The Acolyte is over, and if you’ve read my reviews of the latest Disney+ Star Wars show, you’ll know that I’m not particularly fond of it—and I genuinely disliked almost everything about the season finale. There was a lot of potential in this show, but for whatever reason—lack of writing talent, corporate meddling, etc.—that potential was squandered on a half-baked story and shoddy production.
But the season finale could have been much, much worse. In some ways we dodged a bullet. On the other hand, we might have missed one of the most meme-able moments in Star Wars history. You can be the judge. Was this a blessing or a missed opportunity?
What I’m referring to is the kiss-that-never-was. Qimir (Manny Jacinto) and Osha (Amandla Stenberg) almost kissed at the end of the finale. They even shot a version of their last scene together where the kiss happened.
“I’m just going to put it out there. There was a version that we filmed where Osha and the Stranger actually kiss,” Jacinto said in an interview with Vulture following the season finale. “But we felt that it may have not been too earned at that moment. I think it was just too early on.”
He went on to explain that kissing right after Osha kills Sol (Lee Jung-jae) would have been inappropriate and unearned.
“The Stranger killed a bunch of her friends, and she just killed her fatherlike figure. For them to have this sensual moment just didn’t feel like it was appropriate. It’s just on the cutting-room floor. But I suggested, ‘Maybe not the kiss, but how about a hand-hold?’ Some sort of wanting to console, some sort of physicality that expresses that he cares for her and feels for her and that they’re in this together now. That’s something that, if we do a Season 2, maybe we can work toward, if the fans want it.”
That’s how we ended up with this image:
This is actually a pretty clear homage to the excellent 90s film, Fight Club:
It’s also a far, far better moment than what we would have gotten with The Stranger/Qimir and Osha kissing, which wouldn’t just feel inappropriate due to her very bizarre, almost emotionless murder of Sol (who was perfectly justified in killing Aniseya, by the way, though he could have explained himself better) it would also be unearned because the two characters barely knew one another and had next to no romantic chemistry. Or at least that chemistry wasn’t explored or kindled yet. It would have felt incredibly rushed without more build-up. Also, the twin thing makes it even weirder since Qimir spent a lot more time with Mae but apparently never had any romantic feelings for her, and the two twins are practically the same person.
Of course, a lot of fans are upset that the kiss didn’t happen and are hoping against hope that if the show is renewed, Qimir and Osha can make little Sith babies together. This is one problem with modern audiences in the internet era. The phenomenon known as “shipping” comes to every fandom, and it’s akin to a disease or an infection. When creators of TV shows listen to shippers, we get disasters like Arrow’s “Olicity” which took a show in decline and helped it dig its own grave. The last thing Star Wars needs is another muddled romance.
The last thing The Acolyte needed was the death of its best character, Sol, in such an anticlimactic scene. Well, that and killing off Carrie-Anne Moss’s character in the first ten minutes of the show. And Dafne Keen’s character. Oy vey. What a mess.
Maybe we deserve these terrible shows, after all. Or maybe we need to go full Tyler Durden and burn the whole thing down (metaphorically, of course) and build something new from the ashes. After all, “It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.”
Read my review of The Acolyte’s season finale right here. Watch my video review below:
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