The Acolyte episode 7 recap and review: "Choice"

Star Wars: The Acolyte continues to impress, entertain, and shock with tonight's episode, but also adds a bit of an annoying factor as well.

The last episode of The Acolyte served us some plot twists, some possible new connections, and a little bit of sexy. Mae and Osha have swapped places and are each getting a little taste of the Force, Master Venestra found the bodies of the slain Jedi, Master Sol is apparently number one on the suspect list for the absolute slaughter from the fifth episode, and Osha seems to have decided to dabble on the Dark Side of things.

Let's dissect tonight's episode below, shall we? Oh, and the obvious SPOILER WARNING. Please continue to read at your own risk.

The Acolye episode 7 recap and review: "Choice"

Our episode kicks off with our Jedi gang - Sol, Indara, Kelnacca, and Torbin - poking around Brendok's flora and fauna like they're on some weird botanical field trip. They’re scanning plants, taking samples, and generally looking like they'd rather be anywhere else. Kelnacca’s metal detector starts beeping, but instead of finding treasure, it’s just more work. Yay.

Night falls, and they set up camp. Torbin is all moody and refusing to eat. Indara, ever the stern mom figure, insists he chow down. Poor Torbin just wants to go back to the bright lights of Coruscant, but nope, they’ve been stuck here for a while and with no apparent end in sight. The planet Brendok was supposed to be a barren wasteland thanks to some hyperspace disaster, but surprise! It's actually bursting with life. Torbin thinks their mission is pointless, but Indara drops some Jedi wisdom about vergence - a fancy word for concentrated Force energy that can create life. It’s super important to the Jedi.

Indara schools Sol about not confusing Torbin’s feelings with his own, reminding us why she’s got a Padawan and Sol doesn’t. They split up, and Sol stumbles upon young Mae and Osha, the mystical twins, having an argument by a tree - the same scene we witnessed in the third episode. He’s all sneaky-sneak as he hides and watches them like a curious squirrel. Mother Koril shows up to collect the girls, telling them they know they're not allowed out of the fortress, and Sol tries to contact Indara, but, of course, the message doesn’t go through.

Sol, channeling his inner parkour master, scales the twins’ fortress in true Assassin’s Creed style nd infiltrates it flawlessly. Inside, he sees Mother Anysea testing the twins’ powers. Mother Koril senses something’s up and heads toward Sol’s hiding spot just as he had left it. Sol reports back about the twins, worrying they might be in danger because witches aren’t supposed to raise kids. The Jedi gang busts into the fortress like it’s Black Friday at a toy store, with Indara leading the charge. The witches are mid-ritual, and it’s déjà vu from episode 3.

Torbin’s eyes well up with tears as Mother Anysea whispers sweet manipulations into his head. He's all torn up inside, wanting to escape the planet and whining about it as Mother Anysea continues playing him like a fiddle. Indara wants to test the girls, and Torbin snaps back to reality. They leave the fortress for the night, but tensions are high.

Later, Sol tells Indara he feels a connection with Osha and wants her to be his Padawan. Indara’s skeptical, saying the coven won’t let her go. Sol’s determined, believing Osha wants to leave with them. Indara repeats her mantra: do not confuse your feelings for Osha's. Meanwhile, Torbin’s outside meditating and the witches arrive for the testing. Indara questions Mae, who talks about Ascension and how it means she and Osha will one day lead the coven, and that's how she has the same mark as her mother. Mae quotes Mother Anysea, saying "Everyone must walk through fear, everyone must be sacrificed to fulfill their destiny."

The looks on Sol and Indara's faces say it all - they believe what they just heard means the girls are being marked as sacrifices for some entity or a ritual. This is where the House-of-the-Dragon-sized misunderstanding begins.

Sol tells Indara he believes Mae’s been set up to fail and tries a different approach with Osha, which seems to have been successful. Blood samples reveal the twins have a crazy high M-count that suggests they are actually one person split into two. Torbin, whom I now am annoyed with at this point and is ever the impulsive one, rushes back to the fortress, thinking they’ve found the vergence. It's his ticket home.

We see Mother Koril tell Mae to stop Osha from leaving and test her powers, and tells her to "get angry". The coven’s angry, but Mother Anysea insists Osha must choose her own path. Mae, in a fit of anger, destroys the fortress’s console, trapping everyone inside and kicking off the preparations for war. Sol senses trouble and drags Torbin along, reminding him to guard his mind.

Chaos ensues as the Jedi make their way inside the fortress. Mother Anysea insists on no violence, but Mother Koril’s ready to fight. The fortress starts to explode, and it’s revealed Mae accidentally caused the fire by being clumsy and dropping the fire lantern she had been burning Osha's book with. Sol and Torbin clash with the witches in a visually stunning scene but a scene that really felt unnecessary. Sol stabs Mother Anysea and kills her, and Mother Koril tells Mae to run as she fights Torbin and Sol.

Sol doesn’t want to fight, but Koril’s not backing down. The fortress crumbles and Mother Koril, along with other chanting witches, possesses Kelnacca, turning him into a rampaging Wookie. WE FINALLY GET TO SEE THE WOOKIE JEDI IN ACTION. The fight is brutal, but Sol manages some epic acrobatics to disarm Kelnacca before he finds Kelnacca strangling him. Indara arrives just in time to knock out the witches and save the day.

In the climactic finale, Sol finds the twins trapped on separate platforms. In an honestly very surprising decision, he saves Osha, letting Mae fall. With the witches gone, Osha recovering, and everyone emotionally wrecked, Indara tells the other Jedi they will tell the council "the truth" - a cover story about Mae burning down the fortress, ending in the death of the entire cven. Sol, trying to protect Osha, repeats the lie to the child.

I... didn't expect to dislike his episode to the magnitude in which I do. I'm not saying The Acolyte as a show sucks now - far from it. But this felt a lot like what the showrunners for Game of Thrones did to Daenerys Targaryen's character - made her a madwoman just to fit the plot. Sure, Torbin is young, but him whining about wanting to come home, Indara being colder than some spots in Antarctica, and Sol losing his composure over Osha... it felt a bit too context-less for me. Another thing that really made me sad was the absolute lack of information about the coven. If they're not Nightsisters, who are they? Why can't they raise kids? How do they harness their powers? Why do they turn into black whisps and clouds and disappear? Are they actually evil or are the Jedi so self-important that they felt they just had to meddle, destroying a peaceful culture instead? Not having any more answers about these amazing new characters really makes it hard to truly care about them.

I do have to say Sol was the highlight of the episode to me (and the young twins, they're just so cute), and I still stand by my theory of what could happen by the time things are all said and done.

With a flashback episode, we will be waiting with bated breath for the 8th and final episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte. Don't forget to tune in to Disney+ next Tuesday, July 16th, at 9pm ET for what is bound to be an epic conclusion to this refreshing tale.