Editor’s note: The beneath consists of spoilers for The Acolyte Episode 6.

After an exhilarating episode final week, The Acolyte ultimately enables us a breather just before going on. “Teach / Corrupt” shows twins Mae and Osha Aniseya (each Amandla Stenberg) in the aftermath of the Jedi bloodbath at the hands of the Stranger (Manny Jacinto). While Mae is with Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) aboard his Jedi starship, Osha is taken unconscious by the Stranger to a place the show describes only as “Unknown Planet.” Not considerably is shown of it, only that it really is an ocean planet with some sparse islands, but it may perhaps have important connections to Sith lore in Star Wars.

The Acolyte

The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are far more sinister than they ever anticipated.

Release Date

June 4, 2024

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

Seasons

1

Studio

Disney+

Franchise

Star Wars

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The Stranger’s Planet Is Not Ahch-To, Although It’s Certainly Similar

When Osha comes out of the cave and sees she is on an island in the middle of a giant ocean, most fans had the identical believed: she need to be on Ahch-To, the planet exactly where Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is hiding in exile in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. It’s the identical atmosphere, and even the cute tiny alien animals appear like a mix of porgs and the sea cows from Ahch-To, suitable? Well, it really is not. Speaking to Collider, The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland confirmed that the Unknown Planet is not Ahch-To.

Headland did give some fascinating facts about this new place, although. In “Teach / Corrupt,” Osha spends a big component of the episode alone in the cave exactly where the Stranger has settled. She analyzes his helmet, paying particular consideration to its golden-brown colour, and notices the identical mineral on the cave walls. The Stranger confirms that the helmet is certainly covered in a metal named cortosis, which blocks lightsaber blows and even tends to make the Jedi weapon brief-circuit for a handful of seconds. He also reveals that it also performs as a sensory block, stopping Jedi and other Force customers from reading the thoughts of somebody who wears it. “So it’s just you and the Force. And what you bring with you,” says the Stranger.

“It was intentionally supposed to be similar in terms of terrain and feeling isolated and surrounded by water and less lush green and more rocky,” mentioned Headland, about why this Unknown Planet appears so considerably like Ahch-To. What is far more essential about it, nonetheless, is the cortosis itself: “The idea is that cortosis is mined on this planet, so I don’t think that’s the case with Ahch-To.” Headland is recognized to have a excellent grasp on Star Wars lore, and it appears she has accomplished it once more. There is yet another planet with an pretty much identical atmosphere to Ahch-To — one particular that is far more intimately connected to the Sith, not the Jedi.

Bal’demnic Is a Cortosis-Rich Planet in Legends With Deep Ties to the Sith

One of the ideal factors about The Acolyte is how it has brought back factors from the now non-canon Legends continuity of Star Wars, recognized as the Expanded Universe, just before Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012. Leslye Headland herself has confirmed the influence of iconic Legends stories such as the game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic in the series, and, now, she may perhaps have dug into yet another excellent story to come up with the Unknown Planet in “Teach / Corrupt”: the classic novel Darth Plagueis.

The novel begins with two Sith Lords, Darth Tenebrous and Darth Plagueis, inspecting a cortosis mine on a planet named Bal’demnic. Eventually, they locate themselves trapped by a rock slide, and Plagueis requires this possibility to kill Tenebrous, his master. By then, he was currently experimenting with midichlorian manipulation in attempts to prolong life, making use of Tenebrous as an experiment in his final seconds of life. Himself an entrepreneur from the planet Muunilinst, Plagueis then acquires mining rights for Bal’demnic, securing permanent and exclusive access to cortosis and fairly considerably barring the Republic from ever accessing it. Some time later, the Sith Lord also acquires a plasma mine on Naboo, exactly where he meets a Force-sensitive young man who is filled with rage at his loved ones, Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). The rest is history.

Bal’demnic was kept secret from the galaxy till the Clone Wars, when the Separatists, led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) — also recognized as the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus — invaded the planet searching to mine cortosis to use in its droid army. This also attracted the Republic’s consideration, and a fight for manage ensued. Just as the Republic was about to defeat the Separatists and claim the planet, the neighborhood population, recognized as the Kon’me, rose up against each sides and chased them away. The Kon’me are recognized to be very hostile to foreigners, barely tolerating whoever arrives in Bal’demnic and is not one particular of them.

How Could Bal’demnic Fit into ‘The Acolyte’s Story?

The Acolyte has been telling numerous stories that the Jedi would not otherwise divulge. Although there are numerous Jedi as characters, the series itself is a tale about the Dark Side, one particular that tends to make it far more relatable, going so far as creating the Sith far more sympathetic. The Stranger admits to Osha in “Teach / Corrupt” that he kills whoever threatens his existence, and, to that finish, it really is essential to hold a handful of secrets, as well. The name and place of his base, for instance. The Stranger maintaining the place of his base unknown is essential to his safety and survival, and he has taken a excellent threat in bringing Osha with him.

The reality that cortosis is mined on the Stranger’s planet is a important connection to Darth Plagueis, but it does not necessarily confirm The Acolyte villain as the famed Sith Lord from Legends, and it also does not necessarily imply that this unknown planet is certainly Bal’demnic (while it surely feels like it is). While the series has been pulling from the old stories, it has also been creating an work to bring a fresh viewpoint to Star Wars regarding its principal villains. For instance, we now know that the Stranger applied to be a Jedi a extended time ago and discovered refuge on this unknown planet immediately after his master “threw him away.” Right now, what this planet implies is security and sources for the Stranger.

However, according to the existing canon Star Wars timeline, The Acolyte is set a hundred years just before the events of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which means that it should not be extended till some of the players in the film commence displaying up. Darth Plagueis is set roughly about that identical time in Legends, and it really is surely achievable that the Stranger’s story somehow connects to the Sith Lords who come immediately after him, particularly Darth Sidious. He has currently healed Osha’s wound with the Force, implied to have been about for a extended time, and now mines cortosis on a planet that appears just like Bal’demnic. It should not be extended till the query of who he truly is stops plaguing curious fans.

New episodes of The Acolyte air weekly each and every Tuesday on Disney+ in the U.S.

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