This episode fully leans in to what was implied about the Jedi in the Prequels: they go around imposing their will on the Galaxy like the Spanish Inquisition, snatching away Force-sensitive children essentially at gunpoint. The Coven acted like they had no choice in the matter, and instead tried to trick the Jedi into leaving. Nice “Guardians of Peace and Justice”. They’re more like the Galactic Gestapo.
I never liked how the Prequels portrayed the Jedi and this show really leans into that portrayal. Ahh well, it is what it is.
Anyway, I was also a bit confused when the entire Coven compound went up in flames so quickly. The walls don’t even look flammable - they look metallic, but that fire spread really quickly and somehow instantly killed everyone except Mae. Yet the corpses didn’t appear to be burned. I can’t tell if that’s supposed to hint at some deeper layer of mystery, or if the writers just want us to accept the fire at face value. I don’t know, maybe everyone died from smoke inhalation or carbon monoxide poisoning. (Has this Coven ever heard of sprinkler systems?? And why am I spending so much time thinking about the physics of fire with this show??)
Overall, I thought the episode was okay. I like the Jedi characters - they actually have distinct, interesting personalities and even warmth, unlike most of the Prequel Jedi. It’s also interesting to see another sect of Force users with their own interpretation of the Force, even if they’re basically just a remix of the Dathomir witches.
Also, I don’t think this episode was that redundant. I mean, all we knew before was that Osha’s family died in some fire and Mae seemed to blame the Jedi. I didn’t necessarily expect that Mae herself started the fire. But I do agree that the first two episodes shouldn’t have revealed so much information, especially since so much of it was revealed in rather clunky expository dialogue. Like at one point one of the Jedi actually tells Osha something like “your entire family was killed, etc.”. Pretty clunky, and completely redundant since we see these events play out in Episode 3 anyway.
One thing that suggests a deeper mystery here is the fact that in Episode 2, Torbin willingly killed himself, implying he felt extreme guilt over something he did to Mae and wanted to atone for it. Nothing we saw in this episode explains that.