Season 1, Episode 8 of the Disney Plus series The Acolyte, titled “The Acolyte,” is directed by Hanelle Culpepper and penned by Jason Micallef. The episode begins with Osha (Amandla Stenberg) trying on the cortosis helmet, but almost losing herself to the Dark Side, forcing Qimir (Manny Jacinto) to intervene to save her. Osha tells Qimir she had a vision of the future of what seems to be Mae (Amandla Stenberg) killing her master Sol(Lee Jung-Jae) and taking his lightsaber. Intrigued, Qimir takes Osha to the location where the vision of the future took place: Brendok.
Darth Plagueis
Osha and Qimir begin leaving the island for Brendok, but the latter is annoyed that the former does plan to disclose the exact location of where the vision happens. The reason is that Sol and Mae are the only witnesses to the existence of the Sith Order and he needs to eliminate them. However, Osha will only take him if he drives his ship. Qimir relents but keeps a close eye on Mae’s twin before flying to Brendok. Once they leave, Darth Plagueis appears out of Qimir’s cave with caution as if he is tracking Qimir and his actions.
It has been theorized that Qimir’s island is Bal’demnic, a world where the Sith Order, led by Darth Tenebrous and his apprentice Darth Plagueis, began their work on mining cortosis. Plagueis kills his master out of self-defense in a cortosis mine when Tenebrous tries to forcibly possess his own apprentice’s body. Plagueis’ appearance is confusing as he is technically a child at this point of time, according to Legends, which likely makes Canon’s Muuns have a longer lifespan than their Legends’ counterparts. Despite this, Plagueis’ body language likely indicates that he is tracking Qimir and plans on killing him before taking Mae and Osha for his midichlorian experiments, which would eventually culminate in him and Sidious decades later, accidentally performing a failed ritual that brings about the birth of Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One. However, Plagueis is patient and his motivations will likely be revealed in Season 2 if Star Wars: Acolyte is renewed.
Sol vs. Qimir
Later, Mae escapes Sol and arrives at Brendok returning to her shattered home. There is nothing but ruins and ash. Ruins and ash Sol has to look at which makes him relive the trauma of being responsible for the death of an entire witch coven and orphaning two girls. Osha and Qimir arrive, leading to Osha fighting Mae and Qimir dueling Sol in another lightsaber match. Sol wins but Mae escapes Osha and disarms Sol before he arrests or kills Qimir.
Qimir is proud that Mae is likely redeeming herself, but she throws Sol’s lightsaber away declaring she is no longer his acolyte. A regretful Sol tells Mae the truth, that Osha and Mae are not twins but a single person whose consciousness was split into two bodies. From what Sol states, Osha and Mae are technically one person in two bodies whose personalities, emotions, and quirks change and shift in the two girls like two computers sharing one processed information. It could explain the drastic personality shifts in both sisters.
Osha kills Sol
Sol tells Mae he plans to turn himself in to the Jedi High Council and pay for the crime of killing Mae and Osha’s mother and the entire witch coven. Osha overhears and is furious at her father figure’s betrayal and starts slowly Force choking Sol to death. Sol forgives Osha for the act before she kills him to her anger and sorrow. She killed the only father figure she had and is so emotional and angry that Sol’s lightsaber’s Kyber crystal, in Osha’s hands, begins to bleed red and become a red Sith blade. Qimir is fascinated and pleased that Osha finally fell to the Dark Side as he plans to induct her as his new acolyte.
Qimir’s victory is not absolute; Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) and several Jedi Knights arrive to find Sol. She senses and confirms what many theorize,d that Qimir was Vernestra’s former padawan. Verenestra sensing Qimir’s presence forces the latter to wear his cortosis helmet and escape the scene of the crime. Osha and Mae do the same thing and retreat to the Bunta Tree, likely the source of the vergence in the Force. There, Osha and Mae reconcile. However, Qimir coldly finds them and kindly demands that Osha be his acolyte. Osha accepts and says goodbye to Mae, who has left the path of darkness. But Qimir erases Mae’s memories of everything that happened to when she was eight years old, before taking Osha back to his island.
The Jedi find Mae suffering heavily from memory loss and acting like an eight year old. Mae is brought to Vernestra’s office in the Jedi Temple of Coruscant to be questioned and taken care of. Prior to returning to Coruscant, Vernestra discovers Sol’s corpse with the knowledge that her padawan is responsible. To avoid a Dark Jedi scandal, Vernestra gives Sol a “viking” funeral and plans to frame Sol as the one responsible for the deaths of the Jedi on Khofar. Her actions save face before reporting what happened to the Galactic Republic. In Vernestra’s office, Vernestra comforts Mae but asks that she help her track down Qimir.
Vernestra Rwoh and Senator Rayencourt
Vernestra meets with some of the most prominent senators of the Galactic Republic including Chancellor Drellik and Senator Rayencourt (David Harewood). Senator Rayencourt believes the Jedi are a walking time bomb waiting for the day one of the Jedi falls to the Dark Side due to being unable to handle their emotions. Rayencourt says he is not doing this for himself and that he is truly concerned about the Republic thinking the Jedi are only dangerous if left unchecked.
The show does well in depicting how there are likely good senators in the Republic who truly care but see the Jedi as dangerous. Rayencourt’s quote of the worry that even one Jedi snapping into evil is a galactic concern comes to fruition with the fall of Count Dooku and Anakin Skywalker as Darth Tyrannus and Darth Vader. The two are mere men, but their powers and influence caused them to commit war crimes and genocides on a massive level.
In the Republic meeting, Vernestra frames Sol as the culprit, not her former padawan Qimir, for killing the Jedi Knights on Khofar and for the deaths of Indara, Torbin, and Kelnacca. She does this to get the Republic’s claws off the Jedi. This is wrong because it’s her and her former padawan’s fault for this mess happening in the first place. Sure, the Brendok four are responsible for the mess but Qimir is really an evil maniac who joined the Sith Order, a cult far worse than various radical religious factions, such as the Path of the Open Hand, during the time of the High Republic. Vernestra framing Sol for her mistake was wrong and cruel.
In Vernestra Rwoh’s final scene in the show, she meets with Yoda to discuss recent events. It is unsurprising she meets Yoda, given the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order’s tendency to conceal critical information. Yoda has hidden facts and knowledge that could have potentially saved the Jedi in the long run, such as the existence of Darth Bane and the Rule of Two, the Sith’s involvement in ordering the creation of the Clone Army, and the foreknowledge that the clones would execute Order 66, leading to the near-extermination of the Jedi Order. This has been shown time and again in The Clone Wars show.
Osha Becomes Qimir’s New Acolyte
The episode ends with Osha becoming Qimir’s new acolyte, them both watching the sunrise as master and apprentice. Star Wars: The Acolyte, judging from all the stories combined in the eight episodes, is not a really good show. It is confusing, messy, and breaks a lot of established lore while introducing old ones as nice homages. To be honest, The Acolyte should have focused on either Darth Bane and Darth Zannah or Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious. Both of these Sith stories are intriguing as Darth Bane starts the Rule of Two while Darth Plagueis grooms a Sith apprentice who will crush the Jedi Order via Order 66 and becomes the culmination of what Darth Bane and the Banite Sith worked hard for: the downfall of the Jedi and the Republic, and the rebuilding of the Sith Empire from the ashes of the former two.
Rating: 8/10