This evening saw the release of the sixth episode of Lucasfilm’s live-action series Star Wars: The Acolyte, entitled “Teach / Corrupt,” and below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment.
“Teach / Corrupt” begins with Osha (played by Amandla Stenberg) waking up in a mysterious cave on an “Unknown Planet”– seriously, that’s what it’s called in a caption– where she meets a small elephant-bird-like creature and finds Mae’s daggers. Then she exits the cave to reveal an island that looks an awful lot like Ahch-To from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but with no Porgs. Back on Khofar, Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) takes off in the Jedi transport ship with Mae (also Stenberg) aboard posing as Osha. Sol attempts to send a distress call to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, but there’s interference and he has trouble communicating with its recipient. Here’s where Mae enters the cockpit apparently with the intent of killing Sol, but instead he asks her to take the wheel as he goes back into the hold and breaks down over his entire team having been wiped out on the planet. Meanwhile, Bazil (Hassan Taj) remains suspicious of Mae due to her scent, and makes an effort to reactivate and recharge Osha’s PIP droid.
On the Unknown Planet, Osha follows Qimir (Manny Jacinto) to a tide pool where he proceeds to undress and bathe, and then she steals his lightsaber and threatens him. He calmly requests to be allowed to put his clothes back on, then tells Osha that he did not kill Sol or Mae, though he thinks it’s “interesting” that she asked about her former master first. He begins to talk about the special relationship between master and pupil, and then we cut back to Khofar, where Sol embraces Mae– still believing her to be Osha– and tells her that it’s time he faced the Jedi High Council and explained what really happened 16 years ago on Brendok. But the ship’s power cuts out, and Sol asks Mae to look into it… again, thinking that she has Osha’s mechanical abilities. Next we’re on Coruscant, and Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) gets word from a young Jedi (guest star Harry Trevaldwyn from The Bubble) that Sol’s team has met a tragic fate, so she orders him to prepare to depart for Khofar immediately.
Bazil confronts Mae and flees, Mae resets PIP to its factory settings, and Osha continues her heart-to-heart with Qimir, who drops a few more clues about his background (he was once a Jedi “a long time ago” and eventually felt abandoned by a master of some kind– be it Jedi or otherwise) and even talks about his Cortosis helmet. As Mae pursues Bazil through the ship, she encounters Sol, who wonders why he couldn’t see through Qimir’s disguise. “He fooled us all,” she says, fully knowing that Sol also can’t see through her impression of her sister. And just as Sol is about to spill the beans about their past, the ship comes to life again, and Bazil finds Sol, who immediately stun-blasts Mae, then deactivates his transponder and jumps to hyperspace before Vernestra’s rescue team can arrive. Rwoh lands on Khofar, investigates the site of Kelnacca’s hut and the surrounding area where the Jedi were killed, and uses her light-whip (for the first time in live-action!) to take down an Umbramoth before she delivers an obviously ADR’d line about preparing the Jedi’s bodies for burial.
Now aware of her true identity, Sol shackles Mae to an operating table in the Jedi ship, but tells her he’s not going to hurt her. Instead, he just wants to unburden himself of the truth about Brendok. And on the Unnamed Planet, Osha notices a Cortosis vein in the cave where Qimir is living and then– at his suggestion– tries on the helmet, which also provides sensory deprivation to its wearer. That’s the cliffhanger ending for this episode, and I do like that “Teach / Corrupt” was more about getting to know these characters, regardless of how much I enjoyed the extended fight sequences last week. We’re beginning to get a clearer picture now of what Qimir (or whatever his real name ends up being) is all about, and I’m starting to lean toward the idea that he feels rejected by both the Jedi Order and the Sith. This certainly points to a confirmation of the theory that The Acolyte will end up being an origin story for the Knights of Ren, which is exciting for fans of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, or even those who want its worldbuilding expanded upon in a way that this franchise has been great at since its very beginnings. For now, I’m just enjoying watching these extremely talented actors bounce off each other and listening to their characters wax poetic about the nature of good and evil in A Galaxy Far, Far Away.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte are released on Tuesday evenings, exclusively via Disney+.