The Acolyte episode 3 recap: I need therapy after all that

This article has full spoilers for Star Wars: The Acolyte episode 3, “Destiny.”

Star Wars: The Acolyte continues with episode 3, “Destiny.” Let’s recap everything you might have missed in the episode, which is entirely a flashback episode.

We open in the past on the planet of Brendok, sixteen years before the events of the two-episode premiere. The world is lush and green with sweeping forests full of creatures. We find a young Osha analyzing a butterfly-like creature under a bunta tree. She uses the Force on it temporarily to hold it in the air before letting it go. It flaps its wings a few times before pausing again, this time her twin sister Mae freezing it with her Force powers. Osha calls to her, which gets Mae to release the creature.

Mae says she always looks for Osha under the bunta tree and warns that it’s dangerous. Osha says only if someone eats from it. Mae freezes another creature with the Force, which causes Osha to chastise her sister. Osha admits that she ran off because she didn’t want to do a ceremony called the Ascension. Mae tells her not to worry because they will be doing it together.

On the walk back, the girls are met by a Zabrak woman named Mother Koril, who fusses at them for breaking the rules of going outside their fortress walls. She brings the girls back, saying it’s for their safety. In the distance in the woods, Jedi Master Sol watches the trio leave.

Osha, Mae, and Koril arrive back in their bustling town, where people greet the girls warmly, bow to them, and offer gifts. Mother Koril says they can have treats like spice cream after their Ascension ceremony. The girls’ mother, Mother Aniseya, says they can have the treats. She sends the girls off for their training.

Koril tells Aniseya of the girls sneaking out again, and they are both worried about the visiting Jedi. They believe the Jedi are more inland now, unaware of Sol in the forest. Koril is worried about the safety of their coven, as Osha sneaks out constantly. She warns Aniseya to be more firm because the twins are not normal children.

Later, Aniseya is giving a lecture on the Force. However, she calls it “The Thread,” and the Thread is what connects everything together. She talks down on those who use the Thread as a Force power to wield. It’s very much like the group the Path of the Open Hand (more on them here). The Thread ties people to their destiny and ties them to others.

Aniseya gives a demonstration of the Thread before telling Osha and Mae they will experience the power of many during their Ascension ceremony. However, she’s interrupted as the girls start to bicker. Their mother pushes them with the Force, telling them to block it. Mae does well, but Osha fails. Koril berates Osha for this.

Suddenly, there is a noise rattling outside the room. Koril goes to see what it is as Aniseya sends the girls to their room.

The girls sit with their mother, and Osha finally tells Aniseya that she doesn’t want to do the Ascension, which is how they become witches. Their mother puts the girls’ hands together and says the Ascension is about walking through fear. They must sacrifice a part of themselves to become the power of many instead of the power of one. Aniseya says that the galaxy does not welcome witches like them, warning Osha of another path.

Later that night, two attendants prepare Osha and Mae for the Ascension ceremony. Mae and Osha bicker again because Osha won’t show her sister her sketchbook. Osha doesn’t want to do everything together with her sister. She doesn’t want to share everything. They’re not the same person. Osha brings up they’re the only children here, which makes the attendants helping them get ready to pause and exchange looks with each other. Osha wants to know what’s outside of Brendok; Mae says she has everything she needs here.

It's time for the ceremony to begin.

Koril leads a group of witches in the ceremony until Mother Aniseya arrives, moving through the crowd. This is the first Ascension ceremony since their coven were forced into exile. These women were hunted, and their power was considered to be dark. The birth of the twins revitalized their coven.

Osha and Mae come before their coven to claim their destiny. The women chant together, pulling from the power of the Force. Aniseya gives Mae her vows to their coven, blessing her with power and marking her face. Mae’s ascension is complete.

When it’s Osha’s turn for her vows, however, she hesitates and stutters out her vow. Before Aniseya can bestow her power to Osha, the ceremony is interrupted.

The Jedi have arrived.

The witches surround the girls to hide them from the Jedi. Aniseya tells her coven members to lower their weapons, going to greet the Jedi herself. She tells everyone no violence.

Four Jedi arrive: Sol, Indara, Torbin, and Kelnacca, who, sixteen years in the future, are the ones that Mae is hunting.

Indara greets the witches, introducing herself, Sol, and Kelnacca as Masters and Torbin as her padawan. She says they thought the planet was uninhabited, but Aniseya doesn’t believe the Jedi. Indara is concerned these witches are training children. She starts to state Republic law.

And Aniseya is quick to point out that the planet of Brendok is not part of the Republic and, therefore, doesn’t have to follow their laws. Koril doubles down, saying there are no children there.

During this, Osha sneaks forward to get a look at the Jedi, wanting to see their robes and sabers. Kelnacca can smell the girls, saying such to his peers. Indara calls for them to come out.

