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Mae and Osha may be twins, but they want very different things out of life. That disconnect was prevalent in Star Wars: The Acolyte’s flashback episode on Tuesday, set 16 years in the past on their home planet of Brendok.
The Force-sensitive girls were to participate in the Ascension, a special ceremony during which they’d become witches and join their family’s coven. While Mae was honored to perform the task, Osha had her reservations. She wasn’t sure that that was what she wanted.
But Mae assured her sister they’d do it together, using their childhood rhyme to remind her what was at stake: “You are with me. I am with you. Always one but born as two. As above sits the stars and below lies the sea, I give you you and you give me me.”
We were then introduced to their caregivers, a Zabrak witch named Mother Koril (played by The Deuce’s Margarita Levieva), and Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), the coven’s leader who possessed knowledge of the Force. Aniseya lead a class on the ways of the Thread, aka the Force, which Mae excelled at while Osha underperformed. But to be fair, Osha’s heart just wasn’t in it.
She preferred to draw and keep to herself, which often annoyed Mae. As the twins fought over their dissenting opinions regarding the ceremony, Aniseya reminded them that the Thread tied them together the day they were born.
During the Ascension, we learned why Koril and Aniseya were so keen on keeping the girls confined within their refuge. The coven had been exiled because their powers were perceived as dark. Osha and Mae were their miracle children and the first to participate in that ceremony since going into hiding.
Mae, aka Mae-ho Aniseya, heartily took the vow to protect and continue the coven’s legacy. Osha, aka Verosha Aniseya, reluctantly agreed and braced to follow suit. But they were interrupted by news of trespassers, and the intruders were soon revealed as the four Jedi on present-day Mae’s kill list: Indara, Sol, Kelnacca and Indara’s padawan Tobin. They meant no harm but had concerns that the witches were training children, which was illegal according to Republic law.
It wasn’t long before the twins — the only children in their coven — were discovered and asked to be tested as potential Jedi. A debate among the witches over their next steps yielded more intel on Osha and Mae’s mysterious origin. Koril had carried them, but Aniseya was their creator. According to her, they had no father.
Koril’s pressing question also alluded to ominous beginnings. “And what happens if the Jedi discover how you created them?” she asked.
The coven agreed to let the twins test, with the plan that Osha and Mae would purposely fail. But Osha felt that was the wrong thing to do and came clean to Sol. This infuriated Mae, who didn’t want her sister to leave. Osha yearned to become a Jedi and explore the galaxy, and Aniseya gave her the freedom to make that choice for herself. Doing so, however, meant never seeing her family again.
That’s probably why Mae was so hellbent on forcing her sister to stay. When Osha tried to leave, Mae threatened to kill her and then locked her in their room before setting a fire. It spread throughout their underground dwellings, presumably killing the entire coven. Mae escaped the room through a tunnel and found herself staring at her sister on opposite ends of a collapsed bridge. Mae seemingly fell to her death, but Sol caught Osha and helped her escape.
With everything destroyed, Sol resolved to bring Osha to Coruscant and train her as his padawan. He assured her that everything was going to be OK, and she’d never feel like this again. So Osha went, believing her sister was dead along with everyone else.
But as that last shot in the forest confirmed, Mae survived.
Thoughts on this week’s episode of The Acolyte?
Yeah, Mae’s fire didn’t kill everyone. We’ll be shown the Jedi did because they found out how Mae and Osha were created.
tuuuurrible episode. not sure why there needed to be shades of grey with night sisters.
There are more covens in SW lore than Dathimir witches.
There is a typo in last paragraph. “ So Mae went, believing her sister was dead along with everyone else.” should say So Osha went.
Fixed. Thank you!
I gave up on the show within a few minutes during this episode – such a disappointment. I love Star Wars, but this isn’t Star Wars to me.
