Heads up—spoilers ahead!
‘The Acolyte’ Episode 5 showed a Jedi squad tracking Sith assassin Mae to Khofar and facing off a masked Sith Lord instead. The Stranger didn’t show his face during the fight, but his identity was still revealed. It turns out Mae’s master behind the mask is Manny Jacinto’s Qimir.
The showrunner, Leslye Headland, hinted at this outcome in her interviews before. She told Entertainment Weekly that the mysterious Sith Lord was inspired by a goofy character exposed as a Shaolin master in 1966’s ‘Come Drink With Me.’
Still, there are some questions about the reveal in the ‘Star Wars’ prequel that need to be answered as Siths were thought to be gone in the films.
Is Qimir Actually A Sith?
Qimir’s hate for the Jedi seems personal and related to past events on Brendok, but his roots are unclear. The Stranger isn’t confirmed as a true Sith Lord as he doesn’t even have a formal Sith name.
He could have found Sith teachings on his own rather than inheriting it from Darth Bane. Similar figures were mentioned in Abel Peña’s 2006 Holocron article ‘Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties’ before:
“But then the Sith cultists began emerging. These ‘Sith’ were disorganized and harmless for the most part. Many were merely youths in rebellion, without any solid idea of Sith doctrine or even any Force-sensitivity. But not all of them.”
Will His Existence Be Erased From History?
One way or another, Qimir’s mission is to kill all the Jedi who know he exists. The series has already killed off several major Jedi characters, including Dafne Keen’s Jecki and Charlie Barnett’s Yord. Lee Jung-jae’s Master Sol is the last Jedi standing.
Qimir holds Sol’s former apprentice Osha as a prisoner since Amandla Stenberg’s twins switched places. This could set a killer trap for the Master and tease The Stranger as a Baneite Sith. With all witnesses of his existence dead, the story could move on without breaking the canon.
There are three episodes left in ‘The Acolyte’ Season 1. The season finale will air on Disney+ on July 16.
