Let’s Break Down ‘The Acolyte’s Ending—and All the Questions It Left Us With
So, about that finale ...
At last, the time has come to say goodbye to what might go down as the most controversial show in Star Wars history: The Acolyte—and whoa boy, there’s a lot to unpack here.
It’s been a rollercoaster ride for creator Leslye Headland’s High Republic show, The Acolyte. Now that the finale has come to a head on Disney+, it’s safe to say that most viewers—myself included—were left with more questions than answers, particularly about the fate of Force-sensitive twins Mae and Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and what it all means for the future of the Star Wars universe. Roll the tape!
Spoilers ahead for all episodes of The Acolyte!
What happened in The Acolyte’s season finale?
In The Acolyte‘s eighth and final (?) episode, cliffhangers and cameos are the name of the game—I promise I’ll get back to that. Following last week’s flashback episode, the lines begin to blur as key players converge in the present day for a final, Avengers-style showdown back where it all started: Brendok. Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) tries to hunt down Mae after she flees his ship, while Osha and her totes not a Sith Lord boyfriend Qimir (Manny Jacinto) have a similar idea. With all roads leading to Brendok, Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) gathers a gang of Jedi Knights and decides to join the party.
A lightsaber dance between Sol and “The Stranger” breaks out at the site of the former witch coven, and watching Jung-jae and Jacinto’s characters hack and swing at each other feels a bit like watching a slo-mo, heavily edited tennis match. Meanwhile, Mae and Osha face off in a rather symbolic location: their old bedroom, where Mae lit a fire and burned her home to ash those 16-odd years ago. Oops! Ultimately, she one-ups Osha and runs off to get in on all the action happening back at the courtyard.
It’s here that Qimir and Mae bait Sol into confessing that he killed Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith). Osha overhears, and in her anger, channels her inner Vader to Force-choke her former Master to death. He utters one last, heartbreaking “It’s okay, Osha” before flopping to the ground. Kind of a bummer, no? I always appreciated Sol considering that he’s kind of the Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) of the High Republic era, so seeing him die so unceremoniously was as tragic as it was inevitable. And if you’ve ever enrolled in Marvel University’s Color Theory 101 class, you’ll notice that Osha’s clothes gradually go from light to dark throughout the series—not exactly subtle here, folks. She’s a full dark sider now.
Vernestra, who’s more of a villain at this point than anything, sends her Jedi reinforcements to find Osha and Mae. Upon landing on Brendok, she feels a strange ping in the Force—Qimir, who’s later confirmed to be an old apprentice of hers. As fans theorized, their seemingly tumultuous relationship might explain why he has that suspiciously lightwhip-shaped scar on his back. The twins, now fully teaming up with Qimir, flee into the forest to escape the Jedi, where Mae and Osha decide to leave the past in the past. Here, they kiss and make up—hopefully, for good this time.
At last, Mae has accepted that an important destiny awaits her sis, and Osha agrees to train with Qimir. Oh no, pull my arm! Bizarrely, the episode’s emotional apex occurs when Qimir wipes Mae’s memories for some reason, and he and Osha ride off into the sunset to live their best #Reylo life back on what we assume is the planet Bal’demnic. A now amnesia-ridden Mae finds herself fully at the mercy of the Jedi, and we see her being taken into custody back on Coruscant while that slippery Vernestra pins the entire Brendok mess (and the deaths of like, a ton of innocent Jedi) on Sol, flat-out lying to Jedi skeptic Rayencourt (David Harewood) and other members of the senate. Fade to black.
We’ve gotta talk about those Star Wars cameos
While there’s certainly no shortage of random celebrity cameos in the galaxy far, far away (cough cough, Lizzo), the ones in The Acolyte finale are pretty fun: Darth Plagueis, the shadowy Sith Lord who trained Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), and an unsually un-chatty Master Yoda—honestly, he doesn’t serve much of a purpose here. But yay, Yoda, I guess?
White it’s not enough to save the season from being a bit of a jumbled mess, Plagueis’ surprise debut does have some major ramifications for the Star Wars universe, as fans have long demanded to see the legendary Sith Lord in live action. Does this mean a season 2 is in the works? If so, could we see Plagueis using midi-chlorians to create life, as he did the Chosen One? Well, Anakin’s (Hayden Christensen) birth isn’t officially linked to Plagueis in canon, but immaculate conception has been a focal point of The Acolyte, meaning it wouldn’t be surprising to see the show tie back to the Skywalker Saga in this capacity.
Only time will tell, but for all intents and purposes, it sure looks like Disney is setting up a season 2 of The Acolyte. C’mon, are we really surprised? Still, given the overwhelmingly negative response to the show, there’s always the off-chance that Lucasfilm could decide not to move forward with new episodes, but if that ambiguous ending is anything to go by, the door has been left wide open. With Mae and Osha’s stories left glaringly unfinished and fans having a whole lot of questions about Plagueis’ appearance, Lucasfilm has a lot to answer for—even if season 1 is now firmly in the rearview mirror.
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
