Choice

A mid episode doing a hard job — rewinding to fill in gaps the show already teased. The Jedi are scheming, covering their asses, and making the worst possible calls at every turn. It’s uncomfortable in a way that actually works, even when the episode itself doesn’t quite stick the landing.

The Take

The flashback structure is doing a lot of lifting here, and it buckles a little under the weight. We already got the broad strokes of what happened on Brendok in an earlier episode, and revisiting it from the Jedi’s POV adds texture without always adding momentum. The opening drags. You feel the gap it’s trying to fill. But when it connects — and it does connect — it hits hard.

What’s genuinely interesting is what the episode is saying about this generation of Jedi. They’re not corrupt in the mustache-twirling sense, but they are absolutely willing to scheme, cover up, and protect their own reputation over doing the right thing. Sol decides Osha needs saving from a danger that… honestly, I’m not sure was actually there. Mae didn’t even mean to start the fire — she was trying to burn a journal. But Sol is so convinced of his mission that he creates a catastrophe, kills Aniseya on screen in front of Mae, and then spends years building Osha a false memory of what happened. That’s not heroism. That’s ego with a lightsaber.

And then Indara just… murks the whole coven? The Jedi these characters become in the present day make a lot more sense after this. The prequel-era critique of the Order being blinded by pride and procedure — it’s not just political in this show, it’s personal. These are the actual people who made those choices. The poetry of it is genuinely good even when the episode around it is only fine.

🧠 The Jedi have no Prime Directive. In Star Trek, Starfleet has a hard rule against interfering in a society’s natural development. The Jedi just… roll up into a witch’s coven, start poking around, and act surprised when it goes sideways. The absence of that principle — the assumption that Jedi presence is always net positive — might be the real tragedy of the Order. They never built the guardrail that would’ve saved everyone in this episode.

One More Thing

• Hot take that I will die on: we need more Wookiees. Kelnacca going full evil puppet mode while also swinging a lightsaber is the best thing this show has done. WOOKIEE LIGHTSABER ACTION. Finally.
• Torbin is so tragic. Driven purely by homesickness, absolutely no survival instincts, just rolls into a coven of witches to snatch some children. Buddy. Pal. Think for two seconds.
• Mother Aniseya “seducing” Torbin with whatever that ability is — not quite a mind trick, more like a full emotional override — is actually fascinating. A different branch of Force-adjacent power. The isolation of it felt real.
• Sol created Mae’s entire worldview. Mae’s rage, her whole vendetta — Sol built that when he killed Aniseya in front of her and then handed Osha a lie. The man did not realize he was writing the villain’s origin story in real time.
• Do the Nightsisters have laser arrows? I need someone to confirm this for me. Because if so, incredible. If not, what was that.
• The pop song at the end is a choice. I understand what it’s going for lyrically — it thematically tracks — but it sounds like a song from Earth that got accidentally filed in the wrong galaxy. Throw some Huttese in there, anything. It didn’t land for me.
• Torbin got absolutely cooked. RIP to a guy who really should have stayed on the ship.