The Acolyte episode 5 recap and review: "Night"

Another Tuesday night, another episode of The Acolyte - and what an episode that was.

Following right where we left off last week, we see Master Sol, Yord, Jecki, Osha, and other Jedi being attacked by the mysterious red-saber-wielding figure. Who is this person? What do they want?

We kind of get a bit of clarity in this episode. Let's dive right in and talk about this phenomenal new episode in this refreshingly fun and entertaining series.

SPOILER WARNING: please do read at your own risk.

Episode 5, "Night", recap and review

We pick it up right where we left off last week - Osha waking up to being attacked by this... mysterious Master. He's made it clear he's not playing around - he's there to kill Jedi. Osha witnesses and one by one, each Jedi is dropped, until Master Sol comes in and directs Yord to take Osha back to the ship.

Fun fact: the Dark Master's helmet is made out of purified cortosis, or Cortosis-Shield, which is even more durable than beskar. In fact, it can short out a lightsaber for a short period of time, as we do get to witness in this episode.

Yord does as he's told and Jecki gets dragged into the fight between Master Sol and this Dark Master. With Osha sensing that they needed to go back because the Master would kill every last one of them, she and Yord make their way back while luring umbramoths to try and use them against him.

"Master Sol."
"Who are you?"
"You don't remember me?"

Unfortunately, Jecki also dies in the fight against him, which leaves Master Sol visibly distraught. But, before she dies, she manages to knock his helmet off his head, and we get to see who's been behind the mask this whole time: Qimir. Yep, my partner was right. This is both good news and bad news. The good news is, we finally put a face to the name. The bad news is, Qimir seems more unhinged than we previously expected. He seems particularly angry at Master Sol, claiming he's lied to Osha and Mae, and saying the Jedi make the rules and say that he, a Sith, may not exist.

Qimir tells Sol he wants freedom to wield his power as he likes without answering to the Jedi. He wantes his own pupil, an Acolyte, but he claims Mae broke the rules and exposed him. And, since the Jedi say he can't exist he will have to kill them all. Typical Sith behavior, but this is brand new to these Jedi who only believed the Sith to be some sort of boogeyman. I understand Qimir's point and I love that this is something the show has always done right: it shows us that the Jedi aren't as pure and balanced as we've always been made to believe. They make mistakes, they commit crimes, and they stick their noses where they shouldn't. I think the right word here is entitled. The Jedi are and have always been entitled, and we get to watch this hit them where it hurts in this show.

Much to my sadness (and my throat's dislike, because oh my goodness, the way I angrily screamed when this happened), Yord does die at the hands of Qimir.

Mae starts to attempt to flee from Qimir, only to keep getting pulled back to him. Master Sol and Qimir start to fight once more, and we see that just as Sol is about to best Qimir and quite possibly kill him, Osha calls out to him. He stops in his tracks, and you can see every single emotion he goes through - fear, anger, confusion, frustration, love. His Padawan got murdered in front of him, everyone's favorite Himbo did too, and he's almost given in to hate and anger. But he stops and turns his saber off. Osha places Pip's flashlight head on Qimir's back, which lures the umbramoths to him and they fly away with him slicing at them. Osha starts to question Sol and why Qimir said she shouldn't trust him. Just as he says he'd explain, Mae stuns him. She tries to sway Osha to come back with her and be with her, but Osha just isn't having it and tries to arrest her.

Mae Force pushes Osha away from her and, in doing so, gravely injures her. Mae then takes this opportunity to swap clothes with Osha and even cut her hair in the same style, making it easier to pretend to be her as she joins Master Sol and Bazil, who seems to be catching on to Mae's plans. Sol is still very much unaware of this Parent Trap-like moment as they board the ship.

Qimir also doesn't seem to notice that the twins have swapped outfits, and he proceeds to return to "Mae" (aka, Osha with Mae's clothes) and take care of her.

This episode gave us a few gasps and showed us that no Jedi is safe from this Sith's disdain and hatred. As one question is solved, we get a few more in its place: what did Sol ever do to Qimir? Why is he so angry at all the Jedi? Why is he so invested in Mae and Osha? Why did Yord have to die?

Don't forget to tune in to Disney+ next Tuesday, July 2nd, for the next episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte.