Early on in The Acolyte‘s final episode, a few seconds utterly comes out of nowhere to hit you want a ton of bricks. It’s not a second of excessive drama, or a very surprising reveal concerning the story we’re watching unfold. If something, it’s seemingly nearly fully disconnected from every thing else within the finale. And but, it’s a second that doubtlessly has enormous ramifications for present Star Wars continuity.
Within the opening act of “The Acolyte,” The Acolyte‘s eighth and closing episode of the season, Osha decides to make a tenuous alliance with the mysterious darkish sider recognized solely because the Stranger. Having been given a imaginative and prescient within the Pressure of her twin, Mae, seemingly about to kill Osha’s former Jedi Grasp Sol, she and the Stranger put together to take off from their secluded island surroundings. Flying away within the Stranger’s vessel, we don’t observe the duo. As a substitute, The Acolyte attracts again to the shadows of a nearby cave, watching the ship fly off… as a wrinkled, spindly hand emerges from the shadows, after which a face.
The face of an alien being who actually seems prefer it might be probably the most notorious villains in Star Wars historical past, by no means earlier than seen in live-action: Darth Plagueis the Smart.
Is It Truly Darth Plagueis?
Seems, if it seems like a Darth Plagueis, it in all probability is. Though the episode itself by no means explicitly identifies the determine as Plagueis—past the being’s crimson, Sith-like eyes, and the elongated face related to the Muun, Plagueis’ species—it’s not like Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland has been cagey about having concepts concerning the character, ought to the sequence proceed. However the showrunner has now explicitly confirmed that the determine is certainly meant to be Plagueis. “Plagueis was at all times within the finale, in each model,” the showrunner instructed IndieWire in a brand new interview. “I used to be OK with having the cameo come so early if it meant I may wrap up these characters in a manner that [Osha and the Stranger’s] closing shot was not a, ‘And he’s been pulling the strings the entire time.’”
What We Truly Know About Darth Plagueis in Star Wars Canon
First infamously talked about in Revenge of the Sith when Chancellor Palpatine regales Anakin Skywalker with the “Tragedy” of the traditional Sith Lord—and his purported energy to cheat loss of life itself, till his personal apprentice killed him—little is definitely explicitly recognized about Plagueis’ historical past within the rebooted Star Wars continuity. He was the grasp of Palpatine, having recruited the younger Naboo at some undisclosed level previous to the occasions of The Phantom Menace, and the 2 labored to additional Plagueis’ plans to unlock the secrets and techniques to immortality itself. Plagueis and Palpatine centered on a number of avenues: scientific analysis, trying to straight affect the midi-chlorians inherent in all residing beings to manipulate the living Force, the apply of the Pressure means of transference, letting somebody supplant one other residing vessel with their very own consciousness, and an try to make the most of his apprentice in making a dyad within the Pressure itself, the Pressure-bond that preceded even the traditional Sith perception within the Rule of Two.
Plagueis additionally supported Palpatine in his rise to energy because the senator for his homeworld and the Chommell sector, becoming a member of the Republic Senate within the yr 52BBY (round 80 years after his look in The Acolyte), coaching his scholar within the methods of politics as a lot as he did the darkish facet of the Pressure. Nevertheless, their alliance was to not final. As Palpatine ultimately tells Anakin within the Tragedy of Plagueis the Smart, he was betrayed and killed by his apprentice in his sleep, unable to reply fast sufficient to make the most of the darkish arts he had devoted his life to to cheat loss of life.
Rather more of Plagueis’ apprenticeship of Palpatine was coated in former Expanded Universe continuity, most notably within the 2012 James Luceno novel Darth Plagueis. That e book additionally briefly explores Plagueis’ his personal apprenticeship to his grasp Darth Tenebrous—a Bith who stays largely unexplored in present continuity, outdoors of temporary allusions to the character in reference materials—and his eventual assassination of Tenebrous on the planet Bal’demnic, the location of wealthy deposits of cortosis, the highly effective however uncommon materials that’s able to potent, lightsaber-shorting power dissipation. An fascinating level to notice, given The Acolyte‘s personal on-screen debut of the ore!
What Darth Plagueis Might Imply for The Acolyte‘s Future
Though future seasons of The Acolyte have but to be confirmed by Lucasfilm, once more it’s clear that showrunner Leslye Headland has at all times had plans to discover the character of Plagueis additional, lately telling Nerdist, “If I proceed to get to inform this story, I understand how I would really like [Plagueis’ rise] to play out. And I’d say I feel it’s fairly sophisticated and messy.” Given his eventual shut ties to Palpatine—a determine that still continues to dominate generations of Star Wars storytelling throughout a number of eras of its timeline after his return in The Rise of Skywalker—any exploration of the Sith Lord who ultimately offers rise to Palpatine’s energy goes to have wide-reaching contextual ramifications for a lot of the Skywalker Saga as we all know it.
There’s, nevertheless, particular curiosity in tying Plagueis straight into The Acolyte‘s central narrative round Osha and her twin sister Mae. Given his aforementioned exploration of trying to type his personal highly effective dyad within the Pressure with Palpatine, the truth that Plagueis is now within the orbit of Osha as she begins coaching with the Stranger—and her twin delivery being aided by a similar vergence in the Force, a nexus of power that cut up Osha and Mae as two elements of the identical, highly effective entire—there’s little doubt that somebody like Plagueis wouldn’t be fascinated by seeing her discover her powers and use of the darkish facet. After which there’s the entire “Rule of Two” deal. We all know already that Plagueis goes on to inherit the mantle of a Sith Lord, and take Palpatine as his apprentice, whereas neither Osha nor the Stranger have explicitly taken on such a mantle themselves but. 4, in fact, is a bigger quantity than two.
“Despite the fact that [Osha and the Stranger] are standing there, type of looking on the sundown, prepared to beat the world, the tragedy is we all know they don’t. We all know there can solely be two,” Headland added in her interview with Indiewire. “We all know Plagueis is there. We all know that these two are doomed in a roundabout way. So to me it’s a bittersweet tragedy, this foreboding ending.” Suffice to say, ought to The Acolyte proceed, Plagueis will stay an important a part of its darkish facet mysteries, till their inevitable, bittersweet finish.
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