The Acolyte

We are diving into The Acolyte. I really enjoyed the first episode, against the internet’s wishes. But really there were no glaring flaws in the writing. Granted that could always change, shows fall off as seasons continue all the time. Though I will say that is a lot less frequent when it comes to streaming because the seasons are shorter and therefore tend to be fully planned before shooting even starts. That’s not to say that every streaming show is a goldmine of perfect writing, but it really does minimize the plot and character mistakes that network shows tend to make because they last far longer than they should. So here we go with The Acolyte episode 2.

This girl is just out here picking fights with Jedi. There has got to be a reason. I mean her sister was part of the order until she left…she's the one that set the fire that killed her parents so what is her deal? I will concede to bad writing if that is never revealed.

We are seeing more of May in this episode. Now that we know she is a twin they are being kept distinctly separate which most definitely helps the audience. So the current questions now are; How did May survive the fire? Why did May set the fire? Why does May hate and want to kill Jedi?

So…wait, you had a break in at your temple and you don’t change your security measures at all? This dude is still just meditating and no one is stationed with him? Seems like an oversight. Granted the Jedi have never really been up on security.

Tormund immediately knows that the girl in front of him is May, sooooo…My guess is that the Jedi were wiping her people out for some reason and this is a revenge plot, but let’s see where this goes.

We now have Jason from The Good Place which is really the reason why I am watching this show.

So it is kind of revealed that May is working for someone. The theme of justice vs revenge is nicely written. And using the twins as two sides to the same coin is a great framing device. They have already built up the relationship between Osha and her old master so well that when he inevitably dies we will all be sad about it. But we’ve also proven that May has a heart, so will she be able to go through with this? Oh she doesn’t even know who she works for. So both sisters thought the other was dead and that set them on their paths. Great writing. They had the same origin story and chose to handle their grief and anger differently. This story is about the consequences of that. I’m sorry bad there is no way to look at this and call it bad writing.

“We don’t make decisions like this without meaningful discussion” literally highlights one of the main Jedi flaws. Why are we talking when other people are wielding the force and killing Jedi? Surely this is a time for action first and discussion later? And that is exactly the point, the Jedi are by no means a perfect order and The Acolyte is doing a great job of highlighting that.

This episode focuses on what revenge vs justice looks like. And how grief and anger is processed was really great. I love that the story explored how the same event can have such a profoundly different effect on people. I really want to know exactly what happened when these girls were younger because they both thought the other was dead. The show is great so far and it's doing a good job of raising questions and sprinkling explanations without giving the audience too much exposition.