The Acolyte Introduced a Fan-Favorite Villain in the Finale

This article contains spoilers for the season one finale of The Acolyte on Disney+.The newest Star Wars series on Disney+, The Acolyte, has just concluded its first season, and the reactions from fans have been all over the place. Some claim the series to be one of the best original stories in the Star Wars franchise to date; others call it the worst thing produced under Disney’s ownership of Lucasfilm so far. Most fans, however, lie somewhere in the middle.

However you may feel about the story of The Acolyte, it cannot be denied that the series swung for the fences in terms of expanding the overall lore and canon of the Star Wars franchise on-screen. One of the most substantial additions wasn’t a core aspect of the show but rather a brief tease that the series uses to set up a potential second season. In its Season 1 finale, The Acolyte confirms the presence of the legendary Sith Lord, Darth Plagueis. This is a Star Wars character that fans have been clamoring to see on-screen for almost two decades now, and they’ve finally gotten their wish. With that in mind, here’s what we know about Darth Plagueis and how he could factor into the next season of The Acolyte if there is one.

Darth Plagueis the Wise Makes a Brief Appearance in The Acolyte

As a character, Darth Plagueis was first mentioned in 2005, in the final chapter of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In that film, Chancellor Palpatine shares the story of Plagueis with Anakin Skywalker. This scene has become one of the most iconic moments in the broader Star Wars franchise, as Palpatine speaks about “The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise,” telling Anakin of the old Sith Lord’s obsession with immortality and how it ultimately led to his own demise.

There are a lot of layers at work in this scene, most notably the fact that Palpatine is secretly Darth Sidious, Plagueis’ former apprentice who killed the legendary Sith in his sleep. He uses this tale as a way to entice Anakin closer to the Dark Side through a desire to use the same abilities that Plagueis discovered to save his wife, Padmé Amidala. Palpatine’s manipulation of Anakin ultimately succeeds, as the Jedi falls completely to the Dark Side, becoming the new Sith apprentice, Darth Vader.

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Beyond the talk of Plagueis in Revenge of the Sith, the legendary character has appeared very minutely throughout the current Star Wars canon. His story has been expanded upon substantially through books like 2012’s Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno, but those stories quickly became non-canon following Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm. There have been brief references to him in canon stories such as the new novels Tarkin and Shadow of the Sith, but they’ve been nothing too in-depth. Plagueis’ appearance in the finale of The Acolyte is a firm promise to explore his story in canon, though there are a few different ways this could play out.

The Sith Rule of Two in Star Wars

While Plagueis appears in the finale of The Acolyte, no specific details about his actual involvement in the story have been confirmed yet, leading fans to speculate wildly about his role. The most common assumption seems to be that Plagueis is the Sith Master to Manny Jacinto’s Qimir, the central antagonist of The Acolyte, also known as The Stranger. This would align with the Sith Rule of Two, which dictates that there can be no more than two Sith operating at a time: a master and an apprentice. Given that Qimir had yet to formally bring Mae Aniseya on as his apprentice at the beginning of The Acolyte, it can be assumed that he has a master of his own somewhere. The appearance of Plagueis in the finale fits nicely into that scenario.

Typically, the Rule of Two ultimately plays out in one of two ways: the apprentice kills the master, taking on the role of master and then recruiting their own apprentice, or the master kills the apprentice and embraces a new, stronger apprentice to take their place. Sometimes, a Sith apprentice will bring on a trainee of their own, secretly taking them under their wing in a plot to kill their master. This has been seen in Star Wars canon many times, most notably when Count Dooku, Darth Sidious’ apprentice at the time, began training the Nightsister Asajj Ventress. It is also thought that Sidious likely took this same approach, as he may have started training Darth Maul as his apprentice before killing Plagueis.

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If Plagueis is Qimir’s Sith Master, then, by the end of this first season, Osha Aniseya is the young new acolyte being trained in secret. Considering Plagueis’ appearance in The Acolyte, which shows him watching from afar as Qimir and Osha board a ship and leave together, we can assume he is not too happy about his apprentice taking on a trainee of his own. Alternatively, it’s possible that Plagueis is not Qimir’s master at all, and instead, they both unknowingly serve as apprentices to the same master, Darth Tenebrous. This would pit Plagueis and Qimir directly against one another in Season 2, as they both vie for the approval of Tenebrous.

The Road to Tragedy in The Acolyte

The Acolyte

2/5

Release Date

June 4, 2024

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

Cast

Amandla Stenberg , Lee Jung-jae , Joonas Suotamo , Charlie Barnett , Dafne Keen , Leah Brady , Manny Jacinto , Rebecca Henderson , Carrie-Anne Moss , Jodie Turner-Smith , Dean-Charles Chapman , Lauren Brady , Anthony J. Abraham , Thara Shöön , Danielle Xin Yao Waterman , Sienna Khiroya , Jeramiah Evans , Dan Milne , Thomas Coombes , Archie Singh Swali , Nick Court , Ed Kear , Jumayn Hunter , Scroobius Pip , Abigail Thorn , Margarita Levieva , Amy Tsang , Saskia Allen , Deborah Rosan , Tabitha Alege , Paul Bullion , Indra Ové , Derek Arnold , Lewis Young

Seasons

1

Number of Episodes

8

Streaming Service(s)

Disney+

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Whatever direction Lucasfilm decides to go in with Plagueis in the second season of The Acolyte, it will likely not end well for the primary characters of Qimir and Osha. We know this because it is already established in the Star Wars canon that Plagueis eventually takes on Palpatine as an apprentice, who is the one to ultimately kill him. The stories of Osha and Qimir are new and set nearly 100 years before Palpatine’s apprenticeship with Darth Maul in the first prequel film, Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which began around the same time as Plagueis’ death.

Throughout the Star Wars stories we’ve gotten so far, we know that Palpatine / Darth Sidious tended to pit his apprentices against other powerful force-users that could potentially replace them. He did this to ensure he trained only the strongest new Sith. Sidious ordered Anakin Skywalker to kill Count Dooku at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith, and he would later continuously test Darth Vader against a variety of other powerful force-wielders he’d like to train, including Luke Skywalker at the end of Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. We could see Plagueis take this same approach in The Acolyte, as he turns Qimir and Osha against one another, intending to only train the stronger one who wins out in the end.

On top of all this, we can also assume that Plagueis will have a particular interest in Osha, as she and her twin sister, Mae, were created by the witches on Brendok purely through the use of the Force. Given that Plagueis is obsessed with creating immortality for himself, he is likely to be very intrigued by this ability to create life through the Force. He may view Osha’s origin as the key to his own immortality, making her an important pawn in his plan for galactic dominance. No matter which direction they choose for The Acolyte Season 2, it’s very unlikely to be one that will end happily for Osha as she descends further into the Dark Side and is tested by both Qimir and Plagueis. The Acolyte is streaming on Disney+.