Season 1, Episode 2 of the Disney Plus series The Acolyte, titled “Revenge/Justice,” is directed by showrunner Leslye Headland and penned by Jason Micallef and Charmaine DeGrate. The story continues Mae’s mission to assassinate the Jedi who traveled to her homeworld of Brendok. With Jedi Master Indara dead, her next target is Indara’s former padawan, Jedi Master Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman). Mae wants revenge against the Jedi while Osha wants justice for Mae’s involvement in destroying their family and home sixteen years ago.
Master Torbin’s Barash Vow
Master Torbin is stationed in a Jedi Temple on Olega but is not the one running the place because he took the Barash Vow, an oath taken by Jedi who completely refrain from all activities related to the Jedi Order as a form of penitence. The penitence involves a prolonged Force meditation until the Force calls them to fulfill their new destiny. It is a very disturbing vow since those who take it commit themselves to following the will of the Force at the cost of their individuality.
Mae (Amandla Stenberg) finds Master Torbin after bribing a kid to act as a distraction so she can infiltrate the Jedi Temple in her common guise as a pilgrim. However, the acolyte cannot kill Master Torbin because he created a Force barrier around him to avoid any physical harm while he meditated for the past ten years. As a result, Mae decides to regroup with her supplier, Qimir, who is willing to help her kill the Jedi.
Mae and Qimir
Qimir (Manny Jacinto) is more than just Mae’s supplier; he is her colleague. The two are hinted at working for the Sith Order as they nearly recite and know the Sith Code:
Peace is a lie, there is only passion
Through passion, I gain strength
Through strength, I gain power
Through power, I gain victory
Through victory my chains are broken
The Force shall free me
Mae trusts Qimir enough to detail her Sith acolyte trial to him. She has to kill all four Jedi unnoticed but must kill one of them without a weapon. This means Mae is permitted to kill three of the Jedi with weapons but has to use subterfuge and manipulation to have someone else kill one of the Jedi on her behalf. Mae subtly hints that she is expected to kill Torbin, the weakest of the four, without a weapon but plans to do so anyway and asks Qimir not to tell her master if he asks. Qimir promises, but this might backfire for Mae.
Qimir helps Mae by supplying her with Bunta poison, made from a Bunta tree located on Mae’s homeworld of Brendok. He advises her to guilt Torbin into taking the poison to achieve absolution, which she successfully does. However, Torbin was already waiting for Mae and is filled with remorse and regret for what happened on Brendok sixteen years ago. It is so traumatic that he apologizes to Mae to give her some form of closure before drinking the poison and ending his own life. Torbin’s suicide kind of reflects King Tommen’s suicide from the Game of Thrones series: both innocent boys who have so much potential end their lives when they realize they have indirectly caused a terrible event to happen. Plus, both characters are played by the same actor.
Is Qimir Mae’s Sith master?
Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-Jae), Osha (Amandla Stenberg), Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen), and Jedi Knight Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) are too late in saving Torbin. However, they manage to track Qimir who meets with Osha disguised as Mae. He subtly drops his facade as a false apothecary because he is intrigued that Mae’s twin sister came to Olega. His despicable demeanor might indicate that he is Mae’s master.
The reason is that Qimir, similar to how Yoda initially behaved to Luke, acts like a fool in front of Osha and later the Jedi who question him about Mae’s whereabouts. He betrays his “colleague” by revealing that she will come to him tonight. However, he is still intelligent and able to talk his way out of getting arrested by the Jedi. Despite this, Qimir still hangs around to wait for the outcome of Mae’s fate. Overall, Qimir’s taking on an “idiot” supplier persona really helps with his deception to hide his affiliation with the Sith Order and who he really is.
Mae vs. Sol
As a result of Qimir’s betrayal, Sol confronts Mae, leading to a Force-Fu fight between the two. Sol gets the upper hand and disarms the acolyte of all her daggers. However, she is forced to retreat when Jecki and Yord join to aid Sol in her capture. Mae retreats but is shocked to see that her twin sister, Osha, is alive. However, Osha does not love Mae since the latter was responsible for destroying their home sixteen years ago. Osha mercilessly tries to stun her fallen sister, but misses likely due to internal conflict.
The next morning Mae is angry at Qimir’s betrayal and tries to assassinate him, but he is able to deflect her stealth attack. He calms Mae down and tells her he knows where Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo), her next target, is hiding. Qimir’s ability to detect and prevent Mae from killing him is another hint that he is likely Mae’s master, since only Force sensitives are strong and capable enough to defend themselves from other Force sensitives. In addition, Qimir’s behavior is more like a mentor figure compared to an actual supplier, so he might reveal his identity later on if Mae gets into trouble or fails.
If Qimir is Mae’s master, it is plausible he is a Sith apprentice to the current Sith master, Darth Tenebrous. Sith apprentices, such as Count Dooku with Darth Sidious being a former apprentice under Darth Plagueis, recruit and train assassins to do their bidding. Sith assassins, such as Asajj Ventress, are not actual Sith but assassinate targets on the Sith apprentice’s behalf. Mae is an assassin killing Jedi and has the potential to be the Sith apprentice’s future apprentice once the latter overthrows his master. However, this might not be the case since Darth Plagueis, who should be around fifteen years old at this time, will be the one to succeed the current Sith master once he grows old enough to do so. Plagueis was raised to be Darth Tenebrous’ Sith apprentice since childhood, so Plagueis being around and active makes sense. It will be interesting to see how the whole Sith apprentice and acolyte trial will play out.
Jedi Master Kelnacca
The episode ends with Jedi Master Kelnacca hanging out on the planet Khofar and scaring two criminals who attempted to enter his hut. The second episode is intriguing because it makes the Sith very mysterious and threatening since they operate from the shadows at this point in time. However, the current Sith hierarchy and membership is still confusing since it should be only Darth Tenebrous and Darth Plagueis operating at this point, with no other Sith apprentice and Sith assassin aside from Darth Venamis, who Plagueis later kills following Tenebrous’ demise.
Rating: 9/10