BEWARE SPOILERS: Just like with the previous Disney Plus series, we at Fantha Tracks will be offering our own episode guide for your entertainment! Here we will post every reference, Easter egg, everything named and unnamed per episode and some fun trivia in-between that we have spotted.
Official summary: The Jedi pursue a suspect after a shocking crime.
Trivia
The duality of the twin characters is reflected in the titles of the episodes, with each word being the opposite of the other. Or, as George Lucas was fond of saying: it is like poetry, it rhymes.
The episode starts with an opening text and while it is not a scroll like the opening of the Skywalker Saga movies, it is done in the same style as the start of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Ahsoka also had an opening text, but that was red and scrolled up.
Seeing the names of the planet on screen was also done with Rogue One and Andor.
As Mae enters the city on Ueda she walks through a gate in the same style as the classic Ralph McQuarrie gate designed for Jabba’s Palace. This type of gate has returned a couple of times like in The Clone Wars movie on Teth and on Jakku in The Force Awakens.
Back during the production of The Phantom Menace, when it was not yet known who the Sith warrior was going to be, the concept artists designed a couple images with females in that role. One of them had red dreads in front of her face, just like we see now in The Acolyte with Mae and Osha.
As Osha makes her way to the shield generators that she has to repair, she passes by what is the predecessor of a GNK droid.
Fillik mentions a pretty known world by now with Nar Shaddaa.
In a series that introduces us to many new, and thus far unnamed, species it is wonderful to see a species return from the prequels with the Neimoidians! Introduced for The Phantom Menace, not seen in live-action since Episode 3, and since then even sparsely in other media like The Clone Wars and one appearance in the animated series Resistance.
Osha and Fillik are on a Trade Federation ship, where on the bridge we see three Neimoidians. While two out of the three are unnamed, the captain is called Blex as per the end credits.
It is mentioned in both this episode, and the next, that it is illegal and dangerous for humans to work outside in space on the hull for repairs. This is why in The Phantom Menace we saw Artoo and the astromechs going out to repair the damage done to the queen’s ship.
Filik and Osha use magnetized boots, much like the Range Troopers used to stabilize themselves on the conveyex train in Solo.
The Jedi ship we see flying by looks like a Jedi Vector from other The High Republic stories. Considering that we only have two Jedi, and the prison ship arriving later, it would be possible as a Jedi Vector could seat one or two persons.
One of the two Jedi is Tasi Lowa, played by Thara Schöön. Lowa is of a species we have seen before: a Zygerrian. They were first mentioned way back in 1987 in The Star Wars Sourcebook. They went unused for the most part until Dave Filoni brought them into The Clone Wars series. This is their live-action debut.
After leaving the Jedi Osha went as far away as she could get from Coruscant and ended up in CorpSec. That is the abbreviation for the Corporate Sector, a sector within the Outer Rim where various corporations have their headquarters and enjoy a free reign from the Republic.
In the class of Jedi Younglings that we see Sol teaching are two returning alien species: a Tarsunt (The Force Awakens) and a Condluran. The latter is a recent species, debuting in Obi-Wan Kenobi with Freck, the speedertruck driver on Mapuzo that was loyal to the Empire.
The lesson that Sol is teaching uses the well-known lesson of Obi-Wan that he gave to Luke onboard the Millennium Falcon. The responses of the Younglings in turn partially match those of Rey with balance and life, as seen in The Last Jedi.
The Force is compared both to fire and an ocean during the lesson. The High Republic media introduced the notion that every Jedi interprets and sees the Force as something else. There were those who saw it as an ocean, some as a song, and others as a thread of fabric.
And while the references to The High Republic so far are mostly in aesthetics, it is Vernestra Rwoh that serves as the most obvious direct link as she is a character that we follow throughout the novels of Phase I and III.
And while the Jedi Temple is exactly that, a temple and not a castle, we are sure that Indiana Jones would approve of the tapestries that we see hanging now in the hallways.
While later prison ships or cells onboard would use ray shields, like seen in the Jedi Temple, the prison ship here uses metal bars still.
Sadly all the convicts are without names, and only two appear with actor names in the end credits: Dan Milne (the one restrained with a Dybbuk) and Thomas Coombes (he is the talkative convict)
Back on Coruscant Jecki Lon interrupts her master, Sol. Played by Dafne Keen, she is a Theelin, a species first introduced among Jabba’s dancers in the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi. Theelins have since appeared in many other series like The Clone Wars.
Talking about The Clone Wars, the prison ships crashes on the planet Carlac, which first appeared in Season 4 of the animated series in the episode ‘A Friend in Need’.
Osha encountering her twin young Mae, and becoming her own young self, in a Force vision that jumps between locations is something we saw before with Rey. And she was part of a dyad, with her being the light side and Ben Solo the dark side. It seems likely that this is the case for Osha and Mae as well.
As the Jedi arrive their shuttle detaches itself from a larger construct. Is this the predecessor of a docking ring like the Delta-7 Aethersprite-class light interceptor, or Jedi starfighter, had to use?
The shuttle itself is named in the official website’s Databank as a Polan-717 Jedi transport manufactured by Lantillian Shipwrights. Lantillian Shipwrights has been around a long time in Legends, but until now never had any of their ships appear in live-action or the animated series.
It is not often that we see a yellow lightsaber, which were used by Jedi Temple Guards, Asajj Ventress, Rey and now Yord Fandar.
Filming locations from this episode as presented by GFFA Journeys:
Ueda establishing shot – This was filmed on the Portuguese island Madeira, from a point between São Lourenço Beach and the D’Abra Bay viewpoint. This exact same spot was also used for the teaser poster, but there the town with the gate and the stone walkway was not digitally added to the rocks.
The beach with Mae being called The Acolyte by “The Master” was filmed at the natural pools of Seixal, Portugal. There are three such spots, find the ones called Poça das Lesmas and Poça do Mata Sete to be at the right location.
The Acolyte also used both Shinfield Studios and Pinewood Studios for their sets.
Join us soon for our Episode 2 guide – Revenge / Justice
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