Star Wars: The Acolyte Episode 8 Review – Tumultuous Finale

Everything leading up to the season finale of Star Wars: The Acolyte has been messy at worse, and half-hearted at best. The first live-action rendition of The High Republic has been met with very divisive reactions and questions that many feel have not been fully answered. But was episode 8 of The Acolyte a good wrap-up to everything that was established throughout the season? Or will Star Wars fans be left with another mess for the franchise to clean up? Unfortunately, the finale episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte season 1 rushes through the plotlines and leaves a mark on Star Wars that will leave fans feeling indifferent about the franchise going forward.

Episode 8 picks up right where the events of episode 6 left off, going back to the present day. Osha is with Qimir on the unknown planet, while Mae is captured by Sol in space. While Qimir and Osha travel to her home planet of Brendok, Mae escapes capture and uses a pod from Sol’s ship to travel to the planet as well. This brings everyone to gather on Brendok, including Vernestra and the Jedi Order who have been searching for Master Sol after the events on Khofar. While Mae searches for her sister Osha, Sol comes face-to-face with Qimir again in a rematch with lightsabers, leading to a tense confrontation where secrets are revealed. The ramifications from this puts the two sisters in a terrible place, where they must once again split up as the Jedi Order closes in on them. Osha goes with Qimir to train, while Mae is mind-wiped by Qimir and taken by the Jedi back to Coruscant, where Vernestra deals with the fallout from everything.

The ways that the final episode of the season wraps everything up for The Acolyte is incredibly shallow, and poorly planned. Characters we’ve followed throughout the season often get a very unsatisfactory conclusion or a lackluster transition into the next part of their journey. The open-ended parts of the plot for characters like Osha and Mae feel as if there’s a promise for another season of the show, but the lead up to those points feels lame and inconsistent with the rest of the show.

There have been already so many changes in the motivations for both Mae and Osha that their conclusions in the season finale lack any sort of impact, let alone any sense of consistency for what the show has presented them as at the start. While some may feel their inclusion in this story was irrelevant, the honest truth is that the story of the twins feels like it was poorly put together and injected into another idea that may have been more interesting.

Speaking of which, Qimir in the season finale offers little to nothing more interesting to this story. Not only does he have a very confusing solution to Osha and Mae’s problem at the end of the episode, we get no answers to anything brought up for his own story. His relationship with Jedi Master Vernestra is left open without any exploration, his entire backstory goes unaddressed, and the last we see of him is with Osha in a questionable setup. Some have taken a liking to Qimir over the course of the season because of the promises that felt littered throughout each episode he was in, but the payoff in the season finale to everything is shallow and not satisfactory at all.

His one fight with Master Sol is probably the best part of the episode, but ends up being diminished by what comes after. If the entire season had revolved more around his relevance to Osha and Mae as a dark side user, the show would have maybe lived up more to its original concept, focusing on elements of the dark side and training in it. As is however, Qimir looks more like a footnote of the poorly written story between Mae and Osha, which is incredibly disappointing.

But while Mae and Osha’s story in the season finale is rough, the endings we see for characters like Master Sol and Vernestra are even worse. Out of every other character in the cast, the direction for Sol’s arc feels like the one done the most injustice. The final confrontation with Qimir has an interesting lightsaber battle, with moments that may or may not work for some viewers, but it’s overshadowed by a terrible aftermath. Osha force choking Sol to death feels like a twist that comes out of nowhere and completely ignores the relationship built over years that these two characters have, which is reinforced in the show multiple times. While it’s said that Osha has problems controlling her emotions at times, it’s never been to the point where it can be believable that she would kill the one person who took her in and helped raise her. The scene of Sol’s death itself is carried by great acting from Lee Jung-Jae as Master Sol, where he is pouring his heart off confessing to what happened to Osha’s mother. And yet, it is completely undercut by his character’s death that feels very unearned and ill-timed.

On the other side of this mess is Vernestra Rwoh, a character who has struggled to be relevant or interesting throughout the whole series. Her implications in the aftermath of the situation on Brendok not only make the Jedi Order look terrible, but also completely ruin Master Sol’s inclusion in this story. All of the problems raised by the death of multiple Jedi, the rogue force user, and more are pinned on Master Sol as part of a cover-up from The Republic Senate, which is done by Vernestra.

It’s a very terrible creative choice that not only makes Vernestra an even more unlikable character, but paints the Jedi Order in such a way that is both ignorant and deceptive in ways that contradict other parts of Star Wars lore. Vernestra herself does little to nothing for most of the episode, not even being part of the final lightsaber battle with Qimir and Master Sol. She shows up after everything has happened, and just becomes the self-proclaimed fixer of everything going wrong in the show. It’s a lame turn of events that will have many struggling to empathize with Vernestra, let alone have sympathy for the Jedi Order whatsoever.

