Star Wars The Acolyte S1E6: Teach/Corrupt

Seduction, Sexy Yoda, and Suspenseful Moments Can't Save "The Acolyte: Teach/Corrupt."

Just as it looked like “The Acolyte” had begun to find its footing, the series offered up another disappointing episode with this week’s “Teach/Corrupt.” This episode once again showcases the failings that show why this series simply doesn’t work.

To get straight to the point, “The Acolyte” falls short due to its erratic pacing and frustrating structure. Quick shifts between locations and characters make it feel disjointed, preventing the viewer from fully engaging in the story and leaving you unsatisfied. At one point, the show jumps between three locations six times in five minutes, which comes across not as urgent or important but as sloppy and amateurish.

The one thing it does have going for it are two outstanding performances from Lee Jung-jae as Jedi Master Sol and Manny Jacinto as Qimir/The Stranger, the dark master of Mae (Amandla Stenberg). Both actors are superb in their portrayals of opposing sides of the Force. But I fear the performances will be overlooked if “The Acolyte” doesn’t do something special in its final two episodes.

In “Teach/Corrupt,” we find Osha (Stenberg) on an unknown planet with The Stranger, and he begins his seduction of her as his new apprentice. These scenes feature the first time we’ve seen skinny dipping in a galaxy far, far away and some of the worst dialogue of the series so far, but Jacinto makes the most of it. He’s so damn charming it’s easy to overlook how bad it is at times.

We find out that he was cast away from the Jedi Order and carries some nasty scars on his back that look like they could have been caused by a lightsaber or possibly a lightwhip. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson). We also learn that he’s desperate for an apprentice, and Osha seems at least willing to listen to what he has to say.

Back on Khofar, Master Sol and Mae leave the planet and face communication issues while trying to reach the Jedi Temple. Sol’s partial message concerns Master Vernestra, so she assembles a small team to go to Khofar and try to piece together what happened to Sol and his team.

Aboard his ship, Sol still thinks Mae is Osha and is struggling with his past actions. As the emotions of his past begin to bubble to the surface, we might finally learn what happened to Brendok on the fateful night when he rescued Osha and the rest of her coven died in a fire her sister started.

How can such a powerful Jedi not notice the sister swap and mistake the person he’s been chasing for killing multiple Jedi as his former Padawan? That’s a good question and one I think the writing team completely overlooked. The only way they can explain it away is if an even more powerful dark side user we’ve not met yet is pulling the strings, hiding their presence and manipulating everything. I call that pulling a Palpatine.

On Khofar, Master Vernestra and crew land to find the carnage The Stranger left behind. Noticing they were killed by a lightsaber, instead of their fear growing about a more powerful dark side user than they imagined, a Jedi named Mog (Harry Trevaldwyn) quickly cast suspensions onto Sol. I thought it was odd his accusations fell to one of their own so quickly, showing the mistrust that exists even within the Jedi Order.

We finally get to see Vernestra’s lightwhip in action and it’s exactly what you see in the trailers – nothing more, nothing less. While cool as heck, it felt underwhelming since we’ve already seen it and it’s used to basically swat away a mosquito. Boring.

Sol finally comes to his senses with assistance from Bazil and stuns Mae and restrains her. This is where we finally see a little more menacing Sol emerge. He tells her he won’t harm her, and she tells him to release her, and he responds, “I will. Believe me,” as he’s cloaked in shadows. He then approaches her and tells her of all the things they need to do. “But first, you and I are going to talk,” and gently taps next to her head. It’s subtle but concerning, and I loved it.

I haven’t said much about The Stranger and Osha yet. It’s because these scenes are the most satisfying yet frustrating in the episode. I’ve mentioned before that the writing of this series sometimes feels like someone’s fanfiction. Apparently, we’re into the romance phase of their fanfiction, and it’s terrible.

We get The Stranger trying to seduce Osha to join him in his dark journey and become his apprentice, but instead of strictly using their pasts to bind them together, there’s an innuendo of attraction that I don’t buy for a second. It’s as believable as the Rey/Ben Solo lovefest we got in “The Rise of Skywalker,” and that’s not saying much.

But like “TROS,” there are some really good things in these scenes, and we get to see Jacinto play them to perfection. It’s just that the writing seems boring and forced. If these scenes were recut to remove the cringy moments, they could be some of the best stuff we’ve seen in the Disney era, but as they currently stand, they are not.

I loved how she’s never his prisoner, and he gives her permission to leave whenever she wants, even offering up his starship, but she never leaves. As much as we want to think of the purity of her intentions, she’s still willing to explore The Stranger’s teachings and offerings. What if what we’ve been taught about the twins has been flip-flopped and the line between who’s good and who’s bad is more blurred than we realized?

“Teach/Corrupt” closes with one of my least favorite scenes in this series and possibly of any Star Wars series thus far. Earlier in the episode, The Stranger talks to Osha about Cortosis, its effect on a lightsaber, and how his helmet doesn’t allow others to read his mind but also serves as a sensory deprivation unit, much like the ones they use in their training at the Jedi Temple. It provides an environment where it’s just you and the Force… and what you bring with you. It’s basically the Dagobah scene from “The Empire Strikes Back.” The Stranger’s a sexy Yoda, Osha is a boring Luke Skywalker and the Cortosis helmet is the cave that Luke enters.

The episode closes by calling back to “Revenge of the Sith” as Osha takes the plunge and slides the helmet over her head. Everything goes silent except her breathing. We also get interior shots of the mask where we see what she sees looking out from inside the helmet. The scene mimics when Anakin is put into the Vader suit for the first time, and it’s not good. It could have been, but it isn’t. I would have much rather heard whispers of what happened on Brendok on the night of the fire. Nothing that gives anything away but opens new possibilities. That would have been interesting and exciting and perfectly set up the final two episodes.

I recently went back and watched this series from the beginning, and I think the stumbles “The Acolyte” are suffering from are caused by interference. I can’t believe that being given complete creative control, this is the series Leslye Headland created from start to finish.

The writing is some of the worst we’ve ever had in the Star Wars saga. The visuals sometimes look very cheap, and the story itself is more boring than it needs to be. I think it boils down to Disney getting in the way. There are so many interesting ways they could have presented this story, and I think it comes down to too many cooks in the kitchen, and it’s unfortunate.

I’ve not read the High Republic books yet, so if anyone out there has, please tell me if this is how Vernestra Rwoh is also presented in the books. I do not like the character at all so far, and I don’t know if it’s the character itself or the performance. Maybe if I knew more of her backstory, I’d love it, but as it stands right now, I couldn’t care less.

Again, it’s Jung-jae and Jacinto doing the heavy lifting in “Teach/Corrupt” and doing it great. The title obviously, in my opinion, refers to them, and I’m beginning to wonder if the entire series is about them and not the twins. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense, and I’m totally fine with it. I could watch these two perform their craft and be endlessly engaged and entertained.

With just two episodes remaining, we’ve got a lot of story left to tell, and I’m not sure how they’re going to fit it in. It appears that the phrase Vernestra has spoken twice, “something to tip the scales,” is shaping up to be a major player. I wonder if the series will end with the actions on Brendok 16 years ago shaking the foundation of the Jedi and causing eyes to fall on the Order’s failings.

All in all, “Teach/Corrupt” is a middle-of-the-road episode that offers just enough interesting elements to make it watchable but too much fluff to make it forgettable. We’re still waiting on “The Acolyte” to decide what it truly is, and with only two episodes remaining, time is running out.