‘The Acolyte’: Why Brutal Deaths Were Necessary to Properly Establish a New Sith Lord

Episode 5 of ‘The Acolyte’ was recently released, and it managed to shock fans with its change of pace, direction and it’s sheer brutality. In the last few episodes pretty much nothing happened, and describing the episodes as “slow-burn” would be an understatement.

Now, in episode 5, pretty much almost everyone from the main cast is dead as The Master delivered several killing blows, quite literally. If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch the show yet, thread carefully as the following parts include heavy spoilers for the show.

Now ‘The Acolyte’ pretty much went with the most obvious (and controversial) choice for the mysterious Sith Lord, Qimir. We already theorized that it might be him based on not-so-clever hints. He was introduced as the mischievous and somewhat clumsy sidekick of Mae’s but with a sinister twist, he was the next logical choice for the Master as he was the only other person that we’ve seen on the planet except for the Jedi search party and Mae herself.

Now obviously, Episode 5 had to start with The Master eliminating several Jedi. It’s what fans expected, after all, they were introduced to serve as cannon fodder and redshirts, and fans never expected them to make it out of the fight alive.

There were a few moments where it seemed that the episode would follow the same old boring pattern of killing redshirts while leaving the main cast alive. This fortunately did not happen. Yord predictably avoids dying, saved by Osha, only to have his neck snapped at the hands of The Master.

Jecki Lon uses her brilliant combat skills to apprehend Mae, and help out her master, seemingly to save the day, until she is burned through with several lightsabers, dying as well.

Killing these characters was absolutely necessary, otherwise, fans wouldn’t take Qimir as Sith Lord all that seriously, especially since he was the worst possible choice. There were theories that Master Sol or Mother Aniseya was the Sith Lord, and that would have been a reasonable choice, but since the show went with Qimir, something BIG had to be done to establish him as a real threat.

So who lives to face up against him? When it comes to Jedi, only Master Sol lives to tell the tale. Osha was taken by Qimir, and Mae went to Coruscant with Master Sol after she took over her sister’s identity.

There’s still Vernestra Rwoh and her lightwhip that we still did not see in action. What did you think about the latest episode of ‘The Acolyte’? Let us know in the comments below!