Who wants to hang out in apothecary with Manny Jacinto? Everyone? Everyone.
Recap: “Lost / Found”
A young woman (Amandla Stenberg) enters a small city on the planet Ueda and asks at the entrance where their Jedi can be found. She’s directed to a cantina where she meets Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss). The woman insists that she and Indara have unfinished business and tells her to attack with all her strength. When Indara won’t, she begins attacking the locals until Indara acquiesces. Indara asks who trained the young woman in the Force, and tells someone at the other end of the commlink that she has an unauthorized Force user here. Indara finally gets the woman to drop her veil and sees someone she recognizes, though she’s confused about her presence. The young woman threatens the life of the cantina’s owner, distracting Indara long enough for the woman to stab her in the chest with one of her daggers. Indara dies.
A young woman named Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) wakes on a Trade Federation ship where she is one of the mekneks who does repairs. She and fellow meknek Fillik (Anthony J. Abraham) are assigned to a repair on the outer hull of the ship, which they work to repair with Osha’s little droid buddy, PIP. Osha has a PTSD flashback that interrupts their repair work. At the same time, two Jedi have boarded the ship: Jedi Knight Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) and his Padawan Tasi Lowa (Thara Schöön). Yord almost probes the captain’s mind for information until he’s given Osha’s location by the second in command. It turns out that Lord knew Osha as trainees back at the Jedi Academy before she left the Order. They believe that she killed Indara, though she insists that she didn’t.
On Coruscant, Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) teaches a group of younglings. He’s interrupted by Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson), who informs him that his former Padawan has killed Master Indara. Sol doesn’t believe this, but agrees to help in bringing about the swift resolution to the issue. On the prison ship, Osha wakes and finds another group of prisoners ready to make a break for it by destroying all the droids guarding/running the ship. Osha insists that’s dangerous, but they do it anyway, making their escape without her. Osha gets free using PIP, and frees the only prisoner left aboard, but he panics and leaves in the only remaining escape pod. Osha crashes with the ship on Carlac.
Sol is able to talk to one of the (briefly) escaped prisoners and finds out that she saved his life. He asks for permission to look for her in the wreckage, and is granted it, bring along his current Padawan, Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen). They also bring Yord along, who is eager to make up for his error in failing to bring Osha in. On Carlac, Osha has a dream/vision about her twin sister Mae, the two of them speaking as children. Sol and Jecki also talk about Osha’s past, and he tells his Padawan that that Osha’s sister started a fire 16 years ago on the planet Brendok that killed their whole family, leaving him to take Osha as an apprentice. The Jedi find the crash site and track Osha, who nearly slips from a cliff in fear. Sol saves her and believes her when she tells him that she thinks Mae is alive. On another world, Mae approaches a figure with a red lightsaber, who insists that Jedi cannot be defeated by weapons: Only an Acolyte can truly destroy Jedi and their dream.
Recap: “Revenge / Justice”
On the planet Olega, Mae has a child distract the droid guard at the local Jedi temple so that she can enter. She finds her next target, Jedi Master Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman), who is in a state of constant meditation. When she moves to attack him, a bubble of Force energy prevents her approach entirely. She leaves frustrated. On the Jedi ship, Sol checks in with Vernestra only to find that she agrees with him about Osha—there has been word of another attack on Olega, and she wants him to investigate and take the real murderer into custody. Yord protests this when he learns of it, but settles once he finds out that the Jedi on Coruscant support Sol’s mission.
Mae enters an apothecary on Olega and finds Qimir (Manny Jacinto), an agent aligned or directly connected to her cause. She tells him that she needs a poison to kill Torbin and asks him to add bunta to it. He reminds her that she’s supposed to be killing these Jedi without weapons, but Mae insists that she has two more Jedi on her list after this, and she will kill one without weapons to please “the Master.” Qimir makes the poison and tells Osha that Torbin isn’t the serene façade he projects, that he craves absolution, which she can give him. On the ship, Sol questions Osha about her new tattoo, and they talk about what happened to her family on Brendok. When Osha insists that it wasn’t his fault, Sol tells her that he’s made peace with it, while Osha admits that she couldn’t and feels she was a poor student. Sol wonders if he was a bad teacher.
