It finally happened. The Acolyte‘s season one finale brought one of Star Wars‘ most infamous figures to live-action. The Stranger wasn’t the only dark side user hiding out on his unknown planet. Once Qimir and Osha flew off, Sheev Palpatine’s Master, a Muun Sith Lord “so powerful and so wise, he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life,” emerged from the shadows. Darth Plagueis is here. And more importantly he knows about the galaxy far, far away’s most incredible creation.
For all its many battles and lightsaber fights, one of the prequel trilogy’s most exciting moments came during a quiet conversation at a space opera. In Revenge of the Sith Chancellor Palpatine regaled Anakin Skywalker with an enticing Sith legend. Palpatine told him a story the Jedi never would, “The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.”
Anakin was suffering from visions of Padmé’s death, a future he desperately hoped to avoid. Palpatine preyed on the young Jedi’s fears with a tale of the incredible “unnatural” abilities offered those who walked a different pathway in the Force. He told Anakin about the Sith Lord Plagueis, who “had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying” by manipulating midi-chlorians. For a young man hoping to save his pregnant wife from death, it was enough to begin pulling Anakin away from the light.
What made the story of Plagueis so enduring, though, wasn’t the power he supposedly learned but the end he met. It suggested Plagueis was far more important to the story than just being a tool of manipulation. Palpatine said Plagueis grew so powerful the “only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did.” Plagueis’ own apprentice, having learned everything he could from his Master, killed the Sith Lord in his sleep. “Ironic, he could save others from death, but not himself,” said Palpatine.
Was Palpatine lying about all of it? Only telling a partial truth? Or was he being completely honest with Anakin? If everything he said actually happened the implication was clear and exciting: Palpatine was the very apprentice who killed Plagueis.
Off-screen Star Wars stories confirmed he was, and that has remained true in the franchise’s new canonical Disney-era. Plagueis was everything Palpatine said he was, a massively powerful Sith Lord who could create life and save others from death. But Star Wars has explored more of Plagueis, most notably that became so obsessed with the science of immortality—a power Sith Lords had long sought—he grew distracted. His very quest to live forever doomed him, because the Sith Rule of Two meant there could only be two Dark Lords at one time. For Palpatine to become a Master he needed to kill his own.
Plagueis the Wise should have recognized his apprentice’s ambition and plot. He should have known Palpatine was planning to kill him. Instead he never saw his murder coming.
While Plagueis died, his work endured and changed the galaxy far, far away forever. His apprentice took everything he learned from his Master and spent generations trying to cheat death himself. Without the work of Plagueis, Palpatine never would have returned after Anakin Skywalker killed him in Return of the Jedi. He never would have made a clone body in the first place. Nor would he have created Snoke and lured Ben Solo to the dark side of the Force.
Now we know the very obsession that cost Plagueis his life was directly connected to The Acolyte‘s unique twins. He learned about what Mother Aniseya accomplished with Osha and Mae. She created life, two from one, using the Force. Her accomplishment could have sent Plagueis on a path to not only learn how to control life himself, but to master it, and therefore death. His work, which became Palpatine’s work, would probably not have been possible without the twins.
How did he know about Mae and Osha? Why was he even hiding in a cave on that unknown planet in the first place? It seems unlikely, though not impossible, that Qimir knew Plagueis was there, let alone that he was Plagueis’ apprentice. The Sith Rule of Two would have prevented Qimir from claiming a true apprentice of his own. Plagueis’ surprise appearance, Qimir’s use of the word “acolyte,” and his own lack of a Master indicate Qimir probably isn’t even a Sith. Plagueis definitely is. And he’s a powerful one.
That unknown planet might be strong in the dark side and drew Plagueis there for the same reasons Qimir called it home. Or it might have been Osha’s arrival that led Plagueis there. He was powerful in the dark side of the Force, and Osha’s presence on a dark side planet might have been like a beacon to a Sith.
Whatever brought him there is less important than what he found. Mother Aniseya’s daughters have a lot in common with Anakin Skywalker, but they aren’t as powerful as him. As The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland told us, the twins were “guinea pigs” in the galaxy’s most important experiment. Darth Plagueis learned about it firsthand and dedicated his life to improving upon it. Unfortunately the powers he will soon unlock in the dark side of the Force will help his apprentice bring down both the Jedi and the Sith. But only after he kills Plagueis the Wise first.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who spent decades waiting for Darth Plagueis to show up. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
