Every time an episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte lands, Fantha Tracks will be giving their responses, and here are our initial gut feelings, deep dives and thoughts on episode four of season one, ‘Day’. Beware of spoilerific elements in here.
Ross Hollebon
If the naming convention for the episodes stayed consistent with the first pair, this title would have been, “Day/Night.” So maybe that’s a hint at the title of Ep. 5, and once again tracking opposing forces (or siblings, in this case) in Star Wars narratives. No matter what happens with the Jedi and the Dark Force user(s), this story remains driven by the twins, Mae and Osha. Their realization that the other exists has spun their realities into a psychological fluidity that only they can relate to.
It was during an appearance by yours truly on Rebel Base Card Podcast: Breakfast Pack #82 – The Acolyte Ep.4, Day, co-hosted by Greg McLaughlin and Greg Cass, that something regarding the twin daughters of the lost coven finally dawned on me: Is Osha the true prize of the Dark Force user? Much like Master Sol has brought Osha on this mission to connect with her sister—something Sol was not capable of on the first encounter—did the Dark Force user need Mae involved to lure Osha to the dark forest?
This episode brought about more questions than it answered, so I have done the same. So many Jedi in the episode who are not given names, or shown as providing any actual value, are also set up for some easier-to-lose characters to show exactly how powerful and ruthless the Dark Side can be, even if they are not of actual Sith intentions.
So, what is known?:
- Sol is the last surviving Jedi on Mae’s initial hit list.
- A new Dark Force user is active and powerful and is now mask-to-face with the Jedi on this mission.
- We’re still waiting to learn the full details of what actually happened on Brendok in the fortress of the coven.
- DO NOT pet the “Hefty Cinch Sack” tree moths in the forest—no good will come of it.
What questions might (or need) to be answered?:
- Is the revealed red lightsaber-wielding villain finally brought out of the shadows because they have their shot at enticing and manipulating Mae’s sister—especially if something tragic happens to Mae during the coming [expected] battle?
- Are all of the pieces on the table or will the newly entered younger version of Master Ki-Adi Mundi and/or Master Vernestra Rwoh also head to Khofar and factor in?
Regardless of the next episode’s title, I expect it to be dark and enlightening.
Dan Lo
The latest episode of The Acolyte took us back to the present day again, which meant more familiar sights: Jedi, Coruscant, and lightsabers. After the jolting amount and degree of unfamiliarity in the previous installment, “Day” felt much more like Star Wars again. Visually speaking, production quality continues to be pretty good. Even close to movie quality at times. Something I’ve noticed since the beginning is that the show also excels at portraying aliens, and the character of Bazil was a shining example of that.
Qimir and Mae continued the proud Star Wars tradition of landing unnecessarily far from their destination. Which for the audience, was useful this time because their conversations served as a major source of potential “onion layers”. Plenty of intriguing hints were dropped, especially considering that Qimir is portrayed as a somewhat shifty character. He’s almost all but certain to be hiding something. Early in their trek, he referred to the mystery “Master” (as Wookieepedia is still calling him) as “your Master” when speaking to Mae. Qimir allegedly owes the Master something, and mentioned that he “collects people” which we don’t know the meaning of yet. How did someone like Qimir get involved with the Master anyway? Fast forward to a little later in the forest after Mae trapped Qimir, and the Master was suddenly referred to as Qimir’s Master. What’s going on here? Qimir and Mae don’t remotely come across as equals, yet they have the same master? Is there more than one?? And what was the deal that Mae made with the Master? Her apparent pivot to siding with Osha suggested that she had no personal vendetta against the Jedi to begin with, or at least not a very strong one at this point. Something about her arrangement with the Master really compelled her to kill them, though.
