SPOILER: The Acolyte -- Disney+ Star Wars -- begins June 5, 2024

[erasure fan1]

There was really no reason to have ep4 & 5 two episodes. It would have been much better as one longer episode. It still wouldn't have been an hour. They wanted an extra episode at the expense of storytelling.

This was the best of the episodes so far. I really hope there's something bigger going on and all they're doing is just fake out stuff. Who the sith was, very predictable. And they even tried to fake you out with, my the mom could do that line. I feel like they're trying to be clever but they're just not very good at it. I'm guessing next episode is where Yoda gets involved. There's too many dead Jedi for that not to happen.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

This one was the least interesting for me so far. But I'll stick with it and see where it goes. Waiting to find out how Sol was involved with the fire that killed the family along with the Jedi who killed himself out of guilt.

 

[Ghost93]

I had been enjoying the show so far but thought episode 5 was the weakest so far. The dialogue and acting and the twists and turns all felt so stilted and unnatural. I'm also so OVER the sibling feud between Osha and Mei.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

This episode delivered a big payoff just in terms of tons of Star Wars action.

Always fun to see something new, like using a force pull to impale a second Jedi onto a lightsaber.

The amount of violence and death was almost jarring.

The villain reveal though? I vaguely recognized him but honestly have no memory of the character. The reveal felt flat. Did they not establish him enough prior or was it just me?

That point speaks to my earlier comment about this not being paced well for a TV series. If I could binge this or they did longer episodes the character might be fresher in my mind.

 

[mysto]

The Queens Gambit was a very good miniseries

Yes! It was based on literature.

Imagine an aspiring novelist spending 5-10 years writing for a franchise a large corporation already owns all the rights to. No, I can't imagine it.

Unless corporations are willing to overpay the writers the way they overpay the pretty faces this isn't going to change. Seek outside of established franchises. Even with good miniseries, the first season is often the best.

And seriously, I'm not diminishing the contribution of the actors in the Queen's Gambit. Joy was fantastic.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

I contend this can indeed be poorly written. But one of the Jedi kills himself, pedantically. Something is going on that we don’t have the full picture on yet.

Either these things will add up or the series is poor, which is why I think we’re kind of stuck wondering if the mystery sticks the landing or not. Whenever that’s fully unveiled.

I kept telling myself that during Willow... and that went so badly that you can't even watch it anymore.

 

[BrianLo]

The villain reveal though? I vaguely recognized him but honestly have no memory of the character. The reveal felt flat. Did they not establish him enough prior or was it just me?

That might have been you? He's been in several episodes now and had a ton of dialogue with all the players. Maybe because I know the actor, I kind of figured it was him once you could more visibly see his arms.

He was the top two pick for who we suspected it would be next to their mother.

 

[BrianLo]

I think that was a good episode, but I'm actually finding it kind of jarring how many people they've killed. I figured the extras, sure. But Dafne Keene and Yord? We suddenly went from an ensemble to not at all.

Even for a hot second they killed Pip. I looked it up and I guess it's TV 14-A, but I actually wasn't picking that up from the series until now.

 

[sedati]

In the words of the great Anakin Skywalker...

"Yippy!"

 

[C33Mom]

This was the best of the episodes so far. I really hope there's something bigger going on and all they're doing is just fake out stuff. Who the sith was, very predictable. And they even tried to fake you out with, my the mom could do that line. I feel like they're trying to be clever but they're just not very good at it.

I actually didn’t see it as a fake-out so much as a hint that the sith (apprentice? acolyte?) had some connection with the witch mothers— it sounded like a different kind of mind manipulation than the Jedi mind tricks to influence the weak-minded, like we saw happen to Torbin early on.

The show seems to be heavily suggesting that the Jedi did something awful to the witches, but I wonder if they just had their minds messed with by dopey-friend-turned-Sith guy or whomever trained him. He said tonight he had to kill everyone who discovers his identity, so maybe he had a reason for disposing of the witches but convinced the Jedi to blame themselves? My theory is that Sith were on that remote planet, hatching something with some of the witches, but obviously something bad happened and we know that Sol and his crew didn’t actually properly document important facts (like Mae’s existence) in the incident recap.

Finally, it’s suggested that Osha was brainwashed by the Jedi…but in this episode Mae acts just like we saw in Osha’s memory— weirdly obsessive and violent.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The villain reveal though? I vaguely recognized him but honestly have no memory of the character. The reveal felt flat. Did they not establish him enough prior or was it just me?

He made her the poison. It was through him that Osha and the Jedi found Mae. Then he was with Mae for most of the previous episode. They spent the whole time talking about her training and decision to abandon it.

I actually didn’t see it as a fake-out so much as a hint that the sith (apprentice? acolyte?) had some connection with the witch mothers

He says he wants a pupil which suggests he might still have a master out there.

 

[Ghost93]

That might have been you? He's been in several episodes now and had a ton of dialogue with all the players. Maybe because I know the actor, I kind of figured it was him once you could more visibly see his arms.

He was the top two pick for who we suspected it would be next to their mother.

I personally thought it would either be Carrie Ann Moss (who faked her death) or Osha's mother.

 

[erasure fan1]

I personally thought it would either be Carrie Ann Moss (who faked her death) or Osha's mother.

The Moss angle didn't cross my mind. I thought it was either one of the moms or the guy it turned out to be. I actually think the Moss idea would have been a better choice in my opinion. It was fairly obvious they wanted us to think it was the mom or her friend. So something that wasn't televised would have been good.

 

[Ghost93]

The Moss angle didn't cross my mind. I thought it was either one of the moms or the guy it turned out to be. I actually think the Moss idea would have been a better choice in my opinion. It was fairly obvious they wanted us to think it was the mom or her friend. So something that wasn't televised would have been good.

The Moss angle had less to do with the evidence presented in the show and more due to me thinking "surely they aren't going to waste Carrie Anne Moss on a 10-minute cameo! There MUST be bigger plans for her!"

I haven't followed the speculation and discourse online much (because it seems toxic) so I was admittedly surprised by the reveal of who the villain actually was.

 

[erasure fan1]

The Moss angle had less to do with the evidence presented in the show and more due to me thinking "surely they aren't going to waste Carrie Anne Moss on a 10-minute cameo! There MUST be bigger plans for her!"

Agreed. I just didn't think of her. Lol

That's exactly how I felt, it's gotta be something more. Maybe by the end of this whole thing it will be. But so far, not so much.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

He made her the poison. It was through him that Osha and the Jedi found Mae. Then he was with Mae for most of the previous episode. They spent the whole time talking about her training and decision to abandon it.

I'll have to rewatch. The character struck me as fulfilling a purpose but not developed enough to the point where his identity was a big *gasp* moment.

If you're going to make the villain reveal happen in episode 5 and tease audiences with it, it sets a certain expectation.

One of the moms would have been a more traditional big villain twist, but also a cliche that the bad guys in Star Wars is always the long lost relative.

I agree that the "mom could do that line" was in there to be at least partially a fake out, and took the wind out of the sails of the true reveal to a degree.

But overall it's not a bad approach. I'll have to look at it again but it makes sense that the villain could be a somewhat innocuous person who is subtly directing things without being an overbearing presence.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I'll have to rewatch. The character struck me as fulfilling a purpose but not developed enough to the point where his identity was a big *gasp* moment.

If you're going to make the villain reveal happen in episode 5 and tease audiences with it, it sets a certain expectation.

One of the moms would have been a more traditional big villain twist, but also a cliche that the bad guys in Star Wars is always the long lost relative.

I agree that the "mom could do that line" was in there to be at least partially a fake out, and took the wind out of the sails of the true reveal to a degree.

But overall it's not a bad approach. I'll have to look at it again but it makes sense that the villain could be a somewhat innocuous person who is subtly directing things without being an overbearing presence.

I think there might have been more weight if we had seen something like this battle sooner. I’ve seen some comments about one guy taking out a team of Jedi but I don’t think that’s entirely ridiculous. There should be a reason that all of these Jedi are afraid of two people being out there in the entire galaxy. One guy who took out a whole team of Jedi is the sort of thing that should cause a panic, more than one person who took out two (really just one) people one-on-one.

I think a big issue I have with Star Wars, Marvel and a lot of other media right now is that I’m just rather sick of the mystery box. Everything has to have a mystery these days and then you get this dragging out without much development so it doesn’t really pay off. Go watch the original trilogy and there is no mystery. The Death Star is a mystery to the protagonists but the opening crawl tells the audience. There’s the big twist of Vader being Luke’s father but it’s not set up as a mystery with it really contradicting what came before as Anakin and Vader were actually two different people in the 70s.

 

[erasure fan1]

But overall it's not a bad approach. I'll have to look at it again but it makes sense that the villain could be a somewhat innocuous person who is subtly directing things without being an overbearing presence.

That's true. I think what didn't connect with me was there was a build up as to who this is. What's the big reveal? Oh, it's who we figured it probably was. It wasn't some terrible thing, but at the same time it was fairly anticlimactic.

So now will see how they retcon the sith have been extinct for a Millennia. Because there's no way 3 prominent Jedi don't remember this. Sol knows he's a sith because he tells him, you know me as sith. Or something like that. So he's obviously going to say something to the council, yoda...

 

[sedati]

The Moss angle had less to do with the evidence presented in the show and more due to me thinking "surely they aren't going to waste Carrie Anne Moss on a 10-minute cameo! There MUST be bigger plans for her!"

She's been in two episodes and I would absolutely expect to see her again.

 

[lazyboy97o]

That's true. I think what didn't connect with me was there was a build up as to who this is. What's the big reveal? Oh, it's who we figured it probably was. It wasn't some terrible thing, but at the same time it was fairly anticlimactic.

So now will see how they retcon the sith have been extinct for a Millennia. Because there's no way 3 prominent Jedi don't remember this. Sol knows he's a sith because he tells him, you know me as sith. Or something like that. So he's obviously going to say something to the council, yoda...

This is the same universe where less than 20 years qualifies as “ancient”.