TL;DR – We take a breath after last week’s revel, only to dive deeper into the force.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

The Acolyte Review –

After a giant climatic episode, shows can struggle with the aftermath. Once you have paid off all that build-up, it can be hard to move on from that. Last week’s Night was very much an episode like that, with mass casualties and reveals a plenty. Today, we see if they can follow that up or if they will fall into the same traps.

So, to set the scene, at the end of Night, many Jedi had fallen, but Sol (Lee Jung-Jae) managed to escape with Osha (Amandla Stenberg), but wait, that is not Osha, that is her sister Mae (Amandla Stenberg). Because Mae was captured by the new Sith master on the scene, but for all Mae’s planning, she forgot to notice that Sol was not the only one to walk out of that forest. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

After last week’s crescendo, it was a good idea to slow the pace down here, but notably not the intrigue. I was concerned that we were just going to get a Star Wars – The Parent Trap episode. To be fair, there is a little of this. But more than that, we get a lot of building intrigue throughout this episode as it plays on its title. The obvious answer is that Qimir (Manny Jacinto), or whatever his name is, will be corrupting Osha while Sol teaches Mae. However, is Qimir corrupting or teaching Osha? And that is a question I don’t have a firm answer to. We constantly hear of how you can be ‘seduced to the dark side’; however, films and shows have never really shown that in a convincing way until today.

It was a fascinating choice to compare and contrast Sol to Qimir this week because it dabbles in the power of emotions. Two leaders that could not be far enough apart yet also fundamentally similar. You can feel both men trying to control their emotions and trying to present positions of power even though it is clear that the past weighs heavily on them. Lee Jung-Jae and Manny Jacinto are such fascinating actors with how emotion reads on their faces, and it was a delight watching them show that craft here today.

As we are hurtling towards the end of the season, there is a lot of getting all our ducks in a row this week. We get to confirm that, oh yes, everyone last week who was killed were indeed dead. It was nice that Mae’s plan was foiled because she didn’t care to notice the little people. I doubt that in the same week, they introduced a whip lightsabre and our chief baddy revealing long scars on his back were completle coincidental. I liked the little hints we get about the relationship between The Jedi and the Senate. Also, Unknown Planet, my royal buttocks.          

In the end, do we recommend The Acolyte – Teach/Corrupt? Absolutely. This was an excellent follow-up last week because it followed up that action with some real intrigue. It also lets the performances shine, which is a hallmark of a great show.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen The Acolyte yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Acolyte
Directed by – Hanelle M. Culpepper
Written by – Lesley Headland & Jocelyn Bioh
Created by – Lesley Headland
Based On – Star Wars by George Lucas
Production/Distribution Companies – Lucasfilm, Shoot to Midnight, Disney Pictures & Disney+
Starring – Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-Jae, Charlie Barnett, Dafne Keen, Manny Jacinto, Rebecca Henderson & Harry Trevaldwyn with Hassan Taj & Dee Tails