The Acolyte, Episode 5: The Master’s Revelation, an Important Book Reference and Other Easter Eggs

The length of live-action Star Wars TV episodes has been a point of debate since The Mandalorian’s first season of sitcom-length episodes. And now The Acolyte is here to reignite that debate. However, we have a little more clarity than usual, because this episode, which runs about 27 minutes without opening and closing credits, feels very obviously like the second half of last week’s episode. It’s frustrating, but the wicked fight scenes between Mae’s newly emerged master and the Jedi who invaded Khofar, not to mention the big reveal of that mysterious villain’s identity, make up for it all.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for episode 5 of The Acolyte, “Night.”

Last week’s episode, which was just as short, had all the main cast arriving on Khofar and by the end of the episode they all got together. And this week they were fighting. The audience would have been better served if this story had been an hour-long episode rather than having a week-long break in between for no real reason. It’s a puzzling phenomenon and it makes it a little harder to take this show seriously when it undermines its own rhythm in this way.

Thankfully, the details of this week’s action, in which Mae’s mysterious master finally shows his face and slaughters most of the Jedi who came to Khofar with Sol and Osha, are pretty impressive. These sequences are a blast, with lightsaber and hand-to-hand combat that has a very different vibe than we’ve ever seen before in live-action Star Wars. This sequence doesn’t go well for this Jedi. Although Jecki in particular puts up a good fight, this crew just isn’t prepared for it – and all of the Jedi, except Master Sol, are slaughtered. Yes, Jecki and Yord are absolutely dead.

And it turns out that Mae’s master is Qimir. It’s not the most shocking revelation after that guy who pretended not to have Force powers referenced the Sith Code a few episodes ago, but it’s nice that it’s not some completely random other person we didn’t already know. Now I can’t help but wonder where Qimir’s own master is, but there could be complications. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Among all the fights in this episode, there is a confrontation between Osha and Mae. Mae tells Osha that there was a lot more going on in her childhood in the coven than she knows, and that Osha shouldn’t trust the Jedi. But Osha is too narrow-minded and can’t make that decision. She tries to arrest Mae, but Mae is the far better fighter and is able to subdue her. And in a strange move, Mae cuts her hair and goes to Sol while pretending to be Osha. And then Qimir finds Osha. Now The is a role reversal.

Although the episode was annoyingly short, it was still pretty wild and entertaining. And we also have a few interesting details and Easter eggs to ponder on, such as the live-action introduction of a really cool item from an old and beloved Star Wars novel. Let’s take a look.