Star Wars returned to our television screens recently, and The Acolyte introduced a new era in the history of the galaxy we all know. The High Republic being a century before the Empire sounds idyllic. But this show made it the setting for murders of revenge. Now, The Acolyte 1×03 pauses that plot for an impactful backstory.
The first two episodes of this show introduced Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) to the audience. She is a young former Jedi Padawan, and she is suspected of the murder of a Jedi Master. Sol (Lee Jung-jae), the Jedi who used to teach her, comes to take her into custody. They realize she’s innocent when the real culprit surfaces again, and the truth comes out. Osha’s presumed-dead twin sister Mae is the criminal. Yep, another set of twins in the Star Wars universe. Unlike the fraternal pair of Luke and Leia, Osha and Mae grew up together. They also have trauma in their past. Mae has vowed to kill the four Jedi who were present when their mother died in a fire. We’ve seen her succeed twice.
The Acolyte 1×03 attempts to help the audience understand Mae’s actions. It is a strong flashback episode that answers many questions but still leaves room for exploring the motivations of the two main characters.
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“It ties you to your destiny.”
Osha and Mae grow up on Brendok. It is a beautiful but isolated planet. Mae has a darker streak in her than Osha and clearly always has. The twins are raised by their mothers within a coven of witches. Their Mother Aniseya (the magnificent Jodie Turner-Smith) is their leader. Here’s where a parallel to another Star Wars character comes in: Anakin Skywalker. Mother Koril (Margarita Levieva) carried the girls but Mother Aniseya “created” them. We are left in the dark about the precise details of this but I’m sure some fans are glad no one mentions the words “midichlorians” here. We even hear words something like, “There was no father.”
This is a fascinating touch that links this series to the Prequel Trilogy of films. It also raises a lot more questions. The witches haven’t been developed and defined as much compared to the Jedi. If Anakin’s immaculate conception was natural (as far as the films showed us) but Osha and Mae’s was orchestrated, what implications does that have? Another intriguing idea explored in this episode is how the witches refer to the Force as the Thread. As Osha and Mae learn about the Thread, the lessons sound almost identical to what viewers have heard about the Force for decades.
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“You must have the courage to say what you want.”
Osha and Mae are learning from Mother Aniseya about the Thread when a group of Jedi arrive and want to test the girls to become Padawans. The witches are hostile to the Jedi, and Mae is too. Osha, however, wants something of her own. She wants to be an individual apart from her sister for once. She wants to be a Jedi. Thankfully, Mother Aniseya allows her to make her own choice. But Mae is not so open-minded. She refuses to let her sister leave and starts the fire that kills everyone else. Sol manages to save Osha, but both Osha and Mae believe the other is dead.
At the end of episode 2, Osha came face to face with Mae but couldn’t shoot her for her crimes. Now that we know the backstory between them, the rest of their story has more emotional resonance. This episode also makes the audience like Sol even more, so knowing he is on Mae’s hitlist creates a lot of tension. The accomplishment of The Acolyte 1×03 is to stoke anticipation for the rest of Osha and Mae’s story that is yet to come. The darkness in Mae led her to a Sith Master. I will definitely be seated to watch that mystery unfold.
The Acolyte is streaming on Disney Plus.