The Acolyte And Alien Are The Same Story
There’s a popular meme that calls 1979’s Alien “a movie where nobody listens to the smart woman.” With Episode 7 of the The Acolyte, we learn that the show is just like Alien in this respect. Everything goes sideways because no one listens to the smart woman–instead of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, in this case the smart woman is Carrie-Anne Moss’ Jedi Master Indara.
Alien
Just as everyone should have listened to Indara in The Acolyte, a lot of bloodshed in Alien would have been avoided if Ripley’s orders had been followed.
When Kane is returned to the ship with a facehugger attached, Ripley refuses to let him, Lambert, or Dallas back on the ship because of quarantine protocols.
Ash disobeys Ripley’s orders to let them in and, in doing so, dooms almost every character in that movie and the three that follow.
Choice
“Choice,” the penultimate episode of The Acolyte Season 1, shows us that like in Alien, everything could have been avoided if Sol (Lee Jung-jae) and Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman) had listened to the smart woman–Indara.
When Sol tells the other Jedi what he saw at the witches’ fortress, Indara wants to consult the Jedi Council but Sol insists that first she join him to see the fortress.
When she agrees and they arrive at the fortress, Indara wants to go in alone in the hopes of not appearing to be a threat. Once again, Sol changes her mind.
This leads to the first meeting between The Acolyte Jedi and the alien coven, including Torbin’s dark seduction by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), something that makes the padawan a lot twitchier during the second meeting with the coven–helping to make violence between the groups inevitable.
Sol’s Feelings
In The Acolyte Episode 7, Indara twice tells Sol his personal feelings are threatening to complicate the situation on the alien planet. The second time, Sol disagrees so passionately he actually yells at her.
Frankly, you don’t need to be a Jedi Master to see that from the moment he set eyes on the twins, Sol was letting his feelings get in the way of his judgment. If he had listened to Indara from the beginning and embarked on a little soul-searching, so much could’ve been avoided.
Pursuing Torbin
When the blood test results come back for the twins, Torbin rushes off, certain that this will help them discover the vergence so they can go home to Coruscant. The Acolyte‘s answer to Alien‘s Ripley, Indara, orders Sol to stop Torbin, and once again she’s undermined.
Sol catches up to Torbin, but rather than stopping him he joins the padawan in breaking into the witches’ fortress, and from that act springs everything that goes wrong.
Mae would still have started the fire, sure, but without their attention on the Jedi, the coven likely would have stopped the fire before it spread too quickly. Not to mention that when the Jedi finally left, it would’ve been with a healthy and conscious Osha on board.
The One Thing Indara Is Wrong About
Now there is one way in which this comparison between The Acolyte and Alien breaks down, and that’s after the destruction of the witches’ fortress. Sol says he wants to come clean with the Jedi Council, while Indara insists that if he were do that, it would take away Osha’s chances to become a Jedi.
“After everything this little girl has lost tonight,” Indara says, “you’d take her dream as well?”
It’s the one time Sol is right and Indara is wrong. Sol coming clean would have prevented a lot of what followed.
Maybe that’s why The Acolyte and Alien differ in that other way–with Ripley surviving (the first two movies at least), while Indara is the first to fall victim to Mae’s revenge.