The Jedi arrive at the temple on Olega directly after Mae has broken in again. This time she puts the poison before Torbin and tells him that he either confesses his crime to the Jedi Council, or takes it and receives absolution from her. He comes out of his trance and takes the poison. As this is happening, Osha walks through the temple and takes a turn, having another vision of her young sister. She comes upon Torbin’s body, but when she’s about to be accused, Yord comes to her defense; he followed her when she wandered off and knows she came upon Torbin already dead. Because it’s bunta, Osha knows it had to be made fresh, so they check out the apothecary and the local Padawan (Ed Kear) confirms that Qimir is not their regular guy. They decide to send in Osha as her sister to get information from him, and get him to confess to being an accessory so that the Jedi have reason to arrest him. She gets the confession before Qimir can tell that she’s Mae’s twin, and the Jedi corner him. He feigns ignorance, though Qimir does admit that he knows Mae wants revenge on four Jedi and that she’s coming back later for some things he’s holding for her.
The Jedi keep the apothecary on watch until nightfall and Sol gets ready to confront Mae. Osha doesn’t want him to do it because she knows that he must be one of the Jedi her sister is intending to kill—one of the four who were present for the fire. Sol asks Osha to let him try to save Mae the way he couldn’t when they were children. He also asks her to have faith in her sister… and in him. Sol confronts Mae and they duel with the Force; he takes her daggers from her. Sol tries to find out who her master is, but learns that he has taken pains to hide his identity, even from her. The Jedi have Mae cornered, so she uses a smoke bomb and vanishes. Osha manages to find her, but doesn’t hit her with the stun weapon she’s carrying. Mae gets away. Sol contacts Coruscant, only to be told by Vernestra to come in, despite his objections. Mae finds Qimir, furious with him for selling her out, but he mollifies her by telling her where to find Kelnacca, the Wookiee Jedi she’s after. On Khofar, a couple of travelers find a homestead and wonder if they can find parts there to repair their ship. This turns out to be a mistake when Kelnacca (Joonas Soutamo) emerges to chase them from his home.
Commentary
In hindsight, it’s pretty obvious to bring in the big star in an awesome role and kill them immediately, but I’m still unhappy about it. Carrie-Anne Moss deserves better than this! Also, I was looking forward to her being around. But, y’know, it’s probably illegal to have more than one over-40 star in your cool new show, particularly if the extraneous character in question is a woman. (Also, do I really need to get into how all the “young” men on the show are basically my age, but our young main female characters are played by actors who are 19 and 25 respectively? Particularly when you account for the fact that Yord and Osha are supposed to be contemporaries?) I will let it go, for now, but it’s kind of important to point out that it’s screwy as hell.
Having started with that—because the show started with that, it’s not my fault—I can move on to the many things I absolutely love about what’s happening here. Starting with the best/worst: The Jedi are cops.
It’s been implicit in so much of what audiences saw in the prequels, but moving it to the High Republic era does so much work to clarify that truth. The Jedi under the auspices of the Republic are particularly terrible cops. Everything they do is TV Cop Playbook 101: Intimidate civilians, check. Arrest people at will, and with no indication of legal process, check. (I mean, arrest people fullstop—the Jedi literally cuff folks and throw them into outer space hurry-up wagons?) Give no regard to local customs or individual rights, check. Expect automatic and thorough cooperation due to station, check.
Oh, and these cops can and will read your mind at their convenience, without any permissions needed whatsoever, and no one’s gonna help you because of their fancy powers. This is horrifying. I love it.
I’m guessing George Lucas hates it. But I love it.
