Last week’s episode of The Acolyte gave Star Wars the most explosive 30 minutes of grade A television. Bodies were dropping, lightsaber sparks were flying, and plot twists were being thrown around like it was the fourth of bloody July. Among the Jedi who came to apprehend Mae and the Stranger, only Sol survived. Jecki and Yord were two prominent characters who bit the dust. Qimir, who was pretending to be Mae’s assistant, turned out to be a Sith Lord, and he flaunted skills that nobody had ever seen. Mae tried to convince Osha that they were betrayed by the Jedi back on Brendok, but Osha refused to listen. Mae knew that she wouldn’t be able to return to Qimir after trying to run away from him. So, she decided to switch places with Osha in order to infiltrate the Jedi Order and probably kill more Jedi than Qimir had ever imagined. Was Mae’s plan a success, or did Sol figure out that a switch had happened on Khofar? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Has Qimir Seduced Osha to the Dark Side?
I was under the impression that Qimir was going to leave Osha on Khofar and just continue with his mission. I was wrong. He has brought her to an unknown planet to turn her to the Dark Side. Now, all this while, the phrase “being seduced by the dark side” has been used a lot. And a lot of Star Wars shows, and movies have tried to portray that aspect with the help of long philosophical rants. I am sure that that process has its fans, but it has never really worked for me. That said, watching Qimir disrobe, take a swim, and stand naked in front of Osha to literally seduce her to the Dark Side did the trick. I am going to be honest; I was incredibly distracted by whatever Manny Jacinto was doing in that scene to notice what he was talking about. So, I had to rewind it and listen to him judge Osha for not even trying to kill him when he was in his most vulnerable state. That only means Osha is curious about this whole situation, and the concepts of right and wrong are starting to get muddled. Qimir realizes that, more than Mae, Osha loves Sol. So, I guess, he understands that he has to break that bond if he wants to turn Osha into his pupil.
Qimir reveals that he used to be a Jedi, and that’s why he knows how to wield the Force. It hints at the fact that his transition to the Dark Side was probably not influenced by some individual but by his own inference about the fascist undertones of the Jedi. He is aware of the fact that Osha has a lot of untapped potential, which she ignores by deifying Sol, and it seems like he has brought her along with him to unlock that aspect of her connection to the Force. Anyway, Qimir gives Osha the option to leave the planet they are on or continue to follow him to his humble abode for sustenance and escape from the damp atmosphere of the planet. And Osha chooses to stick around and learn what Qimir means by “his way” of using the Force. Qimir says that Jedi’s theory that one can wield the Force only if they practice it repeatedly is wrong. It can be accessed by being truthful about one’s emotions, like anger, fear, loss, and desire. Osha points out that those take one to the Dark Side, but it seems like Qimir doesn’t see Light or Dark; he just seeks freedom from the rules that the Jedi are trying to impose on the galaxy.
Osha points out that Qimir’s path to freedom is built over the bodies of Jedi, and Qimir points out that all of them were too governed by rules, and they would’ve forced Osha to limit her sensibilities instead of freeing her mind and soul. Osha senses that Qimir must’ve used this same process to turn Mae to the Dark Side and exclaims that she won’t be corrupted so easily by him. Qimir urges Osha to tell herself the truth about why she isn’t a Jedi. She keeps repeating the same old theory that she failed because she wasn’t good enough. But Qimir highlights the fact that the Jedi saw that Osha was governed by the unresolved emotions that are simmering within her due to the incident on Brendok, and instead of teaching her to deal with them, they discarded her. Qimir assures her that he isn’t like the Jedi. He relates to Osha’s feelings of loss and anger, and he intends to help her use them to become something more than the Jedi thought she should be. It’s a great scene, and Manny Jacinto and Amandla Stenberg’s performances are genuinely fantastic.
Osha actually asks Qimir if he used the same pitch on Mae, and Qimir says that he was wrong about her because he thought that she wanted something more than just revenge. He was under the assumption that Mae understood his vision of the future of the use of Force. What’s his vision? Well, he wants to emulate the Jedi’s system of having a master and a pupil, but he intends to make the dynamic very flexible and hence, powerful. It seems that, back in his Jedi days, when he tried to implement this system and widen the horizons of the Jedi, he was betrayed by his own Master, as proven by the marks on his back. He doesn’t explain further, but he does direct Osha’s attention to his Cortosis helmet. Interestingly enough, it’s made of the same thing that’s used to block a Jedi Youngling’s senses during training. The one that Qimir uses might be from his days as a Youngling, but he has turned it into this menacing tool for intimidation. When Osha puts it on, it becomes obvious that Qimir can’t actually see anything through it. However, his powers are so strong that he can sense everything around him and wield the Force without relying on his vision. By the way, if you are wondering whether or not Osha has turned to the dark side, I think she has.
