The Acolyte is keeping the identity of the mysterious Sith Master secret, but — in our humble opinion — it couldn’t be clearer.
[Ed. note: This post is going to discuss the end of episode 4 of The Acolyte; spoilers are below.]
For a second, things look really bad for the Master: Mae (Amandla Stenberg) and her loyalties have crossed over to the Jedi, leaving whatever her mission was unfulfilled. But when she shows up to the house of Jedi Master Kelnacca to find him dead (pour one out for a real one), the house surrounded, and herself under suspicion, who should appear but her Master? Kicking ass even in a roughly four-on-one fight.
There’s not many who could hold their own like that, even with the fearsome power of the Dark Side. But now that the Master has bared their teeth — literally, with that bitchin’ helmet — we’ve gotten a better sense of who they are.
The answer is so clear!! Just ask any of us.
The Master is… Qimir
Image: Lucasfilm
If it wasn’t clear enough before, it’s certainly clear now. We last see Qimir (Manny Jacinto) when he gets caught in Mae’s trap, pleading with her to let him down and not defect to the other side. But we really last see Qimir when he shows up to fight all the Jedi and show off the finer points of his mask.
Let’s look at the facts, shall we? He’s dropped from the narrative (opportunity); he’s thus far scanned as wily and full of guile (means) in a way Star Wars characters historically aren’t; and his conversations with Mae this episode seemed remarkably… loaded (motive, or whatever we want to call it). And what better way to watch his plan unfurl, masterfully shaping it as he goes along? After all, it worked for Sauron. —Zosha Millman
The Master is… a third sister
Image: Lucasfilm
Boy, it sure does seem like it’s Manny Jacinto’s character, Qimir, right? And like the writers are playing that off as a big secret? But I’m reckoning that The Acolyte is cleverer than that. This show is fundamentally built around withholding as much information from the audience as possible, sometimes producing a pretty confusing experience. So I’m going to guess that the writers have also withheld another basic fact. Mae and Osha aren’t twins, they’re triplets, and the third, missing sister is the secret Sith Master.
Think about it. Star Wars has already done the Force dyad thing. How do you iterate on that idea, make it more exciting, and raise the stakes? I give you: the Force triad. Where was their third sister during the flashbacks of The Acolyte episode 3? No idea. Maybe she doesn’t get along with Mae any more than Osha does, and chose to express that more forcefully, by avoiding the two of them. Maybe she had a Force premonition about which way the winds were blowing for the coven, and jumped ship long before the events of episode 3. Maybe Mother Koril, the Zabrak coven member, realized Mother Aniseya was going to undermine her in raising their daughters, and hid the third girl away for herself, which made the lost daughter so angry and lonely, she turned to the Dark Side.
Or, I dunno, maybe the secret Sith Master is three Baby Yodas in a trenchcoat and helm. Wouldn’t that be a headline-grabber? —Tasha Robinson
The Master is… Mother Koril
Image: Lucasfilm
Episode 3 of The Acolyte is all about what the story didn’t show: what really caused that book fire to spread uncontrollably; whatever the Jedi did on Brendok that was so traumatic that Master Torbin dedicated his life to the art of hovering; and the body of Mother Koril, the Zabrak witch and birth mother to Mae and Osha, who should be justifiably pissed about a lot of stuff!
Mother Koril is one of the more obvious answers to be the Force-wielder behind the toothy Sith mask, which almost makes me second-guess my own theory. But the evidence is strong here; Koril would have the motive (her wife and all of her friends are dead!), bears a deep connection to her daughter/apprentice Mae, and, over the past decade or so, probably learned some powerfully arcane shit about the Dark Side of the Force. Plus, she’s the ideal candidate for saving Mae from what appeared to be certain death on Brendok. Zabrak know how to survive a deadly fall into a cavernous pit. —Michael McWhertor
The Master is… Vernestra Rwoh
Image: Lucasfilm
Like a Star Wars fan, I have a bad feeling about this obstructionist Jedi Master. And like a Star Trek fan, I know one thing: If there’s one official in the hierarchy who keeps standing between the heroes and investigating the mystery, that official will definitely turn out to be involved in the mystery before the end of the story.
You might say to me, “Susana, Rebecca Henderson is married to the showrunner. Leslye Headland wouldn’t make her wife the bad guy.” And I’d say that making somebody a bad guy is just giving them a meatier role.
You might say, “But Vernestra Rwoh is about the only character in the show who’s from the High Republic books! They wouldn’t turn an established good guy into a bad guy!” And I’d argue that the last time we saw Master Rwoh, she was so disillusioned with the Jedi Order that she’d officially divested herself from it to seek a life of isolation in the remote spaces of the galaxy. How did she get from there to a ranking Jedi Knight? Did she climb those ranks only to split the organization from within? J’ACCUSE! —Susana Polo
The Master is… Keef Girgo
Image: Lucasfilm
Who is Keef Girgo, you might ask? Who isn’t Keef Girgo, is more like it. Keef Girgo is the assumed name under which Cassian Andor goes to prison in Andor. At first glance, it seems like just another very silly Star Wars name. But what if… it was more??? What if Keef Girgo was actually a long-dead Sith Lord (with a very silly Star Wars name), and Andor grasped for the first name that came to mind when faced with Empire forces? What if Keef Girgo is the pendulum on which the galaxy swings?
Reader, at this point I have to level with you. I just wanted to type Keef Girgo one more time. I’ve missed it so much. I needed my fix. So I will leave you with how I ended my previous missive on Keef Girgo:
Keef. Girgo. Keef! Girgo! Say it loud, and there’s (cantina) music playing. Say it soft and it’s almost like (a tauntaun) braying. Keef Girgo! I cannot stop saying Keef Girgo! —Pete Volk
The Master is… Jar Jar Binks
Image: Lucasfilm
I’ve never been a fan of the Sith Lord Jar Jar theory, but if Lucasfilm is going to do it, this is the moment. For those who don’t know, a fan theory on Reddit kicked off the idea that maybe Jar Jar Binks wasn’t quite who he portrayed himself to be. In fact, the theory asks, what if he was only pretending to be a bumbling idiot because he was actually the secret, super-powerful Sith Lord manipulating even Palpatine himself.
On its face, this theory is tremendously silly, which is at least half the fun. So why bother making it canon now? Well, The Acolyte is in a precarious position. On the one hand, it has to reveal someone as the mysterious Master that Mae’s been following. On the other hand, as other people here have indicated, there aren’t many good options in the show itself, and there aren’t even too many great ones in the larger Star Wars canon. So why not shake it up? Why not reveal that Jar Jar’s not just a Sith Lord, but a near-immortal who’s been working against the Jedi and Yoda specifically for nearly as long as either of them have been alive — all the way back to the days of the High Republic.
You thought Star Wars was the story of the Skywalkers? No, with this, The Acolyte would reveal that it’s actually about a thousand-year-long war between two equally goofy-looking creatures who hate each other’s guts. —Austen Goslin