Yahoo News The Acolyte: Flashback Episode 3 Gets to the Source of Mae and Osha’s Family Drama — Read Our Recap
Mae and Osha may be twins, but they want very different things out of life. That disconnect was prevalent in Star Wars: The Acolyte’s flashback episode on Tuesday, set 16 years in the past on their home planet of Brendok.
The Force-sensitive girls were to participate in the Ascension, a special ceremony during which they’d become witches and join their family’s coven. While Mae was honored to perform the task, Osha had her reservations. She wasn’t sure that that was what she wanted.
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But Mae assured her sister they’d do it together, using their childhood rhyme to remind her what was at stake: “You are with me. I am with you. Always one but born as two. As above sits the stars and below lies the sea, I give you you and you give me me.”
We were then introduced to their caregivers, a Zabrak witch named Mother Koril (played by The Deuce’s Margarita Levieva), and Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), the coven’s leader who possessed knowledge of the Force. Aniseya lead a class on the ways of the Thread, aka the Force, which Mae excelled at while Osha underperformed. But to be fair, Osha’s heart just wasn’t in it.
She preferred to draw and keep to herself, which often annoyed Mae. As the twins fought over their dissenting opinions regarding the ceremony, Aniseya reminded them that the Thread tied them together the day they were born.
During the Ascension, we learned why Koril and Aniseya were so keen on keeping the girls confined within their refuge. The coven had been exiled because their powers were perceived as dark. Osha and Mae were their miracle children and the first to participate in that ceremony since going into hiding.
Mae, aka Mae-ho Aniseya, heartily took the vow to protect and continue the coven’s legacy. Osha, aka Verosha Aniseya, reluctantly agreed and braced to follow suit. But they were interrupted by news of trespassers, and the intruders were soon revealed as the four Jedi on present-day Mae’s kill list: Indara, Sol, Kelnacca and Indara’s padawan Tobin. They meant no harm but had concerns that the witches were training children, which was illegal according to Republic law.
It wasn’t long before the twins — the only children in their coven — were discovered and asked to be tested as potential Jedi. A debate among the witches over their next steps yielded more intel on Osha and Mae’s mysterious origin. Koril had carried them, but Aniseya was their creator. According to her, they had no father.
Koril’s pressing question also alluded to ominous beginnings. “And what happens if the Jedi discover how you created them?” she asked.
The coven agreed to let the twins test, with the plan that Osha and Mae would purposely fail. But Osha felt that was the wrong thing to do and came clean to Sol. This infuriated Mae, who didn’t want her sister to leave. Osha yearned to become a Jedi and explore the galaxy, and Aniseya gave her the freedom to make that choice for herself. Doing so, however, meant never seeing her family again.
That’s probably why Mae was so hellbent on forcing her sister to stay. When Osha tried to leave, Mae threatened to kill her and then locked her in their room before setting a fire. It spread throughout their underground dwellings, presumably killing the entire coven. Mae escaped the room through a tunnel and found herself staring at her sister on opposite ends of a collapsed bridge. Mae seemingly fell to her death, but Sol caught Osha and helped her escape.
With everything destroyed, Sol resolved to bring Osha to Coruscant and train her as his padawan. He assured her that everything was going to be OK, and she’d never feel like this again. So Osha went, believing her sister was dead along with everyone else.
But as that last shot in the forest confirmed, Mae survived.
Thoughts on this week’s episode of The Acolyte?
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