Why is Vernestra suspicious of Sol?
On Coruscant, Chuwant informs Vernestra that Senator Rayencourt is gaining support, and he says that he and his colleagues are going to vote in favor of an external review of the Jedi Order. Vernestra points out that Rayencourt has always been anti-Jedi, and this review is going to weaken their position. Chuwant says that she shouldn’t worry, and Rayencourt’s petty tactics are not going to work in his favor. To be honest, I don’t know who Rayencourt is. Since The Acolyte takes place almost 100 years prior to the events of Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, Rayencourt might be Darth Tenebrous, i.e., the Master of Darth Plagueis (the Master of Darth Sidious). But don’t take my word for it. This is a wild speculation that I’m throwing out there. Anyway, Vernestra’s conversation with Chuwant is interrupted by Padawan Mog, who informs her that they’ve received a distress call from Master Sol. After learning about the death of the whole Jedi team on Khofar, Vernestra decides to head over there immediately.
Mog tries to dissuade Vernestra from going on the rescue mission by pointing out how nauseous she feels when she travels through hyperspace, but Vernestra is adamant about handling this situation herself. Upon reaching Khofar and seeing all the dead bodies of the Jedi, Mog comes to the conclusion that Sol has turned against them. Vernestra says that that is a wild accusation. Mog is unable to comprehend that there’s someone as powerful as the Jedi who can do so much damage. However, something about Vernestra’s expressions says that she is aware of Qimir’s existence. In fact, based on Vernestra’s lightsaber whip and the markings on Qimir’s back, I have a hunch that Vernestra is Qimir’s old Master. Given how rigid Vernestra is, it’s not hard to imagine her falling out with Qimir because of his ideas of the Force. That said, things must’ve gone really out of hand for Vernestra to attack a young Qimir from behind. Also, if this is true, it further shows that the Jedi aren’t as honorable as they seem to be. It’s all just a huge charade to maintain their holier-than-thou image, which is something that Qimir seeks to destroy. Well, you know what? Good for Qimir.
Did Sol figure out Mae was pretending to be Osha?
Throughout the sixth episode of The Acolyte, Sol tries to get the message across to the Jedi that someone as powerful as Qimir is out there, and they need to make sure that they’re ready to face whatever is coming for them. But since the communications aren’t working, Sol goes around the ship trying to fix it while the vessel stays in Khofar’s orbit. There’s a really amazing, dialogue-less moment where Hanelle Culpepper shows what you can do when you hire an actor of Lee Jung-jae’s caliber. Yes, yes, it’s probably uncharacteristic of a Jedi to show so much emotion, but that’s the thing. The Star Wars franchise has been so limited by its own rules that after taking a few steps forward with something like Andor, it seems to take a thousand steps in the wrong direction with nostalgia-bait nonsense like Ahsoka and Obi-Wan Kenobi. It needs to respect the talent that they’re capable of hiring, and they allow them to flex their skills at every opportunity. Anyway, after collecting himself, Sol goes and hugs Mae (thinking that that’s Osha), and he tells her that he needs to face the High Council. Under the garb of fixing the ship, Mae tries to stall Sol so that she can get the drop on him and kill him for allegedly doing something heinous during his time on Brendok. While Sol tries to talk about Osha’s empathetic side, Mae indicates how much she has lost during her journey of figuring out why her whole coven was slaughtered overnight. Sol says that he couldn’t tell her the truth back then because she was young, and Mae tells him that she is old enough to hear it.
By the way, while all this is happening in the foreground, Bazil (the adorable tracker) has been doing their own investigation into the true identity of Mae. They know the difference between Osha and Mae based on how they smell, but until and unless they have proper proof, they don’t raise the alarm. It’s only after Bazil notices Mae reverting Osha’s Pip droid to its factory settings that they notify Sol, and Sol doesn’t waste a moment, and he stuns Mae. It’s interesting that Sol doesn’t wait for Vernestra to arrive and instead leaves Khofar’s orbit by going into Hyperspace with Mae. At the end of The Acolyte Episode 6, Sol menacingly says that they need to find Qimir, and Mae needs to listen to him about what happened 16 years ago on Brendok. Do you see what’s going on? Over there, Qimir is turning Osha over to his side, while Sol is here trying to convince Mae to see things from his perspective. Both of their ideals and histories are shrouded in several layers of mystery, and Osha and Mae are vulnerable and emotional enough to be manipulated by these men. The pessimist in me says that Qimir is going to convince Osha to kill the Jedi while Sol is going to convince Mae to kill Qimir, and things are going to end tragically with Osha and Mae killing each other. The optimist in me says that Osha and Mae are going to realize that they have been controlled all their lives and that they need to reunite instead of being governed by the Jedi or the Sith. Hopefully, that’s going to lead to the resurrection of the coven that Osha and Mae hail from.
