Mini Series The Acolyte 1.04 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

I watched the episode again and Mae is eying Qimir suspiciously throughout the entire episode almost. I’m pretty much convinced that she suspected he was her “master” and manipulated him into killing Kalnacca for her to accomplish the test.

 

My growing concern with the portrayal of the Jedi is how they seem to have really problems with their morale compass. The Jedi Council is kept in the dark. A two-times murder is more or less considered a bit of a problematic student instead of a serious criminal. They seem seriously having problems understanding the dark side, being really surprised by people using it appearing. This order seems more like a bunch of people upholding a dress code and a few traditions instead of really having a clear cut idea of what the Jedi and the force are. Sol almost seems like a Jedi from a different generation tossed among this new order.

Or in short … the Jedi Order might show flaws in this time, but for once I‘d like the writers to be a little bit more subtle about it.

And at least one Jedi Master who read some history book and at least considers a Sith connection would be nice. A force-trained serial killer with a dark hidden Master is on the loose. What was historically the force-user group who killed Jedi a lot?

I hope at least now that they have seen the red lightsaber and dark robes and all they will address this the next episode.

 

This is what I've been thinking too. Mae suspects Qimir, and tells a tale to provoke a response. It'd be a very manipulative thing to do. Sounds very Sith-y and Acolyte-y.

That scene is told almost from Qimir's perspective.

I think this series may be best understood at the end. I hope!

 

It's not just that, it's in general. It's like they're trying to change everything that came before, and it makes me wonder what's next.

 

Fully agree she is looking weirdly at him and asking questions and such …that would be really dark dark to do that and the master would enjoy

 

Mae says that the master told her: “The final lesson will be the one you teach yourself. You will kill a Jedi without a weapon.”

So how do you kill a Wookiee Jedi without a weapon? Mae’s answer: “You don’t. You make someone else do it for you.”

That’s a devious lesson Mae has taught herself and I can see her passing that lesson down to her apprentice until it gets to a certain Senator from Naboo.

How do the Sith destroy the Jedi when there is only two of them? Palpatine’s answer: “You don’t. You let the Jedi destroy themselves.”

 

It’s seems very obvious that Qimir is the master. Is it too obvious I wonder and it’s someone else? Anyway that mask is creepy as fk.

 

I don't agree with the idea that Mae learned her Sith lesson here. No, she quits the Sith; she doesn't manipulate Qimer into killing Kelnacca. He decides to kill Kelnacca because she plans to turn herself into him and the Jedi, and he must cover up the existence of the Sith.

I can see why some might read this as her successfully completing her test, but she doesn't take the test -- she quits. An important distinction.

In fact, Qimer will also want to kill Mae now, so that is def not passing.

I think that what we'll see in the next episode or two is Qimer must kill Mae before she shares information about the Sith with the Jedi. That information must be erased or else their existence at this time will be known with certainty.

Without Mae, the Jedi might think this was just a darkside warrior with no Sith affiliation. So Mae will not survive the show, IMO.

Overall, I don't have much to complain about with this show. Even some of the flaws people have pointed out online don't really amount to much for me.

My predictions for the upcoming episodes:

1. Qimer kills Mae.

2. Mae's death leads Osha to seek revenge on Qimer.

3. Osha discovers the Jedi played a role in wiping her people out. As a result, she begins to fall to the darkness a bit, and the rest of the show will focus on whether she will join the Sith or the Jedi (or once again, return to some different way of life).

4. Qimer will be killed by Sol and the Jedi before the Sith's existence can be proven. But we will see a Sith Master revealed at the end, suggesting more action in a possible Season 2.

 

So my take on Episode 4 was meh, but slightly less meh than the previous episodes, because of its extreme brevity.

