The Acolyte – Destiny Review

If you’ve followed any of the social media posting around The Acolyte, you’ve probably heard that this week’s episode, “Destiny,” was going to “break Star Wars.” Well, we’ve all seen it now, and I think we can agree* that while the episode injected some interesting new mythology into the world of Star Wars, it definitely didn’t break anything. At least I certainly don’t think it did. Yes, there was an implication that the Witches created the twins from Force energy, which does change the mythology around that particular brand of Force ability, but considering how we’ve seen the Jedi keep dangerous secrets time and again, are you all that surprised that they would and could do that here? The Jedi are nothing if not masters of making sure people know only what they want them to know – and great at making sure only a handful of people know key information at a given time. Now, was it totally successful as an episode of television? No, and I’ll get to the reasons why in a moment – it’s not because of the subject matter tackled, though. But the basic conceit of the episode – and the series as a whole, which is much clearer after this flashback – poses some interesting questions and adds a richness to the world of Star Wars that deepens the universe’s complex mythology in interesting ways.

*Lol. Yeah, if there’s one thing we’ve learned in the last ten years, it’s that no one in the Star Wars fandom can agree on anything. And that a small subset of that group often disagrees with everything. Loudly. As I suspect they will about this episode as well.

The idea that perhaps the Jedi Order are not the paragons of virtue and goodness that they believe themselves to be isn’t exactly a new idea. The saga of Anakin Skywalker certainly brought to the forefront the cracks in the Jedi’s way of doing business – highlighting that their strict rules and general hubris created the perfect conditions for the rise of the Empire (and the resurgence of the Sith). And we saw through Luke Skywalker’s own attempt to revive the Jedi that it’s not easy to preach a pure avoidance of the Dark Side of the Force without also tempting impressionable kids into wondering just why they can’t use it – especially when it’s such a easy thing for a moody teenager to tap into (seriously, everyone knows tweens and teens are prone to emotional outbursts – why the Jedi don’t understand that is beyond me). So, watching those four Jedi absolutely bungle the testing of Osha and Mae wasn’t exactly a shock – even if we knew how this was going to end thanks to the previous episodes.

What was a bit surprising was how the episode’s point of view made it clear that the actions of the Jedi Order in removing Force sensitive children from their families wasn’t necessarily a thing to be celebrated. Most of the time, our Force sensitive heroes – Anakin, Luke, Rey – are taken from situations of pain and despair and presented with the opportunity to better themselves away from their past. After all, after losing your family or struggling alone as a kid to provide for yourself, getting trained by a Jedi Master is a pretty big step-up in the grand scheme of things. We don’t usually get to see kids taken from loving parents who want them to stay, as was the case with Osha here. And we never get to see one Force sensitive kid flat out refuse to go. It’s easy to look at the Jedi Order’s child removal process and see how it benefits the children involved when we don’t have to watch that action shatter a family – even one that might have some connections to the darker side of the Force. Seeing the trauma such actions elicit – even if Mae’s response was on the extreme side of things here – puts the Jedi Order’s actions into perspective in a novel and smart way.

Now, this episode isn’t saying that the Jedi are horrible or the “bad guys.” Rather, it’s asking the audience to take a look at one of the foundational elements of the Order from a different perspective. Sure, it’s cool that the Jedi master the light side of the force, do a lot of good in a lot of places, and get to build and wield lightsabers. But they also take children from loving families and mold them to the image the Order needs them to be out of a desire to control who uses the Force and how. They don’t want these children to go down a dark path, sure, but as this episode reveals, they also don’t want them using the Force for their own, non-Jedi sanctioned means. They don’t like that the Witches have this power, have nurtured it on their own, and use it for their own wants and desires. They don’t like that the Witches have their own rituals and mythology to go with their Force abilities. They don’t like that the Witches appears to have used the Force as a means to create life in the form of the twins. And they definitely don’t want Mae and Osha to become a part of the coven when they could be trained by the Jedi to strengthen their ranks and follow their rules (and have the Jedi keep tabs on how two children seemingly born of the Force grow up). So, what the episode is suggesting is that, perhaps, the Jedi aren’t the “good guys,” but rather a more morally gray group, looking out for themselves while using their power as they see fit to control all they can control. Not exactly scandalous, but also pretty much inline with elements of the Jedi Order we’ve seen in other live action media.

