Since the end of the first episode, Star Wars: The Acolyte fans have been wondering who is behind the mask of the red-lightsaber-wielding dark-side villain character acting as a “Master” to Mae? (Is he or she a Sith? We don’t know for sure just yet.)
Like any good mystery story, it probably has to be an existing character who’s been established already. Let’s go through a list of five potential suspects.
1 – Qimir (odds – 2:1) – The only thing going against Qimir (played by Manny Jacinto) is that at this point he feels a little too obvious. He dropped a line of the Sith Code in his dialogue, and the way he talks about the Master and urges Mae along on her mission to murder four Jedi is fairly suspicious. We know he’s on the planet Khofar when the Master shows up, although he was last seen hanging upside-down from a trap Mae sprung for him. Surely that would be an easy thing for a would-be Sith Lord to get out of, but is this all misdirection?
2 – Darth Tenebrous / Darth Plagueis (odds – 5:1) – Could The Acolyte be connected directly to the line of Sith Lords leading to Darth Sidious in the Star Wars prequel trilogy? It might be a very exciting reveal if so, but do either of the above-pictured alien heads (one a Bith and the other a Muun) fit into that frightening helmet? The other point against them is that in the current Star Wars canon Plagueis hasn’t been a major player outside of the story told by Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith, and Tenebrous has only been mentioned in reference books. Would either solution be satisfying to more casual fans?
3 – Mother Aniseya (odds – 20:1) – This is a theory that I’ve seen pop up around social media, and of all the truly outside-the-box ideas, this Jodie Turner-Smith witch character seems the most likely. We know she is powerful in the Force and that she has a reason to take revenge against these Jedi. We also haven’t seen definitive proof that she died in that fire on Brendok. If the above two options are too easy as far as answers go, Aniseya might make for the perfect “most medium suspect,” as Dwight Shcrute would say.
4 – Master Indara (odds – 50:1) – This is another fan theory that I could see holding water simply because of the actress playing her– surely Carrie-Anne Moss must have a more important role in the series than simply being killed off at the beginning of the first episode and popping up in a couple flashbacks? At the same time, we did see her die… or did we?
5 – Tasi Lowa (odds – 100:1) – This one is purely my pet theory, and while the odds are not great I’m going to put my credits down on this one just because of the fun of it– we were introduced to this Padawan character (played by Thara Schöön) at the beginning of the first episode of The Acolyte and have not seen hide nor hair of her since. That follows the rules of noir-detective mysteries, and would answer the question of why the heck her master, Yord Fandar, would go off on all these other adventures without her– she’s just plain evil!
Find out who the real villain behind the mask is as new episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte are released over the next four Tuesday evenings, exclusively via Disney+.