‘The Acolyte’ Episode 6 Recap

Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Acolyte Episode 6.

The Big Picture

• In the latest episode of
  The Acolyte
  , titled “Teach/Corrupt,” the plot continues to thicken as Osha wakes up in Qimir’s hideaway and Sol is faced with the ramifications of his past actions.
• As Osha begins to question the teachings of the Jedi Order, Qimir pushes her to embrace her emotions and the power they hold.
• The episode also features a hint at Qimir’s traumatic backstory and his desire to create the power of two.

After the hints and teases that The Acolyte might be headed in the direction of something akin to what we once saw between Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Rey (Daisy Ridley) in the sequel trilogy, Leslye Headland’s Disney+ series has delivered an absolute feast with Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and Qimir’s (Manny Jacinto) intriguing dynamic in Episode 6, aptly titled “Teach/Corrupt.”

The episode, penned by Headland and Jocelyn Bioh and directed by Hanelle M. Culpepper, picks up shortly after the devastation on Khofar, with Osha waking up in an unfamiliar cave on an “Unknown Planet.” While it does bear a striking resemblance to Ahch-To, where Rey trained with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), the episode does confirm that this isn’t the same planet, at least from a certain point of view. Understandably, after watching all of her friends get killed last week, Osha is on high alert as she gets acquainted with her surroundings. A pair of adorably naked mole rat-esque creatures (which seem crafted as an homage to porgs) draw her attention to a knife that she arms herself with.

Osha spots Qimir wandering off to the other side of the island and follows after him, only to discover that he isn’t doing evil Sith things… he’s taking a swim. Osha watches as he strips down (yes, in Star Wars!) and wades out into the water. And it doesn’t stop there. While he swims, Osha snatches his lightsaber off of the pile of Qimir’s belongings, but he reveals that he’s well aware of the fact that she’s there. He questions her about how it feels to hold a lightsaber again and kindly corrects her positioning, as she’s lost her edge since she left the Jedi Order. Qimir delivers a line that will be oft-quoted from this day forward: “If you’re not going to join me, I’d like to put my clothes back on.” Who would have thought that a Sith would be asking Osha to join him for a dip, rather than joining him in power-hungry aspirations? The Acolyte has officially given us the hottest bad boy in franchise history.

Osha tries (and fails) to keep her eyes level with Qimir’s as he climbs back out of the pool, and somehow her mind is only on asking if he killed Sol (Lee Jung-jae) or Mae—which he didn’t. Qimir notes that she asked about Sol before asking about her sister, which prompts him to reminisce about the dynamics between a Master and a pupil. Despite wielding Qimir’s lightsaber, Osha doesn’t attempt to harm him, instead following after him as he departs. (Surely, there’s symbolism in Qimir arriving at the pool in his black attire and leaving with Osha while wearing white.)

Sol’s Guilt Is Finally Catching Up To Him in ‘The Acolyte’

On Khofar, Sol and Mae (who is still pretending to be Osha) attempt to make contact with the Jedi Order to report what happened on the planet. Unfortunately, their connection is not the best, so his tragic revelation that his entire team is dead seemingly falls on deaf ears. As Mae wanders around the ship, she hears echoes of that fateful day when the Jedi took her and Osha in for testing. Her thoughts are interrupted by Sol asking her to pilot the ship while he runs a few diagnostics on the vessel, which is really code for Sol being on the verge of a breakdown over everything that happened on Khofar. Lee gives a beautiful performance in this entirely dialogue-free moment of introspection, where every emotion is etched into his face. It’s clear that he’s feeling tremendous guilt about more than just Khofar. After all, every tragedy that has led up to this moment was directly caused by whatever happened on Brendok. It’s a really beautiful and poignant moment that I’m sure won’t have entirely different connotations upon retrospection once we find out what he did (presumably next week).

After his mini-emotional spiral, Sol heads back into the cockpit to tell “Osha” that he’s sorry and “it’s time to make things right.” Now that there’s Jedi blood on his hands, he’s ready to go back to the High Council and tell them everything (yes, everything). Mae seems skeptical about his sincerity, and I can’t say that I blame her. He’s still hand-wringing over the fact that he didn’t realize Qimir was “The Stranger” rather than really addressing his own role in things. Elsewhere on the ship, Bazil (Hassan Taj) is trying to fix Osha’s broken PIP droid, which apparently only needed a charge. While the adorable Tynnan may not be able to speak Basic, it’s evident that the pint-sized pal is stressing out over Mae’s presence on the ship. As their journey progresses, Mae runs into Bazil while helping Sol run some diagnostics on the ship and Bazil stomps on her foot, while PIP attempts to blind her. It’s a delightfully Star Wars-y moment, straight down to Mae running a hard reset on poor PIP, turning the droid back into a personality-free tool.

On Coruscant, Vernestra (Rebecca Henderson) is in the middle of a meeting with a Senator Rayencourt, who wants to do a review of the Jedi Order, when Mog (Harry Trevaldwyn) arrives with Sol’s distress message, which was more or less received. Vern decides to take matters into her own hands and head to Khofar to see what happened — and why Sol’s entire team is apparently dead. Given the tension in her expression when she’s dealing with the Senator, it’s clear that she’s not looking for there to be any funny business that could cause the Senate to get more involved with the affairs of the Jedi Order.

