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Total Film

Entertainment

Molly Edwards

Star Wars: The Acolyte episode 8 review: "Major cameos and excellent fights, but a shaky landing"

Acolyte (Person) Star Wars (Person) Osha (Person) Mae Sol Darth Plagueis Lee Jungjae Vernestra Anakin Skywalker Disney

Lee Jung-jae as Master Sol in The Acolyte.

The following contains spoilers for The Acolyte episode 8. Turn back now if you're not up to date!

The Acolyte has come to an end. The Star Wars show had a lot of ground left to cover in its final episode, and while the landing is a little shaky, The Acolyte does manage to satisfyingly wrap up most loose ends.

We begin with Osha and Qimir, picking up where episode 6 left off before episode 7 was entirely devoted to a flashback. While wearing Qimir's helmet, Osha has a vision of Mae killing Sol without a weapon – though, by the end of the episode, it seems she might have been watching herself.

The duo travel to Brendok, which is where Sol and Mae are. Disappointingly, though, we don't really get to find out what Sol imagined telling Mae all these years, as he said in episode 6. Mae escapes pretty quickly and goes on the run down to Brendok, where Sol follows. Bazil, for some reason, sabotages the space chase – which looks very stylish in the outer-atmosphere of Brendok – and Mae makes it down to the planet.

Always one

Down on Brendok, Mother Koril sadly does not make a reappearance, though we never saw her body, and instead we get two simultaneous, long-awaited clashes. Qimir and Sol's fight is excellently choreographed, making brilliant use of Force jumps to give us something really visually interesting. Meanwhile, Osha and Mae's showdown is a great illustration of just how alike they are, even after all these years: their moves are very similar and they're perfectly, evenly matched.

It turns out Sol concealed the truth about killing Mae and Osha's mother from the Jedi because he feared what would happen if the Jedi discovered the circumstances of Mae and Osha's creation. This was last week's massive revelation, and it's disappointing that we don't find out any more about it in the finale – especially as, if season 2 doesn't happen, we'll never hear the full story on what's clearly a big deal (as far as we know, the only other person born from the Force is Anakin Skywalker).

The most emotional moment of the episode comes when Osha confronts Sol after learning the truth of her mother's death. It's a huge turning point for Osha that sees her fall to the dark side, even bleeding her kyber crystal inadvertently as she does so (a testament to the strength of her feelings, considering even Vader's lightsaber didn't turn red during Revenge of the Sith). It does feel a little rushed, though, when she goes from shocked anger and sadness to coldly Force choking her former Master to death in a matter of seconds. I can't help feeling that this episode would've been better served as a two-parter, with last week's flashback episode massively condensed: it still feels like wasted time.

Osha is also very quick to forgive Mae, too; yes, Mae wasn't responsible for the deaths of their coven, but she did start a fire in an attempt to force her sister to stay in a life she didn't want. It's another emotional moment that could've landed more effectively had it been given more room to breathe.

Osha then chooses to become Qimir's student, on the condition that he allows Mae to live. He goes further than that, wiping her memory so the Jedi can't use her to track down Osha. The last we see of the dark side duo, they're pretty much holding hands on Qimir's mysterious planet. It's an intriguing relationship that I hope to see explored more in future Star Wars storytelling – not least because of that fascinating, major cameo.

Dark designs

When Qimir and Osha leave the planet for Brendok early in the episode, we get a brief look at a mysterious figure watching them from the shadows, and whoever it is doesn't look happy.

It's not confirmed, but it would seem that this is none other than Darth Plagueis himself. Yep, the wise old Sith Lord who discovered how to manipulate Midi-chlorians to create life, ironically killed by his own apprentice, one Darth Sidious. Considering Osha was created from the Force… well, it certainly looks like Qimir's new apprentice might be how Plagueis learns this particular unnatural dark side ability, one more domino in the chain of events that leads to the fall of the Jedi a century later.

And speaking of the Jedi, they're up to no good in the finale. As many feared, Vernestra chooses to pin the whole debacle on Sol, declaring him a rogue Jedi in order to protect the Order from Senate scrutiny. It's a dip into the bureaucracy the Jedi are mired in by the time of the prequels. Intriguingly, Plagueis isn't the episode's only cameo, either, with Vernestra going to visit a very familiar green Jedi: Master Yoda himself.

Vernestra is shown to be a ruthless decision maker in this episode, throwing Sol under the bus to preserve the Order, and we finally learn that she was once Qimir's Master, too. He even seems afraid of her noticing him, which is an interesting side to his character. But, whatever happened between them is a mystery for another day, as we get no further details.

Familiar themes

Overall, The Acolyte has told a compelling story about two girls caught between light and dark, with standout performances from Lee Jung-jae and Amandla Stenberg. But, in my review of the first four episodes, I said its core themes felt too similar to the prequels – and, after the finale, I still think The Acolyte simply retreads familiar ground rather than evolving the galaxy far, far away to somewhere new.

That's fine, since the repeated allusions to Anakin Skywalker make the show feel something like the galaxy's first step down the path to darkness. Still, though, I do wish the series had found a different perspective on the Jedi and the Sith, rather than showing us what we already knew about the Order (and not giving us much more on the Sith at all, in the end).

There's plenty of potential for the future, though, so I'm hopeful that The Acolyte will be renewed for more – and find its own place in the saga in the process.

The Acolyte is streaming on Disney Plus now. For more on the show, check out our deep dives on: