Speaking of Brendok, another big problem with this episode is how it presents Sol’s fateful killing of Aniseya.
The fact that Osha never learns why Sol did what he did makes the narrative mess of her fall to the dark side so much more frustrating.
First, I have to reiterate I think Sol was totally justified in trying to stop Aniseya from performing what the threatening context of the confrontation very much suggested was a sinister, hostile act toward the twins.
I know some disagree, and that's fine. But the thing is...
…this story wouldn't work if Sol's mistake weren't reasonable. It’s only compelling b/c you can see why he did it.
The problem is that the reckoning in the finale completely erases that context, so it seems like he made a conscious, cold-hearted calculation to kill Aniseya.
When Mae asks Sol if he killed Aniseya, he doesn’t say that it was an accident, or that he was reacting instinctively to Aniseya’s apparent aggression. He just says yes, and that "it was the right thing to do" — again, as if he planned to do it.
Whether or not you think Sol’s mistake was justifiable doesn’t change the fact that the show made a very weird choice by not having him even point out that it was an accident.
It makes no sense except as a way to rob Osha of context that *might* avert her fall to the dark side.
The omission's poisonous effects linger.
When Osha suggests telling the Jedi what Sol did, Mae & Qimir cite Aniseya's death to convince Osha that the Jedi will summarily execute her just for being powerful.
Of course, that's not what happened to Aniseya, but Osha believes them.
Lee Jung-jae again does a marvelous job of portraying Sol in all his fallible nobility. You can feel his turmoil at being back on Brendok. And his final moments, telling Osha he did everything b/c he loved her, are heartbreaking — the ultimate expression of his emotional myopia.
The two big fights — Sol/Qimir and Mae/Osha — are great.
I love the rawness of the lightsaber duel and how Sol uses his martial arts prowess to evade and neutralize Qimir’s brute strength.
Osha and Mae use the same moves against each other — two halves of one whole.
Two particularly great shots in the lightsaber duel: Sol slashing away Qimir’s blades and Sol using the Force to repel both the blades and Qimir himself.
Sol is a beast — likely because he's tapping into his emotions.
Osha and Mae’s confrontation in their childhood bedroom is compelling, but also sad. Compelling because Mae’s attempt to clear up Osha’s misunderstanding creates rich emotional tension, but sad because of how the show squanders this richness with Osha's abrupt fall.
I find it kind of funny that everyone has heard about, but misunderstands, Vernestra's hyperspace difficulties. (Rayencourt thinks it's her stomach.)
They've hinted at this enough that I have to wonder if we'll see her visions in future live-action storytelling... 🤔
I enjoyed seeing a kyber crystal being bled in live-action, and I love the shot of Osha lunging at Qimir with a blade that flicks from blue to red before turning fully red.
I don’t like Osha’s fall, but I like how the lightsaber stuff visually symbolizes it.
In her final confrontation with Sol, Mae finally succeeds at taking a Jedi’s lightsaber.
But she has changed — she refuses to kill Sol, instead advocating for him to face justice instead of vengeance.
Part of why Qimir is now more eager for Osha than for Mae.
The finale left me with a bunch of questions. Some of them are lingering threads clearly meant to spur interest in a second season. But I had many smaller questions, like…
❓ Why does Bazil break Sol’s ship? Are we supposed to think he’s stopping Sol from doing something bad? Because all Sol wanted to do was recapture Mae. (And not to kill her — his plan depended on her and Osha reuniting on Brendok.) Bazil’s interference makes no sense.
❓ Why does Qimir experience distress — with the black eyes from the witches’ mind control — when trying to free Osha from the vision she’s having inside his helmet? Is this meant to suggest that connecting with Osha exposes him to a level of darkness that even he isn't ready for?
❓ Who is Vernestra talking to about needing to get a message to someone? Given that she later meets with Yoda, some have speculated that it's about him. (Incidentally, the person on the other end of the comm sounded a lot like Palpatine to me, but obviously it isn't.)
❓ Mae asks Osha who taught them the "you are with me and I am with you" rhyme. Osha says she thought Mae made it up. This is a fascinating hint at another mystery of the twins’ upbringing. They clearly don't remember their mothers teaching it to them. So who did?
I'm surprised Leslye Headland left so much of this story unresolved w/o knowing if she'd get a season 2. (Surely they'd confirm a S2 now, if they knew they were doing it.)
Kenobi wrapped things up, and Andor knew it was getting a S2.
Only Filoni has been this bold, with Ahsoka.
But if Headland’s goal was to generate demand for a second season, she definitely succeeded, despite the lackluster writing of the main storyline.
There's so much that I can't wait to see explored further.
Obviously, the HUGE dangling thread is Plagueis, who we see sinisterly watching Qimir & Osha depart for Brendok.
It's a delightful moment that appears to confirm Qimir as the wayward Sith apprentice.
I desperately need to know more about Plagueis and his relationship w/ Qimir.
Osha vowing to find Mae is another obviously setup for a second season.
I hope they reunite. I wish we'd learned more about Osha and Mae's mysterious duality in this season, and I hope we eventually will. It’s the core of the story, but it's maddeningly cryptic.
There's another hunt brewing for season 2. Vernestra has clearly decided that she has to confront Qimir. But what will she do when she catches him?
And how can Mae help if her memory has been wiped? Perhaps Qimir's rush job won't survive some deep Force prodding by Vernestra.
Obviously, the Yoda reveal at the very end is exciting — even if it's another example of Headland not telling the truth about a lack of movie cameos.
What does Vernestra want to tell Yoda? Is she entrusting Yoda with her Qimir secret? I hope we don't see Yoda join that cover-up.
Overall, I’m disappointed with the Acolyte finale. The show had a lot going for it, but it squandered the potential of its main storyline with incoherent plotting, and it indulged a seriously problematic dilution of Star Wars’ core good-versus-evil message.
It is possible to depict flawed heroes and explore moral nuance in Star Wars. Andor does it with characters like Luthen. But Andor succeeds because, while it complicates its heroes, it doesn’t really try to complicate its villains.
Syril and Dedra may have relatable problems, but they still work for a fascist regime, and Andor doesn’t hide that.
The Acolyte fails because it asks the bad, disturbing, un-Star-Wars-y question, "What if the murderous psychopathic villains had a point, actually?"
If The Acolyte gets a season 2, it should depict Osha realizing the error of her ways, rejecting the dark side, and trying to atone for her sins.
But since this show doesn’t even want us to see Osha as the villain that she clearly now is, I sadly don’t expect that to happen.
