In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Leslye Headland discussed her process conceiving this week’s shockingly violent episode of The Acolyte: “I think a good twist is telegraphing what’s going to happen, and then once it does, executing it without an ounce of pity or sentimentality.”
For those who missed it—though we highly encourage you to watch the episode before reading any further—episode 5 of the Star Wars series, “Night” reveals that Manny Jacinto’s mysterious smuggler Qimir is in fact the evil Master (though he calls himself The Stranger) behind Mae’s tutelage in the Dark side, as he carves a path through the Jedi pursuing his apprentice. Of course, this reveal was telegraphed—Qimir literally quotes the old Sith code to Mae in episode 2, which already had fans speculating that his cover as Mae’s smuggler contact was a little circumspect. Later, on their journey together in episode 4 last week, he also does a lot of needling about how she’s “failing” their Master’s “tests,” and very cagey when asked about his ownrelation to her Master, simply mentioning he “collects” people.
Reflecting on the massacre, Headland states she deliberately mislead the viewer by having Qimir dispatch a few unnamed characters first—before he moved in for the kill on a few of the show’s main characters, namely Dafne Keen’s padawan Jecki Lon, and Charlie Barnett’s loveably stick-in-the-mud Jedi Knight Yord Fandar. “That’s what I loved about starting with the red shirts. You’re kind of like, ‘Oh, he’a just going to kill a bunch of red shirts, and everybody is going to be fine and… OH MY GOD, JECKI’S DEAD! Okay, I’m listening,’” Headland said. “I just figured someone would stop me and nobody did. I figured someone would say, ‘This is too far!’ But they didn’t.”
In the grand Star Wars tradition, Headland additionally noted that Qimir’s unmasking as the Stranger was inspired by an earlier martial arts movie— this time, the 1966 Hong Kong film, Come Drink With Me, in which an unassuming alcoholic is revealed to be a deadly Shaolin master. “We talked a lot about how you take a low-status character and convert him to a badass,” Jacinto said of playing the reveal. “He’s a guy that is so under the radar, that nobody is paying attention to, and all of a sudden he’s actually the guy pulling the strings.”
There’s a funny timing in the release of “Night”, and Headland’s handling of the “twist” reveal of Qimir’s true nature. Just days before, in the final episode of Doctor Who’s latest season, following a lengthy mystery questioning the parentage of the Doctor’s latest companion, Ruby Sunday—one that invoked everything from child-stealing goblins, magical snow, and the return of a classic villain 50 years in the making—we ultimately learn her birth mother was a teenager of no significant importance.
Why does that matter to Star Wars? By Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies’ admission, the story arc was inspired by his own disapproval of The Rise of Skywalker revealing Rey was the granddaughter of the Emperor himself, Sheev Palpatine out of nowhere, going against what he thought had been laid out in The Last Jedi. In the interview, Headland herself rejects this sort of anti-reveal as a narrative device, stating, “I think a good twist is not about hiding everything from the audience and then throwing it on them like, ‘Hey, this is what you didn’t see! We hid it so well that you didn’t see this!’” Maybe don’t bring a sonic screwdriver to a lightsaber fight?
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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