Re:cap - “Day”; Sol is searching with the group and then stops. Osha says he stopped her from facing Mae before. She says she feels different, able to face Mae now, I think connecting to the Force again, she couldn’t use the Force to pull Pip on the prison ship. Sol says she will face her past, he will too?, he says he will explain everything when Mae is returned to the ship. Facing the past makes me think of Mortal Kombat (1995), “Face your worst fear.” Mae runs and then falls with orange pollen poofing upwards? She sees Bazil who roars. Yord tells the others that he found Mae!
He tells Osha to stay behind. Mae runs to Kelnacca’s home. Tense music. She says Master Kelnacca’s name, but finds him in his chair. He is slumped over with a smoking lightsaber wound! Mae whispers, “He’s here.” The Master killed Kelnacca! Then, the light fades with sundown. The Jedi assemble in a line. One of the Jedi gives the order that anyone should come out with their hands up. Yord adds that the order is for Mae Aniseya! She looks around Kelnacca’s home. Sol senses something and turns. A closeup of Osha as a dark form floats down! The Jedi all turn to face it and then Osha who sees the dark helmet, had to write that one!, of this man. It is ridged with a strange teeth-like smile.
Great fear in Osha’s shocked expression. The dark stranger ignites his red-bladed lightsaber and holds it in front of Osha! All of the Jedi activate their lightsabers! Sol tells Osha to run and they charge! The dark warrior gestures throwing Osha with the Force! Then, reaches out and throws all of the Jedi back with a massive Force Push that sends up a cloud of dust! Fade to black. “Night” is directed by Alex Garcia Lopez who also directed last episode. The writers are Kor Adana and Cameron Squires. Adana was the co-writer of last episode. Squires was the co-writer for WandaVision episode, “Breaking the Fouth Wall” (2021). We get dreaded music as we close in on the unconscious form of Osha.
Leaves drift down on her. She wakens with a gasp, then starts to look for PIp, and then picks him up. In the distance she hears lightsabers. Then, falls into the orange pollen, Osha turns to see the dead face of a Jedi! She stands up and sees the pollen in paths like fingers, symbolic, the Power of Many? One leads to Kelnacca’s home. Osha sees through the trees lightsabers clashing, an impressive shot! The Stranger weaves around the Jedi cutting them down! He bashes lightsaber blades with his helmet temporarily shorting them out! It is made up of cortosis. This was a material that was familiar to me from the comic book, Jedi Council: Acts of War (2001). The first appearance of cortosis was actually in I, Jedi (1998), the novel by Michael A. Stackpole. It entered canon with the novel, A New Dawn (2014).
Yord crosses his lightsaber with the Stranger’s blade in a block. Then, the Stranger strikes Yord’s leg with a shiim, an edge wound like Dooku inflicted on Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones (2002); GC-PT2. Two Jedis find their lightsabers reignite and engage the Stranger again. He slices one in the stomach and then runs his blade through another, then drags another in a shish kabob slaughter! Osha takes out her stun blaster as the Stranger closes on Yord still on the ground, but with his lightsaber out. She fires, but the bolt just rings on his armor. He turns and Yord screams for her to run! Osha starts to run and the Stranger follows. Mae sees this and looks around then finds Kelnacca’s lightsaber which she picks up.
Osha runs through the jungle and then takes out a glowrod to look around, tense. The Stranger throws his lightsaber which twirls at her! Sol deflects it and the lightsaber slices through three trees before returning to the Stranger’s hand! The trees snap back and it is the two foes facing each other! Osha takes out the stun blaster and Yord has his lightsaber ready. Sol tells Yord, “Civilian to the ship!” He sends Osha back with a Force Push and Yord pulls her away. The music is intense as Sol has lightaber on guard. Then we get the titles! Bazil is running in the jungle, Yord and Osha join him, he convinces Osha to continue to the ship. The Stranger speaks in his distorted voice, noting that Sol doesn’t recognize him, a Youngling rejected as a Padawan? Sol says he senses “something familiar.”
