The Acolyte Episode 4 Review: Dead Wookiees Aren't Much Fun 

The show is stringing us along at this point with the promise of answers to questions we're barely interested in asking. We know Osha is the good twin, Mae is the bad twin, Mae is the one killing the Jedi, and that someone evil in a silly mask is telling her to do it. The big secret with Jedi and the witches can only be a.) the Jedi killed the witches and covered it up or b.) the witches somehow killed themselves and the Jedi covered it up. The Acolyte hasn't given us information except what it chooses to deliver through exposition. There is no mystery, just info dumps.

They spent 180 million for actors to take a hike on a soundstage.

All previous sins of Disney Star Wars will be immediately forgiven if the evil twin turns to the camera, breaks the fourth wall, and screams TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE!

I’m just gonna pass on this show and rewatch Ewoks The Battle For Endor(1985) and Revenge Of The Sith(2005) instead

I think it’s great story telling to kill major characters before the audience gets to know them well enough to care about them in any way. Meaningless deaths are always better than character development. It will be great in episode 7 or 8 to find out that the deaths 5 weeks ago matter because reasons. Who green lit this series?

I had the exact same thought about next weeks episode being, at least in part, a flash back. When this show isn’t embarrassing is agonizingly slow.

My first thought after seeing Bazil SCREENWRITER GUY: There is this cute, furry, little alien troper called Bazil in this episode... PRODUCER GUY: So, you have a merchandising opportunity for me (Thanks Ryan, I guess...)

Smilo-Ren will be the twins Dathomir mother. She won’t die at the end of the series, and will return to Dathomir and later give birth to Darth Maul and his brothers. I’m calling it now. It’s the most Disney Star Wars thing I can think of.

One thing that should be discussed more but isn't is how Disney Star Wars is hurting the people they claim to be representing. Their horrible writing, combined with their use of a very aggressive stance on culture/political issues to cover their bad writing, is dragging the fringe out of the woodwork and giving them an excuse to spew their hate. All I see, as a step-father of a teen who is still sorting out their gender identity, is Disney intentionally making life much, much harder for people just trying to sort things out about themselves.

Glad your back to frequently uploading Erik!

wasn't Ki adi Mundi born on 93BBY? -long live monty Python

My wookie died Late last fall He's still rotting in the hall Dead wookies aren't much fun. No no no

Oh hey Erik! Didn't realize you had a RU-vid channel! Re: the cliffhanger thing, according to one of the writer's on twitter (YMMV) Ep. 4 is part of a 2-parter episode, so yeah, the half-episode theory seems legit. This show is just so all over the place and forgetting basic Star Wars stuff (like, why do we need a tracking alien when Jedi/Sith are capable of sensing other Force users?), including characters from the Prequels as prequels that do not fit the timeline(literally _any other Jedi Master ['cept Mace Windu] would work, but they picked Ki-Adi-Mundi instead.), and just this failure to really make us feel all that invested in the characters. Also, Mae's sudden switch in priorities and willingness to turn herself into the Jedi is just such a 180. Like girl, you KILLED two Jedi already! They're not going to just forgive you over that! I dunno. Maybe I'm just sick of this 'oh, we have evil characters who can get redeemed' shtick Hollywood's been on lately. Only good things I can say about the show are the alien designs (including Adi-Mundi) look decent (except Venestra, whose design still feels like it should be in Star Trek, not Star Wars), and that they gave the Sith/Dark Jedi/whatever he is some rather ominous presence. Even if the whole floating descent thing feels awkward after the 'Leia Poppins' thing from TLJ. I'm guessing the show's budget is in the last half of the series, because right now it doesn't feel like it justifies the $180 million price tag yet.

Okay, I don't know about dead wookies. But dead Ewoks? Now, that's fun!

Every time someone misspells "Wookiee", Peter Mayhew's ghost becomes angrier.

They wasted the potential of the Wookie Jedi....figures 🤷🏾‍♂️. I do feel like this will end like a Scooby Doo episode and the main witch will be the "Sith". If it is actually a Sith or just a smokescreen. Also, AMESOME Conan sword in the background. My favorite movie.

"The "Darth Qimir" speculation has been swirling among The Acolyte's fans for a while now. Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence in favor of this theory is the fact that Qimir flat out quotes the first line of the Sith Code, telling Osha, "Peace is a lie." (The Sith is male? I am going to have to write a seriously worded letter to Disney expressing my disapproval.)

