Every week, one episode after another, I think to myself, surely it has to get better. With so many talented people working on this, there’s no way it can’t reach the heights of the franchise’s past. Just one more week. One more week and things will turn around. Then, suddenly, it happens. A moment of extraordinary comes leaping through the muddled mess of mediocrity, and I’m filled with hope. From this moment on, greatness is all I’ll see, but time is a flat circle, and I’m stuck in an endless loop of expensive expectations being met with cheap returns. It wasn’t until days after being left with my thoughts that I started wondering if I was wrong. Maybe the show wasn’t bad. Maybe it wasn’t even good. Maybe it was great.

Sure, season 4 of True Detective was hard to watch week-to-week, but maybe the finale wrapped up all of the important moments so well that on a rewatch, I would realize its greatness. A TV show that’s storytelling was the exact opposite of Game of Thrones. Where Game of Thrones’ weekly character conflicts left audiences captivated but ultimately failed to deliver on the big picture of it all, True Detective Season 4 was a pilot that only worried about having the smoothest landing possible. Who cares if you run through 100 birds and every storm cloud in the sky? As long as passengers got off the plane bragging about the landing, it was a good flight. Is this a new genre? A new way to tell “great” stories on television? You know who might think so? The Acolyte.

Just to give a quick backstory to my relationship with Star Wars, I don’t like it. Don’t get me wrong, there was a time in my life when I loved it, but after being yelled at by a certain sub-section of the fanbase for thinking The Last Jedi was good and then watching that same sub-group get their way with the direction of the story for the disastrously bad Rise of The Skywalker, I started thinking Star Wars wasn’t for me anymore. Like everyone, I still think The Mandalorian is a fun character, and there’s that one moment in the Obi-Wan show that was great, but other than that, I just don’t think Star Wars makes anything that grabs me. So why The Acolyte? Almost as if I could sense a disturbance in the force, somehow Palpatine had returned. The same people who yelled at me for liking The Last Jedi were back and more upset than ever. “How could Disney have done this to Star Wars?! WOMEN?! NOT IN MY STAR WARS?!”

Well, the last time these freaks showed up and cried, it was over what ended up being one of my favorite Star Wars movies. If ever there was a time to give one of these shows a chance, it was now. Little did I know, as of episode 5, that I would be entering into a world of storytelling that has led me down a rabbit hole I don’t think I’ll ever come out of. Every episode, hell, every 20 minutes, this show is giving me whiplash.

A group of Jedi, all connected to a tragic moment, are being murdered by a mysterious figure connected to their past. Sign me up. That sounds incredible! But the show decides to answer the mystery of who the killer is almost immediately. So, if the show isn’t about who the killer is, it must be about why the killer is doing what they’re doing. An entire show built around this type of mystery sounds great. What could the Jedi have done that’s made this young woman turn to the dark side? Well, by episode three, that’s also answered, and once again, I’m left wondering what the show is about. Then something happens in episodes 4 and 5 that sums up the show in its entirety and makes me realize that if I’m going to enjoy this show, I’ll have to wait until the credits roll after the season finale.

At the beginning of the show, the mysterious figure who orders a young woman named Mae to kill the Jedi tells her, “The Jedi live in a dream. A dream they believe everyone shares. If you attack a Jedi with a weapon you will fail. Steel or laser are no threat to them. But an Acolyte. An Acolyte kills without a weapon. An Acolyte kills the dream.” Flash forward to episode 4, where Mae tells her companion, Qimir, whom she’s just captured in a trap, that she’s leaving her master. “You know, after running through the forest for an extremely long time I realized something. I don’t need to do this anymore. I don’t need to kill a Jedi without a weapon. I don’t need to keep this deal. You were wrong. Osha being alive changes everything. My loyalty is to Osha not your master. What I’m going to do is surrender myself to Kilnaca and then turn myself into the Jedi.”

A lot happens in these two quotes. The entire show exists within these two quotes. Qimir, who we later learn to be Mae’s master, tells her to kill the Jedi and tear down everything they believe in. He manages to convince her to do so by using the anger and hatred that she has for the Jedi because of an event that happened in her past that makes her believe her twin sister, Osha, is dead. When Mae learns that Osha is alive, everything changes for her. She was doing all of this to avenge her sister’s death, and now that she knows her sister is alive, she’ll turn herself in and inform the Jedi that a Sith not only exists but is attempting to kill all of them. What follows is one moment after another that left me more confused than the last.

