war of stars is a lot of things, but it’s rarely sexy. A few things spring to mind: Anakin Skywalker’s bare chest after a nightmare, Padme’s belly in the battle arena, or a sideways glance from Han Solo, but in recent history the franchise has been rather devoid of sex and death. Kylo Ren and Rey Skywalker did have some chemistry, but it was like two teenagers discovering horniness for the first time: awkward, clumsy, and sometimes downright weird. And too many modern characters have been protected by plot armor, be it Boba Fett in his crappy Disney Plus series or supporting characters in The Mandalorian.
The latest episode of The Acolyteentitled The Master, is tailor-made for war of stars‘ adult audience, presenting us with a sexy villain and a number of corpses that normally House of the Dragon– and it happened to be one of the strongest episodes in the series yet.
The first thing I notice about the strange, helmeted villain who shows up in this episode to fight the Jedi is his arms. They are bare, something we almost never see war of stars villains, and their muscles glisten with sweat. As he faces off against the small army of Jedi trying to protect Wookiee Master Kelnocca, his biceps, triceps, and forearms are on full display, moving with incredible, dangerous speed, like a cobra twisting and striking over and over again.
The lightsaber fight he takes part in is one of the coolest I’ve ever seen war of stars. The choreography is masterful, and Dafne Keen’s Jecki and Lee-Jung Jae’s Sol show impressive skills as they go up against someone who doesn’t follow the usual rules of combat. We watch as they try to adapt to the stranger’s tactics, which include using his helmet to block and temporarily disable lightsabers. We see their faces change as they realize that this is something the Jedi have never experienced and can’t even comprehend.
The Acolyte The showrunners said they wanted to give us a lightsaber fight that was The Phantom MenaceDuel of Fatesand boy do they have. Jecki is fleet of foot and quick, leaping off of objects to deliver a more powerful blow as Sol’s anger at the loss of so many of his kind slowly takes over, manifesting itself in the way he fights. By the time the first half of the episode is over, nearly all of the Jedi have cauterized holes in them, steam gently escaping from them, including Keen’s Jecki, who suffers a rather horrific death after knocking the mysterious man’s helmet off his head.
We see him punch three holes in her with his newly split dual swords, and as her body falls to the ground, we get the big reveal: it’s Manny Jacinto’s Qimir, his hair dripping with sweat and falling in jagged streaks across his face, arms on full display, eyes full of rage. Evil has never looked so good.
And in case you weren’t sure whether Qimir, who secretly poses as a clumsy idiot rather than the master who controls Mae (one of two roles for Amandla Stenberg), is evil, he kills Yord (Charlie Barnett) shortly afterwards in what is probably the most gruesome way ever seen in war of starsWhile Yord kneels before him, Qimir brutally breaks his neck. Yes, he is evil bad.
I watched almost the entire episode with my mouth open in shock – shock that The Acolyte killing two characters we were only just getting to know, shock at how good the fights were, shock at the holes in the bodies, the broken neck, and the unprecedented, unabashed sexiness of Jacinto. The dark side should tempt you, and there’s no easier way to do that than by being damn hot.
That the episode ends with what looks like a few notes of Kylo Ren’s theme while Qimir tenderly covers Osha’s unconscious body with a scarf tells me two things: The Acolyte Showrunner know we crave sexy, murderous bad boys, and this series may tie in more closely to the movies than we expected. Is Qimir the very first Knight of Ren, the Dark Side acolytes who rose to power when the Sith were thought to be extinct and whose name Kylo made his own? It certainly seems that way.
The next episode of The Acolyte airs on Disney Plus on Tuesday, July 2. I hope your air conditioning is working because it’s going to be another hot episode.
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