Season 1, Episode 3 of the Disney Plus series The Acolyte, titled “Destiny,” is directed by Kogonada and penned by Jasmyne Flournoy and Eileen Shim. The episode is considered one of the most confusing episodes to have been written, filmed, and produced, considering how many Star Wars fans disliked it online. Although there are many criticisms of this episode, this review will break down the possible hidden meanings behind its story. This episode focuses on the theme of destiny, and the single word in the episode’s title introduces that this theme will be shared by both twins: Osha Aniseya (Lauren Brady) and Mae Aniseya (Leah Brady). It is either that or that this episode is entirely Osha’s point of view.
The Aniseya Twins: Mae and Osha
Sixteen years ago, on the planet Brendok, a young Osha and Mae lived with their witch coven led by Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), who raised the twins as a genuinely kind and loving mother. The witch coven is a peaceful community that strongly values collectivism, the practice or principle of giving a group priority over each individual in it. However, the coven’s strong desire for collectivism disturbs Osha, who, similar to Luke and many children, desires to explore the galaxy and have a life of adventure and exploration.
Osha’s desire to leave Brendok and explore her own dreams and goals of adventure and exploration is deeply rooted in the concept of individualism, a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control. In other words, Osha does not want to become a witch but an adventurer of some sort. However, Mae and the twins’ biological mother, Mother Koril (Margarita Levieva), believes that Osha’s destiny is to be a powerful witch alongside Mae to help defend the coven’s culture and existence.
The Thread
Mother Aniseya, who raised the twins and runs the witch coven, trains the twins in the Force. Through the training, it is revealed that the witch coven calls the power of the Force “The Thread.” According to Aniseya, The Thread cannot be used but understood by feeling the connection between all living things and how they are tied to a certain destiny. What the coven understands is the will of the Force, which guides all life to achieve balance in a way that nature is understood and respected. However, those who misuse the Force and try to enslave it via the Dark Side will face a destiny in which they will be eliminated by those who respect its power, the Jedi Order.
The Thread is a common concept and belief in almost every witch coven across the galaxy, with the most prominent being the Night Sisters of Dathomir. The Night Sisters are powerful witches whose system of governance is similar to Mother Aniseya’s witch coven on Brendok. They practice Magick, a power closely related to the Dark Side of the Force in strange, unknown ways, allowing them to practice different forms of magic like necromancy. However, Magick is evil as it is unnatural and does not support the balance the Force provides.
Mother Aniseya slowly reveals that the coven believes having two witches form a Force bond can make them even stronger than when they use the Force alone. This hints that the coven is studying how to create a Dyad in the Force. A Force dyad is a rare type of Force-bond that makes two Force-sensitive beings one in the Force. The power of a dyad is as strong as life itself, and the individuals who form a dyad share a connection that spans across space and time.
Despite all of Aniseya’s teachings, Mother Aniseya and the witch coven are dark siders. They practice the Dark Side and some of its unnatural aspects. However, the witch coven is careful with their practice of the Dark Side and avoids its corrupting aspects, but some witches, such as Mother Koril, seem really affected by their use of the Dark Side because of their yellow eyes. When a Force-sensitive practices the Dark Side, their eye colors change to bright yellow and later become red or orange, making the iris and the pupil resemble a burning sun. The side effects can be seen when Mother Koril sometimes shows signs of impatience, uncontrolled anger, and possessiveness when she refuses the idea of Osha leaving Brendok to be an adventurer. It is horrifying since Mother Koril seems to be a caring biological mother who helps Mother Aniseya raise the twins.
The twins may look normal, but they were created through the use of the Dark Side. Mother Aniseya performed a dark ritual that impregnated Mother Koril with the twins in an effort to create powerful Force sensitives that are able to have a strong enough Force bond with each other. This practice is similar to how Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious attempted to create a living embodiment of the Force, but it backfired when the Force retaliated by creating Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One.
After Plagueis’ experiment, the Force created Anakin’s destiny to destroy the Sith as retribution for the Sith Order’s attempt to play god and defy the will of the Force. The Force can be a kind companion and friend but a horrifying enemy to make if one oversteps their use of the Dark Side. Since Mother Aniseya performed a dark ritual in a way that she is playing god, the Force may not look favorably on the witch coven. Plus, Mother Koril warned Mother Aniseya that if the Jedi and the Republic learn the truth of the twins’ creation, the witch coven is doomed to destruction and extinction.
The Rite of Ascension
As a result, Mother Aniseya plans to start another ritual called the Rite of Ascension, in which the strong Force bond between the twins will be shared among the entire witch coven. This has the potential of strengthening the entire coven in their affinity with the Force, giving them equal footing if they ever have to fight the Jedi or the Republic to protect their culture. The problem with the ritual is that the witch chants sound ridiculous, funny, and somewhat cringe. The writers could have hired a person to create another language or an echo-like chant to make the chanting more mystique, dark, and serious.
The Jedi Arrive
Mother Aniseya is able to brand Mae, similar to how the Night Sisters brand their own witches, to empower her affinity with the Force or their Magick. Before Aniseya could empower Osha, the Jedi interrupted the ceremony. The intruders are Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss), Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-Jae), Jedi Master Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo), and Indara’s Jedi Padawan, Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman). Only Jedi Master Sol acts as a comforting and sociable Jedi to the coven while the others act cold, logical, and distant. Jedi Master Indara criticizes the witch coven for raising the twins because no one, but the Jedi, can recruit or train children in the Force. For this reason, the Jedi plan to take the twins away and have them trained to become Jedi.