After Mae tells Qimir (keep in mind that at this point in the show, she doesn’t know who Qimir really is) that she’s leaving, she immediately runs into the guide who was helping the Jedi and Osha find Mae’s next target, Kilnaca. Instead of using this as a way to cut out the middleman and just have this guide bring her to the Jedi, she runs away. Mae eventually makes her way to Kilnaca’s home, where she finds the Wookie Jedi dead, having appeared to be killed by a lightsaber. The Jedi then arrive at Kilnaca’s home and announce that they know Mae is inside, but she doesn’t come out. While she believes that Kilnaca’s death is caused by her now-former master (logic that could be easily nit-picked if you wanted to), there’s still no reason for her to not step outside and turn herself in. She doesn’t know that this Sith is hanging around the corner, waiting for the best opportunity to make a big, scary entrance. Then, for reasons that have not yet been explained, the Sith force pushes Osha away and proceeds to fight and kill most of the Jedi.

It’s during this battle that the Sith is revealed to be Qimir. This, of course, leads to so many questions. If Qimir is such a powerful force user, does that mean he let Mae capture him with that trap? During the fight with the Jedi, we see him actively trying to kill Mae for abandoning him. If that’s the case, then why didn’t he just kill her in the woods after she captured him? He also attempted to kill Osha during the fight as well, which we’ll circle back on later. At this point, while I think Qimir is a visually interesting-looking character (cool helmet), I don’t know what his plan is other than killing Jedi, which he’s very good at… even though he once said if you try and kill Jedi with a laser, you’ll fail. My guy needs to be more confident in himself. He’s great at killing Jedi.

But after some bugs pick up Qimir and fly him away from the battle (yes, you read that right), Osha and Mae finally confront one another. Osha explains that Mae is responsible for everything that happened in their past and that if it hadn’t been for the Jedi, Osha would have died. Despite their differences, the two hug, but it turns out it was all a trick by Osha to arrest Mae. This results in a fight that leads to Mae knocking out Osha, taking her clothes, and cutting her hair so that she can now go undercover amongst the Jedi as Osha… Remember when I said Mae told Qimir she was leaving her master and turning herself in? What happened to that plan? Since declaring that, all she has done is avoid turning herself in at all costs.

During all of this, something happens that gives me hope. When Osha tells Mae what happened when they were kids that led to all of this tragedy, Mae tells Osha that the Jedi have brainwashed her. Implying that the backstory we were shown in episode three may not be the real story. I go back to the fourth season of True Detective. There were so many moments in that show that were beyond frustrating but they landed the plane so well that I will defend that show forever. If The Acolyte landing the plane is the reveal that the Jedi are awful and are no better than the dark side, that’s incredible.

The story told to us in episode three is that a group of Jedi go to a planet to stop a group of witches from illegally using the force, and while on the mission, they discover two little girls capable of using the force. This results in the Jedi trying to recruit the little girls into the order, but tragically, the temple in which the witches live burns down because Mae would rather her sister die than leave and join the Jedi. It’s during the fire that both sisters believe the other to have died. This, of course, makes no sense because everything Mae has ever done since this day is to avenge her sister’s death. If she was responsible, why would she be doing all of this? Also, from everything I’ve written, it sounds like Mae is an unhinged character who’s mentally unstable, but they don’t portray her like that. This is why I think the “brainwashed” line means something and will lead to bigger things.

Because the prequels exist, we know that the Jedi council falls 100 years after this story is told. Imagine a scenario where their downfall isn’t because of some prophecy but because the Jedi, whether it was always true or was a recent turn, are just as much on the dark side of the force as any Sith lord. I’ve always thought the Jedi were cookie-cutter. They’re white bread, no butter. Just about any time we see a Jedi doing something interesting, it’s long after The Order has fallen. Everyone loves Luke because he’s complex. His dad is a bad guy, he likes kissing his sister, and his best friend is a robot that he may or may not be able to understand. He’s not bound by The Jedi Council that claims you’re not allowed to have feelings or kiss people. They’re the worst, but if The Acolyte can make them interesting, I don’t care how much the show doesn’t make sense, give them all of the awards. I don’t care that the Oscars are for movies. If they can make The Jedi Order interesting, they win Best Picture. Sorry, Madame Web, it’s not your year.

Also, here’s one last note about the show. If you haven’t started watching because there are so many negative reviews on the show, just start with episode 6. While I have my big theory on where the show is going overall, because almost all of the characters are dead after episode 5, episode 6 might as well be the start of a new season. Plus, no one has a plan moving forward. Every character is winging it. Keep that in mind. Mae is pretending to be Osha for… reasons and Qimir has taken in Osha after finding her unconscious. Important to remember that during the big fight with the Jedi, Qimir tried to kill both Osha and Mae. I haven’t seen episode 6 yet, but if at any point he claims that what he’s doing is part of his plan, he’s lying. He’s making it up as he goes. He might be the most relatable character Star Wars has had in years… aside from all the killing. That’s obviously bad.