In The Acolyte, the Jedi really were just cops all along

polygon.com:

In its eight-episode first season, The Acolyterepeatedly hinted that it would continue Star Wars’ habit of complicating the Jedi’s legacy. Though often presented as avatars for the pure, Light side of the Force, Jedi have always been more complicated than that. The Acolyte suggested it was going to explore that complication, and while itsinsistence on obfuscation delayed the reveal, the show promised a dramatic story about the Jedi’s mysterious actions on the planet Brendok. Instead, we just got a cop show.

[Ed. note: This analysis of The Acolyte includes season 1 end spoilers.]

Series creator Leslye Headland and her team worked hard to hide their true game, playing out the events on Brendok across two episodes to unfurl the full conspiracy: When the Jedi learn about a witch coven hiding on Brendok, Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) becomes deeply concerned, without much evidence provided to viewers, that the two children present in the coven are in grave danger.

A confrontation breaks out. Sol kills Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith). Mind-controlled Wookiee Jedi Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) nearly kills Padawan Tobin (Dean-Charles Chapman). Jedi team leader Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) kills the rest of the witches by breaking their mind-control connection with Kelnacca. Meanwhile, Mae (Leah Brady) locks her sister-not-sister Osha (Lauren Brady) in a cell and sets the whole stone mountain on fire, seemingly intending to kill Osha rather than letting her leave with the Jedi. (In spite of the season’s spirit of Rashomon-ing, this appears to be true even in Mae’s version of events.) Indara tells Sol and the rest of the Jedi to tell the Jedi Council “Mae burned down the witches’ fortress and everyone was lost,” which becomes the official narrative of events.

That’s an anticlimactic reveal for the season’s big mystery, which had repeatedly hinted at much larger Jedi misdoings, considering Sol’s tremendous guilt and secrecy and some heavy insinuations from adult Mae and her