That's exactly who you think is lurking in Qimir’s cave in The Acolyte

The Acolyte has resolved with episode 8, just as The High Republic’s very own Vernestra Rwoh predicted it would. When she descended on Brendok to unravel the mystery once and for all, she discovered the mystery that Master Sol had been taunting us with all season long. Qimir hopes to have landed himself a pupil in Osha on that mysterious island he’s been hiding out on. Meanwhile, Mae is stuck on Sol’s ship, where he tries to explain his actions of killing the girls’ mother, Aniseya.  The Jedi are on to the nefarious activity that caused the deaths of four Jedi while dodging political attacks from the likes of Senator Rayencourt.

During all of this one more surprise came into the fold. A strange dark figure watches from a cave as Qimir and Osha take off for the final showdown on Brendok. This person ended up being the biggest surprise of all.

Speculation knows no bounds in a series titled The Acolyte, which is a term used in Star Wars whenever a pupil of the Sith is being groomed outside of the Rule of Two. Of course, there are other Dark Force users outside of the Sith lineage, such as Baylan Skoll of Ahsoka, the Knights of Ren from the sequel trilogy, and the witches of Brendok in this series. There are also agents with Sith affiliations that are neither Master nor Apprentice, such as Asajj Ventress. Though the ultimate big bad in Emperor Palpatine (Darth Sidious) had various apprentices with acolytes of their own, at some point, Sheev had to learn the dark side of the Force from a Sith Lord named Darth Plagueis.

When Qimir tells Osha that Mae made their deal without any hesitation, I jumped out of my seat with an audible gasp at the reveal that happened next. From within a cave (#QimirQave), a shadowy figure that very much resembles many depictions of the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis peers out as Qimir and Mae leave the island. Series creator Leslye Headland later confirmed that the figure is, in fact, Darth Plagueis.

It makes sense that there would be a powerful Sith Lord responsible for training Qimir in ways of the dark side, especially if Qimir’s cave dwelling is, in fact, on the island of Bal’demnic.  This feels like a clear visual confirmation that the ‘Tenebrous – Plagueis – Sidious (Palpatine)’ lineage will cross paths in some way with the story established in The Acolyte.

There are many examples of ‘acolytes’ of the Sith throughout Star Wars, which again refers to a powerful Dark Force user that is not currently a Master or an Apprentice but is perhaps being groomed for next in line in the succession. When Maul was left for dead and Sidious had moved on to Darth Tyrannus (Count Dooku), Maul tried teaming up with Savage Oppress to overthrow Palpatine, and then later in life, he tried to turn Ezra Bridger as well. Dooku had famously groomed Assaj Ventress, a Nightsister of Dathomir, in the dark side throughout The Clone Wars.  Even Darth Vader set his sights beyond the Rule of Two by recruiting members of The Inquisitorious, former members of the Jedi Order turned to the dark side of the Force to hunt down any remaining Jedi that survived Order 66.

If Darth Plagueis is on the same island as Qimir, perhaps he has already dispatched his Master Darth Tenebrous at this point in time. He would either need an Apprentice, or he already had one in Qimir in order to satisfy the Sith’s Rule of Two. This rule dates all the way back to Darth Bane, who established that there could only ever be two members in the ranks of Sith: a Master and an Apprentice. Perhaps Qimir was discarded by Plagueis and is now searching for his own pupil to train with the mindset of ‘Power of Two.' Or his Master is now discovering his Apprentice’s ambitions of taking control and gaining all the power for himself. It is also possible that Vernestra was the Master that threw Qimir away, as she clearly has a history with The Stranger who has mysterious ‘whip’-like scars on his back. Consider also that when Palpatine refers to The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise and his ability to ‘create life,’ this could be the story of how he learns about that power.

In a series that is predicated on unravelling mystery after mystery, it is clear Leslye Headland has a deep respect and passion for both established canon and the Star Wars Legends books. She's pulled at the ‘Thread’ straight out of James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis novel, teasing a possible second season of The Acolyte or even leaving it open for some next project down the line in the ever-expanding tapestry that is the Star Wars galaxy.

With Vernestra facing the pressure of a full-scale senatorial audit of the Jedi Order thanks to the events on Brendok, could Senator Rayencourt, who refers to the Jedi as a ‘massive system of unchecked power,’ be mixed up in all this Sith business? Osha certainly proved that she could kill a Jedi without a weapon when she Force-choked Master Sol, thereby turning to the dark side (while also bleeding Sol’s blue kyber crystal to red in the process). 

Killing your former Master is a very fitting trait for a Sith candidate, which would be very appetizing for a Dark Lord of the Sith such as Plagueis watching from the shadows as Osha assertively steps into the titular role of The Acolyte in the season finale.