This article contains spoilers for Episode 5 of The Acolyte.
Summary
- Manny Jacinto plays Qimir, a Sith Lord in “The Acolyte,” inspired by a heroic character turned villain.
- Chimire’s true identity and abilities hint at his unconventional Sith lineage and raise questions about his connection to canon.
- Chimire’s mission to eliminate all Jedi who knew of him led to a dark ending that left audiences uncertain about the direction of the show.
Acolyte The true identity of the mysterious Sith Lord, now officially known as “The Stranger,” was revealed, and some huge twists were set up to protect canon along the way. Acolyte Program producer Leslye Headland grew up in Star Wars fan community, her Disney+ TV show demonstrates a deep knowledge of classics and legends. When audiences hear Acolyte Having introduced a Sith Lord a century before the Skywalker Saga, the ending of this story was always clear: tragic.
Acolyte Episode 5 can be said to be a Jedi massacre. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the SithA team of Jedi travel to the planet Khofar to confront the Sith assassin Mae, only to stumble upon her master without knowing it. Several Jedi are redshirted, but shockingly, it also features the deaths of major characters, as the Sith Lord brutally massacres the assembled Jedi. Although he remains unmasked, his true identity is finally revealed.
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The Sith Lord of the Acolytes is Manny Jacinto’s Chimer
He is exactly who we imagined.
AcolyteThe Sith Lord in The Last Airbender is actually Zmyre, played by Manny Jacinto. To be fair, most viewers have already guessed this; there are so many clues pointing to Zmyre being a Sith Lord. Entertainment WeeklyHeadland and her team revealed that the Sith Lord was inspired by the hero “The Drunken Cat” from a 1966 Hong Kong martial arts film. Come drink with meThere, a goofy character is revealed to be a secret Shaolin master; Acolyte This is reversed, revealing that the real villain was a harmless person all along.
The reveal may not be subtle, but it is certainly satisfying, thanks in large part to Jacinto’s performance. He absolutely portrays the Stranger as a force to be reckoned with, a malevolent being with a grudge against the Jedi. There are strange hints that his hatred is personal, that there is some connection to the mysterious events that took place in Brundock 16 years prior, and that he even possesses similar powers to the Brundock witch. Jacinto does most of the moves himself, displaying remarkable lightsaber choreography that shows how much he has practiced.
Chimier may not belong to Benedict XVI
But is Chimire really a true Sith?
Image via Disney+
This doesn’t mean that all the mysteries surrounding the Sith have been solved. The stranger’s conversation is odd, and his taunts don’t seem to indicate that he’s part of an ancient Sith bloodline; he doesn’t even have an official Sith name, which is usually bestowed by a Grand Master. This raises the possibility that he’s not an official Sith, not of Darth Bane’s bloodline, but simply someone who was exposed to Sith teachings by chance.
This would be a clever twist, as it raises the possibility that – if Zimierre is defeated – his death would not have any significant impact on Star Wars This question has been bothering the audience Acolyte aired; if the Jedi had fought the Sith a century ago, why would they have believed the Sith had been extinct for a thousand years? But if they believed it was just a potential Sith, a pretender who had learned their ways and turned to the dark side, their belief made sense.
There is precedent Star Wars Legend, Abel Pena 2006 holographic article Evil Never Dies: Reign of the Sith There is a similar character named Kibh Jeen:
“After the Battle of Ruusan, the Jedi heard almost nothing about the Sith. During the Dark Jedi Conflict (about 150 years before the Battle of Naboo), the dark sider Kib Jinn made vague threats in a desperate moment. He said that there would never be more or less Sith, but few Jedi believed his crazy talk. But then Sith cultists began to appear. Most of these “Sith” were chaotic and harmless. Many were just rebellious young people without any solid concept of Sith teachings, or even any sensitivity to the Force. But not all of them were like this.”
According to legend, Kib Jinn was the reason the Jedi heard about the Rule of Two. Acolyte would answer the same question, so she may have based her Disney+ TV show on that idea; she’s an old-school fan who knows Legends well. Star Wars canon, which would make Stranger the solution to a long-standing problem.
Chimire has one mission: to kill all the Jedi who know of his existence.
The Acolyte Sets Up a Very Dark Ending
Regardless, Zmierre makes it clear that his mission now is to kill all the Jedi who know of his existence. Audiences initially assume that Hedlund would never do something so dark, but these fantasies are shattered in the Acolyte Episode 5. Incredibly, Qimir kills off even some of the show’s most beloved characters; Dafne Keen’s Jecki has a heartbreaking end, while Charlie Barnett’s Yord has his neck snapped. Only one Jedi is left alive, Lee Jung-jae’s Master Sol.
Amandla Stenberg’s twins have swapped places, though, meaning that Zmyr now holds Thor’s former apprentice, Osha, captive. It’s easy to imagine a scenario where he uses this against Thor, leading him into a trap and brutally killing him. If that’s the case, there’s no reason Zmyr couldn’t become a Benedict Sith without violating canon – since all witnesses would die.
Audiences often simplify continuity and canonism into a shackle that limits future stories, when in reality it is much more dynamic. It’s true that the inclusion of the Sith in this era could create continuity issues, but the real excitement is seeing how it all fits together perfectly in the end. Now, Acolyte Two shocking potential outcomes have been set up – but exactly which approach will be taken remains to be seen.
Acolyte 
The Acolyte is a TV series set in the Star Wars universe, set during the end of the Republic, when both the Jedi and the Galactic Empire are at the height of their influence. The sci-fi thriller follows a former Padawan who reunites with her former Jedi Master as they investigate several crimes – all leading to a Darkness that breaks out from beneath the Earth and prepares to put an end to the Republic.
Actors Dafne Keen, Lee Jung-jae, Amandla Stenberg, Judy Turner-Smith, Joonas Suotamo, Carrie-Anne Moss, Margarita Levieva, Charlie Barnett, Dean-Charles Chapman
Screenwriters: Leslye Headland, Charmaine De Grate, Kor Adana
Leslye Headland, producer