Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ARE AHEAD for the Season 1 finale of The Acolyte on Disney+.
The Acolyte had eight episodes to take Star Wars fans back to an era that the franchise hadn't explored before in live-action: the High Republic. Despite some attempts at review bombing and some frustration over certain scenes among some fans, the first season came to an end with such a thrilling finale that it may just rank among the best Disney+ TV shows. Not only did the episode deliver two reveals that Star Wars fans have been anticipating and/or dreading all season, but some hooks were set that would make for a great second season... including one specific question that I already need an answer to.
So, now that The Acolyte has ended in the 2024 TV schedule, let's look at what the Season 1 finale revealed, what it didn't reveal, and whether Osha and the other surviving characters could be back for a second season for Disney+ subscribers.
Yoda And Darth Plagueis Cameos
While The Acolyte being set about a century before the events of the Star Wars prequel trilogy meant that most familiar characters couldn't appear, there were exceptions. I'm guessing seeing Ki-Adi-Mundi in Episode 5 wasn't a cameo anybody would have expected even though he does make our ranking of the Star Wars movies' most powerful Jedi, but Yoda was alive and well in the High Republic, and The Acolyte has dropped clues about Darth Plagueis. And all it took was waiting for the Season 1 finale for payoff!
Okay, technically nobody appeared on screen with a name tag confirming the identity of the dark figure in a cave on the planet that may or may not be Bal'demnic, but who else could they have been if not Darth Plagueis? The timeline fits, to the point that some fans were previously wondering if Qimir himself could be Plagueis. Unfortunately, the figure's one and only scene was quite dark, but here's what the Disney+ English audio description says that leads me to assume that we just got a look at Plagueis:
A view from the mouth of the cave shows it [the ship] flying off out of the atmosphere. A spindly hand reaches out and clutches the rock wall. From the shadows, a cloaked figure with a ghastly elongated head leans partially into view and peers out through orange eyes.
While Star Wars fans can and surely will debate this glimpse at the figure who I believe is probably Darth Plagueis, the second cameo almost certainly won't be up for debate unless any viewers have a hot take about Yaddle and want to spin a prediction about her. Yoda got his cameo from behind, with Vernestra entering the room and saying "Sorry to disturb you, master, we need to talk." This was shortly after she pinned all the deaths on the conveniently dead Sol – who did live longer than I predicted – so she and Yoda must have had plenty to talk about.
In the interest of fairness, I also checked Disney+'s English audio description for this cameo:
[Vernestra] steps inside a dimly lit room. Our view lowers to reveal the back of a head with pointy green ears and thin tufts of white hair.
So, we got to see Yoda and Plagueis in the Season 1 finale, which tied The Acolyte to the larger on-screen saga a lot more than a cameo from Ki-Adi-Mundi did a few episodes back. But the question I'm pondering most at this point has nothing to do with either the legendary Jedi or Sith.
The Question I'm Asking About Osha And Mae
The major franchise cameos didn't change the fact that the finale was all about Osha, Mae, and the choices they had to make about Sol and Qimir. After Qimir tempted Osha on the unnamed island and Sol came clean about his part in the death of their mother, Osha made a fateful decision and proved just how to kill a Jedi without a weapon: a Force choke powerful enough that would make Darth Vader proud in 120 years or so.
Killing Sol resulted in the crystal of the blue lightsaber in Osha's hand beginning to bleed and turn into the red that Star Wars fans undoubtedly associate with Sith and Inquisitors. Osha and Mae – who were revealed not to be twins, but actually the same person created out of the Force due to a vergence on Brendok – ultimately had to make a choice about their futures. Osha volunteered to go and train with Qimir to spare Mae, but before Qimir wiped Mae's memory, the sisters had an interesting exchange.
Crying, the pair started to say their mantra, leading Mae to ask "Who taught us that rhyme?" Looking puzzled, Osha responded, "I thought you made it up." And then Qimir, in some spectacularly frustrating timing, showed up to interrupt before they could get any deeper into the rhyme that they both knew by heart but neither one of them invented. Who created it all those years ago?
Dang it, I want to know! Of course, there are much grander questions to be answered that could affect the course of the galaxy far, far away, but from a character perspective, I'm very interested in this tease of another mystery of Osha and Mae's past. Since I'm guessing this isn't a question that anybody is going to answer definitively in the wake of the finale, I'm going to have to pin my hopes on Season 2.
Will The Acolyte Return For Season 2?
Unfortunately, there has been no announcement at the time of writing about a second season of The Acolyte. I take some encouragement from the fact that it was never billed as a limited series like Obi-Wan Kenobi was and the hooks at the end of the finale definitely felt like a door being left open for Season 2. Then again, that was also the case for the finale of The Book of Boba Fett, which did not return for a second batch of episodes and left Temuera Morrison with a petty reason to want to return to The Mandalorian.
I am hoping that The Acolyte's lack of ties to the other Star Wars shows on Disney+ won't harm its odds of more episodes. Even if it can't tie in to Dave Filoni's movie, the High Republic era is prime to be explored. While I wasn't as immediately enthralled with The Acolyte as I was with the first season of The Mandalorian and the first season of Ahsoka, I believe that the series 100% stuck the landing, and it'd be a shame to not see these stars back in their roles for another season. So, my fingers are officially crossed for Season 2!
As the wait begins for news of The Acolyte's future, you can get a Star Wars fix easily with a Disney+ subscription. The Disney streamer is home to all of the live-action Star Wars TV originals as well as the animated series and all the films.
