‘The Acolyte’ Creator Reveals That the Identity of Sith Lord Was Obvious on Purpose: “A good twist is not about hiding everything”

‘The Acolyte’s’ Episode 5 finally revealed the identity of the Sith Lord who was training Mae. We’ve speculated even before the reveal that the most likely candidate is Qimir – which was the most obvious choice.

The show tried really hard to paint him as some kind of goofy insecure side-kick, and well, he stuck out like a sore thumb. Things became, even clearer in episode 4 when he was the only person on the planet with access to Kelnacca besides Mae (who was confirmed not to kill the Wookie Jedi) and the Jedi search party.

Fans were hoping against all odds that it wouldn’t be Qimir, but alas, when the helmet went down, it was Manny Jacinto underneath it. Since then, he has been highly criticized choice, not beacuse he did a bad job, he was great, but beacuse it was so obvious from the beginning.

Now Leslye Headland explained in her recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, that this twist was left obvious on purpose, the identity of the Sith Lord wasn’t the real twist, it was the fact that he killed all the Jedi that was the real twist:

I think a good twist is not about hiding everything from the audience and then throwing it on them like, ‘Hey, this is what you didn’t see! We hid it so well that you didn’t see this!’I think a good twist is telegraphing what’s going to happen, and then once it does, executing it without an ounce of pity or sentimentality.

Headland said that she wanted to lull the viewers into a false sense of security:

That’s what I loved about starting with the red shirts. “You’re kind of like, ‘Oh, he’a just going to kill a bunch of red shirts, and everybody is going to be fine and… OH MY GOD, JECKI’S DEAD! Okay, I’m listening.

I have to admit, personally if The Stranger / The Master did not eliminate so many, I would never be able to take him seriously, mostly beacuse of the way he was portrayed as Qimir, prior to his big reveal. So, this part was executed well.

But, when it comes to all Jedi dying, this was also something that was predictable. My colleague covered this as a theory, since the only way to keep ‘Phantom Menace’ canon, canon, was to eliminate all the Jedi present on Khofar.

Not all Jedi are dead however, both Osha and Mae are still alive, having switched identities, there’s also Master Sol in play as well.

Master Sol will likely play a vital role in the Jedi council finding out (or not finding out) about Sith Lord. Episode 5 led us to believe that he has quite a few skeletons in the closet to hide. There’s a running theory that Sol is actually Qimir’s father, and due to that reason alone he will keep quiet.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!