Indara’s demand angers Mother Aniseya and Mother Koril, who proceed to attack Torbin’s mind with the Dark Side. The conflict is about to escalate until Master Sol intervenes and de-escalates it with his warm and kind personality. He meets with the twins but gets along with Osha during their first meeting. Not wanting to escalate the conflict further, Master Indara decides they will instead test the twins to see if they want to be Jedi and will let them stay on Brendok if they fail. The test is meant to determine if the twins want to leave Brendok and become Jedi of their own accord or not.
Mother and Daughter
Osha thinks about the offer, but Mae shuts her sister down and believes they both should stay on Brendok and become witches. Mae believes the Jedi are evil because of how they force others to do what they want across the galaxy, while Osha believes the opposite, as the Jedi use their power to protect and defend the innocent. Mother Aniseya intervenes by stating how the galaxy is morally complex and that there is no good and evil; only those in power can define what is moral and what is not. She then tells her daughters to lie during the Jedi test and purposely fail so they can stay on Brendok. Mae follows her mother’s request, but Osha does not.
Osha passing the Jedi test angers Mae, who tries to attack her twin sister. Mother Aniseya tells Mother Koril to take Mae for a walk to cool the latter’s anger. Mother Koril obeys, even though she is also not happy with what Osha has done. Mother Aniseya is angry but still loves Osha and wholeheartedly supports her daughter’s choice to become a Jedi. Aniseya tells Osha that although destiny is written for them, it is still important to make their own choices in life by pulling The Thread towards their desires and goals. It sounds pleasant but is also disturbing, as many Sith tried to enslave or force the Force, The Thread, to do their bidding but are destroyed in the end as the Force always destined the Jedi to defeat them.
The Fall of the Coven
At night, Osha packs her belongings before the Jedi come to pick her up. However, Mae tries to kill Osha by burning her twin sister in her room. This is unusual for Mae, as she was never this bloodthirsty, and it looks like Mae is somewhat in a trance, something akin to what a victim of a Force mind trick would behave like. Osha escapes her room, but the fire seems to have reached the power generators, which explode, killing every single witch in the community in the process. The explosion also causes Mae to fall into a pit, while Osha is saved by Sol just in time, who helps evacuate the sole survivor of the witch coven back to the Jedi ship.
Sol Comforts Osha
Osha has lost everyone. Mae, Mother Aniseya, Mother Koril, and the rest perished in the fire and the power generator’s explosion. Everyone Osha knows is dead, but Master Sol tries to comfort the young girl and promises to take care of her as she trains to become a Jedi Knight. Unknown to Osha, it is strange how the fire easily spread to the power generator that fast.
It is likely that the Jedi were the ones who put Mae in a trance, without Sol’s knowledge, to kill Osha and blow up the entire community to kill the witch coven and stop their practice of the Dark Side. If this is true, the Jedi became victims of fear due to how the Sith species once practiced the Dark Side. It corrupted them into becoming evil oppressors across the galaxy for thousands of years, until only Darth Bane survived the Sith’s acts of killing each other and many innocents for power. They fear that the witch coven will accidentally become another Sith Order if they continue their practices, so they kill them all to ensure that the Dark Side does not take root in the galaxy again.
The Jedi’s involvement in the destruction of the witch coven is possible since Torbin has lots of scars on his face, indicating that a fight had happened. Also, it should be noted that the decision to wipe out the witch coven might be an illegal mission. The Jedi never tried to purge other Force religious groups, such as the Night Sisters of Dathomir, and always tried to negotiate with them as peaceful ambassadors and diplomats.
It could be possible that the Jedi, led by Master Indara, were reckless in trying to end a Dark Side faction and the outcome of a genocide on an entire culture and people likely made them feel really guilty. This might be the reason why Indara chose to dedicate her life to defending the people of Ueda, Torbin committed to the Barash Vow, and Kelnacca’s seeming isolation on the forest planet of Khofar. In other words, those three Jedi became pacifists who chose never to commit violence again. Since Sol is the only Jedi Master who stayed in the Jedi Temple, it is possible he never knew what really happened since he only focused his attention on trying to save the twins from the chaos and destruction.
Mae is Alone
Mae survives the chaos and is alone on Brendok, with the episode ending with Mae staring hopelessly and silently at the Bunta Tree. From this point, it can be assumed that Mae is discovered by a Sith who decides to recruit her to be his apprentice. Why would a Sith come to Brendok? Well, the witch coven practiced the Dark Side and had some interesting rituals that the Sith might be interested in: the Dyad in the Force and the creation of the living embodiment of the Force. The former is what Darth Bane tried but failed to achieve, while the latter was tried by Darth Plagueis, who also failed in his attempt. Additionally, the Sith had many connections with organizations and coven-like factions, such as the Night Sisters of Dathomir, prior to the events of The Phantom Menace who willingly helped keep the Sith’s existence a secret.
Overall, the episode is really confusing, choppy, and somewhat messy in conveying the story and message to the audience. The story has to be consistent enough for the audience to know what is happening. Plus, it is somewhat tiresome that the Sith never made an actual presence in the show despite how much marketing was made that The Acolyte is a television show focused entirely on the Sith Order. It would have been reasonable if The Acolyte focused on Darth Bane and Darth Zannah’s rise to power and Bane’s Rule of Two since Bane and Zannah had a complicated father-daughter, master-apprentice relationship. The two weren’t good people but were far more gray and complex than the psychotic Darth Sidious.
Rating: 7/10