‘The Acolyte’ Episode 4 Recap

Editor’s Note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Acolyte Episode 4.

The Big Picture

• The cracks in the Jedi Order are beginning to show due to the attacks against the Jedi, pushing Vernestra to keep information from the High Council.
• Osha and Sol have conflicting views on Mae, which further examines why Osha failed at becoming a Jedi.
• Mae struggles with her loyalty to her Master now that she knows her sister is alive, and her quest takes a surprising turn.

Following last week’s brilliant detour into the past, The Acolyte returns to the present with Episode 4, picking up where the tag at the end of Episode 2 left things on Khofar with Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). Written by Claire Kiechel and Kor Adana, and directed by Alex Garcia Lopez (TheWitcher, CowboyBebop, Daredevil), the 32-minute episode delivers a tight and twisty adventure into the jungles of Khofar, while furthering the mystery about who “The Master” may be.

On Coruscant, Osha (Amandla Stenberg) quietly watches a Padawan training session, waiting for the perfect opportunity to say goodbye to Jecki (Dafne Keen). Jecki seems quite annoyed that Osha is just going to bail on them, but Osha makes a pretty strong case about why she doesn’t need to be involved in the investigation now: “Mae is the Jedi’s problem, and I am not a Jedi.” After Episode 3, Osha’s reluctance to face her sister makes a lot more sense. Not only did Mae allegedly burn down the temple and kill their family, but she threatened to kill her own sister. Despite taking the time to say goodbye to Jecki, Osha isn’t planning to say goodbye to Sol (Lee Jung-jae). Osha seems to see some of herself in the younger woman, considering she was once in Jecki’s exact position as Sol’s Padawan.

The Cracks in the Jedi Order Are Beginning to Show in ‘The Acolyte’

Elsewhere in the Jedi Temple, Sol and the Council are in the midst of discussing the situation with Mae. After fighting with her on ​​Olega, it has become even more apparent that she is someone’s apprentice—but whose? Master Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) is worried about what this might mean for the Jedi, and insists that this information should not be raised to the High Council because then the Senate will become aware of it. Across this first handful of episodes, there have been hints of the Jedi having optics issues with the Senate, which is in line with where things are headed as this era nears The Phantom Menace. The Jedi are no longer at the height of their power and the cracks and flaws in their institution are being seen by power players in the Senate, looking for ways to exploit them for their own gain.

In an effort to mitigate their present optics issues and, hopefully, prevent another Jedi from being killed by Mae, Vernestra calls for Kelnacca to be recalled from Khofar. However, that is easier said than done. Before Vern parts ways with Sol, she politely criticizes him for not realizing that Mae survived the fire on Brendok. After seeing how the events played out, from a certain point of view, it doesn’t seem as though it was Sol’s fault for believing Mae died. But perhaps once we see what really happened, we’ll learn why Sol wasn’t able to sense that Mae still lived.

Sol catches up with Osha before she can successfully pull off her Irish goodbye, and he asks her to come with him on the mission to Khofar. Osha is, understandably, hesitant about joining the Jedi on yet another mission—especially if it means having to wear the civilian robes. The former master and apprentice are also at odds with each other when it comes to how they’re feeling about Mae. Sol, despite everything, still believes there is good in Mae, but Osha can only see her as the murderer that she is. This difference between their viewpoints finds some resolution within this episode. However, it seems as though The Acolyte is aiming to continue exploring the conflict within Mae. It isn’t necessarily a novel concept, Star Wars has a long history of examining and unpacking the duality within Force-users, but this series seems primed to approach it in fresh ways.

What Is Qimir’s Whole Deal in ‘The Acolyte’?

Osha isn’t the only twin dealing with the complex emotions of learning that her sister is still alive. As Mae and Qimir (Manny Jacinto) arrive on Khofar, she is still dwelling on that revelation, and it’s starting to interfere with her mission. Qimir has to remind her that she still has to kill the Jedi responsible for Brendok, even though her sister is alive. When audiences were first introduced to Qimir in Episode 2, it was clear that he was a shady, unscrupulous, and squirrely type, but here The Acolyte starts to paint him as someone we might have even more reason to distrust. Despite not appearing to be a Force-user, like Mae, he is in just as deep as she is with the Sith Lord they call their Master. But to what end? It’s unclear, as of yet, if The Master has any involvement in what happened on Brendok, or if he is just using Mae’s trauma to train her, but Qimir has no ties to the attack.

Qimir seems particularly invested in Mae’s success in fulfilling her quest. He reminds her that her goal is to kill the Wookiee without weapons—a task that is not so easy to achieve. As of yet, she hasn’t killed any of her victims without weapons, as Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) was felled by knives and Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman) by poison. Mae, on the other hand, only wants to know what Osha was like when Qimir spoke with her on ​​Olega, and that seems to really frustrate Qimir.

