The Acolyte Episode 7 Review
The penultimate episode of ‘The Acolyte’ reveals what happened on Brendok all those years ago, but it’s another mystery the show fumbles and fails to provide satisfactory answers for. The action is enjoyable and the best part of the show, but that’s partly down to the poor quality of the rest of what’s on offer. Not only does this episode fail to compellingly answer the questions set out at the beginning of the season, but it’s also unable to set anything up for the future.
From the very start of ‘The Acolyte’, there’s been the overaching mystery of what is driving Mae to kill the four Jedi on Brendok. The third episode of the show flashed audiences back to the fateful night where it all went wrong for Mae and Osha, but it was very clearly telling half a story full of misdirection and omissions, setting the groundwork for the full truth later.
Well, that full truth fails to add meaningful new information to the mix, leaving questions unanswered like how Mae survived, why Qimir is involved, and how the twins were birthed. While a bit of mystery is expected from a show that still has one episode left, it’s unclear that this episode will answer those questions, and, with what answers this episode did reveal, it’s unlikely to be compelling.
That’s because every reveal is delivered through sloppy writing and even worse acting. For example, when Indara gives Torbin a direct order not to intervene with the witches, Torbin disobeys, all because he wants to go home. It’s such a weak motivation for events, not just this but for the future of the show – does Torbin really commit suicide for that? Lines and performances are given through such forced and wooden acting that audiences really do believe Brendok is strong with the force.
The episode’s framing doesn’t even make sense, as ostensibly this is Sol explaining to Mae what really happened. This is fine enough framing for events, but falls down when there’s nothing that Mae didn’t already know revealed. Did Mae start the fire in episode three? Yup. There was no sinister force going on, or accident perputrated by the Jedi that burnt the witches’ home down.
There are even things introduced in this episode that will likely never get touched on again. When attempting to prevent conflict between Sol and Koril, Mother Aniseya, instead of using her words, which would have functioned perfectly well, dematerialises herself into black dust, taking Mae with her for some reason. What this is supposed to achieve is unknown.
This episode doesn’t just fail to carry momentum into the past, it fails to set any up for going into the final episode. It doesn’t shed new light on the conflicts the characters in the present are facing, or create any tense moment that only the final episode can resolve. This is compounded by the fact that in the present the main characters are all split apart, with nothing to bring them together.
There is one redeeming factor that this episode has is its action. Whether that’s Sol versus Koril – they managed to get the balance the choreography between ‘The Matrix’ and traditional ‘Star Wars’ just right, but also a lightsaber duel between Sol, Torbin and Kelnacca that allowed the menace of fighting a Wookiee Jedi shine through, with Kelnacca’s attacks lanidng with weight and ferocity. It’s just a shame that it’s sandwiched in an awful episode.
Overall, the episode that reveals the central mystery in ‘The Acolyte’ fails to make it compelling, dragging down the rest of the show with it. The answers don’t justify the decisions characters like Torbin and Kelnacca have made in the present day, and the episode can’t even deliver answers to simple questions. There’s no push from this episode that shoots audiences into the finale either. The one redeeming factor it has is the action, but it can’t stop the rest of the episode from being an utter trainwreck.
