Warning: SPOILERS for The Acolyte are ahead!
When The Acolyte began, Mae had embraced the Dark Side of the Force and was killing Jedi who were involved in overturning her life 16 years earlier, and Osha had been long gone from the Jedi Order, was working as a meknek and shocked to learn her sister was alive. By the time Season 1 finished airing to those with a Disney+ subscription, Amandla Stenberg’s characters found themselves in drastically different positions, with Mae having been mind wiped and Osha agreeing to train with Qimir after she killed her former master, Sol. So after starting out as enemies, these two are poised to become quite close, and director Hanelle M. Culpepper explained to us why she’s so pleased with where things leave off with them.
These thoughts on the subject came up when I asked Culpepper, who’s the only director to helm TV episodes in both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, about what kind of reactions she and her team were expecting from fans upon them learning that Osha and Qimir are now allies. Instead, she shared her opinion on what went down in the Season 1 finale, telling CinemaBlend:
I mean, I can just tell you how I felt, and I know reading the script… this is the place where she's supposed to be. This is her really finding out… to end up on the path that she was supposed to be on. And I think that what's so great is that part of the theme is that when you deny that part of you, you end up filled with anger, and sometimes it's better to let yourself be what you want to be and express the emotions you need to express so that you get to a better place and get to where you're supposed to be. So she was supposed to be with him. That's what I care about. I hope that the fans would be going for it like I felt. And of course the acting that Manny and Amandla was doing and the connection that they had and the chemistry between them, it felt right.
Jason Micallef wrote The Acolyte Season 1 finale, fittingly called “The Acolyte,” and Hanelle M. Culpepper was all in on this plot twist he crafted. As she sees it, Osha was destined to walk down the Dark Side’s path, and Force choking Sol after learning he’d killed her and Mae’s mother pushed her over the edge. Committing that action also resulted in Osha bleeding the exposed kyber crystal in Sol’s lightsaber, turning it from blue to red. In order to protect Mae, Osha agreed to leave with Qimir so that he could erase her sister’s memory, and now she’ll learn the ways of the Sith like him.
Of course, anyone who’s watched the Star Wars movies in order knows that these two are ultimately destined for tragedy. That’s because Darth Plagueis, who briefly appeared in this episode, will one day train Palpatine as his final apprentice, and with the Sith’s Rule of Two still in effect, well, four is most definitely a crowd. But if The Acolyte Season 2 happens, we can at least enjoy the ride of seeing what Osha and Qimir are like when properly working together and getting more of that chemistry between Amandla Stenberg and Manny Jacinto that Hanelle M. Culpepper mentioned.
Then there’s the mystery of Vernestra Rwoh's past with Qimir, as it was revealed that he was once her apprentice and she believed him to be dead. Venestra may have blamed Sol for the deaths of those Jedi and the Force witches to the Jedi Council, but it seems she’s now determined to uncover the truth about Qimir. Although she visited Yoda at the end of “The Acolyte,” it remains to be seen if he’ll become involved with her investigation of if that’s a misdirect.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage on The Acolyte. Skeleton Crew is next on the upcoming Star Wars TV shows slate, with the Jude Law-led series set to debut December 3 on Disney+.