The duel begins! They withdraw and the Stranger’s raspy breath in his helmet is heard. Sol says his lightsaber is a Jedi weapon, but he is no Jedi! Mae exits Kelnacca’s house, but she is struck by Jecki’s flying kick! They both fall and then start fighting hand to hand! Jecki Force Pushes Mae through Kelnacca’s door! Mae swung around and Jecki puts a binder on one of her arms. Jecki makes the arrest, of course important, but she was just knocked back along with other Jedi by a powerful Force user, priorities Padawan! Mae flips back and Jecki continues, her relentlessness is more in line with Yord. Mae swings with her knife and kicks Jecki out of the house. The lightsaber duel continues with The Stranger pushed back with his lightsaber. Sol says the Stranger trained Mae and wants to see his face.
His opponent says it would allow the Jedi to read his thoughts like Magneto’s helmet, though the Force only works on the “weak-minded.” A move over Sol’s lightsaber as he asks, “What Master hides his face fom his pupil?” Kudos to director Cameon Squires with hours of films, television, and cartoons, there are great shots of lightsabers in this ep! The Stranger puts the question back on Sol, I think doesn’t refer to himself, could it be Osha? H was duplicitous with her? Shift back to the Jecki and Mae fight, she cuts the Padawan’s leg and Jecki screams! This is heard by Osha and Yord who says they should continue with the dangerous Stranger. Cut to the duel with Sol and the Stranger who kicks him back! Sol pants, then sweeps his lightsaber across, but there is no sign of his opponent.
Osha asks Yord about the Stranger and he says he doesn’t understand the Stranger’s fighting style. Yord says he gets into his head and Osha says Mother Aniseya did the same. I suspect the Stranger has a connection with the coven. Possibly an apprentice to Mother Aniseya? Also, this gives perspective on how Sidious was able to easily defeat several Jedi Masters with his lightsaber. Yord realizes that they lost Bazil. Suspicious, his part in all of this, Bazil keeps missing even as a guide. Mae has her knife to Jecki’s throat. Jecki forces the knife forward and then reverse head butts her into the pollen! Jecki locks the binders on Mae’s arms and Force pulls Kelnacca’s lightsaber. She hears the wind and then the dark shape of the Stranger runs towards her! Jecki instantly ignites her lightsaber and there a few quick strikes before the Stranger kicks her in the side! He wants Mae to watch the Padawan as he prepares to finish her!
The Stranger says she is loyal. Jecki lashes out and then leaps striking his cortosis weave helmet! He attacks, but Jecki pulls out another lightsaber to block! The lightsaber style of Ahsoka Tano who used a lightsaber shoto when she was younger! Her first lightsaber ignites and she attacks with her two lightsabers! Mae uses her legs to slip under the binders and starts to run. The Stranger slices apart the lightsaber in her right hand! Then, he is gone again. She drops the lightsaber which still must have its Kyber crystal. Yord’s yellow lightsaber lits the misty jungle along with Mae’s glowrod. She whispers for him to deactivate his lightsaber, the umbramoths! He notices the masses around the trees are missing and closes his weapon.
The lightsaber duel continues, The Stranger headbutts Sol’s lightsaber, and they fight hand to hand. Jecki cuts in screaming and then bashes the Stranger’s helmet with her elbow several times until it flies off! The Stranger pulls apart his lightsaber to stab Jecki three times! Sol screams out and then Jecki falls. Shocking that it is not just unnamed Jedi, but a character we know! Maybe the pollen will patch up Jecki, we’ve seen so many recover from fatal lightsaber strikes, but not this show. The Stranger closes down his lightsabers and his face is revealed, it is the person we saw as Qimir! Well done Jacinto, he kept his lightsaber training a secret in interviews. It is difficult to watch and rewatch the death of Jecki. I hope she has a comic book or novel that fills in her story. The villain is revealed in “Night”, I suspect still the apprentice, not the master, but The Acolyte is still has secrets and mysteries!
Five Lightsabers (one for poor Jecki) out of Five!
#AlexGarciaLopez, #KorAdana, #CameronSquires, #AmandlaStenberg, #LeeJungJae, #CharlieBarnett, #DafneKeen, #HassanTaj, #MannyJacinto
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