Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Acolyte episode 7.
Whatever else you might say about The Acolyte (and people are saying a lot), one thing nobody can deny is that this show is being made by and for people with a passionate and encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars lore. Just look at how many deep-cut Easter eggs and references are stuffed into each and every episode.
Things were no different in its seventh and penultimate episode, either, which finally answered the show’s biggest mystery: what exactly happened on Brendok during Osha and Mae’s childhood? We all knew that it wasn’t as simple as it appeared, that Mae went dark and killed everyone. Instead, the truth is a whole lot more shocking (and controversial), even as it taps into a fascinating and underrated element of Force mythology.
The Acolyte reveals the Jedi’s secret mission — and it subtly rewrites The Phantom Menace
As it turns out, the Jedi weren’t just randomly chilling on Brendok, they were there on a top-secret mission, which went devastatingly off the rails. Episode 7, “Choice,” reveals that a “hyperspace disaster” has left many planets in the galaxy incapable of supporting life, whereas Brendok is thriving. As if this reference to The Great Hyperspace Disaster from The High Republic expanded media wasn’t enough to thrill fans, that’s nothing compared to the reason for Brendok’s odd life-giving qualities.
The planet is actually said to be a “Vergence in the Force,” a concept that’s been around for 25 years but is still a little esoteric and hard to define. Essentially put, a Vergence in the Force is a location, item, or even person which represents a nexus point in the Force, through which run the full gamut of Force powers, both the light and the dark. Like the cave on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back or even Luke’s lightsaber. Anakin Skywalker is so far the only human Vergence we know to have existed, as confirmed by Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode 1.
Brendok is another Vergence to add to the list, although it is perhaps the darkest and most out of control the Jedi have yet encountered. As it happens, it was not Mae who was responsible for the massacre on Brendok but the Jedi themselves. It was Master Sol (no, Sol, we were rooting for you!) who slew Mother Aniseya and Indara who unintentionally wiped out the rest of the coven when attempting to free Kelnacca from a Force possession.
What’s more, Mae and Osha’s origins are fully explained, too. It seems they are essentially clones rather than twins — similar to Anakin, they were made out of the Force itself, thanks to the life-giving properties of the Vergence. Are all Vergences destined to create twins, just as Anakin fathered Luke and Leia? And, even more intriguingly, were the Jedi secretly searching for more Vergences after the events of The Acolyte, which is why Qui-Gon is so excited to show Anakin off the Council?
Expect more canon-quaking revelations to come in The Acolyte‘s season (hopefully not series) finale next Tuesday on Disney Plus.