The Acolyte Episode 6 Review
Episode 6 of ‘The Acolyte’ was a near disaster for half an hour, failing what’s come before and constantly being at war with itself. The tone is confused at best, it adds a pointless thirst scene, the dialogue is shoddy and even though the runtime is less than forty minutes, the episode drags forever. After episode five blew everyone’s minds, episode six brought all that hype and momentum to an astonishing halt.
This episode strives for a more meditiative tone than the loud action of the previous episode, with little action. It has its players sat around and talk for the vast majority of the runtime, which brought the pace to a creaking halt as each exchange is dragged out far too longer than it needed be. Sol for example, has been on the verge of revealing what really happened on Brendok at least three times. But he’s been interrupted so the reveal gets dragged out, and it’s getting irksome now.
Mae is a character that becomes more unlikeable as the episodes go. She’s got no clear plan for why she stowed away with Sol, with what she wants to achieve or how to get it. But it doesn’t matter, as Basil sniffs out that she’s an imposter on the ship, and starts what has to be the goofiest action scene ever. It’s just inserted into the midpart of the episode, before it moves on. It’s completely out of place with all the sombre talking going on, and is brushed aside quickly after it finishes.
Turning back to Sol, this is likely the worst he’s been portrayed in the season, along with his fellow Jedi. He takes for too long to realise Mae is actually on the ship, or when she attempts to kill him from behind and he doesn’t even sense it. Jedi have sensed people from behind before or tell people. The Jedi find out that the Jedi taskforce on Khofar have all died except Sol, and the immediately accuse him of murder, with no context as to why. It’s a shocking moment, a shameless attempt to drive tension that’s immediately defused. It’s likely to setup Sol being discredited in the future. A setup for the future that goes much better is the Senate taking more oversight over the Jedi, a seed planted well and subtlety enough.
Osha spends all episode with Qimir, having a flirty relationship with him as Disney tries in vain to repeat Kylo Ren and Rey’s story, only with far worse result. While he has some interesting things to say about the Dark Side, that allude to things, most of the time Osha’s response is to spell it out for the audience. And what she spells out was obvious to begin with, making it redundant. Amandla Stenberg and Manny Jacinto seem to lose all life in their delivery of their lines, adding to the dullness of the portrayal, though it’s more likely the fault of the poor direction and the lines themselves.
Qimir hints that he was part of the Jedi Order, and that he got a strangely shaped scar from an as of yet unknown assailant. Now, this is also the episode Vernestra Rwoh reveals she has a strangely shaped lightsaber, and that she seems to know of a power to tip the scales. Knowing this, and the fact ‘The Acolyte’ has failed to keep anything mysterious, it’s highly likely that Rwoh has something to do with Qimir’s fall the to darkside.
This episode’s story feels like it could have reasonably filled 15 or 20 minutes, yet it’s been dragged out to fill an episode double that. The effect this has is killing all the momentum the previous episode built up. It’s all in aid of delaying the mystery of what happened on Brendok, which, as that’s the only mystery left at this point, better have a satisfying conclusion.
Overall, there’s very little to like from the sixth episode of ‘The Acolyte’. From the lifeless acting and dialogue to the nonsensical plot, it’s difficult to watch much of this drek. There are some, real occassional gems like the philosophising of the Dark Side, or hinting of what’s to come in the future, though these moments are scant and often ruined.
