With its fourth episode, “Day,” The Acolyte resumes its present-tense narrative following last week’s flashback episode, but with a noticeably slower pace. While the initial episodes of Leslye Headland’s Star Wars series were dynamic and thematically rich, “Day” shifts gears to focus on setting the stage for future events. Rather than standing as a complete narrative in its own right, this episode feels more like a strategic arrangement of characters and plotlines.
It seems as though “Day” was crafted with a reverse-engineered approach in the writing process. Headland and her team likely had a clear vision of where they wanted their characters and storylines to converge, and “Day” bears the weight of orchestrating these elements. Reflecting the series’ theme of duality, I wouldn’t be surprised if the upcoming fifth episode of The Acolyte is titled “Night,” aligning with the narrative structure. Indeed, “Day” serves as the first act of a larger story, leaving viewers hanging on an abrupt cliffhanger that teeters between frustration and anticipation. It’s akin to being tantalizingly close to a sumptuous meal, only to be told to wait until next week to indulge.
Yet, this cliffhanger ending isn’t necessarily a flaw. The Acolyte, much like its Star Wars predecessors, expertly weaves together influences that shaped George Lucas’ original vision. From the overt nods to films like Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and John Ford’s The Searchers to the serialized storytelling of Flash Gordon, the series embraces a rich tapestry of inspirations. Serialized storytelling, in particular, draws on the tradition of ending each installment with a gripping cliffhanger, ensuring audiences eagerly return for the next chapter.
The Acolyte has frequently embraced serialized storytelling throughout its episodes, but “Day” takes this approach to new heights with its deliberately tantalizing cliffhanger ending. While this leaves audiences craving more, it comes at the expense of the episode itself. Unlike its predecessors, which functioned as standalone narratives with serialized elements, “Day” feels more like the first half of a larger story.
This may well be intentional. “Day” serves as the opening act of a two-part narrative, yet the series’ release schedule separates these halves into distinct entities. As such, we must evaluate them accordingly.
Director Alex Garcia Lopez luxuriates in exploring the burgeoning relationships and dynamics among the show’s expansive cast. Additionally, the episode offers quintessentially Star Wars moments, from the introduction of Bazil, a charmingly rendered alien character, to a thrilling mid-episode creature attack. While “Day” may occasionally feel like a detour from the main narrative, these diversions are undeniably enjoyable.
Simultaneously, this more luxurious pace allows Claire Kiechel and Kor Adana’s script to set up and delve into more of the mythic material that The Acolyte has handled so well thus far. Having Amandla Stenberg’s Osha and Dafne Keen’s Jecki discuss the morality of killing a living creature in a galaxy where the Jedi believe death results in one becoming ‘one with the Force’ is fascinating, and both performers deliver quietly contemplative work. Additionally, the way in which The Acolyte writers continue to develop and refine Manny Jacinto’s character of Qimir is deeply intriguing, as they seem to be inverting George Lucas’ approach to introducing Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back for nefarious purposes. As Lucas said of Yoda in that film, he is a character “that seems very insignificant and not very important, but who turns out to be the master wizard, or the master thing,” and if this episode’s heavy-handed hints are to be believed, the way in which The Acolyte is sculpting out a very deliberate characterization for its antagonist is fascinatingly in active conversation with that technique.
All of the performances are great here, with Lee Jung-jae doing some especially fantastic work conveying the tremendous burden that Sol feels in having now failed both Osha and Mae. And the actress who plays both of those characters, Amandla Stenberg, continues to give defined and distinct performances for each one of them that feel indelibly entrenched in their own individual arcs. Michael Abels’ score and Chris Teague’s cinematography continue to be sources of awe, with their work collectively shining (quite literally) in the sunset-set finale. Additionally, the production design by Kevin Jenkins and Sophie Becher continues to be exquisite, especially the massive set they’ve constructed for Kelnacca’s home on Khofar. The exterior is lush and feels massive in size and scope, while the interior feels exceedingly intimate and lived-in.
A detail that I especially loved about the production design was the recurring yin and yang symbols sprawled all over the walls of Kelnacca’s home, which both resembled the Prime Jedi symbol from the first Jedi Temple as seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and the symbol of the Witches of Brendok that Mae sports on her forehead. It’s a small detail which Alex Garcia Lopez’s direction takes time to highlight and will almost certainly be paid off in overtly textual ways in later episodes, but functioned as insightful subtext in its own right here, and that’s great.
Having said all of that, it does ultimately feel like some of the actual character work that happens within the confines of “Day” is a bit rushed and underbaked. The idea of having Mae’s motivations change so drastically after seeing that Osha is alive back in the second episode is a great idea, but it’s a turn that doesn’t feel quite as fleshed out as it should, and thus rings a bit hollow. In conjunction with that, for as much as I love the way that they’re going about crafting Qimir’s character, the sheer amount of overt foreshadowing this episode does leaves one just kind of waiting incessantly for the other shoe to drop. In these ways, the more languid pace doesn’t necessarily mean that said time is well allocated. “Day” feels like it spends too much time on things that are incredibly well-established pieces of The Acolyte’s fiction, and not enough time on others that could use further marination and gestation.
In this way, as an episode in its own right, “Day” is the weakest of the series thus far. But it must be said, once the episode gets to what it’s really been driving to, in the moments just before its cliffhanger ending, it’s absolutely phenomenal stuff. The way in which Alex Garcia Lopez blends more horror-esque elements into the vernacular of the show for the proper introduction of the main antagonist is supremely unnerving, as is the way in which Abels’ score embraces this in palpable fashion. In tandem with this, the staging that plays out in the final moments is fantastically motivated. The direction actively foreshadows some shifting allegiances that come to fruition and utilizes the incredible set to great effect, making it feel even more massive in scale. It’s a bona fide great moment of filmmaking that makes maximum use of the space and captures the turning tides of this conflict in deeply motivated visual form.
RGM GRADE
(C+)
“Day” is not going to go down as the strongest episode of The Acolyte by a long shot, but it’s a worthwhile entry into the lexicon of this Star Wars series. The decision to take things at such a slower pace at the moment where it feels like the series should really be hitting the gas is a strange one, but it does feel as if “Day” has gotten a lot of the legwork out of the way and set up some crucial story elements for next week and the latter half of the season. Here’s hoping next week’s “Night” makes good on the work put in here and delivers something truly special.