So many series nowadays seem to write the whole narrative and then struggle to split it up into episodes. It appears like they have a plan and reveal for the next episode and the previous episode of the narative ended in the obvious place that now this was just horribly Expanded filler to get to the next point.

I want everyone to know there's a Jedi should not be there in that timeline and that is master Ki-Adi Mundi if you don't believe me check the ending credits

You could have spent the rest of the vid saying, 'wibble wibble wibble' and I still would 'like' because of the 'Holy Grail' scene in Castle Anthrax. One of my faves. :)

Darth Smilo Wren is a woman...because it's the Acolyte, so it has to be. Likely one of the witch mothers...and they'll force in a, "no I am your mother," because its tne Acolyte. Modern writing gives their half baked plots away by regularly indulging in bad modern tropes.

This makes me appeciate how lucas was mostly technically comsistant, giving each jedi a healthy distance unless they are doing a trained tandem maneuver. Having eight jedi standing shoulder to shoulder igniting their sabers looks kind of cool - until you realize 3 or 4 of those shoulders would be zipped off like butrer if anything happens next, as should have happened here. After that blow back with lightsabers flailing about? 3 or 4 shoulders and a head or two lying on the ground, and rhe survivors throwing up at the sight.

Coral is the Sith. Shes getting revenge for having her children taken away from her because ya know, she carried them lol and has a grudge.

I'm saying this as someone who's only watched the reviews, not the show; My Stab in the Dark is that Qimir is a woman disguised as a man. Yea, I know the actor is a dude (I looked it up), but watching a review and in it seeing a short clip featuring the character, that was my first thought. What could be more subverting expectations than having a man, playing a woman, disguised as a man? (Monthy Python did it first!)

Ki Adi Mundi wasn't even born at the time this was supposed to be happening. And he's an adult?!

It's just Star Wars cosplay funded by Disney.

I wish more people made things like David Lynch, he didn't really care much about pacing. A lot of festivals are uneasy about showing short-film content that is over 7 minutes so there does seem to be a fixation with pacing in some areas these days. I wonder if that is what's going on with this show, or they just don't have enough content.

Hey Erik! Long time fan of your stuff. Any chance you will make a video reviewing or calling out your fellow Forbes writer (and RU-vidr) Paul Tassi who has written some wild articles on the Acolyte so far?

YAY! I've been waiting on this!!! Thanks Erik!

I get that reference!

Nice Dead Puppies shout-out.

Sigh, at this rate the season finale will overtake The Star Wars Holiday Special as the worst star wars tv.

Is this Nickelodeon? The story is presented in such a childish way. Everyone's clothes are too clean. Hair is too perfect. Dialog is bad. Acting is corny. "Come out with your hands where we can see them!" Really? That's the best the script writer can do? The scene where Qimir gets caught in a rope trap is such a ridiculous Hollywood trope. Everything is so on the nose. "I don't want to be a witch". "The Jedi are bad. The Jedi are good". This is the first time I feel like I've outgrown Star Wars and am watching something intended for a much younger audience.

We are missing the message for this episode. "never assume a giant space rabbits gender"

The sith is really the Ncuti Gatwa Doctor Who. Calling it now.

I think the next flashback ep is 7 based on an interview where they were talking about casting the kids for episodes 3 and 7 but I could be misremembering

I bet the next episode (other than flashbacks) will pick up with the Jedi getting up and a dust cloud clearing and the sith person and Mae are gone. Complete letdown.

It was Only a Sith Bot.

It is better then the last episode Im not surprised May wants to turn herself in because she never to me seem evil yes the idea of killing is the act of evil but she was doing it out of fear.

They could make a movie just showing Darth Vader sitting in his special bacta tank and it would be better than the Acolyte.

Episode Four was titled The Fellowship of the boRing.

Thor Skywalker thinks Smylo Ren is Lesley Headlund's wife. Frankly, I don’t think they’re that creative

A Wookie Jedi... What a great thing to see... Oh, he's dead.... Another waste of a great hook...

I don't think they would cast Manny Jacinto for a minor role.

Sol is Tenebrous.

Nothing to throw a fit about? ki adi mundi breaks the canon lol. That was a big deal to a lot of ppl apparently. Was funny watching wookiepedia deleting stuff from his bio and updating it in real time to damage control it, while ppl took screenshots before the changes.