Though it’s something Star Wars has been reticent to touch on, you can’t get the Jedi Order we see in the prequels without years and years of flagrant abuse. The Jedi are so atrophied by the time we reach that point that converting them into generals for the next major galactic war isn’t a stretch so much as a foregone conclusion. This is exactly how you get there. And you can’t count out the relevance that Osha’s difficulty with the Jedi Order comes from being in the exact same position as Anakin: “too old” to train and shaped by traumatic family events.
Despite the textual background and how awful it is, the characters we’ve got are all wonderful. Lee said that he built Sol on watching Qui-Gon Jinn in particular, but he exudes far more warmth and candor than Episode I gave us with Jinn. His love for Osha radiates from him, his need to care for her and do right by her even years after their parting becoming a driving force to the plot from the moment he hears her name. (The supremely dad “no, I don’t hate your tattoo” bit absolutely got me.)
Showrunner Leslye Headland said that she wanted to focus on Kurosawa’s influence on Star Wars rather than the more Western-based focus we’ve been getting of late. It’s coming through clearly so far, though we’re liable to get more of it as the plot goes forward. (She said that Rashomon was a key text, which should prove interesting as the story unfolds.) But the place where it shines the most is in the bearing and code that Sol and Indara both keep; Mae tells Indara that a Jedi doesn’t draw their weapons unless they’re prepared to kill, drawing a clear connection between Jedi and Samurai codes of honor. At the reminder of this, Indara deactivates her saber. But Sol pointedly never draws his blade in this first fight with Mae. His commitment to that code, his desire to restore Osha’s faith, is where he stands.
We’ve also arrived at a point in Star Wars lore where lightsaber colors and variation tell us a great deal about character, and the reveal becomes exactly that—a small revelation about who we’re looking at. We can see an independence of thought in Indara through her green blade, just as we can see the commitment to protection of the Order in Yord’s yellow one. We know the color of Sol’s blade from the trailers, but it feels relevant that we’ve not yet been shown within the show itself. He’s a little bit of a secret, being slowly divulged as we go.
Headland’s direction on these episodes is great, even if I wished she’d allowed herself to go just a fraction more stylistic in the execution. Her competence stands out particularly well during the fight sequences, which are absolutely pristine down the line. The only thing I’m just a little disappointed on is the mystery aspect? Obviously the Jedi did something the day that Mae allegedly set that fire—something that I hope won’t simply be explained away as unavoidable so they can be entirely absolved of the incident. But the mystery around the murder would have been a lot more fun if the reveal were stretched.
Spanners and Sabers
- Yord’s apprentice is Zygerrian, which isn’t unheard of, but is still a big friggin’ deal because her people make their money as slavers. The Republic outlaws the practice, so Zygerrians aren’t actually members, leaving a lot of questions as to how Zygerrians ever become part of the Order. There are only one or two more on record, far as I know.
- I really love that Charlie Barnett had to be an unqualified wreck throughout Russian Doll, only to have Leslye Headland approach him this time like “Okay, can I make it up to you with Hot Jedi?” I have to assume that’s how the conversation went.
- Jecki is a Theelin-human hybrid, which is a species we first saw in Return of the Jedi’s Special Edition release: The Max Rebo Band backup singer Rystáll Sant is also Theelin and human. But Jecki’s demeanor is a little unusual given that Theelin’s are known for being an artistic bunch. Her attitude is a lot more… I’m gonna say Vulcan. It’s thoroughly enjoyable watching her boss everyone around and generally be right.
- Interesting that the Republic doesn’t allow for organic beings to do outer ship repairs, mostly because I’m curious about the economics of the situation. It suggests that having droids is more expensive than paying wages to people, and I’d just like a breakdown on how that works out. Is it an up-front cost issue at this point in time, perhaps?
- As much as I’m interested in who the person with the red lightsaber is, I also enjoy that we’re getting confirmation through the ages on dark side users being absolute cowards: A good half of them are so afraid to show how normal they are, they keep modulating the hell out of their appearances and voices. Theater is a prime factor in how the dark side functions, and the Sith really said “If you can’t make your own, store-bought is fine.”