Meanwhile on Osha’s side, the Force seemed to be awakening again. She had a brief exchange with Sol in the forest where he mentioned that they will both face their past. This was of course not the first time the show suggested that Sol has been hiding something. It seemed somewhat more sinister before but now that Mae appears to have nothing too intensely personal against the Jedi, the latest hint felt slightly different. Sol still had a serious demeanor though, so maybe there’s still something dark yet to be unveiled. As I typed that I suddenly remembered that back in the opening scene of the show, Indara declared that “Jedi do not attack the unarmed” and was promptly corrected by Mae. The obvious conclusion is that the Jedi killed the witches on Brendok but that would be too easy, right?
I’m prepared to be wrong, but I think it’s safe to assume that the floating dark Force user at the end was indeed the Master. Mae seemed to have recognized him as such, or at least recognized his Knights of Ren-looking helmet. Also, that he’s the one who killed Kelnacca. Speaking of the Wookiee, the episode’s opening scene brought our attention to a bunch of yin-yang-looking markings on his walls. Have Osha and Mae loomed large in his mind up until the moment he was cut down?
We’re at the halfway point of the show, which is a good time to comment on the music. To be honest, I’ve hardly noticed it. This might sound like a bad thing, but I actually don’t think it is. I see it in terms of logo design: A successful example largely goes unnoticed. Of course this also means it does not achieve John Williams levels either, where the music transcends the soundtrack and becomes a character in its own right. Which is fine, since that rarely happens.
I haven’t done this in a while, but I’ll end with a few quick fire thoughts: How old is Ki-Adi-Mundi? Why does the Jedi Order own blasters? What was a blindfolded Bazil doing when Mae tripped and fell right in front of him? Why must we wait at least a week to see the rest of the epic rumble?
Eric Onkenhout
Star Wars The Acolyte is halfway through its first season and is hitting its stride as far as the mystery feel and getting us intrigued about the new Sith. But, it’s also leaving a lot of questions that could be answered later but for now, they need to be asked. The fourth episode, Day, begins with Wookiee Jedi Master Kelnacca walking through the forest on Khofar gathering herbs for his stew. As he adds them to the pot and walks away the camera focuses on a spiral form on the wall, the same one we see on Mae’s face. Interesting, somehow there is a connection we should learn about later.
Cut to Coruscant, the well-known view of the Jedi Temple from the sky. A group of padawans, including Jeki Lon, is training with practice lightsabers under Master Lakshay. Osha watches from outside the class. Picture Daniel and Mr. Miyagi visiting Cobra Kai without the aggression. After class, Osha tells Jeki that she is leaving and has come to say goodbye. However, she wants to avoid seeing Master Sol before she departs.
Question time. We see a ship land on Khofar and Mae and Qimir exit and unload their supplies. Mae wants to explore to find Kelnacca but Qimir warns her not to go out there alone. Qimir is there to help Mae, but why? What could Mae need from Qimir? She is obviously more powerful than he is. Qimir comes off as sort of a loser to be honest. And what is his relationship to the Master? He says later in the episode that he didn’t make a deal with the master, only that he collects people. Does that make him a slaver or a bounty hunter? I get he’s a smuggler and deals in contraband but doesn’t seem to have any special abilities. Qimir reminds me of Haja from Kenobi without the redeeming character qualities. Anyway, he’s not my favorite.
We then have an interesting scene with Master Sol, Vernestra Rwoh, a younger Ki-Adi-Mundi, and other Jedi standing around a hologram of Mae discussing next steps. Mundi suggests telling the Jedi High Council but Vernestra denies it saying that they would be obliged to tell the Senate which would cause all sorts of drama. So she tells everyone they need to deal with this themselves. This is interesting because eventually Mundi will be on the Council so we see signs of why he was promoted, and it also shows how fragmented the Jedi were keeping secrets from each other.
Another question that came up was why Mae had to defeat her opponents without a weapon. Is that some sort of Sith training exercise? Kind of like Sidious telling Maul not to engage the Jedi until the time is right. Fast forward, a group of about 8 Jedi land on Khofar to visit Kelnacca and possibly capture Mae. Why does it take so many Jedi to visit a Master and capture someone who isn’t properly trained? Seemed like overkill to me. On their trek, they are guided by a Tinnian named Bazil. Tynnans were created by Brian Daley for his novel Han Solo’s Revenge. James Luceno canonized them when he included one in Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel.