But were there any good aspects to the season finale at all? Yes, but there’s not much to overshadow a lot of the problems that have lingered for the show up to this point. The lightsaber battle between Qimir and Master Sol is a highlight that will offer some solace to those looking for action throughout this show. The fight is fast-paced and has a lot of neat moves on display by both characters, with much of the cooler moments given to Master Sol using the force to fight off his opponent. However, some of the fight is offset by moments that either look awkward or pose questions based off Qimir’s action in previous episodes. Qimir doesn’t use his cortosis helmet when fighting with Sol, which makes the moments where they clash and standoff look questionable. The portions of the fight where the two of them float through the air feel out of place, despite being clearly inspired by action films like “Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon” and try to covey using the force in battle. The fight ends in an interesting way, with Master Sol getting the upper hand after a samurai-like skirmish, which works out well and is something we should have seen more of throughout the show.

In spite of the few good highlights in The Acolyte’s season finale, the episode also brings up massive problems for Star Wars canon and continuity that stick out. There are very big cameos in different parts of the episode that will get a lot of attention from Star Wars fans, especially those who have followed the Expanded Universe or Star Wars Legends stories. But while these are a deep cut for fans, their inclusion in the season finale feel wasted and tacked on for shock value, rather than any sort of relevance to the story of The Acolyte. The appearance of Darth Plagueis (also known as Hego Damask) after Qimir and Osha leave the unknown planet is chief among them. The character is a huge part of Star Wars Legends stories, being inspired by lines from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by Senator Palpatine, as well as the novel “Darth Plagueis” by James Luceno.

His inclusion in the show is lackluster and completely out of nowhere, with no explanation or meaning behind it. Nothing said by any character, specifically Qimir, throughout the show hints his involvement or appearance in the show, leaving many to feel bewildered at the reason for including him at all. For such a massive character from Star Wars Legends being brought into canon, his introduction into live-action was mishandled in the worst way possible. It would have been much better if the character did not appear at all, since him showing up does not affect the plot or make any sort of impact on the characters involved in the story of The Acolyte.

And then there’s Yoda at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. The season finale ends with Vernestra going to visit Master Yoda and talk with him about the events that took place up to that point in the show. This is a big deal for a number of reasons, with the biggest being that Yoda has become aware of the death of multiple Jedi at the hands of a force user and possible Sith. While we don’t get to see the conversation between them, the implied discussion from Vernestra going to Yoda makes it clear enough that she tells him what happened. Despite Vernestra covering up everything from the Senate, one of the few people she would ever be able to keep information from would be Yoda.

But if this is the case, that makes two members of the Jedi Council that know everything that happens to Master Sol, the twins, and the Jedi killed throughout the season. This comes dangerously close to clashing with or breaking canon for the Star Wars films. It was established that the Jedi Council did not catch wind of any Sith up to that point for over a thousand years, which The Acolyte as a story messes with. The other part of this implies that Yoda may have been part of the cover-up, which will not sit well with many Star Wars fans. Does it work with the story of the Acolyte and how it has established its view on the Jedi? Possibly, it might work for some. But does it match up for the rest of Star Wars as a franchise, canon or otherwise? Absolutely not.

Something that The Acolyte season finale also does poorly is introducing new characters at the end of the season. Senator Rayencourt is someone mentioned briefly earlier in the season, but he doesn’t appear until this episode. The only thing we know of him is his political stance against the Jedi Order in the Senate, but we’re given little to no reason for why. His conversation with Vernestra in the Jedi Temple is tense, but Vernestra comes off as the one who is volatile, lending some credence to Rayencourt’s stance on having the Jedi Order investigated by a third-party. Had his introduction come earlier in the season, Rayencourt could have been an extra foil for the Jedi Order to deal with and take them away from addressing the growing problem that Sol and the others faced. The handling and placement of this character in the greater story doesn’t feel thought out well, let alone impactful by the time we see him here in the season finale. It’s another character that feels like he is just placed here for the sake of us seeing him. Part of this could be for the promise of a season 2, but none of Senator Rayencourt’s involvement is interesting enough to warrant seeing his conflict with the Jedi continue in another season.

As a whole, the season finale to The Acolyte is a big mess that will not sit well with many viewers. There are so many plot threads that have led to a shallow conclusion and bigger questions left unanswered at the end of the season. For Star Wars fans that care about the lore of the franchise, there are some big lines crossed with the inclusion of major characters from Star Wars Legends, which may or may not leave a black mark on the series. Where things are left off by the end will have any scratching their heads on how any of it makes sense within the greater context of Star Wars canon, let alone if it’s worth exploring any threads left open for a new season. Characters that could have been interesting within this season of The Acolyte are done a huge injustice, with others not appearing in the season finale turning out to be an absolute waste.

Although some people may have enjoyed parts of The Acolyte in various episodes and where things ended in the season finale, the truth is that the show stumbled its way up to this point. No matter how one looks at or deep dives into what the show has done, this was not a good season finale nor a good show overall for those interested in anything Star Wars related. Unfortunately, the final episode of The Acolyte may cause it to end up being a series that fans rightfully ignore going forward. And that in of itself is a massive shame.