The season finale for the first season of The Acolyte has come and gone. What did I like? A lot. I liked a lot of it.

Of course, everyone returns to Brendok for the final episode of season one. Mae, Osha, Sol, Qimir, all congregate on the planet to wrap up the first phase of this story. Their intertwined story began on this planet, so it only makes sense that we end here.

The lightsaber fight between Sol and Qimir was fantastic. It was the best fight in a season full of a few great lightsaber fights. It was a lovely mix of artistry and ferocity that fit in well.

When Mae gets Sol to admit that he killed Mother Aniseya, I knew that Osha was going to be behind him. When he attempts to explain his reasoning to her, it was all couched in “I thought I was doing the right thing for you.” Sol learned that, unfortunately, there are consequences to doing terrible things even if you had good intentions.

Then, we finally get to see Osha bleeding Sol’s kyber crystal. This was a fantastic scene that I absolutely loved. She’s embraced the dark side. She’s lost to the Jedi.

Mae having her memory wiped was an interesting choice. I thought she would actually end up dying to change the dynamic in the next season. Her having no memory might force Vernestra into peering into her mind to find out where Osha and Qimir are.

I liked the Cameo appearance of Darth Plagueis. Obviously, that’s who that was creeping in that cave, and we should be excited about what it means for the future.

My understanding is that The Acolyte is still ~50 years before the birth of Sheev Palpatine, so there’s still a lot of time for fun with the Sith. If Qimir is indeed Plagueis’s apprentice, we still have decades and potentially a dozen (or more) apprentices before Sidious comes into the picture.

The reveal at the end confirming that Qimir was Vernestra’s former padawan before he turned to the dark side is intriguing for the future. Most of us assumed that the scars on his back came from her light whip at some point in the past, and I think that’s all basically confirmed now.

My assumption is that is what she was going to tell Yoda in the very last clip. I think Yoda will be involved moving forward as he does need to learn about the Sith “rule of two” that he mentions in The Phantom Menace. Vernestra will confide in Yoda and only Yoda, and the Grand Master will very likely keep a very right lid on any information related to the Sith.

Vernestra pinning everything in Sol in her report to the Senate committee makes sense. She’s trying to prevent the Senate from increasing their oversight of the Jedi and pulling them even more into the political sphere than they already are.

I don’t dwell on the things that I don’t like about Star Wars, so of course this is a very positive review and outlook on the show and future of the franchise.

I thought The Acolyte was dope, and I can’t wait for more.