The Acolyte finally unmasked Mae’s master during the show’s shocking fifth episode. The mysterious Jedi killer in The Acolyte is the person we suspected from the very first time we met him: Manny Jacinto’s Qimir. The soft-spoken trader is actually a deadly dark side Force user. But what is he exactly? What does he have against the Jedi Order? And what does he ultimately want? The answers to those questions reveal that an unleashed Qimir is even more dangerous than one operating in the shadows.
What Did The Acolyte Reveal About the Jedi Killer Qimir’s Past? Was Qimir Once a Jedi Padawan?
The Acolyte revealed Qimir has a personal connection to the Jedi and that the Order once knew him. Qimir called his opponent “Master Sol” when the two faced off. The dark side user then said, “You don’t remember me,” when the Jedi asked who he was. Sol must have known him at some point, because the Jedi said he “sensed something familiar” in the Jedi killer.
Later in the episode, when Yord clashed with an unmasked Qimir, Yord was shocked when he saw Qimir’s face. “You,” Yord said, clearly recognizing Qimir.
While neither Sol nor Yord confirmed Qimir had once been a Padawan, The Acolyte strongly suggested he was. Qimir called Sol “Master.” Yord was only recently named a Knight, and would have only known Qimir during his Padawan days. Considering Qimir’s own protege, Mae, was also someone the Jedi tried to recruit to join their ranks, denying her the freedom of using her powers as her coven saw fit, it seems more than possible Qimir was once a student of the very Jedi he now kills.
Is The Acolyte‘s Qimir a Sith?
Qimir told Sol he has “no name,” but that the Jedi would might call him “Sith.” Star Wars fans know the significance of that phrase. They also know the Sith kill Jedi and use red lightsabers. But it is noteworthy Qimir didn’t actually call himself a Sith, let alone a Sith Lord. That could be nothing more than a turn of phrase, or it could be a subtle clue Qimir is actually something else. (That could explain why a century later a Jedi Master will say no one has seen a Sith in a thousand years.)
The Sith spent millennia in hiding after the Jedi Order nearly wiped out their dark side foes. Yet the Sith always planned to reveal themselves one day. That’s when they would usurp the Jedi as the dominant Force users in the galaxy. That day is coming soon to the galaxy far, far away. The seeds for Palpatine’s rise might have begun with Qimir’s attack in the forests of Khofar.
There is one other major reason to believe Qimir truly is a Sith, too.
What Does Qimir Want on The Acolyte?
Qimir told Sol he wants two things. The first is “freedom, freedom to wield my power the way I like, without having to answer to Jedi like you.” As Osha and Mae’s coven knew, the Jedi do not allow other Force users to use their powers as they like. The Jedi Order believes they, and they alone, can control the Force and dictates who can use it and how. Qimir does not believe in the ways of the Jedi. “The Jedi makes the rules,” and the Jedi say Qimir—who doesn’t follow any rules—“can’t exist.”
Qimir has accepted and embraced his “darkness” (same as a Sith), while he believes Jedi deny theirs. That’s what he accused Sol of when he asked what the Jedi had done with his own darkness. But it’s the second thing Qimir wants that indicates he really is a Sith
“I want a pupil,” he told Sol, “An acolyte.” The Sith, which is a religious dark side order, have existed in the shadows for thousands of years thanks to the Rule of Two. There can only ever be two Sith Lords at once a Master and an Apprentice. Qimir wants his own apprentice, and he thought he found it in Mae (someone he seems to have both a common past and common cause with), but she betrayed him.
Qimir might have already found a replacement, though.
Why Did Qimir Save Osha on The Acolyte?
Qimir survived a giant bug attack and found an (accidentally) abandoned and unconscious Osha on the ground. He did not strike her down or even leave her alone, though. Instead he healed her while saying, “What extraordinary beings we are. Even in the revelation of our triumph, we see the depth of our despair.”
Qimir won a fight against many Jedi. He revealed himself to his enemy and triumphed, yet in his moment of revelation he stood over a former Jedi Padawan and saw “despair.”
What exactly did he mean? Does he see himself in Osha because he too was a Jedi student once? Did they take him like they tried to take Mae and Osha? He knows the Jedi did something “dark” on Brendok long ago. Will he reveal their secret to Osha in an attempt to make her embrace the dark side and become his Acolyte?
Osha wouldn’t be the first good person to turn the dark side and a charming master in her moment of despair. And if Qimir really is the Sith Lord who will make Palpatine’s rise possible someday, it’s only fitting he had his own Anakin as the Sith Rule of Two demands.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist and Manny Jacinto superfan. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.