Hogan Reviews

As a big fan of the High Republic books and comics (as other parts of this site will tell you!) I was really excited for Acolyte, not just seeing High Republic stuff in live action but its placement in between the HR era and Episode I and focusing on what the Sith were doing at the time. It was an interesting story to tell in an interesting time period, so did they pull it off? Well, sort of. I wasn’t as blown away with it as I was hoping, but I did really enjoy myself each week, which is fair enough for a TV show, really. Let’s take a look!

The main focus of Acolyte is on twin sisters Osha and Mae Aniseya, both played by Amandla Stenberg (well, apart from when they’re kids, then they’re played by Lauren and Leah Brady!) The two grew up in a Force Cult (or at least cult-like society) where they were taught how to wield the Force at a young age by their mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) Sadly when they were young some Jedi arrived and things went south quick, including Osha wanting to join the Jedi and Mae resisting, to the point where she seemingly sets fire to the whole place, all the other members of the coven are soon dead and Mae herself also seemingly falls to her death, leaving Osha the only survivor as she joined the Jedi. This was the recap of those events entirely from the viewpoint of Osha and her people, it’s a bit more complicated than that, which I’ll get to in a bit, but the main takeaway is that Osha became a Padawan but due to her age and attachments she eventually left the order.

It’s Mae! Or is it Osha?! … No, it’s actually Mae, the face mask is rather telling.

In the present day of the series we start by seeing a Jedi Master called Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss!) being killed by a girl that looks exactly like Osha, so a Jedi called Yord (Charlie Barnett) seeks her out and brings her in as the key suspect. The main Jedi of the series soon arrives, Sol (Lee Jung-jae) who was Osha’s master and the man responsible for saving her from the tragedy. He doesn’t believe Osha would do such a thing so they lay a trap at the location of what would be the next target and find out that Mae is still alive and has been trained in the way of the Jedi. Mae kills another Jedi called Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman) and manages to flee when Osha can’t bring herself to stop her thought-dead sister, but Sol connects the dots and says that he, Indara, Torbin and a Wookie Jedi called Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) were the four Jedi who were at Osha and Mae’s place when it fell, so Sol, his Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen), Yord and Osha head to the jungle planet where Kelnacca hid himself away, soon backed up by several other Jedi sent by Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson), from the High Republic books and comics! … admittedly not really acting like herself, but it has been a hundred years or so, to be fair…

It’s Yord and Jecki… plus random other Jedi on the far left. Her fate was sealed when she didn’t even get a name.

Mae and her extremely suspicious “friend” Qimir (Manny Jacinto) head to Kelnacca but on the way Mae betrays Qimir and decides to join the Jedi so she can reunite with Osha, even if it means a prison sentence. Sol and co. eventually arrive at Kelnacca’s place but are confronted by a mysterious helmed figure with a red lightsabre, leading to a fight that ends in the death of every character other than Osha, Mae and Sol (even the Padawan!), with the Sith being revealed as Qimir to the surprise of very few. In the confusion of the scuffle Sol takes off with Mae disguised as Osha, while Qimir takes Osha with him to his hidden lair…

While the series had some really strong moments and there were a lot of stand-out fights thanks to some great choreography I can’t say I was as gripped as I’ve been with some of the other series and I don’t really know why. Some of the key performances were great, especially Lee Jung-jae as Sol and Manny Jacinto’s Qimir, their interactions during their several duels being a real highlight, so I don’t really know why I wasn’t eagerly anticipating the next episode each week. Still really entertaining though! Maybe the whole “High Republic on the big screen” set my expectations too high?

Overall Thoughts:

Vernestra and Sol look directly into your soul… or should that be your “Sol”? No, that’s stupid. Sorry.

While not the massive breakout hit I was hoping for The Acolyte was still a really fun series to follow, with some good well-choreographed fights and a couple of interesting characters well-acted by Lee Jung-jae and Manny Jacinto. Fingers crossed for a Season 2, but if it doesn’t happen then it was a fun stand-alone series regardless.

Sol soon finds out he has Mae on board his ship and decides to sit down and explain what happened on the day of the tragedy, which leads to a second flashback episode this time entirely from the Jedi’s POV and we see that they were on the planet due to its eco-system being restored despite being rendered lifeless in the great hyperspace disaster (from “Light of the Jedi”! Hooray for more High Republic continuity!) and so they believe it might be a rare convergence of the Force. Sol comes across the twins and follows them back to their base and believes they’re being held by an evil cult thanks to some misinterpreting and soon convinces himself that he isn’t on a dull mission but instead he’s on the super-important mission of discovering a convergence and now to rescue some helpless girls being held captive by evil forces. Indara and Kalnacca aren’t convinced but they all head to the base and after Torbin is momentarily possessed Sol is more convinced than ever. We see Mae started the fire by accident and Sol killed Mother Aniseya when he thought she was going to attack Mae when she was doing none of the sort, right in front of the little girl’s eyes. The rest of the cult are soon killed when they devoted all their combined power to possess Kelnacca and have him attack Sol, Torbin and eventually Indara, who manages to break the curse, killing the rest via feedback or sorts. Finally Sol tries to save both Osha and Mae but ends up giving up on the latter and only saving Osha, so the whole mother-killing and not saving thing means it’s not a big shocker she turned against the Jedi and went all Sith!

So when he made that helmet did he specifically ask for the teeth, or…?

Basically Sol’s delusions of grandeur led to the massacre and all for nothing as his gained Padawan didn’t even end up staying. It’s also revealed that Osha and Mae aren’t twins but instead the same person created twice through the Force alone, something deemed pretty much impossible. After the chat Mae tries to escape Sol’s ship but the result ends up being both of them crashing back down to the same planet this whole thing started on. Meanwhile Osha puts on Qimir’s teethy helmet and shows strong darkside powers but also has a vision of Mae killing Sol so teams up with her nemesis so long as the two get to the same planet. As they take off someone who is clearly Darth Plagueis watches on from a nearby cave, which was really cool, frankly, can’t think of any other way of putting it, especially as manipulating The Force to create life itself is one of the only Canon timeline things we know about the character, so it ties in well with the sisters… Um, anyway, this leads to a final showdown where Mae gets Sol to admit to killing her mother within earshot of Osha, who then takes Sol’s lightsabre off of him and in a rage Force chokes her old master to death, Sol telling his former student that it was okay in a last attempt to help her. As this happens Osha bleeds her master’s crystal red, bleeding the lightsabre of a Jedi you’ve killed being a Sith passage, and soon she has her own red lightsabre. Qimir, Osha and Mae run as more Jedi arrive, including Vernestra, who senses that Qimir is her old Padawan. In a twist of fate after reuniting Osha decides to become Qimir’s Acolyte and Mae agrees to have her memory wiped so they can go off together and be safe, while she is captured by the Jedi. So as the series ends they’ve essentially swapped places, with Mae prime for a potential Revan reference if you think about it…

Also Vernestra lies to gathered High Republic officials and senators, saying that Sol went rogue and killed other Jedi to stop a potential panic about Sith (and to preserve continuity!) but this leads to an investigation into the Jedi anyway, led by a Senator called Rayencourt (played by David Harewood), who seems to see the Jedi as an out-dated cult that’s potentially dangerous. So there are things set up for a Season 2, but the main mysteries have been tied up in a satisfying way, so while I hope there is a second season I don’t feel like I’ve been left hanging if there isn’t.