> Despite the Jedi having known Kelnacca was on the hit list for some time now, the Jedi, in an era of near instant communications and hyperspace travel, can't get to him before the baddies do. If I remember correctly, didn't they decide it was more important to bring Sol back for a meeting than to let him race to Kelnacca's location? I know this show has it in for the Jedi, but the writers aren't even trying. He lives deep in a mysterious forest - and by "deep", I mean reachable on a modest day hike, and crazy easy to find (those scavengers found him, the bad guys found him, the Jedi find him, all in hours). BTW, what was Kelnacca doing, exactly? Given the tone of the show, wallowing in a pit of depression for the terrible thing they all did, and doing some kind of artwork that the score seems to want to tell us is very important (more later?)... fine fine fine but... um... how exactly do you allow a Jedi to not check in for a year? What kind of assignment is that - they assigned him to go hide in the woods and not check in? This might be weirder/dumber than the Jedi meditating for ten years with a vow of silence that apparently was never questioned as to WHY he is doing this "penance". This show doesn't portray the Jedi as flawed, it portrays them as brain-dead stupid.
> I mentioned it before - the choice of Ki-Adi-Mundi is more "lets beat up on the Jedi" stuff. There is no reason to include him except to call to mind his comment about the Sith in TPM. And if it turns out that the villain here isn't a Sith, per se, it's still weak that when someone mentions a Force-trained Dark Side user with a red lightsaber, Sith or not, he doesn't recall this whole incident. Although I suspect they'll explain that by him be part of a Jedi coverup. Wonderful. Is there a rule somewhere that legacy characters who are brought back MUST suck? But to be fair, until we see how the story resolves, maybe he will just be kind of dumb, and not unethical.
> To me, Yord is written like he's supposed to be on a kids show.
> They are leaning so very hard in Qimir being the "masked bad guy" that it is either meant to be (1) not a secret at all, or (2) meant to be so obvious we'll think it can't be him, and then it will be him, or (3) meant to be a red herring in which case I think they've oversold it. Personally, if I had to put my own money on it, despite all the evidence to the contrary, I'd go with the masked baddie being either Mother Aniseya or Koril. I have heard some suggest it's Vernestra, which would be an interesting twist, and would make the Jedi look super double-stupid, so I can't entirely discount it, but....I don't think so. I think she's just super bureaucratic and political and dishonest, versus Sithy evil.

The show benefits from having lots of unanswered questions, and who knows, maybe they'll tie everything up neatly and smartly, that a lot of the plot holes will be resolved cleverly, subverting expectations. We'll see.

 

If so, there's a level of trickery happening that is far too much. Audiences need to be emotionally invested in a story as they watch it. You don't sacrifice that so that you can pull cheap tricks.

 

They're monks in peacetime, living in peaceful contemplation isn't really a weird activity for them to do. He's still a Wookie, this simply might be kind of climate he prefers when not on missions. Kelnacca was just living a self sufficient life. I don't think it's anywhere near as weird or dumb as the Jedi that was just suspending in air meditating for 10 years straight in a local temple. (A time during which he still progressed through the Jedi ranks at a good speed).

 

I don't think the 'smiler' is the master.

 

It just felt like 25 minutes of my life wasted. I learnt, essentially nothing and the only action came right at the end.

 

We don't need constant action in a TV episode. Indeed, I could've done without the beetle moment, which felt tacked on and was the only real action we got.

On second watch, I liked it a good deal better. Mostly, the non-set cinematography was really great. Some wonderful shots on the mountainside. That makes the sets look even worse in comparison, but at least we got some great shots outdoors.

The main thing holding this back is acting and runtime, I think. Some pretty stale acting from Stenberg in this, and just not enough time to let this one breathe.

But I'm looking forward to the next one. Somehow, I'm looking forward to it a lot. I think mostly because of how it ended.

 

They lost track of their tracker. Idiots.

 

One funny bit that I chuckled at was:

Osha: But I'm not wearing the civilian robes.

Cut to Osha wearing the civilian robes.

 

I think people are hoping this was Mae manipulating Qilmer and thus completing the lesson because otherwise her motivation for up and changing lane on a dime feels completely nonsensical. I agree, very doubtful the line of reasoning is anything other than...no really she just quit. But people are hoping?


Btw do we hate Jeremy Jahns around here? His episode 4 review was fun.

 

Wait a minute. There was an early clip/trailer that showed Kelnacca wielding a lightsaber and force pushing something? So I'm guessing another flaskback episode is coming. I did really like this episode. However, I do think the ludicrously short run times are hampering the series. This isn't a cartoon or some trashy soap. Thirty minutes is pretty woeful. I would have prefered fewer, longer episodes.

 

I'm trying to like this show, I promise you that I am.

It's just I still don't really care for any of the characters. Does that make me a bad person, or is it a product of the show itself? They killed off the Wookie Jedi before we got to see him in any real action. Oh well. Maybe we'll get to see Gungi again at some point in the not-too-distant future (beyond his brief one-off appearance in the BB episode). We see a younger Ki-Adi-Mundi as well as Plo Koon (in essentially a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo position). I guess Disney didn't get the contract to sign Yoda off for having a role here. Out of nowhere Mae has a change of heart, and decides she doesn't want to kill the Wookie Jedi; so of course he's killed anyway. And lastly we get the revelation (if you call it that) of the Sith Lord. Then it cuts off before we get to see the actual fight. Stay tuned!

 

I'm not hoping. I truly believe that's what the episode is subtly hinting at. I also had no problem with her turn before I came to this realization so it's not some coping mechanism or something.

 

I thought the tree bug was a nice ecological design.

Is this the first episode where someone says "hours" and "minutes" in the SW universe?

Why didn't the Jedi run to Qimir when Mae screamed? They seemed to hear it.

The phrase "stand down" is a little overused in my opinion.