Warning: this article contains full spoilers for The Acolyte’s fourth episode! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out IGN’s review of The Acolyte: Episode 4.
The Acolyte is a Star Wars series that raises some major questions about the franchise, many of them surrounding the show’s mysterious villain, a character known only as “The Master.” Who is this masked figure fueling Mae’s (Amandla Stenberg) quest to murder four Jedi Masters? Are they a Sith Lord, or something else entirely? And with the recent reveal that the Witches of Brendok have unlocked the secret of creating life through the Force, will this series finally be the one that introduces Emperor Palpatine’s powerful master, Darth Plagueis?
With The Master returning in Episode 4, now seems like the perfect time to break down the biggest burning questions surrounding the character and their role in The Acolyte. Read on to learn what we know and don’t know about this dark threat to the Jedi Order.
Is The Acolyte’s Villain a Sith Lord?
Is Mae serving a Sith Lord? That’s been one of the series’ biggest questions since the closing scene of Episode 1, where we first encountered this armored character. This villain seems to carry all the hallmarks of a Sith. They wear black armor and an imposing helmet. Their voice is disguised by a modulator. They wield a red lightsaber. If it looks like a Sith, walks like a Sith and quacks like a Sith, it’s probably a Sith, right?
On the other hand, not everyone who wields the Dark Side of the Force is automatically a Sith Lord. We’ve seen as much in other Star Wars TV shows through characters like Asajj Ventress and the Nightsisters in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati in Star Wars: Ahsoka. The Acolyte has already reiterated the idea that there are alternatives to the Jedi path with the introduction of the Witches of Brendok, so perhaps The Master is meant to represent an alternative to the traditional Sith.
This would certainly explain why The Master is so intent on training Mae to kill without traditional weapons. She’s not your typical Sith apprentice. She hasn’t taken on a Darth title, and she doesn’t wield a lightsaber at all. Throwing daggers and poisons are her calling card.
The problem with introducing a Sith Lord character at this point in the Star Wars timeline is that the Jedi aren’t supposed to be aware they still exist.
The problem with introducing a Sith Lord character at this point in the Star Wars timeline is that the Jedi aren’t supposed to be aware they still exist. The Acolyte takes place roughly 100 years before the start of the Skywalker Saga. During this period, the Sith are still in hiding and biding their time until they seek their vengeance against the Jedi. The Jedi Order hasn’t encountered a Sith Lord since the rise and fall of Darth Bane centuries before. As far as they’re concerned, the Sith are extinct. That belief won’t be challenged until Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi battle Darth Maul decades down the road.
According to the Star Wars timeline, Darth Tenebrous is the reigning Sith Lord during this era. Little is known about Tenebrous in the official Disney canon, but in Expanded Universe lore, he was a brilliant ship designer and the master of Darth Plagueis (more on him in a bit). Physically, The Master doesn’t match the description given of Tenebrous in the EU. That said, there’s no telling how much Disney might alter the character when and if he appears in live-action.
Is The Master actually Darth Tenebrous? Could they be connected to the character, perhaps one of his pupils? Or does this villain fall outside of the traditional Jedi/Sith dichotomy? Given that they don’t seem to care much about hiding their presence from Lee Jung-jae’s Master Sol and the others, we’re leaning towards the last option.
Is Darth Plagueis Connected to the Witches of Brendok?
Given the time period in which The Acolyte is set, many Star Wars fans have speculated that the series will introduce Palpatine’s master, Darth Plagueis. Like with Tenebrous, little is known about Plagueis’ life in the current Disney canon. However, there was an entire novel written about the character shortly before the Expanded Universe was shuttered. That book details Plagueis’ rise, his relationship with a young Sheev Palpatine and the plan they developed to overthrow the Jedi Order.
Plagueis is famously referenced in Revenge of the Sith, where Ian McDiarmid’s Palpatine reminisces to Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker about Plagueis’ singular connection to the Force. Plagueis unlocked the ability to create life through the Force, something Palpatine himself covets above all else. Some fans even speculate that Plagueis was the secret hand behind Anakin’s immaculate conception.
This Plagueis backstory takes on new significance in light of The Acolyte: Episode 3. There we learn that Osha and Mae were both conceived through the Force. Jodie Turner-Smith’s Mother Aniseya created them, and they were carried by her partner, Margarita Levieva’s Koril. The Witches of Brendok may not be Jedi, but they have a powerful connection to the Force and understand it in ways even the Jedi don’t.
Is it just coincidence that the franchise is returning to the idea of the Force allowing for immaculate conception even as it ventures into this earlier era? Being set 100 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte is probably taking place a little too early for Plagueis himself to be the secret villain of the series. But does Plagueis have a connection to the Witches of Brendok? Is their magic the source of his own experiments on creating life? Is that the real reason the Witches were killed off in Episode 3’s flashback, so that no one but the Sith would have access to that power?
It’s impossible to say right now whether Plagueis will make his live-action debut in The Acolyte. But at the very least, there must be some connection between this series and the being that will eventually give rise to the greatest and most terrible Sith Lord the galaxy has ever seen.
Is The Master Hiding In Plain Sight?
Episode 4 brings the heroes and villains of The Acolyte together, as everyone converges on the remote planet Khofar in search of the Wookiee Jedi Master Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). Even The Master shows up for the fun, culminating in a showdown between this Dark Side adept and Master Sol’s group.
Given how the hunt for Kelnacca plays out and the way the characters regularly become separated from one another, the series seems to be telegraphing the reveal that one of these characters is The Master. There’s a high likelihood that The Master is someone we’ve already met, someone who strategically switches between their regular identity and this masked persona.
The most likely candidate right now is Manny Jacinto’s Qimir. This seemingly carefree smuggler and trader could easily be hiding a much darker side. We already know he’s working for The Master. Is it that much of a stretch to believe he actually is The Master, and that he’s been using his civilian identity to keep a closer watch on his pupil? With the way Qimir drops in and out of the picture in Episode 4, we could easily believe he’s running off into the jungle to change costumes and screw with the heads of both Mae and the Jedi.
We also wouldn’t write off the possibility that The Master is one of the Jedi Mae has been sent to kill. What if that’s Carrie-Anne Moss’ Indara underneath the helmet? What if Indara became so disillusioned by the Jedi’s failure on Brendok that she orchestrated this entire plot to punish her comrades, even staging her own death in the process?
Another option is that The Master is like Osha and Mae, a member of the witch coven who survived the massacre on Brendok.
Another option is that The Master is like Osha and Mae, a member of the witch coven who survived the massacre on Brendok. That could be the source of their hatred of the Jedi, as well as their insistence on having Mae kill their enemies without the aid of traditional Jedi/Sith weapons. Are they one of the Witches of Brendok? Is there a chance they could even be Mother Aniseya herself? Anything is possible for a woman who has seemingly unlocked the secret of life itself.
What are your theories about The Master’s true identity? Cast your vote in our poll and let us know what you think in the comments below.
For more on The Acolyte, learn how the series continues the most important theme of The Last Jedi and see the cast break down the first episode’s major twist.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
