Star Wars: The Acolyte is centered around a dark mystery that is wrapped up with the assassin Mae, Jedi Master Sol, and may tear apart the Jedi! The series made its two episode debut on Disney+ on June 4th. The series creator, who also wrote and directed this episode is Leslye Headland, and her other notable work was co-creating the series, Russian Doll. The episode title, “Lost/Found”, is a great dichotomy that I think is at the heart of the show. A title card, not rollup, tells us this is set a “hundred years before the rise of the Empire.” This is towards the end of the High Republic era that began with the novel, Light of the Jedi (2021) by Charles Soule.
It mentions that there has been no war at this time for the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic. Then, a mention that “a powerful few” are practicing using the Force in secret, the Sith? The last war was the Great Hyperspace War that we saw with the fresco in Palpatine’s office. The Sith were thought to be extinct in the Legends event, the Battle of Ruusan, where Darth Bane escaped. Darth Bane was seen in the Clone Wars episode, “Sacrifice” (2014), GL-CW6/13. So he was around about 500 years before the High Republic. This series may tread new territory in revealing the Sith at this time. Lastly, the title card says that one of those few is an assassin looking for revenge.
The music by Michael Abels is solemn, he worked on the score for the sci fi thriller, Nope (2022). It is a different tone and I noticed that I couldn’t sense any themes for the characters. We pan down to the world of Ueda, a new planet, with a rocky seashore. A masked woman (Amandla Stenberg) in purple robes makes her way to the Lomi Usqi Noodle Shop. It is filled with alien patrons and she makes her way to a table. The assassin gets the attention of Master Indara (Carrie Ann Moss) who is dressed in the familiar brown Jedi robe with a white tunic that has interesting stripes. She draws back and says, “Attack me with all your strength.” This gets the others at Indara’s table laughing. Indara refuses saying that Jedi do not attack unnamed opponents. The assassin says they do, hinting at the mystery?, and she starts using martial arts moves bashing the patrons.
Teräs Käsi is a deadly martial art that first appeared in the Legends Shadows of the Empire novel and then later the video game, Masters of Teräs Käsi (1997); EC-MTK. The assassin uses a table to block a blaster bolt and then kicks it to crush the gunman! Her arm is grasped by Indara and the assassin’s strikes are smoothly blocked and dodged by the Jedi Master. Shon-Ju was a technique used by Jedi that appeared in Shadows of Starlight #3 (2023) written by Charles Soule. The masked woman reaches out, but Indara moves out of the way of the assassin who almost takes her lightsaber. A small blade is taken out by the assassin whose strike is stopped by the open palm of Indara using the Force to stop her.
Indara asks the mysterious woman, “Who trained you?”, but the assassin leaps up to the upper floor. The assassin holds her knife to the throat of a woman and Jedi Master leaps up to that level. This made me think of the teahouse fight in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Indara uses her comlink to report the “unidentified Force user.” The assassin throws down the woman hostage, but Indara stops her fall with the Force. The noodle shop patrons leave and Indara is again attacked by the assassin. She uses a Force push to knock her back. In another attack, the Jedi Master bats away a knife, holding the assassin, and then pulls down her mask. She is surprised at recognizing the assassin and then thrown back by her Force push!
The Force user throws knives which are sliced by Indara’s lightsaber. She says a Jedi only draws a lightsaber to kill and the Jedi Master lowers it. They notice the alien noodle shop owner and assassin throws her knife, Indara holds it from his face with the Force, but finds a knife thrown into her chest! The Jedi Master's lightsaber falls. There is almost remorse on the assassin's face before Indara slumps down. It is stunning that a character, especially a Jedi, has died! This sets up that no one is safe. She retrieves her knife with the Force and then takes her other knife in front of the owner. He has a youngling son at his side and the Force User walks away.
