[ad_1]
I’m starting to think that Star Wars: The Acolyte’s weird obsession with holding back details could be a problem. This week, we got our second episode of the season that is spent entirely on the night that Mae and Osha’s coven met the Jedi–and like with Episode 3, this one did not actually tell us everything that happened.
I’ve enjoyed The Acolyte thus far, but we’re now hurtling toward the end of the season–there’s only one more episode remaining, and there’s just no way they can bring the season’s story to any sort of conclusion in another half-hour of TV. It’s looking very much like Season 1 of The Acolyte, like Ahsoka last year, is simply going to stop, rather than wrap things up in any way.
Warning: The rest of this article will discuss detailed spoilers for The Acolyte through Episode 7.
This time, we’re seeing the story of Mae and Osha’s coven from the point of view of the Jedi, who are revealed to have appeared on Brendok because they expected it to be barren, and they want to find out why it’s not because it may have some cosmic significance. It doesn’t take long for Sol to encounter the twins in the woods, and he follows them back to their home, watching various scenes from Episode 3 from the shadows.
And then he goes back to his pals–Indara, Kelnacca, and Indara’s apprentice Torbin–and tells them what he saw. He’s concerned about what the coven will do to the girls, and begs for intervention. So they walk right in and confront the witches, as we saw previously. During this meeting we see Mother Aniseya show off her power in a new way, by speaking to Torbin directly in his mind while also speaking out loud to the other Jedi. Aniseya essentially browbeats Torbin into giving up control (he likely didn’t realize that would be the result), and she freezes him in place and his eyes turn black. But the encounter ends with the Jedi retreating, with Aniseya allowing them to test Mae and Osha.
Torbin, though, is now in distress even though he’s been freed from the mind control–the encounter left some mental marks, clearly, and Torbin thinks the witches are a threat. After testing the girls, they learn that not only are they extraordinarily powerful, but they have identical midichlorian counts, which couldn’t be a natural occurrence. So Torbin runs off toward the coven, with Sol on his heels. They break in, and find the witches united–they have a standoff. But it ends when Aniseya turns into black smoke, for reasons that are unclear, and Sol, having no idea what was going on, stabs her to death.
From there, things spiral out of control. Mae accidentally starts a small fire that somehow spreads throughout the compound and makes stuff start exploding, and some of the witches control the mind of Kelnacca, and force him to fight Torbin and Sol. It’s a thrilling battle that’s ended only when Indara shows up and settles Kelnacca down. But now everything’s exploding, and Sol has to choose to save Mae or Osha, and he chooses Osha.
By the end of it, though, we’re still left with the same questions we had: Why are all the witches dead, including Mother Koril, and how did Mae survive? There’s still a lot we didn’t see, even with just one more bite-sized episode remaining. There’s basically no chance of anything being wrapped up during next week’s season finale. The best we can hope for is to finally be caught up on Mae and Osha’s backstory before the show takes an indefinite hiatus.
That said, there are some really interesting new story elements for us to deep dive this week, with a bunch of compelling new references to the movies that provide some story clues. Let’s take a look.
Brendok and the Great Hyperspace Disaster
Indara says that Brendok was supposed to be lifeless as a result of “a hyperspace disaster” a century before. But this isn’t just any random disaster; this is a story that occurred in the High Republic series of books–a collision between two ships in hyperspace caused huge hyperspace anomalies that destroyed several planets and moons and threatened several star systems. Apparently Brendok was within that umbrella, despite never being mentioned in those books. You can learn more about the Great Hyperspace Disaster on Fandom.
A vergence in the Force
Indara says they’re looking for a potential “vergence in the Force” that might have allowed life to flourish on Brendok despite the disaster. This is the same word Qui-Gon used to describe Anakin in The Phantom Menace. More generally it just refers to a place where the power and concentration of the Force is exceptional. This is just the latest of many parallels between Mae/Osha and Anakin.
Mother Aniseya’s mind games
During the first encounter with Jedi, Aniseya invades Torbin’s mind and tricks him into giving up control of his body. There are many such scenes like this one throughout Star Wars lore, particularly in ancillary materials like books and games. Take, for example, Star Wars: The Old Republic, the long-running story-driven online RPG set during a massive war between Jedi and Sith thousands of years before the movies–this kind of thing happens regularly in that game, complete with the black eyes and everything. While SWTOR probably isn’t canon (it’s so far removed even from the High Republic timeline that it doesn’t actually matter much right now), it’s had a pretty clear influence on this series.
We’re not saying “midichlorians”
Torbin tests both Mae’s and Osha’s blood, and says that they both have a super-high “m count,” and that the two have “identical symbionts”–this seemingly means the midichlorians in their blood are just as identical as they are. But we’re mostly amused by the skirting of the word “midichlorian.” It’s actually a pretty clever writing trick, giving a natural way to say it without actually saying it, since that word still has a negative connotation with the fanbase for some reason.
One consciousness, two bodies?
Indara suggests that Mae and Osha could, because of their identical midichlorian makeup, somehow be one person split across two souls. It could be that this is what Qimir is actually after–not a dyad in the Force with Mae or Osha, but he might be studying them so he can attempt to split his own consciousness across two bodies. This is, I believe, a new concept for the Force in Star Wars–though for now, it’s just speculation from Indara and hardly proven.
Mother Aniseya pulls an Obi-Wan
Over the course of this episode, it becomes clear that Aniseya is not on the same page as the rest of the witches–Aniseya thinks Mae and Osha can make their own choices, and the others disagree. Aniseya turns into black smoke in an apparent attempt to spirit Mae away, which causes Sol to stab the smoke with his lightsaber, killing Aniseya and starting the fight that led to the coven’s end–and sending Mae and Osha off on their respective paths, just as Obi-Wan did with Luke on the Death Star. Given the circumstances under which she made this choice, it feels like everything that’s happened on this show was all Aniseya’s plan somehow. Did Aniseya actually goad Sol into killing her?
[ad_2]
Source link
