‘The Acolyte’ Episode Three Recap: “Destiny”

*Warning: the following article contains spoilers for episode three of The Acolyte.*

I’m not going to beat around the bush: episode three of The Acolyte is awful, and no amount of sugarcoating will dilute how purely nonsensical it is. It completely shatters the mystery nicely set up in its pilot episodes, rendering any present-day storyline completely uninteresting by default. One even wonders how next week’s episode will make up for the numerous screenwriting blunders this week’s episode because it entirely removed the suspense wrought upon by its ambiguous pilot, where one would progressively discover why Mae (Amandla Stenberg) is on the path to murder the Jedi who were present during the burning of her village.

We find out exactly what happened, and it could’ve been an impactful part of the series were it treated right, but director Kogonada can’t do anything with the ridiculously inert script he has from Jasmyne Flouroy and Eileen Shim, one that continuously contradicts itself as the younger version of Mae (Leah Brady) and Osha (Lauren Brady) are at odds with one another, with the former wanting to become a Nightsister while the other wants to learn the ways of the Jedi.

Mae thinks they are bad, while Osha thinks they are good (no, really, this is an exchange: “The Jedi are bad!” prompting Osha to say, “The Jedi are good!” and nothing else beyond that), leading to a conflict between the two sisters and their mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith, in an After Yang reunion between herself and Kogonada), who plans to unite their souls into the coven. She teaches them the ways of the Force, but not unlike the Jedi, prompting Sol (Lee Jung-jae), Indara (Carrie Anne-Moss, thank God it wasn’t just a first episode appearance and her character will seemingly recur through flashbacks), Torbin (Dean Charles-Chapman) and Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) to arrive on Brendok expressing concern that the witches are training children.

This is where the episode derails, as the conflict between the two sisters verge in unintentionally hilarious territory, with the two leads unable to overcome the shoddy material given their way (one such instance prompts Mae to attack Osha like Tommy Wiseau in The Room) despite a pedigreed filmmaker who helmed one of the best child performances in any movie in the 2020s through Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja in After Yang.

Kogonada’s usually soulful, patient imprint is lacking here, and the episode contains none of the known aesthetic landmarks he offered us in Columbus and After Yang. Of course, he’s taking a crack at one of the biggest franchises in the world, but that didn’t stop indie filmmakers like Chloé Zhao, Lee Isaac Chung, or, most recently, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead from bringing their own sensibilities into the respective franchises they worked on. There’s no distinct moment that only Kogonada could’ve brought to life, and it gets particularly unimpressive when he can’t even make the most introspective, character-driven moments of the episode work, which is usually his strong suit. In fact, you can’t tell Kogonada helmed this episode, which begs the question as to why he wanted to join in the first place. Money, of course, which I honestly respect.

But, as mentioned above, it’s hard to make anything work when the screenplay itself is at the root of the problem. When Osha and Mae are called upon by the Jedi to test the twins to see if they are worthy to learn the ways of the Force, Aniseya tells the children to lie, which Mae does. However, Osha does not want to lie to the Jedi and actively wants to become one, which causes a massive rift between the two sisters. This could’ve been played well, showcasing how Aniseya brainwashed Mae into thinking that the Jedi are evil while Osha sees through her mother’s lies. However, unnaturally stilted dialogue completely hampers the whole thing, with Mae threatening to kill Osha if she dares escape with the Jedi, locking her sister in her room. No, really. After saying she won’t let Osha leave, the sister asks Mae, “It’s not up to you. You can’t stop me.” Mae then says, “Yes, I can,” Osha replies: “How?”

“I’ll kill you.”

…what???? Even with Mae’s blind fanaticism towards her mother, this line of dialogue makes very little sense and jolts us off-guard, but not in an interesting way, rather more perfunctorily.

It is then revealed, in the most anticlimactic way possible, that Mae started the fire that ultimately killed Aniseya and Brendok’s coven. As she starts that fire, Osha confronts her, saying, “What are you doing?” Mae replies, “What are you doing?” culminating in Osha retorting with…”What are YOU doing?????”

What are we doing? The potential for a thrilling mystery was there in the first two episodes, but everything about this one felt like a rough draft of a much better screenplay that never had the chance to flesh itself out. The result is unintentional hilarity in the worst possible way, with very few redeeming qualities. It’ll take some miracle to make next week’s episode somewhat palpable, but I remain optimistic that the series will course-correct itself and at least give us a compelling drama between Mae and Osha, which looks to be the show’s core.

The third episode of The Acolyte is now available to stream on Disney+.