Welcome back to the blog readers. As you guys all know, The Acolyte has been a series that has really frustrated me over the last seven weeks, and I was on the fence on this series before last week's episode. I think this show has declined in quality, and I have been resorted to hoping that each episode will be good. With this finale coming up, I was begging and pleading with the Star Wars gods for this episode to at least be good. Would my begging be rewarded with this finale, titled "The Acolyte," written by Jason Micallef and directed by Hanelle Culpepper? Stick around to find out.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.
This show was so fucking frustrating as a Star Wars fan. Every week I hoped and begged that we would get a good episode, as I said in the intro. But something interesting happened in this episode that made me turn and face my television. You want to know what it was? It was actually a good episode! My prayers have finally been answered for once in my life. A somewhat satisfying (yet predictable) conclusion to the best action in the entire show, and some moments that made the episode (with one in particular leaving me completely stunned).
I want to first talk about that phrase in the last set of parentheses for a moment. Not many things can absolutely shock me anymore. I have seen it all at this point. But I wholly did not expect to literally see DARTH FUCKING PLAGUEIS! Palpatine's master was just sneaking around in a cave somewhere and it honestly made me want to see a second season of this series just to have a chance to see Plagueis again. Also seeing Yoda for a split second was cool too. I'm happy we got to see our favorite little green guy.
Even though last week's episode completely bastardized the character of Jedi Master Sol, the performance of Lee Jung-jae never failed to amaze me. This guy is a phenomenal actor. Never have I seen a character written so poorly but I am still invested in this character because of the completely genuine performance by the actor, and that was no different this week for the finale. I genuinely feel bad for his character but I weirdly feel a bit of satisfaction that Sol ended the way that he did. Even though the character was completely bastardized last week by revealing that he was the one who killed Osha and Mae's mother and he was one of the Jedi who covered up the affair and blamed Mae, I am satisfied that it was Osha that found out the truth and was the one that killed him fulfilling the prophecy that Mae would kill him without a weapon.
I also slightly agree with the decision of the Jedi to lay all the blame on Sol and cover up the whole affair. This does not break canon because they did not know that this was orchestrated by the Sith or Qimir, and it kind of bastardized the four Jedi (Sol, Indara, Torbin, and Kelnacca). I do feel bad for the Jedi and the impulsive decision that was made by Torbin that led to this whole situation, and I do feel for Osha and Mae that they lost their mother and were led down this path.
The action in this episode was absolutely insane to say the least. The one element of this series that has been consistent has been the action, and this finale was no different. I found myself on the edge of my seat for the clash between Sol and Qimir and for the brief fistfight we got between Osha and Mae. The lightsaber combat was fast, fluent, and chaotic but had a sense of beauty to it as well.
Finally, I want to talk about the ending of the series. I called two weeks ago that Osha would become the acolyte and Mae would be the one who dealt with the consequences. They finally got each other back only to lose each other all over again. Qimir wiped Mae's memory and made her forget all about Osha so the Jedi could not use her to find Osha and Qimir. This happened to be another instance of the writers not breaking canon. Although the writing was terrible, they stayed true to canon, even with the appearance of Plagueis.
The Acolyte was a frustrating series with a good finale that unfortunately does not meet the heights to excel as a good series. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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