- Absolutely adore Ed Kear’s Padawan character, please bring him back, please put him in everything.
See you next week…
Typo alert: “Dafoe Keen” should be “Dafne Keen.”
This was fairly good, but I felt it was a bit lacking in intensity and suspense. Osha was caught too easily and believed too easily, and the mistaken-identity thing resolved too quickly. Although I did kind of like it the twist that it was Jord’s mistrustful surveillance of Osha that put him in a position to confirm her innocence.
Also, how did Mae not know Osha was alive in episode 2 when it was Mae who initiated contact with Osha through the Force in episode 1? Did Mae do that subconsciously? Or was it not actually Mae talking to her but some kind of symbolic Force vision?
I love PIP. The idea of a droid being a hand tool is amazing. Also cool in the same vein: The autopilot droids folding up to become pilot seats. (Pointless, though. Why not build the autonomous AI into the ship itself?)
Meanwhile, it’s amusing that a character defined by performing dangerous work that violates safety standards is named OSHA.
I like how pacifistic the Jedi are here, with their fighting techniques built around evasion and defense. I love a fight scene where one person is trying to hurt the other and the other stymies them just by dancing out of reach. Sure, they’re wielding their authority rather questionably, but that’s been part of how the Jedi have been portrayed at least since Attack of the Clones, if not all the way back to “These are not the droids you’re looking for.”
As for the brevity of Carrie-Anne Moss’s role, I’m assuming we’ll get a flashback to the inciting incident the four Jedi were involved in, so she’ll have more to do there.
Anyway, it occurred to me that the fold-up autopilot droids are quite literally… Pilot Seats.
Irnoic that you say these jedi are like cops, cause what I hear about Samurai sounds exactly like the cops around my neighborhood ….
Namely that they sit around guarding stuff and keeping people in line.
Hmm, maybe. Samurai were a hereditary noble/officer class who held various roles in different historical periods, but the Jedi’s role in the Republic does seem similar to the samurai’s role in the peacetime Edo period under the Tokugawa shogunate, although the shogunate was more authoritarian than the Republic.
It’s interesting that Leslye Headland referenced Kurosawa as an influence on the show, as I thought it felt very Kurosawa before learning the fact in the article. Lucas included and was influenced by so many themes, movie genres, and symbolism in his six episodes that I feel he’d approve (although it not as eclectic as his version of the show would be, I suspect).
The show feels like a new beginning for Disney Star Wars, building on Andor and Ahsoka, in that it appears to me to be discarding the tropes of the sequel trilogy and the familiarity of The Mandalorian*. The drawn out mysteries of Rey’s surname, Snoke, and Luke, were never investigated and expanded upon to a satisfying conclusion, in the sequel trilogy imo.
Here, the mystery of who is Mae, and why is she doing what she’s doing are answered in the first fifty minutes, allowing the show to dig deeper into the events that led to her decision. The twin revelation seemed a bit weak, although seeing as the alternative would have been some kind of trauma-induced Force powered evil split personality, it’s probably for the best.
I liked the focus on the Jedi being somewhat ambiguous in the episodes. The Dark Horse Knights of the Old Republic comics initial storyline, as well as elements of the New Jedi Order from Legends EU, touched on this as well.
The Jedi aren’t saints, they’re keepers of the peace, and sometimes protecting the Universe involves actions that could be seen as evil, from a certain point of view (sorry, I had to do it), as you state in the review, the arrogance and corruption of the Jedi Order in the prequels started long before Episode One.
I’m not too bereft at this being all we see of Carrie-Anne Moss, due to my sneaking suspicion one episode will include her in flashbacks. There’s also the fact the series feels far more balanced in its ensemble, with each character being given time to define themselves as more than a rough sketch. The temptation to focus the show on the big-name star being avoided, while also giving the big-name star their moment.
In case you hadn’t realised, I’m loving this show. Ha.
