'The Acolyte' Episode 3, "Destiny" Spoiler-Free Review

Star Wars

Jun 12

Episode 3 of The Acolyte, appropriately titled “Destiny” features the return of Space Witches. We’ve seen other witches in Star Wars content, primarily from the Witches of Dathomir. This episode also gave us a backstory of Mae and Osha’s childhood and their respective journeys. We also got to see what happened that night on Brendok.

The episode starts with young Osha under a beautiful tree with long yellow leaves, on her home planet of Brednok. It's a lush-looking planet and doesn’t look like a bad place to live. She is then found by Mae. The two head back home, until they are stopped by one of their mothers, who scolds them for leaving the fortress. A ceremony in the evening will give them their full powers as witches, which Mae is excited about. Osha however is weary of the ceremony and doesn’t want to go through with it. For her, her saving grace is the Jedi that have landed on the planet. They confront the witches but don’t want to quarrel. Instead, they want to test Mae and Osha. Mae is not happy with this and wants Osha to lie. Osha however, sees this as her way out to see the galaxy. She passes the test and is one step closer to being a Jedi. Mae however gets upset, and her anger leads to destruction. Mae and Osha are separated and begin their respective paths. I’ll be curious to see if we get another POV of what happened because it’s hard to believe that one girl could cause so much destruction.

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Mae and Osha could not be more different. They’re two sisters on opposite sides. We saw this in the first two episodes, but it is even more evident after the third one. They have been different since they were kids. Mae leaned more into her family line and the Darkside of being a witch, whereas Osha leaned more into the light side, and pursued being a Jedi. While we know how Osha begins her training, it will be interesting to learn how Mae gets recruited to the Sith or an entity like it. Leah and Lauren Brady play young Mae and young Osha and do an incredible job. Being sisters in real life, they were able to bring that sibling dynamic perfectly to the screen.

Jedi Master Sol continues to be a standout character in this show. As I said in my previous review, he is much like Qui Gon Jinn, but better. He comforts Osha the entire time and believes in her from the moment he sees her. He would truly be the ideal Master. It was exciting to see more of Jedi Master Kelnacca. While he’s not the first Wookiee Jedi, as we saw Gungi in The Clone Wars, and Burryaga in the High Republic books, this is the first time we get to see one in live action. I hope we get to see more of him as the show goes on.

My biggest criticism of the show so far is the episode length. The episodes run about 30-40 minutes each, which in my opinion is too short, especially for a season with only 8 episodes. The issue is that you start getting into the story and the action, only for the episode to end, and then have to wait a week to see what happens next. The show is great so far but could benefit from some longer runtimes.

I have loved every part of The Acolyte so far and can’t wait to see more. The casting is perfect. This episode was a tad slow but expanded on the lore, which is essential for any good story. Every week I am left with more questions than answers, and want to know more about these characters, especially Osha and Mae. I am intrigued to see what happens next, and I look forward to Tuesday nights.

Rating: 7/10

New episodes of The Acolyte are released every Tuesday at 6 PM PST/ 9 PM EST on Disney+.

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