There’s such a thing as too short of an episode that also ends at the wrong time.
The Acolyte Episode 4, ‘Day,’ is the shortest episode of the new Star Wars series so far — which is a letdown. Normally Disney’s Star Wars shows have the midway point be this action-packed episode that nails every moment. Yet The Acolyte Episode 4, ‘Day,’ seems to have missed the memo.
While it was said this episode should’ve been the third episode in a previous review, the ending now reveals why the flashback episode arrived so early in one word: cliffhanger.
It’s now predicted Episode 5 will be equally short with the majority of it the fight that got interrupted by the credits. So, it seems Episode 5 will be The Acolyte’s massively impressive mid-episode that blows everyone’s minds.
The ending of The Acolyte Episode 4, ‘Day,’ is the best part. While some might say the walking scenes in the forest could have been cut shorter, that would just leave no build-up. So, the way the episode unfolded things is exactly how it should be. However, it should now be a seven-episode season instead of eight. There is no reason to cut mid-fight.
Well, there may be one reason — to keep people watching. With the majority of Star Wars fans not being the biggest fans of The Acolyte, maybe the creators foresaw this and knew they needed this satisfying episode ending to bring viewers back. But if everyone made it this far, it’s unlikely they’re going to stop now. So now that reason is ruled out, it’s safe to say there is no reasoning behind a terrible ending.
The episode ends so abruptly that if you blink, you’ll think they zoned out and missed a solid five minutes. It’s this author’s opinion that intense and quick-paced lightsaber fights can be one of the best parts of the Star Wars universe. And this episode is robbed of that.
However, this episode did one thing better than George Lucas’ Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Yes, Episode III is one of the greatest Star Wars movies of all time, but why were there only four Jedi to fight “arrest” Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid)? At least this episode brought a decent amount of Jedi to take on Mae (Amandla Stenberg). But with the fun twist at the end let’s just say they didn’t bring enough of themselves.
Speaking of the twist — any guess who’s Mae’s master? There are two theories right now: It’s either Qimir (Manny Jacinto) or Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith). With Qimir, it feels too obvious to be him. He’s left alone and all of a sudden, her master shows up; that’s a Clark Kent classic. Yet, Mother Aniseya could make sense because who else besides Mae would want revenge on the four Jedi who were on Brendok all those years ago? No one else would be this determined to get revenge on how things unfolded. And once Mae found out Osha (Amandla Stenberg) was alive, she steered away from her mission and her master killed off the Wookie Jedi. And let’s be honest, there’s no way the witches died from that fire.
If it’s neither Qimir nor Mother Aniseya, then it must be another witch because the logic applied to why it could be Mother Aniseya can apply to any of them.
Everything about this episode could have made it the best episode yet if it wasn’t for the ending. An unsatisfying ending can ruin the whole thing. With that, the next episode will be one for the books with the lightsaber fight — let’s just hope it lasts a few minutes if not longer and Mae’s master isn’t too strong for all of them right away.
