After last week’s episode The Acolyte took us back in time for a fascinating story of Strength and perspective similarly, things return to the season’s biggest mysteries in “Day.” But last week’s gift of context allows the show to reexamine its central characters in a new light… just in time for that light to be plunged into darkness.
After “Destiny” gave us a tortuous exploration of Mae and Osha’s education on Brendok that asked us to question everything we thought we knew – even what our eyes saw – on the surface of “Day”, the fourth episode of The Acolyte, seems relatively simple in comparison. As Jedi and agents of the Dark Side both converge on the jungle planet Khofar – where the next target on Mae’s Jedi Brendok list, the wookiee master Kelnacca, resides in exile – Mae and Osha both find themselves surrendering question their place within the planet. at the heart of this mysteryjust in time for an outside factor to shake everything up again (but we’ll get to that later).
It’s a fast-paced episode – arguably too fast at times, which makes its climactic shock cliffhanger even more exciting to sit with for the week. But in this lively simplicity The Acolyte still finds plenty to offer its central sisters…and as has been the case thus far, reflecting their perspectives allows the series to draw comparisons and twist small moments that have the potential to upset that balance between light and darkness at stake. . “Day”, more than any episode of the series so far, really highlights the fact that this is the story of twin sisters, rather than a story told from the point of view of a particular half of this relationship, and in doing so, she offers us moments of introspection and points of comparison between Mae and Osha that paint a surprising future before them.
A common thread in Mae and Osha’s stories in “Day” is that these sisters are both used by the forces around them. With the Jedi, always happy to be in politics and try to keep as many details of Sol’s investigation out of sight, because the appearance is as much as any particular fear of a resurgence of the dark side – Sol must make the difficult sacrifice of using Osha as a tool, in pressuring Vernestra to keep him involved. In the investigation, in order to make her case, there is a way to involve Mae and get the Jedi to find out who trained her in dark magic. Even then, she is forced to join Khofar less as an ally and more as a bargaining chip – she is forced to wear “civilian dresses” that explicitly present her as not one of the others. them among the Jedi, the same usefulness and status as Bazil, the Tynnan Tracker also clad in these white robes, a creature that the Jedi who hired him also use as a tool, which they complain about when he runs away for half the episode.
Even Sol, Osha’s staunchest defender, begins to treat her as being there as a test, a lesson she has yet to learn – as he moves forward. closely to tell her that what she remembers from that night on Brendok is not the full picture and that she needs to be ready to face the truth, whatever it may be. It’s really only Jecki who treats Osha in this episode as an ally, as a whole person in her own right – when, in a moment of doubt about her past as a Jedi padawan and her childhood, Jecki reminds her that the people are defined by who they are. survive, rather than what they survived. And what has Osha survived so far, other than the Jedi themselves: taking her, training her, letting her go, now using her as a tool against a family they told her would had she been destroyed?
All this contrasts meanwhile with Qimir, who accompanies Mae as she prepares to assassinate Kelnacca, constantly poking and prodding his traveling companion with all the subtlety of a brick to the face – one which seems a bit Also a bit like The Acolytea show that has proven itself I don’t trust what he says literally, shouting “hey, this guy might have a special interest in scary masks and red lightsabers!” ” – to remind her that she is failing her master, that her part in his plan depends on her being used as a weapon. , rather than making a decision itself. Every time Mae tries to take initiative, Qimir is there to stab her, which is not what their master wants – no questions, no thinking, just a blade to shape in the darkness. And just as Sol tries to prepare Osha for the truth, a truth that might shake her out of this feeling that Mae cannot be worthy of redemption, that her revenge is misguided… Mae herself begins to see that learning his sister is alive. released of all this hatred and anger that she has felt for sixteen years. She doesn’t need Qimir and the master, if she has her sister: there is still a chance that she can change.
Therein lies the tragedy of “The Day.” Everything begins to change – Mae flickering towards the light, Osha flickering towards the darkness – the twins’ mirrored paths begin to reflect each other in other ways. Just as Mae takes the initiative, trapping Qimir in a rope trap so she can make amends with Kelnacca and turn herself in to the arriving Jedi, and similarly, as Osha grows stronger, the while impatiently palming the blaster she brought to take on a sister. she has begun to want revenge, their paths are heading towards convergence… a fork in the road appears. Mae finds Kelnacca already dead, a burning gash torn across his chest. Sol feels a chill in the air as the Jedi surround Kelnacca’s house and turns to find a figure in black floating through the air like a whisper, all the way to Osha. A masked figure, who roars without words or actions, but with the sudden and sharp hiss of a red lightsaber.
Whether you immediately tried to determine whether the Master was a hastily released Qimir or not, their arrival on the scene as “Day” draws to its abrupt end is remarkably effective. It’s a slasher villain that appears at the climax of a police procedural – everything abruptly twists with a flick of the Master’s wrist, as Jedi and Osha roll into the credits. And the moment when Mae and Osha’s paths meet, a chance for these reflections to find something in each other, is lost in the chaos.
Sooner or later the truth about what happened on Brendok will be revealed. Much like how this will change the paths Osha and Mae take now – one shrouded in pain and distrust, the other emboldened by a chance to break free of that pain – neither are the paths we have been led to expect for each of them. , and now have the chance to change the course of everything we thought we knew The Acolyte in its first half. But for this truth to emerge, both protagonists and antagonists must survive the vengeance of a Sith… or a few at least, that’s the case with them.
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