Disney Star Wars continues to branch out to different types of storytelling. Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte embraces the murder-mystery genre, with everyone curious about Mae and her mission to eliminate four specific Jedi.
With the show slowly unravelling more info week after week with every episode, some characters have many fans asking questions about who they are and what their purpose in the narrative is.
Mother Aniseya and Her Coven
Osha and Mae’s Mother, Aniseya, and her Coven got the spotlight in the third episode of Destiny, and it was revealed that they were a branch of Force users that hadn’t been introduced to canon before.
It’s unclear what kind of powers they have. Still, they refer to The Force as ‘The Thread’ and have different powers, including the ability to hijack the minds of other beings—something fans haven’t seen the Jedi do. However, Kylo Ren uses this ability in The Force Awakens.
So far, it’s still unclear why Mae and Osha were so important to the Coven, but the ritual was likely what brought the Jedi’s attention to the Coven in the first place, and if it was the Jedi's attention, then it had to be something powerful… or dangerous.
Master Indara (and Her Squad of Jedi)
Many fans were excited to see Carrie-Anne Moss join Star Wars but were shocked when her Master, Indara, was killed off by Mae in the very first scene of The Acolyte. Despite the fan outrage that the series was ‘wasting’ an actress like Moss, the show clearly has a backstory that’s going to be fleshed out with her and the rest of the Jedi on her team that picked up Osha on Brendok.
From what fans can determine in the show so far, Mae’s hit list includes all the Jedi who had showed up on the night that the Coven was destroyed—them being Indara, Sol, Torbin, and Kelnacca. Though it does look like it was Mae that started the fire based on what Osha saw, it’s possible that the Jedi also had some dirty work done, seeing that Mae was so hell-bent on getting revenge on them.
With characters like Torbin and Kelnacca exiling themselves from the Jedi, it does feel obvious that they have some kind of guilt for what happened. Indara so far has been portrayed as very cold and serious which leads a lot to think she was definitely the mastermind; but that does leave the question of Jedi Master Sol.
Was Sol innocent? Or did he know something about what happened to the Coven that he was hiding from Osha?
Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh
Over 100-years-old, Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh is one of the characters in The Acolyte that was established in different source material i.e., The High Republic books, which told the tales of the Jedi fighting the Nihil (a pre-Sith faction). Though she was a young knight in the EU material, in the show she is an established Jedi master. She wields a unique purple lightsaber that has an elastic blade, turning it into a ‘lightwhip’.
Though Vernestra has not been central to the main story taking place with Mae and Osha, narratively, she is the voice of the Jedi council. Throughout all of her interactions with Sol, Vernestra has mostly been concerned about the public image of the Jedi, and is trying to make sure that the murders of the Jedi have been kept hushed up to save them from any trouble with the senate.
It’s very likely that Vernestra knows something about the mission on Brendok as she has the same kind of disposition as Master Indara. Trailers have shown Vernestra igniting her lightwhip, so it’s possible that this could either be from a flashback or she followed Sol and his squad of Jedi to recover Mae.
Either way, it does seem like Vernestra is the embodiment on the priorities of the Jedi at the time—keeping the peace, but also making sure that they were in a good place of power within the Republic. She’d rather keep problems hushed up than actually take a hard look at the situation at hand.
Qimir
Qimir does seem like a usual Star Wars archetype being a seedy specialist who will help anyone for the right price, but some fans have been quick to point out that there could be more to him than meets the eye.
Though Qimir does seem kind of bumbling at first, he has a slight, but very severe shift in his interaction with Osha when he realizes that she isn’t Mae. Later in the episode, he also skillfully blocks Mae’s knife when she attacks him—and Mae is supposed to be a trained fighter.
Fans can probably chalk it up to Qimir being brought up in the rough streets, but seeing that the Sith have a tendency to disguise themselves before big reveals, it’s possible that Qimir is definitely hiding something. Speaking of which…
Mae’s Master a.k.a. 'Darth Teeth'
Though he hasn’t been officially named by the series, Mae’s master has been lovingly been dubbed by the fandom as ‘Darth Teeth’. This Kylo Ren/Tokyo Ghoul mash-up seems to be the one who’s given Mae the mission to kill the Jedi.
Already, everyone is convinced that he’s Qimir. Besides Qimir’s aforementioned skills, Darth Teeth seems to have showed up at a very convenient time when Qimir wasn’t around—and it was Qimir who knew where Kelnacca’s hut was. There was a lot of time for him to cut himself loose, kill Kenacca before Mae got to his hut, and show up when all the Jedi appeared.
There’s also the bit during Mae and Qimir’s trek where Qimir misspeaks:
Mae: “What kind of deal did you make with him?”
Qimir: “I didn’t—WE didn’t exactly.”
That being said, some fans are convinced that Qimir is a red herring, and that Darth Teeth is actually another apprentice, and he’s looking to recruit Mae to help him kill his master.
So far, all fans can do is speculate, but that’s what makes murder-mystery shows fun.
Catch new episodes of The Acolyte every Wednesday on Disney+.
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