*Ahsoka gets a pass in this, due to it being the continuation of Filoni’s own trilogy saga.
“The drawn out mysteries of Rey’s surname, Snoke, and Luke, were never investigated and expanded upon to a satisfying conclusion, in the sequel trilogy imo.”
The sequel trilogy was a hot mess, mainly because they didn’t sit down and plot it all out before they wrote it, and they decided to appease the loudest fans rather then telling a decent story. The first one started the trilogy off well, but then Disney got scared and dropped all the really good plot lines for the bad fan service.
I think the main problem with the sequel was the drawing out of Rey’s parents/surname.
Where Luke was, and why, was dealt with as well as possible by Rian Johnson (Wait before you rage, I’ll explain).
TFA established that Luke went missing after the Knights of Ren wiped out the Jedi, then the First Order rose. Luke’s character from the OT wouldn’t have, and definitely wouldn’t have remained hidden in regards to the events of TFA.
As I see it, RJ had two main choices: have Luke be on a quest in a insanely distant part of the Galaxy in order to find the secrets of the Force to end the Star Wars – George Lucas similarities abound, as well as adding a massive sub-plot to the rest of the trilogy – or have him cut himself off from everything and become a recluse, negating that whole quest sub-plot, and its writing, while also explaining why he was missing in TFA.
I’m 80% certain Snoke was going to be Darth Plagueis, and as everyone guessed it, RJ killed him off, although he did leave an opening of sorts to have Snoke return in the final movie, as you say, bad plotting decisions due to Disney wanting to release a film as soon as possible.
With this in mind, the Acolyte is superior, as it resolves the who and leaves us to wonder what could the Jedi do that was so terrible it led to a Jedi committing suicide as a penance (of sorts). That alone makes it better than the Sequel trilogy.
I’m not meaning to preach here, just laying out my thoughts on the subject.
Oh, and of course The Force Awakens was a good movie, it’s the same plot as the movie that began it all, and turned Star Wars into a historic pop-cultural phenomenon, ha.
Peace, love, and lightsabres.
“I think the main problem with the sequel was the drawing out of Rey’s parents/surname.”
No, the problem is that TLJ decisively resolved it by wisely rejecting the horrible, elitist idea that someone can only be an important hero if they’re descended from someone famous, and then TROS chickened out of that intelligent decision and embraced the Child of Destiny mentality that TLJ had rejected. It wasn’t drawing anything out — it was one movie making a decisive statement and the next movie retconning it.
“Luke’s character from the OT wouldn’t have”
Of course not, that’s the point. His life experiences changed him. He’s not the same person as an older man, having lived through painful and transformative experiences, that he was as a young, optimistic Jedi. It’s called character development.
See, the minor issue I have with that opinion is this:
You have a trilogy of trilogies dealing with 3 generations of a family. The first two trilogies follow this formula, then the last goes against everything the previous six movies established, and, more fatal to the trilogy, didn’t replace it with something that improved it.
As for Luke transforming through painful experiences. Luke in the original trilogy was adopted at birth, with no memory of his parents, had his adoptive parents murdered, saw the man who was almost his grandfather killed in front of his eyes, had his oldest, and best friend killed while he could do nothing.
Then the only remaining person who was his close friend was frozen in carbonite, he then had his right hand amputated by the man he thought had murdered his father, who reveals that he is his actual father, all of this happening on the same day, and he still attempted to redeem his father while finally turning away from his hate and anger.
If he didn’t fall to evil and despair after that, why would he give up everything after his nephew turned evil. You can say it was one step too far, but really, they couldn’t come up with a better story for him?
All of which wasn’t Rj’s fault, he made the best out of what he was given (as I explained in my first reply). You can say the difference we have over the subject, as I see it, being my view that by establishing two thirds of a story, changing every theme that made the story what it was in the final three chapters, seems spiteful. I have no problem with destroying the notion of the elitist ideal you describe, just that they chose to place it in a story that very much followed that ideal.
