Main cast: Amandla Stenberg (Osha Aniseya, Mae Aniseya), Lee Jung-jae (Master Sol), Charlie Barnett (Yord Fandar), Dafne Keen (Jecki Lon), Manny Jacinto (Qimir), and Joonas Suotamo (Master Kelnacca)
Director: Alex Garcia Lopez
Well, two bad Jedi Masters are now dead, and we then dawdle on a flashback episode that triggered online drama intended to make this show far more noteworthy than it actually is, and now, maybe in Day we can finally get back to business: getting to the end of this series and hopefully never have to see the smug faces and hear the petulant voices of Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Leslye Headland for a long, long time.
Wait, scratch that, because the main business at hand is to get me a strong drink first.
The last time I saw Mae and Osha, they were at loggerheads and Osha wanted to kill Mae… or is it the other way around? Who cares, they are both the same bland lead character.
Now, when they finally reunite, they hug and are besties forever again. What happened? Did the writers have collective amnesia or are they too busy arguing with social media users to focus on the work they are paid to do?
The dialogues are still cringe—”I can help you return to yourself!”—but the delivery of these lines is so flat and monotonous that I can only wonder at how bad the things had to be while filming for everyone to sound so dead inside. There’s a big difference between hammy lines delivered by an emotive actor and those by a barely capable one, and the former makes things work while the latter is Amandla Stenberg.
Meanwhile, Manny Jacinto gets a bigger role here as he is revealed to be Qmir, an oh-so-obvious designated love interest of one of those sisters. Or maybe both, shudder.
I am already cringing even harder at the thought of this, because the Han Solo and Princess Leia thing aside, romance in the Star Wars universe is, er, universally awkward and juvenile, even insipid. Mr Jacinto has the bland Asian Ken Doll looks to play the role of the dude in what this show is obviously hoping to be the new Reylo nonsense, but with the general level of writing on this show, I am not looking forward to the nonsense that will soon play out.
It’s a shame that the pedestrian level of script crafting slathers the smelly stuff all over the episode because… well, I’ve said it before, I think, but I’ll say it again: had that been done better and the cast members had actually been picked for their skills and not their skin color or the people they are shagging, I may actually like this show.
After all, the premise of two estranged twin sisters eventually becoming allies again is standard young adult trope that is never out of fashion, and I don’t mind the subversion of the idea that the Jedis are the be all and end all of everything good and virtuous in the galaxy. Heaven shows, they haven’t been shown to be competent or capable even during the pre-Disney Star Wars stuff, so it’s easy to buy that the order is like any other organizations: flawed and bogged down by politics.
Also, this episode has many lightsaber fights, but again, one step forward, two steps back: the choreography is boring and I’m pretty sure these people don’t have any clue how to hold a lightsaber.
In the meantime, the two main characters don’t do anything. Even the whole point of Mae’s mission—Kelnacca as the next target—happens without her involvement!
Instead, Mae just whines and pouts and shares screen time with Qimir mostly, while Osha whines and pouts. These two are just sort of there as things happen around them. Perhaps that is the for the best, as taxing the acting abilities of the actor can lead to nerve-chilling cringe overload.
Anyway, this episode is just one step closer to the merciful end of the embarrassing existence of this very show.
