The Acolyte hit it out of the park this week. My heart was pounding from almost the very first minute, which has never happened before with Star Wars TV.
It was far from a perfect episode, with some very dubious narrative choices. But it showed a new side of what SW can be.
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This episode reveals that, yes, of course, Darth Teeth is Qimir. Given how predictable this was, the reveal is fittingly understated. Headland has a great quote in this EW story about it: ew.com/the-acolyte-...
(I know his official marketing monicker right now is “The Stranger,” but I’m just going to keep calling him “Qimir” here because it’s fewer characters.)
I’ll admit that I was totally surprised by how violent this episode was. I don’t normally think Star Wars should be this disturbing, but this was a rare exception where it served the story and the show's overall tone.
Qimir impaling one Jedi and then pulling another Jedi onto the blade behind her was one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen (and he appears to have decapitated them on top of it). You can really feel his cold ruthlessness, and that helps you empathize with the characters.
The episode does a lot to make Qimir not just scary but deeply unsettling.
There's the way he cocks his head at the beginning of his duel with Sol, and the way he appears in Mae’s mind — as if he's gliding across the forest floor in pursuit of her. It's all kind of terrifying!
I like how the Jedi (both Jecki in the previous episode and Yord in this episode) call Qimir a thing. It adds to his air of terrifying mystery. You really feel how disoriented the usually confident Jedi are. They've never seen anyone like this before.