However, despite this interesting piece of storytelling – and I did enjoy this twist on the Jedi Order’s role in the universe and how it impacts those they remove from their families – the episode as a whole wasn’t nearly as strong as it could have been. The main expositional points were hit, sure, but the writing felt clunky and under baked. And it didn’t help that our central twins didn’t appear to be identical (Leah and Lauren Brady, the twins who portray the young versions of Mae and Osha, didn’t look similar enough to each other to pass for Amandala Stenberg’s versions of the pair – who are, of course, identical as they are played by the same person). But the episode didn’t do enough to explore the coven itself – to provide us an understanding of the twin’s position within it. Yes, we know who their actual mothers are, we understand what they mean to their parents and to the coven as a whole, but so much of the story hinges on why Mae wants to stay and why Osha wants to leave. The generic “I want to see the world!” reasoning that we had with Luke back in A New Hope doesn’t quite cut it here, since we’re led to believe that the twins don’t really know about the universe outside their doors. And we’re also meant to believe that the twins love their mothers, love their coven, and love each other. The choice to walk away from that is a massive one, especially for a child. And while there were the requisite tears – Jodie Turner-Smith was excellent in the scene, measured but still emotionally resonate – there should have been more to this decision. There should have been more to much of the story.

Why did the Jedi end up on the planet (perhaps we’ll get that backstory as well)? Why did the coven end up on that planet? We know they were persecuted – was it by the Jedi? Was it by someone or something else? What’s the history of this coven and their adherence to their own principles when it comes to the Force? And why was Osha so sure she wanted to leave? A desire to see the rest of the universe – wholly unexpressed until the moment she meets the Jedi – doesn’t cut it. A character motivation of that level, one that changes the game for not only that character but also for a host of others, needs more than just a single line of dialogue. Now, we probably will get more down the line when it comes to her motivation – we’re due at least one good confrontation between Osha and Mae where they hash things out – but it just felt strangely rushed to have her make such a momentous choice with little to no lead up.

And then there’s Mae’s decision to kill Osha rather than save her. We don’t see her start the fire – we see her light the book on fire, but not start the massive blaze that appears to kill the rest of the coven.* And Sol arrived shockingly fast to save Osha. I can accept Mae’s later decision to kill the Jedi stemmed from her desire to punish them for taking her sister – or attempting to take her, only for her to die in the fire (since Mae was shocked to see Osha alive, I’m operating under the assumption that she isn’t aware Osha is still alive). But perhaps a Jedi got in her way, spooking her and causing her to drop the book and start the fire? Perhaps a Jedi tried to manipulate the fire and it got out of hand? Either way, I suspect it was a Jedi – most likely Sol, since that would have the largest emotional impact on the story – who was actually responsible for the fire that destroyed Mae and Osha’s young lives. After all, getting a Jedi Master to voluntarily drink poison to atone for his actions sends out a signal that he was involved in something truly shameful in the past. Aiding in the murder of a coven of Witches and leaving a child for dead? That would certainly qualify.

*The series has made it clear they don’t mind killing off their big names after brief appearances – see Carrie-Anne Moss in the opening five minutes of the series – so it’s absolutely possible that the Witches all perished in the fire. But we’ve all seen enough television to know that unless you get a close-up of a dead body, with the person clearly dead, there’s always a chance they might not be. So, who knows, maybe we’ll see Aniseya again. Perhaps she’s the person guiding Mae on her journey?

So, while I was intrigued by the story within the episode, the execution of that story wasn’t where it needed to be to sell the tale being told. And that’s really unfortunate, because I appreciate what The Acolyte is trying to do as a series – highlight that while the Jedi have done and will do a great deal of good in the universe, their actions aren’t above reproach in any and all things. The idea of introducing shades of gray into a world that has tended to see, for the most part, the Jedi as good and the Sith (and their various offshoots) as bad is a positive thing from a storytelling perspective. But executing that vision is a key component of making the story work – of selling this slightly different story you’re telling to an audience that, on the whole, has been conditioned to accept that the Jedi, while flawed, are usually in the right. Had this episode been cleaner, more focused, and had a point of view that was better articulated when it came to Mae and Osha’s choices, it would have hit much harder than it did. But still, points for taking a big swing and connecting. It just wasn’t the home run it needed to be.