And with that, The Acolyte has wrapped its inaugural season. It’s hard to tell at this point if round two is on the cards or not, but we already knew EP Leslye Headland had more story locked and loaded in the event of such a thing, and she telegraphed that tenfold with this season finale.
Despite mid-season writing jitters, the bookend of The Acolyte‘s first season closed out in considerably strong fashion. In saying that, the finale is marked by the sense that the true bulk of The Acolyte‘s drama takes place in the events following this first season; a sense that perhaps explains but does not excuse the creaks in tese eight episodes, even if those creaks were ultimately non-fatal. The prospect of a second season, then, is well and truly intriguing.
But what exactly happened in the finale?
How does season 1 of The Acolyte end?
After Mae and Osha confront each other back on Brendok, Osha learns the truth about what happened to their coven all those years ago, causing her to murder Sol with a Force choke. The pair flee to the tree that they always frequented as children, a squadron of Jedi looming just overhead.
Vernestra, who leads this Jedi sect to Brendok in hopes of bringing in Sol for his crimes, arrives on Brendok, where she discovers Sol’s body (which she later burns). During this time, we learn that Vernestra was the former master of Qimir.
The sisters, now grasping the fact that they’re the result of a Force vergence and are therefore a single consciousness inhabiting two different bodies, forgive each other and embrace. Qimir finds them, warning them that, with Sol dead, the Jedi are likely to try and capture Mae next, which would in turn put Osha in danger. Osha, in turn, agrees to train under Qimir if the latter uses the Force to erase Mae’s memory, therefore shielding Osha from the Jedi’s interrogation of Mae. Mae agrees, and her memory gets erased.
Vernestra feeds a group of senators false information about the Brendok incident, feeding the same info to Mae—who has since been captured by the Jedi—and then explains that she’s going to need her help in finding a pupil of her’s (which we audiences now know is Qimir). Later, as Vernestra is contending with the revelation that Qimir is the Dark Force user, she pays a visit to none other than Grand Master Yoda to explain this new state of affairs to him. At the same time, Qimir and Osha join hands and gaze into the horizon after returning to Qimir’s ocean-covered home planet; before they left it at the beginning of the episode, Darth Plagueis watched them from the shadows, so now we know who Qimir’s Sith Master is.
Suffice to say that season 1 of The Acolyte can be aptly characterized as a setup for what’s hopefully a much more polished story the next time around. It’s demonstrated a great, if dark, joy about inhabiting the Star Wars mythos; all it needs is to also inhabit the part of its story that, in all likelihood, it’s more passionate about, which will hopefully in turn lead to better storytelling.
All episodes of The Acolyte‘s first season are available to stream on Disney Plus.