An alarm wakens a woman, Osha (Stenberg), gasping, in her ship bunk. "Osha" is a Swahili word that means "burn." She greets her handheld droid, Pip, on his desk. Pip makes a series of beeps and Osha understands his droidspeak. His design is like a sentient version of Fallout’s Pip Boy. She greets her handheld droid, Pip, on his desk. Pip makes a series of beeps and Osha understands his droidspeak. His design is like a sentient version of Fallout’s Pip Boy. A ship alarm gets her attention, she dresses in vest and fatigues, and met by Filik (Anthony J. Abraham). Two of the tall, Neimoidian crew pass them in the corridor. Their species was known from The Phantom Menace (1999). He says the shield generator needs to be repaired.
They wear EVA suits, we saw them in live action form in Ahsoka, and walk over to the generator. We see the full ship, the Fallon, a WD-2550 Whydah-class ship. Named after chat host Jimmy Fallon? Captain Blex says that the mekneks are disposable. Sigh of relief that they speak in unaccented Basic. The name is a slight change of “mekanik”, a variation on mechanic? Risky for humans to make repairs instead of astrodroids like Artoo. Osha says she can hear the captain over the comlink. She takes Pip into a fusion cutter shape to start welding the loose emitter duct. This causes an explosion on a nearby pressure valve. Osha walks over to it and hears voices of the past watching the fire. A fire is not possible in the vacuum of space, but maybe a shield could contain some kind of atmosphere? What happened with the fire and her mother is the series' mystery.
Filik snaps her out of her traumatic memory and Osha uses Pip to extinguish the fire. Then, a Jedi Vector, a starship of that time, passes by. On the bridge, two Jedi enter in white and gold robes, Jedi Knight Yord Fender (Charlie Bennett) and his Padawan, Tasi Lowa (Thara Schöön). She is Zygerrian with cat-like ears who were slavers in Clone Wars. They meet with Captain Blex and say they are looking for Osha Aniseya, former Jedi, now a meknek. The captain tries to deny that they have mekneks that are not allowed by the Republic. Yord reaches out to the captain with the Force! The captain's junior officer gives the location of Osha's bunk. Osha finds Yord at her bunk and laughs at seeing him again. She is impressed he passed his trials and Yord says he was made a Jedi Knight two years ago. They must have trained togther at the Jedi Temple.
He says she has left Coruscant for CorpSec, the Corporate Sector was the region of the galaxy that was in the Legends novel, Han Solo at Stars' End (1979) by Brian Daley. Osha reaches for Pip and Yord's hand goes for his lightsaber, a little jumpy. Yord is back to business and Tasi joins them asking Osha how long she was a meknek. Osha replies six years after she left the Jedi Order. We saw Ahsoka leave the Jedi and also hints of the Lost Twenty like Dooku. She didn't find her Jedi skills applied for any other job, bodyguard? Tasi asks when she joined the order and Osha replies when she was eight, fairly late like Anakin. Yord says she was in mourning losing her mothers, sister, and village before Master Sol took her to become a Jedi. This is the big mystery of the show.
Tasi explains that Jedi Master Indara was assassinated and Osha matches the description of her killer. Osha says she was on the ship and is stunned that Indara was killed. Yord says that Indara had advised the Jedi Council to stop Osha's training. Osha counters that she made the decision to leave the Jedi Order. Tasi leaves and Osha tells Yord she can't believe the accusation against her. The noodle shop enters and identifies Osha as the assassin! Osha is led to a prison transport in binders. On Coruscant, the Jedi Temple is seen with gold walls on a flat cityscape surface with only a few tall structures. Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) is with a class of Jedi Younglings. He has them close their eyes and wonderrs what they see. A Youngling (Sienna Khiroya) says she sees fire that consumes “everything that tries to stop it.” A vision of the future that the Jedi face in The Acolyte? This vision seems to connect the meaning of Osha's name.
