The Acolyte Explained | Highlights from “The Acolyte”

Episode 8: “The Acolyte”

Osha’s vision is just one more thing haunting the former Jedi. From inside the Stranger’s cortosis helmet, Osha watches in horror as Mae completes her mission and kills Jedi Master Sol without a weapon, a glimpse of a possible future on the twins’ home world. Perhaps there would be a poetic justice to this outcome. Mae becomes the acolyte her Master seeks, the four Jedi who served on Brendok are made to pay for their crimes in her eyes with the last one losing his life in the place where he took Mother Aniseya’s (Jodie Turner-Smith). An eye for an eye.

In a daring escape from Sol’s confinement, Mae and what’s left of Pip steal the Polan’s escape craft in a very Han Solo-esque fashion. Signing off with a “See you in hell, Jedi!” Mae traverses the dangerous fragmented rings encircling the moons of Brendok, a veritable asteroid field that Sol would be foolish to follow her into. Right? Right. But he does anyway. And with some help from Bazil tearing out the wiring for the targeting computer, both craft make it to the surface in a very bumpy landing.

Revenge isn’t really what Mae wants anymore. She wants Sol to be brought to justice, but since learning Osha was alive, her resolve to dole out vengeance has softened. Now, her wish is for Sol to confess — to Osha, to the Jedi, to the Senate, to the High Council, to everyone who will listen — to let the truth be known. And Osha? It’s hard to tell what Osha desires for her future after her time with the Stranger. She is clearly…conflicted. Would she ever consider being trained? Her voice says no, but there’s a pregnant pause that precedes it.

As they make their departure, a shadowy figure looms in the caves with five claw-like fingers. It’s difficult to identify the creature lurking in the darkness, but creator Leslye Headland has confirmed that we are staring into the eyes of Darth Plagueis himself.

Senator Rayencourt’s surprise visit with Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) is certainly not a welcome one. His views, while troubling, somewhat foreshadow events to come. “It’s only a matter of time before one of you snaps,” Rayencourt says pointedly. Now that he’s learned Rwoh is conducting a secret murder investigation with a mounting body count, he’s taking his hunch straight to the chancellor to open a formal investigation.

Back on Brendok, there’s a solemnity to the remains of the witches’ fortress. The chorus of voices that once heralded the Ascension ring out like a reverberation, a haunting echo of the past slaughter before a new battle begins. The Stranger and Sol face off in a heated lightsaber duel unlike anything we’ve seen before. Sol doesn’t need to penetrate the Stranger’s thoughts to show he’s a more powerful fighter when the need arises.

However, he’s not strong enough to fight his own attachments. The tearful reunion of Mae and Osha, standing in the burned-out bedchamber that Mae set ablaze so long ago, breaks out into evenly matched fisticuffs — the two women so alike that their movements are often mirror images. But their real quarrel is with Sol, and in the courtyard Mae interrupts Sol’s dominance over her Master to take the Jedi Master’s lightsaber. Then, like Luke Skywalker faced with the truth of his lineage on the second Death Star, she tosses it away rather than use it to strike.

Everything we thought we knew about the sisters is thrown into disarray. Starting with Mae’s disobedience and ending with Osha fulfilling her own vision, Mae’s mission is completed as Sol is killed without a weapon — just not in the way anyone expected. His confession pushes Osha over the edge. She trusted him. He lied to her face for 16 years, raising her to believe his version of the truth. It’s a heartbreaking exchange between Master and former apprentice. Blinded by his love for his Padawan, Sol is silenced and Osha gives in to the darkness, bleeding the kyber crystal in his saber as she snuffs out his life, her connection to the Force restored in a most corrupted state.

The transformation is complete when Osha ignites Sol’s saber and witnesses the effects of her destruction, the elegant blade is at first a brilliant blue before being replaced by a seeping red. There’s no denying what she has become.

And then the Coruscant contingent arrives to survey the damage. Reaching through the Force, Vernestra recognizes something in the Stranger, a familiar presence from the past. And, confronted with Sol’s body, she makes a fateful decision: to forge a new lie that will protect the Jedi Order from scrutiny at the expense of Sol’s reputation. It’s a cracked mirror version of the truth. “A rogue Jedi named Sol killed his accomplices,” Rwoh claims to the Senate tribunal. Sixteen years after the omission that began this story, another lie out of the desire to protect. The Jedi and the witch coven aren’t so different after all.

And with the Jedi on their heels, the Stranger effectively turns back time to when Mae was just 8 years old, leaving behind a profound innocence in her altered state. The sisters have completely switched places. Mae, no longer the vengeful assassin, has no recollection of her murder spree. And Osha? Well…we still have plenty of questions about where her latest choice might take her.

In the final moments, the familiar green visage of Yoda raises even more questions about how this tale will ripple across the galaxy and change the course of events. As the credits roll, we’re left wondering what exactly Master Rwoh says next.