Star Wars The Acolyte Episode 4 Breakdown

“Day” is the fourth episode of The Acolyte. The mysterious dark figure finally appears before the Jedi right after committing a heinous crime.

The article contains major spoilers from this episode and references events from previous episodes.

Recap of The Acolyte’s story so far

After recovering Osha, Sol and the other Jedi investigate another incident but when they get there the only thing they find is the body of Master Torbin. After confirming that Osha is innocent, they try to capture Mae but she ends up fleeing.

Qimir meets with Mae and tells her that he knows where to find Kelnacca, the third Jedi on her list.

A flashback shows that Osha and Mae lived with a coven of witches. The leader of these witches admits to creating the twins with some unknown dark power. Before completing the Ascension ceremony the Jedi arrived at the scene and demanded to test the kids.

Osha accepted that he wanted to leave with the Jedi and Mother Aniseya respected her decision but Mae did not. Fueled by jealousy and anger, Mae initiates a fire that ends up killing almost every witch.

Master Sol watched Mae fall to the abyss but he was able to save Osha from the fall. It’s not entirely clear who’s this perspective but there are many pieces missing in this puzzle.

We have a detailed breakdown of the Premiere two episodes of The Acolyte. Make sure you are not missing out on interesting hidden details and references.

We’ve also got you covered with all of the possible background knowledge you might want to obtain about The High Republic with a reading order guide to get you started. And our Prep Guide for The Acolyte will give you all of the details you need to learn before you start the show.

Star Wars The High Republic Full Catalog and Reading Order Guide

The High Republic Catalog

The Acolyte Prep Guide

Serving the bureaucrats

Once again we see how the Jedi Order is so intertwined with the politicians of the Republic. The decision to not tell the High Council about the events just because they would be “forced” to inform the Senate is so stupid to me.

It’s true that the Jedi must get involved in the world of politics, after all, they are funded by the Republic. However, it seems like the Jedi have forgotten that they serve the people of the Republic, not the politicians sitting in a fancy office on Coruscant.

A Jedi briefing in the beginning of Episode 4 of The Acolyte

It would be dumb to say that public opinion is irrelevant, but their priorities are not in the right order.

The idea of a rogue Jedi training Osha’s sister to kill Jedi Masters (and succeeding so far) should reach the ears of the High Council as soon as it became a possibility.

There are ways to circumvent formalities and protocols, like when Obi-Wan asked Anakin to spy on Palpatine. It’s so obnoxious when the Jedi Order acts like a government office that takes action only after receiving some written forms.

The Acolyte Episode 4: Sol convinces Vernestra to let him search for Mae

The Acolyte is doing a good job at showing how since the High Republic era, the Jedi started to lose focus and slowly became more an instrument of the Senate, rather than true keepers of the peace.

Paying the price

After Torbin’s death and the lack of questions answered, I’m fully convinced that there’s something that we’re not being told. Indara, Kelnacca, and Torbin did something that haunted them to their last days.

Why would the three of them depart to distant worlds and hard-to-reach locations? It’s as if they wanted to leave everything behind.

Indara went to a small town in the middle of nowhere, Torbin took the Barash Vow, and Kelnacca pretty much hid himself from anyone.

The Acolyte Episode 4: Jedi Master Kelnacca in his house

All of them continued to be Jedi, but they didn’t want to be in contact with the Order or anyone close to it.

The symbols that are all over Kelnacca’s place are the same markings that Mae and the other witches have on their bodies. Was he studying them or perhaps there’s another reason for it?

Strange symbols on the walls of Jedi Kelnaka's home

Sadly it’s impossible to tell with the current information, from the moment he appeared on screen it looks like he was just living as a hermit. Living a peaceful life in the middle of nowhere without anyone around.

If I had to guess, I’d say that Indara, Kelnacca, Torbin, and Sol killed all the witches. Maybe not with their lightsabers, but by doing something that directly or indirectly eliminated all of them.

This would explain the strange behavior of all three Jedi Masters and why Sol feels so responsible for Osha’s well-being.

Master Sol hugging Osha, a scene from Star Wars The Acolyte Episode 3

Instead of being eaten alive by the guilt, he trained the little girl to become a Jedi in an attempt to compensate for his mistake and diminish the guilt.

It would also make perfect sense as to why Mae hates these particular Jedi so much and her determination to kill all four of them.

This scenario is perfect for the mysterious dark figure. Weaponizing the hate and pain of someone to destroy your enemies? It doesn’t get more Sith than that.

Playing dumb

Out of all the known characters, Qimir is by far the most enigmatic one. He is always in the right place, with the right tools and the proper knowledge.

I would bet that he’s just playing dumb and has ulterior motives. Risking so much just because he cares about Mae? I don’t buy it for a second.

Qimir is constantly giving suggestions to Mae about how to complete her mission. Sometimes he’s subtle, others not so much but it’s clear that he’s very invested in Mae’s mission but he disguises it as friendship.