Jedi Master Venestra Rrwoh (Rebecca Henderson) has entered and Sol dismisses the class for lunch. The character is a connection with the High Republic novels introduced in A Test of Courage (2021). Venestra remembers Sol as a Youngling. She tells him about the death of his fiend, Indra, and that the suspect is his former Padawan. Sol calls her a “devoted Padaman” and doesn’t believe she would be capable of murdering a Jedi. He tells Venestra that Indara and he saved Osha from the fire on Brendok, another new world. Venestra sees another Jedi and moves close to whisper to Sol. He says if news of the murder was released their “political enemies” would take advantage to discredit the Jedi. This entire situation has to be done confidentially and may sow distrust with the Jedi that could lead to Revenge of the Sith (2005).
Indara gets Sol’s agreement to act quickly and with discretion and he agrees. This incident needs to keep a low profile so no involvement by the Jedi Council; no Yoda even though he was present during the High Republic. On the Palwick prison ship, the droid pilot sends the guard check on the prisoners. In her cell, Osha sees a convict (Dan Milne) with his mouth covered with a star shaped parasite! Another prisoner (Thomas Coombes) with a face tatoo identifies it as a Dybbuk. In Jewish folklore, a Dybbuk is an evil spirit. A burly alien prisoner says they have an escape plan. A prisoner behind Osha is bald with a visor and a device in his mouth. He looks like the controllers in the Flash Gordon (1980) movie. Osha says they are in hyperspace. The lead convict says they are going to take out the droids and use escape pods. Osha says they could die and trusts the Jedi. The leader gives a signal to the cyborg prisoner.
In turn, he is able to deactivate the pilot droids that fold back into chairs! The ship falls out of hyperspace. The prison ship has entered an asteroid field and is tossed aound by asteroids! The droid guard heads to the prisoners, but is wrapped up by the tentacles of the bulky prisoner and its head is torn off! He uses the droid’s arm to open the cell and the convict leader frees his cyborg cellmate. They leave in an escape pod. The ship strikes another asteroid which tosses the case spilling out Pip! He rolls out of reach for Osha. She reaches out to Pip with the Force, breathes, but nothing happens! The ship rumbles again and Pip slides over to Osha. She uses him to disable the cell door. Osha is about to reach the escape pod, but sees the prisoner with the Dybbuk.
She uses Pip to shock the parasite which flies off to slip away into the ship! The freed convict screams and then takes the last escape pod. Osha rushes to the cockpit and finds a chair in the back of the pilots. She straps in as the prison ship spins in atmo and starts to burn in re-entry. Osha braces for impact as the ship crashes into a snowy planet! Coruscant, Sol looks at a hologram projection of Osha as a young Padawan. Behind him is his current Padawan, Jecki Lon (Daphne Keen). She is a Theelin-human hybrid, two species in one person, similar to the dancer, Rystáll Sant, at Jabba’s Palace in the Return of the Jedi (1997) special edition, GL-SW4SE. Jecki has horns and also pale skin with a orangish curve like Kabuki. She asks Sol why he keeps holograms of Osha which may lead to emotional attachment. Sol says that he has them as lesson, mediating on the past, “those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” I think this separates Sol from other Jedi.
They head to the detainment level. The prisoners rage behind ray shields and Venestra says that the ship fell at Carlac with no other survivors. Carlac was a planet that was introduced in the Clone Wars episode, “A Friend in Need” (2012), GL-CW4/14. The violent prisoner is calmed by Sol using the Force, he says she helped him before he lft in the escape pod, the Jedi Master turns to Vernestra. Sol leaves the cell and the senior Jedi Master says that the Republic sent probe droids. He asks permission from Vernestra to go to Carlac and find Osha. Sol says he senses Osha is alive and the Jedi Master says she can’t have him in the field. He says that if Osha is a killer, then he has to take responsiblity for her. Venestra closes her eyes for a moment and then tells him to use a small team. As Sol leaves, the Jedi Master says, “May the Force Be With You.” The Acolyte sets up a cast of intriguing characters, rich, complex writing that reveals details with repeat viewing!, and a mystery that gives new perception of the Jedi!
Five Lightsabers out of Five!
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