He's Here.

Two more episodes into The Acolyte, it's more and more obvious how impaired the story flow was by not putting episode 3 at the start of the series. Not only would it have better informed the following two episodes, but the action would have flowed uninterrupted from episode 2, with Mae and Qimir ending that episode having escaped the Jedi, into episode 3, where they arrive on the next planet to hunt down wookiee Jedi Master Kelnacca. Similarly Sol and Osha transition from the mission to find Mae on Olega to attempting to head her off before she gets to Kelnacca. It would have been a steady ramping up of the pace from the investigation and surveillance on civilized Olega to the expedition into dangerous jungle on Khofar. But with the interruption of the flashback episode, that sense of progression is reined back, and the viewer has to climb out of the past to get back into the mounting action, instead of being pulled directly along with it.

We'd also get to see the transformation of Qimir into the Stranger just a single episode after his introduction, again letting us feel a quick-paced development instead of a start-and-stop one.

I can't help but feel that with episode 3 up front, I would have been far more intrigued, and the show would not have needed episodes 4 and 5 to overcome my skepticism, but instead would have notched itself up in my estimation from good to exceptional with all the powerful action and revelations in these two chapters.

And of course, Manny Jacinto's performance in both episodes is terrific, and it would have been great to see it directly build on episode 2.

Maybe someday they'll find a way to revisit these characters and let him bring the character to full fruition.