struggle to empathize with why the Jedi feel like they’re doing the right thing by lying to Osha and the council.
But if that wasn’t enough to leave a sting at the end, the creative choice during the end credits will rub viewers the wrong way. The music track “Power of Two” by Victoria Monét plays during the end credits of episode 7, a song that was made to promote the show online. While the song itself is not bad, having it play out during the credits is jarring and clashes with the tone of Star Wars. Most of the time, episodes of The Acolyte will end on a musical score that fits with what has happened during the episode, whether good or bad. But a pop song here feels tacked on and poorly thought out. Whoever decided to add this song to the episode should have never done so, because it instantly pulls you out of everything you just watched. It’s something that should honestly never happen again for any other Star Wars project.
Episode 7 of Star Wars: The Acolyte is not very good. The answers that everyone wanted about what happened between the Jedi and Witches on Brendok are mediocre. The action that takes place has a few interesting moments that could’ve been highlights of the episode, but they are heavily overshadowed by so many other problems that the show has consistently suffered from. The aftermath of this episode will impact how viewers see most characters negatively, especially those who want to understand more of what was going on with the Jedi. The backstory of Osha and Mae has not lived up to the hype that the series has fostered since the beginning, nor does it feel like it has any sense of direction to a natural conclusion. As the penultimate episode of the season, this episode of The Acolyte does not inspire a lot of confidence that things will wrap up well going into the season finale. It feels like just one big stumble after another with each episode this season.
The Acolyte is streaming now on Disney+, with new episodes released weekly each Tuesday.
Star Wars: The Acolyte Episode 7
Summary
This penultimate episode of The Acolyte gives full insight into the events of the past. However, a lot of what happens is the result of reckless actions that seem very inconsistent with most characters. Certain plot points are never given satisfactory details, and the action isn’t enough to get over the foundational problems that arise here. The ending will be divisive among viewers, and open up serious questions that have yet to provide any good answers that lead into the season finale.