Perhaps the biggest surprise in the season finale of The Acolyte comes less than 15 minutes into the episode when Darth Plagueis, the Sith Lord who one day trains Palpatine, is shown watching The Stranger and Osha from afar.
What his intentions may be moving forward remains to be seen; the villain could be Qimir's Master or a rival Sith looking to recruit or destroy the former Jedi Padawan so he can get his hands on Osha and finally figure out how to create life.
Talking to IndieWire, The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland confirmed, "Plagueis was always in the finale, in every version. There was a version where he was the button of the finale [instead of Yoda]. You want to feel Osha’s triumph. You want to feel her joining forces with The Stranger. Plagueis stepped on [that moment]."
"I was OK with having the cameo come so early if it meant I could wrap up these characters in a way that their final shot was not a, 'And he’s been pulling the strings the whole time' feeling," she added.
As for what Plagueis, a character who has only been mentioned in Revenge of the Sith in current canon, brings to the table, Headland teased, "Even though [Osha and The Stranger] are standing there, sort of looking out at the sunset, ready to conquer the world, the tragedy is we know they don’t. We know there can only be two."
"We know Plagueis is there. We know that these two are doomed in some way. So to me it’s a bittersweet tragedy, this foreboding ending. But that’s because I know about the Sith lineage and all these other things, whereas I think a different subset of the audience can be like, 'They’re married!'"
In the Expanded Universe, Plagueis is obsessed with both creating life and prolonging his own. It was through his machinations that Palpatine rose to power, though as Darth Maul battled Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn, the Senator killed his Master while he slept.
Talking about designing the live-action Plagueis and where things stand with the Sith, Headland added, "Obviously the species has been determined, if not by [Star Wars] canon, then by Legends and definitely by head-canon for everybody. So when we were designing him and talking about his appearance, it was a lot of ‘Crimson Peak,’ of Guillermo del Toro."
"They’re not running the First Order. They’re not running the Empire. They’re not the Chancellor of the Senate. They’re hiding out," she concluded. "The Sith [in this time] are fighting for survival."
We don't know whether The Acolyte will receive a second season but there's clearly a lot more story to tell with Darth Plagueis, his role in whatever The Stranger is up to, and how this series ultimately leads the Sith Lord to Palpatine and the creation of The Chosen One.
All episodes of The Acolyte are now streaming on Disney+.