In another awkward twist, Mae decides she doesn’t want to kill Kelnacca to avoid having to defeat her opponent sans weapon. Instead, she will surrender herself to Kelnacca because Osha being alive changes everything. This seemed very sudden and convenient. Later Mae finds Kelnacca sitting in his chair in his hut dead with a slash wound across his chest. She knows now that her master is on Khofar. The group of Jedi arrive at the hut and call her out, but as this happens the master creepily floats in behind Osha and approaches her. He flicks her away and the rest of the Jedi like they were insects. End scene.
Day was a good episode but I hope some of these questions get answered. And I really hope the identity of the master gets revealed at some point. It would really bug me to have this mystery not resolved, If he’s not important enough for a name don’t have him in the show. We know of Darth Plagueis but the chances it’s him are remote at best.
Mark Newbold
After last weeks flashback change of pace, The Acolyte picks up the story in the ‘now‘ and takes us forward as we follow Mae and Qimir in their hunt for Kelnacca as our Jedi heroes do the same. It’s a race against time, one that while only running for half an hour packs plenty in and delivers at its conclusion what will surely be remembered as a peak Star Wars moment.
We start in the familiar environment of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and while we see Jecki training and sense the characters easing back into some kind of normality after thenevents of the opening two episodes we’re soon heading back out into the stars as first Master Sol persuades Osha to join them in their search for Mae and Kelnacca before she adds him to her hit list that has already claimed Tobin and Indara.
That search is boosted by the presense of Bazil, a diminutive Tynnan tracker who once he has Kelnacca’s scent goes roving into the Khofar forest while the rest of our characters face their own challenges. Osha seems somewhat different here, her cautious demeanour changed by events, and while she makes a rookiee mistake in touching the coiled umbramoth that is resting wrapped around a treetrunk, she seems keen to help her former master.
Mae is similarly experiencing her own doubts, to the extent that she changes her mind about killing Kelnacca, instead deciding to turn herself over to the Jedi now she knows her twin is alive. A huge change of heart after the murder of the two Jedi masters, and one that perhaps feels sudden, although think back to their reunion on Olega. Osha had the stun gun, Mae was in the speeder but think of which sister was the most shocked. Osha has been dreaming of her sister, seeing visions of her as a child before this moment. Mae has seemingly seen and felt nothing, so her reaction to learning her twin was still alive is palpable and perfectly played by Amandla Stenberg). Maybe that change of heart isn’t so surprising after all, now she has something positive to live for.
It’s an interesting episode, one that gives a great view into the day-to-day atmosphere of the temple as well as the regularity of galactic travel (and as for the Canon age of Ki-Adi Mundi that doesn’t match his EU/Legends age, just ponder that for a moment. Legends was parked over a decade ago, and nowhere in Canon does it definitively state Mundi’s age), but the takeaway for 99% of people will be those final minutes. As Qimir – still a good bet to be the person behind the zipped mask – hangs by a leg from a rope, Osha faces a dark figure ascending from the trees, a red-bladed lightsaber igniting as she is Force-flicked out of shot with ease, the Jedi apparently confused by this new threat.
Is it a Sith? Possibly. This show and the High Republic program have shown there are plenty more ways to access the Force than the binary avenues of Jedi and Sith, but perhaps the most important question is who is it rather than what is it? Again, Qimir seems likely, albeit a tad obvious (I have him pegged as another acolyte in competition with Mae) but either way, next week has really become appointment viewing.
Sander de Lange looks at all the reveals and easter eggs in The Acolyte – The Guide: Episode 4 ‘Day’.
Mark Mulcaster and Mark Newbold discuss the fourth episode on Making Tracks Reaction Chat: The Acolyte S1 Ep4 – ‘Day’.
