‘Star Wars: The Acolyte” Episode 6 Review | “Teach/Corrupt”

Star Wars: The Acolyte episode 6, “Teach/Corrupt,” is the character-driven answer to episode 5’s action-driven success. With deep emotional beats and tension-filled character discussions, this week’s episode finally pushes the series toward long-awaited answers.

The rest of this article contains spoilers for episode 6 of The Acolyte.

“You’re wondering if it’s honorable to kill me like this,” The Stranger, formerly known as Qimir (Manny Jacinto), says to Osha (Amandla Stenberg) as she points his own lightsaber at him. “Heat of battle, it’s justified, but a few hours later, it’s vengeance.”

These words, spoken softly by a man who just an episode ago murdered fan-favorite characters, perfectly reflect The Acolyte’s consistent exploration of balance. Whether it’s the balance of ideals, desires, knowledge, or people, this show forces viewers into new perspectives.

And it’s been doing this since the very beginning.

A Delicate Balance

This episode’s double title “Teach/Corrupt” harkens back to the first two episodes and their own double titles of “Lost/Found” and “Revenge/Justice.” With this reflection comes a new, for me at least, understanding of what these titles might mean.

Originally, I assumed the double titles were meant to represent Osha’s and Mae’s different understandings of their worlds. With all three titles put together, though, and after all we’ve seen of the show so far, I now see them as representing the struggle for balance. More accurately, I see how that balance can shift depending on a person’s perspective.

It’s perspective, after all, that defines the difference between “lost” and “found,” “revenge” and “justice,” “teaching” and “corrupting.” There’s a thin line of balance that runs through each of these pairs. Lean too far on either side, and your perspective shifts, guiding you in a new direction. To a new understanding.

Similar, perhaps, to the switch in paths we see Osha and Mae first encounter in episode 5.

This element of the story falls into place with the “theme of two” I discussed in my first review. And it permeates throughout the visual imagery we’ve seen so closely tied to Osha and Mae.

An Eclipse

Two of the most important visual characteristics of both the title card of The Acolyte and the twins’ home planet are Brendok’s twin moons. Throughout the course of episode 3, we see the moons drift closer and closer until they are nearly perfectly aligned at Osha and Mae’s Ascension ceremony. When the Jedi interrupt the ceremony, the moons separate once more, just as Osha and Mae soon find themselves on separate paths.

This is a cycle we see continue 16 years later. Even if Brendok’s moons aren’t visible to us at this point, their paths repeat in Osha and Mae’s reunion in episode 5. Once again, the twins are briefly aligned. Once again, they find themselves on separate paths. This time, however, the paths they travel are the opposite of the ones they came from.

“Teach/Corrupt” shows us the beginning of these similar/new paths. With Osha now in The Stranger’s care and Mae trying to deceive Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-Jae) as her sister, the twins are, in many ways, back at the beginning of their story. Separated, left with people they aren’t sure they can trust. Burdened with the weight of uncovering their own truths while everyone around them tries to make them believe other versions of them. They have passed one another yet again and now travel on opposite sides of their epicenter.

But if there’s one thing we know about Brendok’s moons, and about Osha and Mae, it’s that they will always, inevitably, eclipse one another. Even if just for a short time.

And so I can’t help but wonder not only where these similar/new paths will take them, but what their next encounter will bring.

Desire

Intricately tied to Mae’s and Osha’s journeys are The Stranger and Jedi Masters Sol and Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson). The story so far seems to suggest that where the twins end up depends greatly on what these three mentors are hiding.

The Stranger, for his part, has opted for an honesty (from a certain point of view, of course) with Osha that he seemingly never shared with Mae. This goes beyond the revelation of his true identity and perhaps digs deeper into the desires he senses Osha shares with him. From a longing for connection and true understanding to a desire for individuality and power, The Stranger encourages all of these in Osha while hinting at how they might speak to his own past as well.

I’m not so naïve as to ignore the manipulative aspects of The Stranger’s approach to Osha; neither is Osha herself. But it’s easy to see how a young woman who has long yearned for a stronger sense of self, and the freedom to discover it apart even from her twin sister, would be seduced by The Stranger’s teachings.

Especially when they seem to hint at Jedi secrets.

Deceit

The Acolyte has skirted around Sol’s secrets for a long time now. And while we know they all revolve around the fateful night on Brendok, we haven’t yet uncovered exactly what he hid from Osha. But with Mae now restrained on his ship, Sol seems more determined than ever to finally reveal the truth. The only problem is that he’s not revealing it to Osha.

We can only assume that when the truth of the explosion makes itself known to Osha, it will come not from the man who saved her as a child, but from the man who wants desperately to carry her into the dark.

Similarly, though Vernestra has operated at the edges of this story for most of the season, this episode hints at her possibly direct importance. With the revelation that The Stranger used to be a Jedi “a really long time ago,” viewers are left to wonder if anyone in the Order knows who he is. Vernestra, a Mirialan who is over 100 years old, might just be the answer to that question.

Indeed, the transition between Osha asking The Stranger about the whip-like scars on his back and Vernestra using her lightwhip for the first time onscreen seems to hint at a connection. This could, of course, be a red herring. An exploration of how badly we’ll allow ourselves to think of the Jedi, how much we’ll allow The Stranger’s musings to whisper their ways into our thinking, too.

The Balance of Destiny

Because who are we when we don’t trust the Jedi? Where do we turn when their promised light suddenly doesn’t shine so bright?

These are the questions The Stranger forces Osha to wonder, regardless of how uncomfortable they make her. The brilliance of The Acolyte is not only that it forces us to wonder them along with her, but that it places us on a tightrope, balancing between two sets of information we’re not sure we can trust.

Lost or found?

Revenge or justice?

Teach or corrupt?

Do we have a choice to make? Or are our destinies as predictable as the path of Brendok’s twin moons?

New episodes of The Acolyte air every Tuesday at 9pm (EST) / 6pm (PST) on Disney+.