Acolyte Season Finale: “Episode 8” Review

We’ve finally made it to the Season One finale of The Acolyte. Will the show break canon? How were the Mothra Twi– I mean Osha Twins created? Will any known characters show up? There’s only one way to find out!

SPOILER WARNING! The following contains spoilers for The Acolyte Episode 8 titled “Episode 8!” Do not proceed if you wish to avoid spoilers!

MAJOR POINTS

  • Osha killed Sol via Force Choke
  • Qimir has taken Osha as a pupil
  • Qimir’s master is Darth Plagueis
  • Vanestra covered everything up by publicly blaming Sol
  • Qimir erased Mae’s memories with The Force

Osha starts squirming and panicking like she can’t get the Toothygrin mask off. After Qimir helps her remove it, Osha says she saw a vision of Mae killing Sol. They decide to go to Brendok while Darth Plaguis secretly watches them leave.

Meanwhile, in orbit above Brendok, Sol tells Mae that she and Osha are not sisters, but the same person in two bodies. Why he didn’t tell her before is anybody’s guess. Mae replies that everybody died on Brendok because of The Jedi. She breaks free of her bindings, stuns Sol, and flees to another ship. Sol gives chase, but just as he is within range to catch Mae, Bazel inexplicably sabotages Sol’s ship and Mae escapes to the surface.

On Coruscant, Republic Senator Rayencourt (David Harewood) confronts Vernestra about Sol and the missing Jedi. Mog interrupts and informs Vanestra that Sol is on Brendok and has reactivated his homing beacon. Vannestra tells Mog to gather as many Jedi as he can to accompany them to the planet.

Osha and Qimir arrive at Brendok just as Sol leaves his ship to look for Mae. Hyperspace travel must be instantaneous at this point. All four of them converge in the witch coven’s base where everybody died in the third episode.

Mae confronts Osha and tells her that she saw Sol kill their mother. Why she chose now to mention this when she had plenty of opportunities before is anybody’s guess. The two battle in a Force-Fu fight.

Sol fights Darth Toothygrin and eventually bests him Mae interferes and says Sol must pay for killing Aniseya. Sol explains that he was trying to protect them, not that the witches were trying to kill the Jedi at every turn. Osha appears, feeling betrayed, and Force Chokes Sol to death. She grabs Sol’s lightsaber, which magically turns red since she’s angry now.

Osha, Mae, and Qimir decide that Mae will go to the Republic in exchange for Osha training to be a Sith. Qimir wipes Mae’s memory, leaving her with no recollection of her evil ways. Why he didn’t do this to The Jedi instead of slaughtering them is anybody’s guess. Qimir and Osha begin their new romantic life together as master and student.

Vanestra tells the rest of the Jedi that Sol was solely responsible for the Jedi killings. In the final scene, she enters the High Council chamber to tell Yoda her story.

MAJOR QUESTIONS

  • So Darth Plagueis got his obsession to create life because an unknown woman from an unknown coven did it decades before he did?
  • How exactly does a lightsaber change color when the crystal isn’t changed?
  • Why did they feel the need to use so many lines word for word from A New Hope?
  • Why the heck did Bazel interfere in Sol’s pursuit of Mae?
  • How far is Brendok from Coruscant?

FINAL GRADE: F

I had very low expectations for this finale, and it still failed to impress. Most of the stuff we thought was going to happen did. Darth Plagueis made his live-action debut. And now it’s implied that he got obsessed with creating life through The Force because some unknown space witch did it 100 years ago. Sol’s explanation for killing Aniseya was that he was trying to protect them, not that she looked like she was turning into a giant Assault Fart to wreak havoc on everybody. Also apparently forgetting that the witches tried to kill The Jedi at every turn.

We’ve also learned that in this era kyber crystals were glorified mood rings, hyperspace travel was instantaneous, and Sith could mind-wipe people instead of killing them.

As usual, I’ll have a lot more to say on the podcast review.