Osha comes out before the Jedi, walking up to Sol. They ask to meet Mae, and with Aniseya’s approval, Mae comes out, too. Sol sees a marking on Mae’s forehead from the Ascension ceremony that wasn’t there this morning.

Koril realizes they’ve been spied on. All the witches clamor at the Jedi, chastising them for trying to take their children away from them.

Sol removes his lightsaber and hands it to Osha. He says he thinks she would make a good Jedi. Osha wants to go with him, turning to her mother.

Suddenly, Torbin falls to the ground as darkness spreads in his eyes until they become black. Aniseya threatens his life unless the Jedi leave. Osha begs her mother to let her show the Jedi what she can do. Indara asks Aniseya for her permission to at least test Osha.

Aniseya releases Torbin, saying they will bring Osha to the Jedi the next day. Sol wants Mae, too, which Aniseya agrees to. With that, the Jedi leave.

Later that night, Aniseya meets with her advisors. Koril wants to fight the Jedi, but Aniseya thinks the Jedi should test the girls. Koril is vehemently against this idea, but Aniseya says the final choice is hers, and the girls will be tested.

Koril pushes back that she carried the girls that Aniseya created inside of her. She fears what would happen if the Jedi discovered how Aniseya truly made the girls.

They’re interrupted by their elder, Naasa. The old woman says the coven loses the girls if they pass the test. If they want the girls to stay, then they must fail the Jedi’s test.

The next day, Aniseya tells the girls to purposely fail the Jedi test. Mae tells her sister to do it so they’re not separated from each other or their mothers. Osha wants to be a Jedi, swearing they’re good.

Aniseya says, “This isn’t about bad or good. This is about power and who is allowed to use it.”

Koril comes to fetch them to take the girls to the Jedi camp at their ship. Before they get there, Mae tells Osha to lie no matter what, making her swear.

While Mae is being tested, Osha sees Kelnacca working on repairing a speeder. She approaches the Wookiee to speak with him. But Mae has finished her test, and Torbin comes for Osha.

Inside, she asks the padawan about his lightsaber as he takes her blood sample. Then, Indara and Sol begin her test. It’s like the test Anakin Skywalker took in Episode I: The Phantom Menace before the Jedi Council, where he had to say which images were on a screen he couldn’t see.

On the first image, Osha lies, and Sol lies right back, saying she got the answer right. Again, they do this on the second answer, and Osha accidentally slips that she knows Sol is lying.

Sol takes her to the side, telling her how he was found by the Jedi. He can see she’s special but is also scared to leave her family. He was, too, when he was tested at four years old. He found other children like them, which piques her interest because there are so many more children. She’s never been around other children than her sister.

She tells Sol she wants to be a Jedi.

Afterward, she can’t even look at Mae, who realizes what happened.

That night, the twins speak to their mothers. Osha defends her actions as it was the right thing to do. Mae and Koril are angry, with Koril blaming Sol and his mind tricks.

Osha finally tells them the truth: She wants her own life away from Mae, to see the galaxy, and to be a Jedi. She doesn’t want to be a witch. Mae is furious and has to be dragged out by Koril before she throttles her sister. Now, with her mother, Osha apologizes.

But Aniseya stops her, giving Osha the choice to pull the Thread. She won’t see her family again, but it would be Osha’s path to take.

Hugging her mother, Osha decides that she wants to be a Jedi. Aniseya still has to speak with her advisors, but she will consider Osha’s wants in the discussion. She sends Osha off.

In her room, Osha packs her things to get ready to leave. Mae arrives, saying that her sister can’t leave. Osha is stuck there now. And in a turn, Mae says she will kill Osha before she can leave.

Taking Osha’s sketchbook, Mae runs outside before locking Osha in their room. Mae sets the sketchbook on fire and uses it to ignite the door, and Osha’s only exit is out of there. Osha crawls into the vents to get out of the room, putting her into a back hallway.

All around her, she hears the witches screaming as the fire spreads to the mechanical part of the fortress their home is built into. She sees Mae right before an explosion happens near her. It takes out part of a bridge, separating the girls. Mae tells Osha their mother is dead, blaming Osha for all of this.

Suddenly, Sol sprints to look for both girls. The bridge collapses, and Sol lunges out! He snags Osha’s hand, but Mae falls into the chasm below. He pulls Osha to safety, and the two flee the fire. Throughout the building, the witches are dead, their bodies lying everywhere on the floor.

Osha sees her mother’s body, screaming for her. Sol carries her away from the carnage to safety as their coven burns.

Later, Osha wakes up on the Jedi’s ship, calling for her mother. Sol, Indara, Torbin, and Kelnacca soothe her. Sol tells her that Mae’s fire destroyed everything. Osha begins to cry for her family, who is now lost. He offers to take her on as his padawan. She pulls Sol into a hug as she sobs, and he promises her that she will never feel like this again.

The episode ends with Mae under the bunta tree looking for sister who isn’t there anymore.

That’s where The Acolyte episode 3, “Destiny,” comes to a close.