The Acolyte Just Gave Us A Force Lore Deep Cut: Here's Everything You Need To Know

This article contains spoilers for The Acolyte.

The truth is finally out. After six — rather short — episodes, The Acolyte Episode 7 "Choice" reveals what really happened on Brendok all those years ago. Rather than the oversimplified truth that Mae (Leah Brady) set a fire and killed everyone, the actual events were far more brutal. The Jedi were to blame as they broke into the witches fortress and Sol (Lee Jung-Jae) killed Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith), setting off a chain of events that saw Indara (Carrie Ann Moss) accidentally murder the rest of coven with the Force when freeing Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo) from a Force possession. It was a tragic turn of events, but one that many fans had foreseen. What we didn't see coming, though, was the reveal that Brendok is a Force "vergence," a vital but oft-forgotten part of the lore around the mysterious powers that fuel the galaxy far, far away. 

What Is A Vergence?

A vergence is a space where the Force is strong and flows freely, allowing it to be manipulated or used by Force users who connect with it. It's also been called a "Force Nexus" as it can be a meeting place between strong channels of the Force that give those around them even more power and access to the Force. These vergences can surround a place, person, or even an item — think the Skywalker lightsaber that allowed Rey to tap into generational memories in the sequel trilogy — and is a concept that has popped up regularly throughout Star Wars history including the Force Nexus of the cave where Luke trained on Dagobah in A New Hope. 

It's interesting to see a vergence seen as an inherently negative thing, as throughout both canon and legends storytelling they've been neutral if not useful to the Jedi and Force users. Still, it seems like the Jedi are almost intimidated by the power and the Witches’ access to it. Interestingly, during the Old Republic era there were often factions of Jedi and Sith battling for control of vergences. Despite The Acolyte being set in different era, that could have been why the Jedi here were seeking them out, in order to control them and harness their powers for themselves. If that's the case, seeking out and utilizing vergences could be why the High Republic era was one in which the Jedi thrived. 

Where Did Vergences First Appear?

There are a ton of examples of vergences in the Force, the first named mention of the concept being in the Phantom Menace. In the prequels, Qui-Gon Jinn actually states that he's found a vergence centering around a child with exceedingly high midi-chlorians, who is of course the boy who will become Darth Vader. That feels ironic after this episode where the Jedi discover that the twins were also Force created thanks to the vergence on Brendok and how it allowed the witches to tap into the Force. 

Some have speculated that the reason Palpatine was able to keep the Jedi in the dark about his schemes was because he was operating out of the vergence at the sacred spire on Coruscant. Other canon appearances of the idea of a Force Nexus the Jedi Temple on Lothal, a key location for fans of Star Wars Rebels. Speaking of Rebels, another of the most well known iterations of a vergence is the cosmic doorway known as The World Between Worlds A.K.A. a vergence scatter. That mysterious plane allows Force users to access multiple vergences across space and time, traveling between them (as we saw Ezra do in order to save Ahsoka in the final episodes of the fan fave series). 

How Were Mae and Osha Made?

One of the biggest questions of the season has been how Mae and Osha were conceived on Brendok, seeing as their mothers are part of an all female coven, and the hint dropped in the beginning of the season that the Jedi wouldn’t like it. While it's always been clear that the pair were somehow connected to the Force, it's here that we get the confirmation that the witches used the power of the vergence to channel Mae and Osha into existence. Not just that, but they are essentially one person split into two, something some eagle-eyed fans had suspected for a while. 

Though not much is known about Force babies, there is precedent as we mentioned above, thanks to the creation of Anakin Skywalker, whosemother Shmi revealed wasn't sired by a man but was instead created via the Force. What we do know about Mae and Osha is that Mother Aniseya and the witches harnessed the Force to impregnate Mother Koril with the twins, who she then gave birth to naturally. Like Anakin, their midi-chlorians are exceptionally high and they're deeply sensitive to the Force as they're essentially made of it. 

Does This Mean That Vergences Have Now Created Two Sith Lords?

While Mae was Qimir's original acolyte, she's now confronted Sol and gained the truth. She was already keen to speak to the Jedi Council and confess, and now she has even more reason to do so. Osha, on the other hand, sees Sol as a father and is currently being seduced by Qimir (Manny Jacinto). Not only is he very convincing, but he seems to know what really happened on Brendok and could easily tell her. Or perhaps he already has, if what we saw today wasn't her own vision in the cortosis helmet rather than Sol telling Mae the full context of what happened on that terrible night.

Osha discovering that her father figure — who groomed her for Jedi-dom — was actually behind the murder of her mother and that she's been pitted against her sister under false pretenses could be enough to push her to the Dark Side and seek vengeance against her former master. If she does so without a weapon, she could easily become the second Qimir wants so badly. In doing so, her story would echo Anakin's turn to the Dark Side after being created by the Force vergence. Could this mean that turning to the Dark Side is inevitable for Force babies? We’ll have to wait and see! 

Now that those loose ends are tied up we've only got one more episode to discover the reason Osha left the Jedi, what or who Qimir really is, and whether Sol will turn to the Dark Side...

Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.