‘The Acolyte’ just did what it promised it wouldn’t by tearing up the ‘Star Wars’ timeline with canon-quaking Sith reveal

Warning: This article contains full spoilers for The Acolyte episode 5.

As soon as The Acolyte, a show all about Dark Side Force users set during the days of the High Republic, was announced Star Wars fans were already complaining about how it was going to destroy canon. After all, how could the series depict Jedi battling the Sith when the Jedi thought the Sith had been dead for centuries in The Phantom Menace?

In its first four episodes, The Acolyte managed to just about tiptoe its way around this giant elephant in the room, thanks to a scene showing a group of Jedi Masters deciding not to inform the High Council of what was going on. Of course, this same scene featured the very character from The Phantom Menace who told us the Sith had been extinct for a millennium in the first place. R.I.P. Ki-Adi Mundi, you didn’t deserve that character assassination.

But, in its fifth episode, The Acolyte creators clearly just decided they’d had enough of treading on egg shells so they went and yanked off the band-aid, screw the consequences to the canon. The show’s mysterious Sith Master, colloquially known as Darth Teeth, has been revealed…. and the timeline might be wrecked.

The Acolyte episode 5 just unmasked its villain, to both the audience and the Jedi

Now we’re in the back-half of the season, we probably could’ve expected the villain to be outed in this episode, but we never would’ve guessed the mystery would get solved like this. Following on from last week’s cliffhanger, episode 5 saw Osha, Master Sol, and the Jedi battle the enigmatic evil overlord… and it all ended in a massacre.

Virtually every Jedi on Khofar was slaughtered by Darth Teeth, including major characters Yord and Jecki (well, definitely Yord, seeing as he got his neck snapped, but tragically probably Jecki, too). However, he’s not able to best his turncoat apprentice, Mae, who manages to slice his mask off. With the game up, the villain comes clean to Sol — it’s Qimir! Yes, everyone who’s been predicting this for weeks, give yourselves a pat on the back.

The far more shocking revelation here, however, is that Qimir confirms to Sol that he is indeed a Sith. What’s more, Sol lives to lightsaber another day and heads off-world in his ship by the episode’s close. Given the massive revelation he’s just learned, surely he’s honor-bound to head straight to Coruscant to inform the High Council. Just like Qui-Gonn did upon meeting Maul in TPM.

Of course, it just so happens that it’s not Osha with him but Mae, who is impersonating her twin and has left the real Osha at the mercy of Qimir back on Khofar. Could Mae interrupt Sol’s return to Coruscant somehow, preventing him from telling the Jedi about the Sith’s return and thereby maintaining Star Wars canon as we know it?

Would The Acolyte dare kill off Lee Jung-jae’s instant fan-favorite just to bring balance to the timeline? We’ll find out as new episodes drop Tuesdays on Disney Plus.