I think this show is unlike anything Star Wars has done before, which I find fascinating. In a universe where the same group of characters always find each other & so much stays the same, it’s nice to see that there are other points of view in Star Wars. The Nightsisters, the Mortis gods, the world between worlds, lothwolves, inquisitors. Mandalorian, Ahsoka & Andor have been allowed to expand the lore & narrative reach of Star Wars in a way it hadn’t been able to do through conventional means while showing the grit & reality people in this universe live. Same with Clone Wars, Rebels, Bad Batch, even Tales of the Jedi / Empire. This is a large universe. So every story being the same is the most unrealistic part of Star Wars.
This was the first episode that hinted at the idea that the Jedi are the true villains in Star Wars. It was extremely well done, with fantastic acting. Loved the introduction of this new coven. (I’m guessing the witches of Dathomir were off limits due to continuity reasons.) But the highlight was seeing how unhinged Mae could get. The young actresses playing Mae and Osha were absolutely incredible.
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This is what I was hoping The Acolyte would be.
Awful. Just awful. This is turning out to be some YA fan fic nonsense. There’s no other explanation for what we’re seeing. This show must be directed at teens and pre teens, otherwise KK must think we’re all complete idiots. A small fire set in a hallway killed all of the would be powerful force weilding witches? Even if it didn’t and something else contributed to it, we’re supposed to believe the Jedi at the end believe it making them complete idiots too. WTF.
‘A small fire set in a hallway killed all of the would be powerful force weilding witches?’
or did it….?
This will be how Palpatine created Anakin.
Looking forward to watching this weekend with my mom.
Given the Zabrak connection, I suspect that this particular coven’s “exile” may be due to expulsion from Dathomir because even the Nightsisters have reservations about how the twins were created.
But–especially if the whole thing is brushed under the rug in Jedi history due to what looks a lot like genocide–then being able to tie the whole issue of Mae’s training to the Nightsisters instead of the Sith seen at the end of the first episode (or even a rogue Dark Jedi if they want to call that character that) would avoid breaking the continuity of being willing to say the Sith have been extinct for a millennium.
That DOES, in fact, give some context to the prequels, and why they might insist that Anakin was too old to begin the training, even if he’s a miracle child born through a vergence in the Force… perhaps ESPECIALLY BECAUSE he’s a miracle child born through a vergence in the Force. There’s precedent for that going spectacularly wrong for the Jedi. (Maybe Qui-gon didn’t try to barter for Shmi specifically to keep her out of Republic space where she would be subject to… aggressive negotiations.)
What I’ve been wondering is whether the Sith side of this might be a stealth new-canon introduction for Darth Plagieus, and this only fuels my suspicion.
Love the idea that this coven is exiled Nightsisters, but I think they’re going to just be similar. The language Mother Aniseya was using made it seem like they were exiled for using Dark Side abilities so I do agree that we might meet Darth Plagieus. Perhaps he shows the coven how to manipulate the Force/Threads to create life. That would certainly attract the attention of the Jedi.
I suspect it might be the other way around… the Dark figure with the red lightsaber at the end of the first episode–who certainly seems to be a proper Sith given how Qimir quotes the code–may have sought out Mae specifically to try to glean how the witches used the “thread” to create life, and, figuring it out, may plan to complete the slaughter so he can claim to one Darth Sidious decades later that he figured it out all on his own.
As to whether they’re just similar to the Nightsisters and not exiled therefrom, it’s worth remembering that Maul’s facial markings, very much mirrored here on Mother Koril, were tattoos. They’re not naturally occurring on Zabraks (see Jedi Masters Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar), but were given to Maul’s brothers like Savage Oppress. (The Great Mothers of Peridea gave Morgan Elsbeth hers by magic on Ahsoka, but I seem to recall book sources saying Maul’s were actually tattooed-tattooed.) That’s a cultural practice if ever there was one, and Koril’s are very, very distinct.
I enjoyed the expansion of the Force/Thread lore with the coven. Also, Leah and Lauren Brady were excellent as the young Mae and Osha. You could sense Mae’s obsessive love for her twin and Osha’s reluctance when they say “I love you” to each other.