The Ending Sees The Sith Lord Confront The Jedi From The Acolyte Episode 4
The plot of The Acolyte episode 4 revolved mostly on two separate groups. Mae and her friend Qimir set out to hunt The Acolyte's Wookiee Jedi Kelnacca among Khofar's woodlands. After the events of Brendok seen in The Acolyte episode 3 saw her pursue retribution on Master Indara and Torbin, Kelnacca is next on Mae's Jedi death list. Sol, Osha, Jecki, Yord, and their companions are on the other side of the hunt; they want to get to Kelnacca and alert him about the danger to his life before it is too late. Mae's family was slaughtered while Kelnacca, Sol, Indara, and Torbin were stationed on Brendok, which set her out seeking retribution.
Before erupting into a terrifying, dramatic cliffhanger, The Acolyte episode 4 is mostly a leisurely episode that builds the ties of its characters. Mae discovers her Sith Master is already in Kelnacca's hut after locating the Wookiee with lightsaber injuries. Before The Acolyte episode 4 cuts to black, the disguised Sith Lord shows himself as the Jedi come and corner Mae, draws his lightsaber, and shoots the Jedi back using the Force. This puts The Acolyte episode 5's major encounter for motion. Most The Acolyte trailers have clearly focused on the showdown between the Jedi and the Sith in Khofar's woodland. As it turns out, the fifth Acolyte episode will start by delving just into this conflict. After The Acolyte episode 4's thrilling climax, the scenes of Sol and Jecki meeting the Sith Master and their Acolyte establish this, suggesting a possibly fatal but highly fascinating Star Wars TV show chapter.
The Acolyte Is Giving Jedi Against Sith Action - But How Can This Fit With Canon?
Though there is great possibility for a Sith vs a Jedi combat royale, this result would call further issues regarding The Acolyte defying Canon. Long discussed since the initial The Acolyte teaser, the Sith showing themselves to the Jedi in Star Wars's High Republic Era runs counter to what is known from the prequel trilogy. The revelation that Darth Maul is a Sith Lord shocks the Jedi in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace; Ki-Adi-Mundi tells his fellow Jedi Council members that the Sith had been extinct for millennia.
Although Star Wars canon makes it quite plain that the Sith were not extinct and were biding their time from the shadows, the wrinkle in Star Wars Canon highlighted by The Acolyte is that the Jedi had to keep believing the Sith are dead. The Acolyte is set one hundred years before The Phantom Menace, so the Jedi cannot learn of the Sith's presence without running counter to the latter. Given the Jedi's direct confrontation with the Sith Lord at the conclusion of The Acolyte episode 4, questions concerning how this fits into accepted wisdom and future narratives are posed.
Star Wars hardly has any means to address this Canon Issue.
The Acolyte episode 4 breaching Canon is debatable, although there are various ways the production might avoid this. Like the debate around the lore parts of The Acolyte episode 3, fact is that the show's writers have not yet completed their narrative. By the end of its run, the Acolyte could and most likely will openly answer the concerns over how the show fits into Star Wars canon and smoothly merge into the larger Skywalker Saga without a hitch. About how things might go, there are a few obvious paths.
First of all, it may be as basic as stating The Acolyte's adversary isn't a Sith Lord. By the end of the episode, the masked villain might be exposed as someone who loves and respects the Sith and has committed himself to carry on their methods free from any affiliation. Like Kylo Ren's idolizing of Vader without being a Sith, the antagonist of The Acolyte could just be one of Star Wars' Sith Acolytes himself, without being formally brainwashed into the evil order. Although this is hardly plausible, it is still a possibility.
A Look at the Canon Implications of the Acolyte Episode 4 Ending
Alerting note: Spoilers for The Acolyte episode 4 abound in this page. The fourth Acolyte episode finishes with a dramatic cliffhanger that can cause issues for Star Wars canon. Since episode 3's airing, there has been fierce discussion on whether The Acolyte deviates from Star Wars canon. The episode concentrated just on Osha and Mae's Star Wars beginnings, making some analogies to Anakin Skywalker based on the examination of infants conceived perfectly. Although Osha and Mae were produced via a Force power rather than the magical energy field itself, some Star Wars fans have attacked The Acolyte for allegedly discounting Anakin's story, therefore breaching canon.
This argument is useless since the enigmatic tale of The Acolyte still has many secrets to expose. The unresolved questions of The Acolyte episode 3 will very surely be explained moving forward as will any other mysterious aspect of the narrative left in flux. More questions are begged in The Acolyte episode 4 as the show's covert Sith villain shows himself at last to the Jedi. Through this battle between the Sith and the Jedi, the ending of The Acolyte episode 4 could have another canon-breaking debate on hand, but one that is readily settled should the writers be trusted to tell their tale.
The Acolyte: Researching the Sith and the Jedi
Set in the Star Wars world toward the conclusion of the High Republic Era, the television series The Acolyte follows the Jedi and the Galactic Empire while they were most influential. Investigating various crimes, this sci-fi thriller sees a former Padawan reunite with her former Jedi Master as they uncover events all pointing to darkness bursting from beneath the surface and ready to bring about the death of the High Republic.
The Acolyte is creatively and freshly examining the war between the Jedi and the Sith. It shows the Jedi Order during a period of enormous strength and influence, but it also emphasizes the possibility for darkness to surface from unassuming locations. The show provides a window into the beginnings of the Sith and their impact on the Star Wars universe, hence guiding the events of the prequel trilogy.
