Star Wars The Acolyte episode 8 review | An anticlimactic end to an uneven series

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The Acolyte comes to a close with an episode that promises more than it delivers. Here’s our episode 8 review.

Spoiler warning! These reviews will be spoiler-free for the week in question, but will discuss previous episodes in detail.

I really wanted to love The Acolyte. I would have even settled for liking it. A female-led Star Wars series – both in front of and behind the camera – that explores the Sith, the Jedi and the High Republic era? It seemed too good to be true – and it looks like it was.

Last week, we learned what really happened on Brendok 16 years ago that separated Mae and Osha and led the former on a brutal killing spree. Turns out, Sol was the one who killed Osha and Mae’s mother in front of Mae, leading her to harbour hate towards the Jedi. On top of that, Master Indara somehow killed the rest of the coven when breaking their mind control over Master Kelnacca. Naturally, the Jedi blamed it all on the fire that Mae started.

The word ‘somehow’ is really doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Similarly to the “Somehow Palpatine returned” line from The Rise Of Skywalker, The Acolyte is asking you to just go with it, no questions asked. There’s no explanation as to how Indara is able to kill a whole coven of witches just by using the Force, and in a better series, I would have been able to go with it.

Things don’t improve this week, either. The Acolyte comes to a predictable, toothless end. The finale is the longest of the lot with a running time of 48 minutes, which is whittled down to 43 without the credits. Most of those 43 minutes go exactly as you’d expect them to, but there are a few moments of brilliance here, too.

Firstly, a scene between David Harewood’s Senator Rayencourt and Rebecca Henderson’s Vernestra is an electric exchange that gives The Acolyte a little boost. Rayencourt, not totally on board with the freedoms given to the Jedi, compares the Force-wielders to “a massive system of unchecked power, posing as a religion, delusional cult that claims to control the uncontrollable.”

With Rayencourt’s words, it seems that The Acolyte has finally hit the nail on the head. As I’ve said before, the potential in The Acolyte’s premise is immense, and this scene seems to finally tap into it. Sadly, it’s too little, too late.

We also get a few fight scenes, naturally. This is a season finale after all. Although the battles suddenly include an awful lot of slo-mo, the choreography is still as impressive as it was in episode five. I just wish there was more of it. The series as a whole reminds me a lot of The Phantom Menace, both thematically and narratively in some parts; there’s some excellent standalone scenes, but as a whole, it never quite comes together.

That will probably be what The Acolyte will be remembered for: flirting with greatness, but never achieving it. The finale sets things up for another season and showrunner Leslye Headland has already been talking about doing more seasons, but nothing has been officially announced. If we do get more of The Acolyte, I hope they have a better grip on their themes and will invest in better character development.