The Acolyte is a new series streaming on Disney+. It is set in the Star Wars universe and occurs 100 years before the fall of the Jedi and subsequent rise of the Empire.
What happened: Sixteen years before episodes 1 and 2, twins Osha and Mae are children on the planet Brendok--the
only children on the planet, we come to learn. Osha is communing with nature under the beautiful but deadly bunta tree where Mae finds her and scolds her for leaving the fortress where they live. Osha is reluctant to participate in their upcoming Ascension ceremony. Mae is angered by this. The girls return to their home and are confronted by Koril, a Zabrak with horns growing from her head (Darth Maul's species), who is a stern parental figure to the girls (we later learn she carried the twins to term). Mother Aniseya then arrives, and is another parental figure, but one more forgiving and kind. She and Koril share some type of intimate relationship, possibly romantic, and lead a coven of witches that are evocative of the Dark Side-weilding Night Sisters of Dathomir who played a significant role in the
Clone Wars animated series. Aniseya teaches the girls a view of the Force that prioritizes collective action and cooperation in manipulating it, emphasizing that two or more working together can have much more effective results than one working solo--a metaphore for the coven as well. Mae goes through with the Ascension ceremony, becoming a full member of the coven, but as Osha is about to reluctantly participate, a party of Jedi show up and essentially demand to test the girls for their potential as Jedi. Aniseya and Koril are concerned the Jedi will discover the twins were "created" by Aniseya, so order the girls to intentionally fail the Jedi tests. Mae happily fails but Mae, enamoured by the Jedi and wanting to see the galaxy, passes, and admits she and her sister were told to fail. Aniseya is not happy, but appears to consent to Osha departing with the Jedi. Mae is less understanding, and locks Osha in her room while setting it on fire in an attempt to kill her sister. Osha escapes through a vent only to discover the entire coven dead within the fortress. As the fire spreads, Jedi Sol shows up to rescue her. He tries to reach Mae as well, but Mae apparently falls to her death. As the Jedi depart the planet, Osha insists they need to return for Mae. Sol, clearly distressed, tells Osha that Mae is dead and there is nobody left to return for. Mae, however, is waiting for Osha beneath the bunta tree from the opening of the episode.
Disturbances in the Force: I watched this episode more than a week ago before departing for a trip to the East Coast, and had not seen the online "controversy" about this episode prior to my return. Two objections seem to dominate: that Jedi are literally stealing children and that the Force does not operate the way depicted by the coven. First, "abducting children" strikes me as pretty much how the Jedi operate, as in
Phantom Menace Qui-Gon Jinn expended a tremendous amount of effort to gain custody of Anakin Skywalker but pretty much zero effort to rescue his mother, Shimi, from slavery. That's pretty dark. And as Qui-Gon has since been portrayed as the one Jedi most attuned to the Force, I have little inclination to write that episode off as an isolated incident. As for the coven's novel manipulation of the Force, I don't see how this depiction is problematic in any way. The Night Sisters of Dathomir clearly accessed the Force through use of what we would consider spells, far outside the skill set of the Jedi. Look, Nikolai Tesla knew more about electricity in his time than any other human, but he didn't understand the inverse square law would preclude his scheme to ever provide free energy through the air worldwide, and he outright dismissed atomic theory, which we now know is 100% responsible for the phenomenon of electricity. Tesla did not believe in electrons. Tesla was wrong about the nature of electricity on the most fundamental of levels, but that did not stop him from being a brilliant researcher and inventor where electricity is concerned. The Force simply is. The Force does not care about rules or ritual. It is a made up concept that was wonderfully vague in the original films, became overtly technical in the prequel trilogy (the midi-chlorian meter makes a subtle return this episode) but remains an elastic concept that is not rigid in the sense of a D20 rules system. The Jedi understand the Force,
from a certain point of view. The coven understands the Force,
from a certain point of view. If an isolated religious sect accesses the Force from a different point of view than the Jedi, more power to 'em.
Now that I've addressed what other people think about this episode, what about what
I think about it? This series continues to keep me off-balance and guessing. We all knew there would be a flashback episode, but the way these narratives usually work, it would arrive around episode 6 in an 8-episode series, revealing all the backstory before the story climaxes. Not so this time, which makes me think we have
another flashback--possibly two--lying in wait before all is said and done. What we have here is a science fiction version of
Rashomon that is busy messing with the viewers' collective heads. The coven is clearly intended to remind fans of the Night Sisters of Dathomir and the inclusion of the Maul-like Koril is priming the viewer to view the coven as evil, beholden to the Dark Side. But the viewers see nothing overtly evil from any of the coven, rather, they've a collective society of women who appear to care for each other and the children while remaining suspicious of outsiders for fear of persecution. They're literally a stand-in for every nascent religious sect that has ever existed in human society, fearful of the Jedi in power throwing them to the lions (or rancor, or sarlaac, or whatever space beastie you may prefer). The Jedi come off as arrogant and high-handed, but this is from the perspective of the coven. A future flashback may well show the Jedi acting in good faith, believing Evil Is Afoot. Finally, the final events during Osha's escape make little sense taken at face value. From a critical writerly perspective, the stone fortress should not have rapidly caught fire and said fire should not have spread as quickly as it did unless the coven did something incredibly stupid, such as building their fortress out of coal. Then we see the coven dead, presumably slaughtered by the Jedi, but the Jedi are not actually shown doing this. Mae is depicted with overt Dark Side inclinations, but her future self, while skilled as a Force-using assassin is certainly incapable of wiping out her own coven (and mothers!) as a child, no matter how angry and unhinged. Finally, the Jedi--especially Sol--seem shaken by the events, that things went horribly sideways was not the intended outcome for them or the children. This is reenforced by the guilt we've seen from these same people in the first two episodes.
My prediction, for what it's worth, is that this coven is an outcast sect that is no longer affiliated with the Witches of Dathomir, that seek to balance the Light and Dark sides of the Force to live in harmony (or some analog thereof) and aren't the evil cult we're obviously supposed to take them for. The Jedi, for their part,
are acting with high ideals and best intentions, but misunderstand the situation and their attempts to make things better actually make things worse. On top of that, attempts to rectify those errors further compound the problem. Lost in all of this is the Sith-esque figure briefly seen in the first episode who trained Mae as an assassin. I expect this shadowy figure is manipulating both sides against the middle, seeking to inflict loss on the hated Jedi while simultaneously wiping out a sect of witches who pose a potential threat to the Sith power in some way.
There's so much misdirection in this series thus far that taking anything at face value is a risk I'm not willing to take. This show certainly isn't on the artistic level of
Rashomon but I appreciate the ambition. I appreciate the fact this show is trying to do something novel within the
Star Wars universe. That's no guarantee
The Acolyte will stick the landing, but anyone writing this show off as "destroying"
Star Wars or dismissing it as "the worst ever" are seriously jumping the gun.
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