‘The Acolyte’ Episode 6 Delivers Major Enemies-to-Lovers Energy

Back on the Unknown Planet that is definitely not Ahch-To, Osha and Qimir are walking along the pebble beach, talking about the Jedi Order and why he brought her to this far-flung island. Osha points out that he shouldn’t have taken her, because Sol will find her, and alludes to the fact that Sol is very strong in the Force, which Qimir quickly corrects her on: it’s Osha’s strength in the Force that allowed Sol to find her, not the other way around. As the conversation progresses, Qimir continues to push Osha to question the things that she was taught about the Force, and honestly, it’s lining up with my own critique of the Jedi Order after what we saw on Brendok. The Jedi want to control the way that others use the Force and then convince them that they’ll lose touch with their abilities if they aren’t trained properly. The conversation on the beach ends with Qimir telling her she’s welcome to swim her way to freedom; otherwise, they can share a meal.

Later, Qimir points out that other emotions can be tapped into alongside the Force — anger, fear, loss, and desire (heavy emphasis on that one) — which Osha notes is also the path to the dark side. But is the dark side really so dark? When Osha presses him about murdering Yord (Charlie Barnett) and Jecki (Dafne Keen) Qimir goes on to explain that he killed those who threaten his existence. It offers up a very flipped narrative on how the Jedi are perceived by those they try to control and bend to their will, just as The High Republic novels have examined.

As most villains are wont to do, Qimir makes a lot of very good points — including questioning Osha about why she loves people like Sol, Yord, and Jecki when they can only ever return half of what she gives to them. This prompts Osha to finally snap. She holds the lightsaber up, threatening Qimir, and he encourages it, grabbing her hand and forcing her to hold the lightsaber flush to his stomach, urging her to turn it on — to give into the emotions she’s feeling. He pushes her further until she finally drives him back against the craggy cliff face, ignites the red saber, and holds it to his throat. “When you lose everything, that’s when you’re finally free,” Qimir tells Osha, entirely unphased by the show of violence. It’s a textbook enemies-to-lovers scene. Now, we can sit back and wait to see how this dynamic further develops — and what other familiar tropes we’ll get to see shared between these two.

Is ‘The Acolyte’ Hinting at the Power of Two, or a Force Dyad?

Earlier this month, Victoria Monét released a track for The Acolyte titled “Power Of Two,” which seemed to be named for Mae and Osha, but Episode 6 seems to imply that the Power of Two we’re looking at may be something else entirely. As the evening winds down, Osha eats her stew and watches as Qimir repairs his helmet (RIP, Kylo Ren, you would’ve loved watching this scene). Osha asks whether Qimir tried to seduce her sister to the dark side with the same message he’s using on her, but Qimir calls Mae “a mistake,” because he believed she wanted more than just revenge — what he wanted. What is it that he wants? The power of two.

This answer seems to perplex Osha, so she asks Qimir about his scars, and he delivers the first hints of his traumatic backstory. His scars were given to him by his Master; he was quite literally stabbed in the back by someone he trusted. Speaking of trust, Qimir adds that he doesn’t need Osha to trust him; he needs her to trust herself. During this scene, Qimir also explains what cortosis is (just in case anyone was still wondering after last week’s episode) — revealing that his helmet is not only a safeguard against lightsaber attacks but also capable of blocking Jedi from getting inside of his mind. Essentially, it’s a sensory deprivation helmet like the ones they trained with as Padawan, and he encourages Osha to try it out, which she displays hesitation about.

Vernestra Opts For the Blame Game in ‘The Acolyte’ Episode 6

Back on Sol’s ship, Sol seems to be gradually picking up on the fact that the Osha he is with is actually Mae. He speaks with her about her love for PIP, which Mae unconvincingly plays along with. Stenberg gives a great performance here, because you can feel how they are carefully showing how stilted Mae is as she tries to capture her sister’s openness and warmth. Mae tries to get Sol to tell her about what really happened on Brendok, but before he can, the ship’s power finally comes back online. Mae makes a run for the coms, trying to call for help because she seems to also know her goose is cooked, but Sol turns his stun gun on her before she can get the call out.

As Sol jumps to hyperspace, presumably in search of the real Osha, Vern arrives above Khofar. The Acolyte holds nothing back with the grisly jumpscare that is Jecki’s lifeless body as Vern and Mog try to piece together what happened on the planet. Vern seems calculated in the way she’s examining things and laying the groundwork for Mog to come to a tragic conclusion: Sol clearly killed everyone. With Senate interference looming in her mind, Vern decides that the best way to handle this situation is to blame it on Sol and frame the attack as a Jedi gone mad. This is a turn that might unnerve those of us who have watched Vernestra grow up in the novels, but it’s entirely on-brand for where the Jedi are during this era.

To add to the disappointing actions by Jedi during this episode, Mae wakes up handcuffed to a bed, with Sol looming nearby. He tells her he wants to talk, but it doesn’t seem like he’s interested in an open dialogue between them, as he adds that she just needs to listen. Hopefully, he’s going to unburden his soul (or Sol) about what happened on Brendok, but nothing has really instilled a sense of trust in any of these Jedi thus far.

Where Are Things Headed Next on ‘The Acolyte’?

As the episode draws to a close, we’re shown that curiosity has finally won out. Osha walks across the cave, studying Qimir’s helmet up close before putting it on. It’s such an eerie moment: a sliver of light, heavy breathing, and then everything fades to black as the credits roll. While there are still a lot of unanswered questions, mainly where Brendok is concerned, “Teach/Corrupt” introduces several more about Qimir’s tragic backstory, specifically, and who his Master was when he was training to become a Jedi. Despite the disappointment that was The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm seems to be fully aware of the absolute dynamite dynamic they had on their hands, and now they’re playing with a new and improved version of the Reylo story in Headland’s ever-capable hands.

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

Watch on Disney+