All of which has nothing to do with the Acolyte, of course, so I’ll stop now.
Take care, and be happy.
Except my point is that I don’t agree with treating the sequel trilogy as a single unified entity, when the whole problem was that it wasn’t. I think the fact that The Last Jedi deconstructed the fairly simplistic tropes of the previous films and brought greater nuance and maturity to the universe was the best thing about it, and I regret that the makers of The Rise of Skywalker chose to throw most of that out and retcon the story back into something more timid and conventional. The problem is not with the sequel trilogy as a whole, the problem is only with the final installment fumbling the landing.
That’s where we differ, obviously, as I view Star Wars as a complete story, not a series of individual trilogies. Even with each Episode of 7-9 being separate is problematic, but that’s down to production decisions.
I think, being honest, I’m of the opinion they should have made the films using George Lucas’s treatments/outlines as Star Wars is his creation, then attempted to deconstruct and create something new with the stand-alone movies. Which they sort-of did with Rogue One, and later The Mandalorian, Andor, and now The Acolyte.
The films are what they are, I just see them as a wasted opportunity to complete something which is historic, y’know.
“Even with each Episode of 7-9 being separate is problematic, but that’s down to production decisions.”
Yes, that’s exactly my point. There wasn’t a single unified plan for 7-9, because 9 abandoned the plan set in place by 8 and did something different instead. If they’d kept Johnson aboard to do 9, the whole thing would’ve been more unified (though Carrie Fisher’s loss would still have forced some plans to change).
“I think, being honest, I’m of the opinion they should have made the films using George Lucas’s treatments/outlines as Star Wars is his creation”
Except that when Lucas tried to be a solo auteur, the result was the mediocre prequels. Lucas’s best work has always been in collaboration with others. Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz wrote the final draft of the original film without credit, and producer Gary Kurtz was practically a co-director. Empire and Jedi were written and directed by other people than Lucas — including co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, who also co-wrote The Force Awakens. But by the prequels, Lucas tried to do it all himself and the result was vastly inferior. Much like Gene Roddenberry in his later years, Lucas started to believe his own legend and forgot that his true success came from his ability to bring together a strong and talented team.
I wasn’t particularly impressed by plot of the first episode. It just felt like one cliche after another, and I was really disappointed to see Carrie-Ann Moss killed almost immediately. I enjoyed the second episode a lot more, because at least it started acquainting us with the characters, and even if none of their stories are particularly original, they are at least well-performed, particularly Lee’s Sol and Stenberg’s Osha/Mae, but pretty much everyone is pretty good in their respective parts (Keen’s a bit stiff, but I think that’s what she’s going for). The show looks great as well, from the design to the direction to the effects. I’m also a big fan of PIP. If there’s one thing the last nine years of Star Wars productions have proved they can get right, it’s creating instantly lovable droids.
I winced when Osha pulled PIP’s head off, until I realized it was designed to do that. Still kinda creepy, though.
Well, I enjoyed it, at any rate. I’m eagerly awaiting next week. Episode 2 was a bit too much of a cliff hanger for me.
I feel like they made Yord a bit too much of an idiot, and Dafne Keen’s character seemed to talk back too much, but really that’s probably more of this ribbing relationship she had with Yord.
The show is off to a good start, with strong performances from all the actors. I noticed that they got the obligatory “bad feeling about this ” line out of the way pretty quickly.
Also, do I really need to get into how all the “young” men on the show are basically my age, but our young main female characters are played by actors who are 19 and 25 respectively?
I mean, that’s a pretty endemic problem with Hollywood across the board IMHO. Studios are very recultant to cast older women in main roles from what I hear. It’s changing, albeit slowly
they vibes on these 2 episodes was really what i would expect from the secuels, i hope htey keep up, im looking forward to see trinity on the sure to come fflashbacks
I have a feeling we will see more of Ms. Moss and Mr. Chapman in flashbacks to the fateful events that set the plot in motion.