His master probably ordered him to follow and help Mae as much as possible. Not only to ensure her success but to test if she’s worthy of becoming something more than a servant.

There’s another possible explanation that is less probable but I’ll discuss it in my next point.

The face behind the mask

I was wondering how long it would take for the masked figure to finally appear. The immediate question that everyone is asking is who is the person behind the mask.

The most “obvious” guess would be Qimir. As I mentioned before, he is always conveniently in the right place to help Mae. Not only that but he was very close to Kelnacca before Mae betrayed him.

In my mind, the only reason why this “Master” killed Kelnacca is because Mae decided to return to Osha and the Jedi.

If Qimir is the person behind it then he wouldn’t take much time to untie himself and get to Kelnacca before Mae. However, it seems to be too obvious to be true.

We’re being misguided,
|and I believe that the person behind the mask is Mother Koril.

Think about it; she survived the incident at Brendok, there are more than enough motives for her to hate the Jedi, she has knowledge of powers considered to be dark and unnatural and the coven of Witches were more than trained to fight.

There are two things that really convinced me of this, the first one is the physical constitution. Manny Jacinto (Qimir) is 5’11 or 1.8m while Amandla Stenberg (Mae/Osha) is 5’3 or 1.6m.

In the next image, we see that the difference in heights between the two is considerable, but most of it is because of the big, bulky helmet.

Osha faces the Dark figure (possibly a Sith), The Acolyte Episode 4

The second and most convincing one IMO is the skin of this person. The left hand is covered by a glove but you can see that the right arm and hand are not.

At first, it looks like this mysterious figure has dark skin, but it’s not because of the skin pigment. Because it’s burnt.

The following image shows what I’m stating but it happens very quickly, it was the best image I could take. You might want to look at it on a monitor or TV (not a phone) for a better chance to spot the detail.

The right hand of the dark figure looks burnt, not dark

The Masked character trains Mae to kill the four Jedi who were at Brendok, has dark side powers, survived a fire, and has a fairly small constitution.

With the current information, I firmly believe that Mother Koril is behind the mask. Maybe something else is revealed in upcoming episodes and I end up making a fool of myself but this is how I feel about it.

Whoever this person is can’t be underestimated. There weren’t any visible signs of lightsaber combat in Kelnacca’s home, which means that he didn’t even get a chance to fight back. Sneaking on a Jedi Wookiee like that sounds extremely difficult, his murderer is extremely capable and should not be underestimated.

Kelnacca after the mysterious actions prior to the Jedi arriving at his home

But just because someone is behind this plan doesn’t mean that this person is behind everything. The Sith are extremely good at hiding their identities and using others to do their dirty work

Just like Mae and Qimir are being used, this individual might be the pawn of a more powerful figure.

Palpatine and Anakin discussing the Force in a scene from Star Wars Episode 3

Maul, Dooku, Grievous, Ventress, and Vader were all puppets of Palpatine. The Master always remains in the shadows pulling the strings while the apprentices are the ones who confront the enemy.

I seriously doubt that a Dark Lord of the Sith would attack so openly. That is unless the idea is to wipe out every single one of them…

Final Thoughts about The Acolyte Episode 4

The plot thickens! It’s frustrating that each episode opens more questions and solves very few but I’m enjoying all the mystery.

The High Republic is considered to be a golden age for the Jedi, but it’s not hard to see why that era is coming to an end.

The Jedi Order is slowly becoming an instrument of the politicians and this is reflected in both thoughts and actions. It saddens me to see Vernestra Rwoh become the best example of this.

Vernestra Rwoh’s presense is important for The Acolyte. She is a unique jedi with a strong presence in several other stories from The High Republic era.

It’s like watching a domino effect in reverse, we already know that the Jedi and Republic will be destroyed but The Acolyte is showing us when the first pieces start to fall and how clueless everyone was from the beginning.

Funnily enough, the credits confirm that the Cerean in the briefing room is none other than Ki-Adi-Mundi. The Jedi Master was a witness to the beginning of the end and he was clueless until his final moments.

The final credits of The Acolyte Episode 4 showing that Master Ki-Adi-Mundi was actually a part of the Jedi briefing in the beginning of the episode

Khofar is my favorite planet of the series so far, the massive trees and the terrifying Umbramoth insects remind me a lot of my times exploring the deeper parts of Kashyyyk when playing Knights of the Old Republic, Republic Commando, and Jedi Fallen Order.

The mystery of the masked figure is the most exciting part for me. I can’t wait to learn the background of this character, the reasons for his or her actions, the identity, and most importantly, how all of this fits into the bigger picture.

Star Wars The Acolyte Episode Breakdowns

Everything you may have missed while watching Star Wars The Acolyte TV Series. We did detailed breakdowns and analysis of every moment and scene from each episode, all of the characters and their story arks and backgrounds. We've also done our best to help you better understand The High Republic era by providing references and details about anthing you may have missed or be unfamiliar with if you have not read the books and comics.