Nerdist spoke to The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland after the show’s seventh episode “Choice.” The wide-ranging interview touched on just about everything, including a moment that might have been easy to miss among the chaos on Brendok. During the standoff with Mother Aniseya and Mother Koril, Sol misidentified Mae as Osha. That’s an easy mistake for a normal person to make, especially during an emotionally charged moment, but not a Jedi. And definitely not for a Jedi claiming an instant connection with a girl he believed should be his Padawan. So what did Sol’s confusion reveal? According to, Headland it’s the latest sign the Jedi was never meant to guide Osha. Instead, it’s Qimir who is Osha’s true Master on The Acolyte.
When we asked Headland what Sol’s mix-up meant on The Acolyte, she said it shows the limits of their connection. “(Sol) doesn’t know her as well as he thinks he does,” she said. Headland also noted this was at least the second time the Jedi made this exact mistake. He also thought Mae was Osha after the fight with Qimir on Khofar. That’s not the type of error we’d expect a powerful Force user to make with his own student.
Headland also touched on the Jedi’s instant reaction to Osha and her immense power. It’s why Sol quickly believed he was meant to train her. Headland said Qimir had the same exact reaction to meeting Osha on The Acolyte. “Osha walks into the apothecary, he knows that it’s not Mae. He can feel that this is something different,” she told us. “He can feel that he wants to teach her. Qimir wants to be a part of her journey in reaching her full potential.”
According to Headland, the similar reaction Qimir and Sol both had to meeting Osha isn’t as important as the difference between them. She pointed out that, unlike Sol, Qimir never mistakes Mae for Osha on The Acolyte.
The subtext of that observation is foreboding enough on its own. But Headland wasn’t shy about pointing out exactly what it might mean. She said, “That’s also meant to foreshadow who Osha’s real Master will be.”
The Acolyte hinted at the worrisome possibility that Qimir might become Osha’s true Master in episode six, but if their interactions on that “Unknown Planet” were a warning sign about Osha’s fate, Headland’s comments feel like a galatic-wide alarm going off.
Does that mean Osha is truly going to turn to the dark side? Is Qimir her “true” Master? We’re not optimistic about her future, but we’re not giving up hope, either. Qimir could be Osha’s real Master. But Osha doesn’t need to accept him as such. Like the title of the episode we spoke to Headland about, Star Wars has always been about characters making a “choice.” Osha still controls her destiny, even if Qimir is the only one who can always tell her apart from Mae.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who thinks he could fix the Jedi. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
