Third Episode of The Acolyte drop and it left everyone with even more questions than before, but one thing is for sure the entire coven didn't die because of the explosion. The episode with title "Destiny" most likely refer to the twins get separated, one destine to the dark side of the Sith and the other to the bright side of the Jedi.
The episode starts with a scene when the twins were very little, sixteen years in the past at the planet Brenda when everything started for Osha and Mae, it is on this scene for the first time that the tone for their differences is set very clearly, Mae always powerful and dominant while Osha more passive and free spirit, there is a second aspect that really intrigue me and its how Mae basically prohibit Osha from separating from her, some type of obsession, would it be possible their connection is the only reason why Mae is so good at using The Force?
Destiny, gives a lot of backdrop story that I was expecting to know from the series regarding the Coven of Witches and Mother Aniseya but as a none STAR WARS hard core fan there are plenty of this that I don't know, at first glance a regular viewer like me gets the hole witches scenario and its fine but there are more questions when you start to wonder from who are they hiding? where is the twins father? why there are witches of all over the galaxy? what does the ritual means? so I had to consult the internet for this post to have some more context than my simple understanding of what I was watching, the episode features numerous references to the ancient Night Sisters and their “thread of destiny,” suggesting that the Nightsisters and the Force are connected in some way to the broader Star Wars mythology.
There is an initiation ceremony prepared for Osha and Mae to become official members of the coven to what Osha didn't want to and Mother Aniseya would not force her to, but there were others like Mother Koril who probably had a different agenda, always trying to push the girls and be more traditional and disciplinary with them.
Platform: Disney+
The Coven's Dark Practices
After finding out that the Coven of Witches can turn out to be an extension or variant of the Night Witches a dark cult that uses The Force for dark practices makes me question why they had the twins in first place like what is their purpose on the Coven, Mother Aniseya and her lover Mother Koril start to talk about how the Jedi would not like how the girls were created and a very popular thing on Star Wars is cloning so that's my first though, they also mention the twins are powerful and I would think they are since Aniseya use The Force to create them, all this practices are prohibit by The Republic and the Jedi specially on kids, not probably because they are kids but they would suspect that behind a group like this having and teaching kids the use of the Force most of the time is for sinister purpose. The Jedi do live on this concept that only they are the ones using The Force for the right reasons when in fact this is very manipulative move cult type, this is why they would let the Coven do their thing as adults but no children to avoid passing this sinister practices to younger generations, this is another reason I could think of why the Twins are so important for the Coven.
The Twins' Split Their Paths
During the ceremony we see the different sides of Mae and Osha, in the case of Mae she is all in follower of the coven traditions and their mother but in the case of Osha she doesn't want to stay on the planet for ever with them, she wants to go out and explore the galaxy thats the main reason when the Jedi arive she step front and wanted to go with them, wanted to be tested and latter on she tells her mother she wants to be a Jedi. Even though they are twins they do not behive like one and this is the nature of The Force, they were created using it so it comes with the same characteristics, one dark and another bright side, can't exist only one.
The Jedi Intervention
When the Jedi arrive to Brenda its not clear why they did, probably they got an alert from someone letting them know about the girls since I doubt there are radars monitoring the use of The Force, all four Sol, Indara, Torbin and Kelnecca, at the time Torbin been Indara's padawan basically following orders, Indara is clearly the one calling the shots as Sol and Kelnecca follow. Aside from what went down between the Twins of not wanting the same thing there is a fire caused by Mae where she was clearly in some kind of trance of obsession and latter on multiple explosions with the entire Coven wipe out. Remember how Torbin before taking his life mention he though they were doing the right thing? this force me to think that they killed the Coven, Indara, Torbin and Kelnecca but Sol was not part of it since he was the one who went looking for the Twins while the other Jedi took care of the Coven, the mission was clear and the circumstances would never change the ending.
The Tragedy Unfolds
Towards the end the episode kinda drive me mad with all the ambiguous incomplete scenes, director basically fucking with me like jejeje I know something you don't and wont let you watch like you are telling me that all that happen because Mae set a door on fire? reactor blowing up, all the witches dead the fortress they were living in basically turning apart. What were Indara, Torbin and Kelnacca were doing when all that went down? I'm on the camp that most likely while the twins were having an argument the Jedi had their own argument with the witches and someone decided to throw hands, or threads or light saber what ever their attack was, that probably why Torbin got a scar in the present day and before taking the poison tells Mae "I thought we were doing the right thing" because he was following Indara orders. There is this scene of tragedy in the air at the end of the episode, things should not get out of control and again probably why the three Jedi who had everything to do with are basically in exile if not in a corner of the galaxy like Indara in a cantina, Kelnacca isolated in a forest planet or Torbin who had 10 years without talking to anyone and meditating, on Episode 2 there is a scene where Sol told Jord, Mae was dead but with a certain doubt like he is hiding something, problem is he is basically lying his as because he does not know and he is only telling what probably Indara put on the report after their mission, he was not there when the Witches died and he only saw Mae fall but never really saw her dead body.
If the series is not as close to what OG Star Wars is at least its keeping the suspense alive, online reviews are basically trashing the series like its the worst TV series ever and to be honest if there is one thing the internet is good about is shitting on everybody else happiness. Are there things that are not related or as good as the traditional Star War movies, yes that totally true, there there a ton of empowering the women theme absolutely, the real question is "Is this TV series entertaining?" YES IT IS!!!
The story for sure is constantly interrupted and this might bother a certain type of audience but I'm the type of viewer who like to connect the dots and even be wrong about it or right, it doesn't matter to me, I have always thought that for something to be entertaining it has to generate a reaction, a felling that's either makes you mad or happy about it because it keeps my brain working, probably even enjoying what I'm watching.
The fight scenes have been very weak but I guess we will probably get one or two down the line, this action sequences are close to none so far except when Mae fights Sol and Indara and even then it was interrupted, its a suspense TV series not an action series and this is probably why people are so mad about it.
In my opinion if you are looking for an entertaining series with a good production, its not a Game of Thrones level but its a good one time watch, go watch The Acolyte.