The mouse company is incapable of spending 180 million dollars to create an 8 episode series that isn't boring, and embarrassing. It's incredible that a film like Godzilla minus one cost just 15 million dollars and every single episode of this series costs over 20. What are we talking about? I wonder if there is anyone in that company who cares about profit at all. A group of kids with cell phones would have done something more sensible and credible.

I don’t ever watch any Star Wars related stuff. No just now. Never cared about Star Wars in first place but is fun to watch the reviews lol

Have you watched Russian Doll? I saw it when it came out & seem to remember it was like groundhog day but lasted 8-10eps, retelling the same story from diff points of view over and over. That might be Headlands thing which feeds into 'many of the truths we cling to depends on your own point of view'. After finishing Russian Doll I couldn't decide if I liked it or not.

Much dumbness. I could nitpick... that 3 hours to sunset on Khofar seems to be one of those Elastic Time™things that allow a critical mass of hikers to arrive at Dog House from different starting points. Very convenient. The hikers walk into the same Pete's Plant Barn set from 4 different angles. It looked like a Star Trek ref. Very meta. The Jedi def needed a secret black ops unit, v Iran/Contra. Nice. I can't tell who plays Ollie North. Master Verbenenennana? Nah, she's the Sith/Abeloth plant. Maybe Ki-Adi-Mundi, who wasn't born until 60 years later? It's amazing what a presidential pardon will do for your record.

Five new unnamed jedi of which four are male! How many will make it to the end of episode five?

Wait, he's already dead before she gets there? What? Did I hear that correctly? How far in to the 30+ minute episode was that exactly? This series isn't even a lazy cash grab, because people have already paid their subscriptions... except for those of us that already cancelled after episode 2, before the auto-renewal, so cannot watch any more. Imagine if they make 2 episodes then a flashback, 2 episodes, flashback, and final 2 episodes. Very weird.

“Which several [of the 4] episodes have” That’s AT LEAST 75% there. The majority of these episodes have ended badly. The only thing wrong with The Acolyte is the poor story telling, agreed.

Other than a Jedi being alive when he didn't used to be (Master Mundi - which is dumb, you can say it's not canon, but it makes less sense for him to be alive, and was clearly them just wanting to have a familiar face in the Jedi), the rat with pronouns (why do we need pronouns in SW? it's weird), a murderer just gonna switch over to the good guys after murdering 2 people, and they killed the wookie-jedi before we could even get to know the character... other than all that, which all happened within a 30 min timeframe, then yeah it wasn't terrible. With those things in mind, I'd argue this was as smelly as ep 3.

Did the Wookie have pink lipstick on?

Grace Randolph said this was the best of the first four episodes

I really liked this episode. An yes episode 3 had some terrible casting, acting (Jodie Turner Smith and the witches also why were the actresses who played the younger Mae and Osha not the same actress or identical they should have just used the girl who played Mae) dialouge, ("SPICE CREAMS") writing (The witches and force conception) and directing but episode 4 made up for it somewhat. All these losers in outrage who are acting as if Leslie Hedland and The Acolyte murdered a member of their family just come across as toxic and mentally ill. Which is unfortunately a lot of peoole an says a lot about society and those who use social media these days. I'm convinced Jodie Turner Smith and some of the other witch actresses are not in fact actors. They strike me as friends of Kathleen Kennedy and Leslie Hedland just given a job to appear in her show as a part of a lesbian representation promotion.

count our blessings it was short episode, I couldn't take the 4 year old script writing.

Wookies just distract from the feminist power dynamic.

I think that discount Ezra Miller will be revealed as the Sith lord.

Trash ....you cant end the show on a force push

After the last episode of The Acoshite I'm finally done with Disney "Star Wars." I gave everything a fair shot, but consider only Rogue One, Andor, Rebels and the last season of CW canon from Disney. Maybe the first two seasons of Mando, because I enjoyed it, before the bait and switch in season 3 and I effin like Bo-Katan (just give her own show)! I like the original Ahsoka... I just hate what they're doing with this franchise. Dave Filoni is hardly blameless at this point... My most anticipated show was Kenobi, because I'm a prequel fan (grew up with them) and that was butchered. I obviously continued watching after that, but enough is enough.

A wookie jedi is a pretty dumb idea if you ask me. It just doesnt work.

This show is such garbage. I can’t even even finish your review about it.