Toward the midpoint of the episode, Mae starts complaining about needing a break. They’ve been walking for quite a while, and it seems to be quite warm on Khofar. Qimir isn’t thrilled about slowing down, especially when they’re so close to completing her “final lesson,” as their Master called it. At this point, Mae seems like she’s starting to lose her nerve. Whether it’s because the task at hand is seemingly impossible (something that Qimir keeps correcting Mae on) or because she knows her sister is alive and is, now, no longer motivated by revenge, it’s not necessarily clear. Qimir finally capitulates to Mae’s need for a break and leaves her behind to rest while he leaves in search of water. Little does he know that he’s playing directly into her own plans.

The Jedi Arrive to “Save the Day” in ‘The Acolyte’ Episode 4

While Mae and Qimir are making their way to find Kelnacca, they are blissfully unaware of the fact that Sol, Jecki, Osha, and Yord (Charlie Barnett) are en route to stop them. Building on some of the tension laid out in the premiere, Yord, yet again, gives Osha a hard time. He tries to get her to hand over her blaster because, as a civilian, she shouldn’t be armed on the mission, but she isn’t interested in going unarmed. Which is smart, considering she has no idea how her sister might react to crossing her path again. Despite being quite pompous, Yord does offer Osha a bit of astute advice—she needs to face herself as much as she needs to face Mae. This idea threads into some of Osha’s later revelations throughout the episode, particularly with regard to why she failed to become a Jedi. Osha was never able to accept what she lost on Brendok, nor could she overcome the pain of death or the resentment she felt toward Mae.

When they arrive on Khofar, Jecki questions the locals about Kelnacca’s whereabouts and learns that he ventured out into the wild forest and never came back, which sends the mission in after him. An adorable Tynnan named Bazil leads the way into the forest, which is filled with giant winged bugs and killer rollie pollies — the latter of which poses a temporary threat to the intrepid Jedi, who slays the bug before it can do any real damage, which leaves Osha stressing about her role in causing the creature’s death. After their run-in with the deadly bug, they realize that Bazil has gone missing.

Nearby, Mae starts screaming—which the Jedi hear—and Qimir comes rushing to find her, fearing the worst. What he doesn’t expect, however, is that Mae has set a trap for him and once he steps foot into it, he finds himself strung up upside down and entirely at her mercy. Mae reveals that she wants to break off her deal with their Master, which sounds like a really bad decision given the fact that he is a Sith Lord. Now that she knows that Osha is alive, she has recognized that her loyalties lie with her sister, and she plans to surrender herself to the Jedi. She leaves Qimir hanging by his feet and sets out to find Kelnacca, only this time she doesn’t plan on killing the Wookiee.

On her way to finding Kelnacca, Mae crosses paths with Bazil, who alerts the Jedi that he’s found Mae. As they rush off to find her, Sol promises Osha that once they capture Mae he’ll tell her everything that’s happened, but that isn’t going to happen in this week’s episode. Before the Jedi can catch up with Mae, she breaks into Kelnacca’s home, where she discovers that the Wookiee has already been killed. It seems that her Master doubted that she would be able to complete her quest after all.

The Jedi descend upon Kelnacca’s domicile, surrounding it and ordering that Mae exit it before they are forced to take things to the next level. With Kelnacca already dead, Mae realizes that she is about to be framed for his murder and, given her track record, no one is going to believe that she didn’t kill this Jedi. But before they can apprehend Mae, Sol senses that they’re about to be ambushed, which isn’t the first time that the Jedi Master has sensed something on Khofar. Mae watches in horror from Kelnacca’s home as her Master appears and stalks after Osha, but she doesn’t seem to be his main target. He throws Osha out of the way before similarly disbanding the Jedi with a flick of his wrist, and that is how Episode 4 of The Acolyte leaves things.

Is ‘The Acolyte’ Giving Us a Sith Lord Red Herring?

It certainly seems like The Acolyte wants audiences to believe that Qimir is also Mae’s Master. Kelnacca could have been murdered when Qimir went to find water, considering their last conversation seemed to suggest that he doubted that Mae would follow through with what their master tasked her with, and if he is the Master, then he could have been setting her up to realize that she was a failure, so he could watch her reaction from the sidelines. Despite the fact that Mae left Qimir strung up when she went to find Kelnacca, he still would have had ample time to change into his Sith Lord garb and ambush the Jedi. It would also make sense, given the fact that the squirrely scoundrel has no real stakes in anything he has done thus far, and playing “undercover boss” with Mae would be an intriguing deviation from what we have previously seen from masters and their apprentices in the franchise. However, it seems like this might just be a giant red herring. Qimir is almost too obviously the Sith Lord at this point, and if we’re looking at The Acolyte like an epic RPG game brought to life, there’s no way that a revelation like that would come out this early in the series.

While fans may walk away from this week’s episode believing that “The Master” could be Qimir, it seems like The Acolyte won’t be revealing who the Sith Lord is just yet. As we look toward the second half of the season, there are quite a few mysteries left to uncover and this is yet another one. One thing is for certain, it looks like the Jedi have met their match with “The Master,” and the fourth episode of the series has set the stage for an epic battle next week.

The Acolyte is streaming now on Disney+, with new episodes releasing weekly each Tuesday.

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