By George & Josh Bate
The third episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte takes place entirely in the past as it depicts the origins of Mae and Osha. Check out every easter egg, reference, and hidden detail we noticed in episode 3 of The Acolyte below….
The third episode is directed by Kogonada. The South Korean-born American filmmaker wrote and directed the films Columbus and After Yang and won a Peabody Award for his work on the television series Pachinko.
This third episode of the show is titled “Destiny.” This is a contrast to the previous two episodes, whose titles including two words split by a slash mark. Maybe we’re reading too much into this, but this structural change to the title makes sense. The first two episodes saw Mae and Osha separated and, therefore, the titles of the episodes reflected their different stages of life. Episode 1 is titled “Lost / Found,” which could be interpreted as referring to Osha (Lost) and Mae (Found). Similarly, episode 2 is titled “Revenge / Justice,” which could be interpreted as referring to Osha’s main motivation to get justice for the murder of her family and Mae’s main motivation to enact revenge against the Jedi she holds accountable for murdering her family.
The tree at the start of the episode is a Bunta Tree. Bunta is the same poison that Mae used to poison and kill Master Torbin in episode 2. Bunta, although spelt differently, is similar to the name Boonta Eve Classic, the podrace that Anakin wins in The Phantom Menace.
Mae and Osha are found by Mother Koril in the forest. Koril is a Zabrak, the same species as Darth Maul.
Mae and Osha try to eat spice creams when getting back to their coven. Spice creams originated in Star Wars Legends, where they were first introduced in Galladinium’s Fantastic Technology, a roleplaying supplement to Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game. Spice creams were introduced to canon in Insight Editions’ Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook by Marc Sumerak and Chelsea Monroe-Cassel.
Mother Aniseya explains the Force as a Thread. Her wording is very much like Ben Kenobi’s explanation of the Force in A New Hope and Qui-Gon Jinn’s explanation in The Phantom Menace.
Mother Aniseya uses the Force (or the Thread) to levitate a piece of fruit. This fruit is a Jogun, which has appeared in various other Star Wars stories, including The Clone Wars and Rebels.
The coven of witches Osha and Mae are a part of is not the first coven seen in Star Wars. The Clone Wars introduced the Nightsisters, another coven, whose notable members included Asajj Ventress and Mother Talzin.
During the Ascension ceremony, the witches chant, “The power of one. The power of two. The power of many.” This isn’t the first time Star Wars has highlighted the importance of the number two. The Sith followed the Rule of Two, Luke and Leia were twins, and The Rise of Skywalker introduced the idea of Rey Skywalker and Ben Solo as a Dyad in the Force.
Mae’s full name is revealed to be Mae-ho Aniseya and Osha’s full name is revealed to be Verosha Aniseya.
Kelnacca the Wookiee Jedi speaks Shyriiwook, one of several languages spoken by Wookiees, including Chewbacca.
Mother Aniseya says that Osha and Mae do not have a father. This is very similar to what Shmi Skywalker says of Anakin in The Phantom Menace. All three are powerful with the Force and seemingly did not have fathers, but, rather, were born of a mother and the Force.
Mae and Osha are tested to see if they have the potential to be a Jedi. Their assessment is very much like the testing Anakin undergoes in The Phantom Menace, including using the Force to discern images they cannot directly see and having their blood tested for Midichlorians.
Mother Koril says that she “carried” Mae and Osha. Does this make them half Zabrak then? Moments later, Mother Aniseya says she “created” them, to which Koril asks about what the Jedi will do if they found out how they were created. There’s definitely some mystery surrounding Mae and Osha. Why are they the only children of this coven? Why do they not have a father? How did Aniseya create them and why would the Jedi not find this agreeable if they were to discover it?
Mother Aniseya refers to the ability to create Life as “dark and unnatural.’ These are the same words Palpatine uses to describe how Darth Plagueis the Wise created life during the infamous opera scene in Revenge of the Sith. Being set before The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte certainly could feature Darth Plagueis, or at least reference the character somehow. DId Plagueis develop the power to create life from Aniseya’s coven? We definitely suspect there is more, not only to what led to the destruction of the witch coven, but also to how the series will incorporate the Sith.
Stay tuned to The HoloFiles and Star Wars Holocron for continued coverage of The Acolyte.