'The Acolyte' Finale: The Tragedy of Vernestra Rwoh

Once a shining beacon of hope, Vernestra Rwoh has come to represent the worst instincts of the Jedi Order...

It was over a year ago when we first learned that Vernestra Rwoh, a major character from the Hight Republic publishing initiative, would make the jump to live action in The Acolyte.

I was lucky enough to be in the room for the reveal, which took place during the High Republic panel at Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023. I, along with all the other attendees, turned up expecting a discussion with the authors of the initiative and reveals about the upcoming novels and comics. And, the panel delivered on that in spades.

So when host Krystina Arielle pretended to end the panel so that the official live stream would change programming, I was ready to leave happy with the experience. But, to my pleasant surprise, for those of us in the room, there were more revelations to come.

The first being The Acolyte showrunner Leslye Headland joining the authors on stage to talk about how the era created for the books had been translated to the screen for her show. She then showed the audience the first trailer for the series—still well over a year away at that point—which had only been screened once the day before and not available online. The crowd went wild.

But, for the audience in that room who already loved the High Republic books the biggest reveal was yet to come. Headland shared that they would be bringing one of the characters to the screen too: Vernestra Rwoh would appear in The Acolyte, played by Rebecca Henderson. The ovation was massive.

It wasn’t the first time that a character from the books had made the jump to the screen. Cobb Vanth and Black Krrsantan had appeared in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett after debuting on the page. But it was still a momentous occasion for everyone in that room and everyone who was a fan of the books.

Readers first met Vernestra (or Vern, a nickname she is initially not the biggest fan of) in A Test of Strength, the first middle-grade novel from Justina Ireland in Phase I of The High Republic. She was something of a Jedi wunderkind, the former padawan of Stellan Gios (one of the era’s great Jedi) who was knighted at just 15. She would go on to fight the Nihil and Drengir across books, comics, and audio dramas.

Of course, the Vernestra we knew on the page and the Vernestra we would meet in The Acolyte wound up being very different. The series is set 100 years after the books and being alive for over a century is bound to change a person.

What we didn’t realize then, was just how much it was going to change Vern…

Political Enemies

I wrote at the midway point of the season about how the series explores the relationship the Jedi have with power. In the piece, Vernestra stood in for the failings of the Jedi, as she does on the show. She is, of course, not the only one (Ki-Adi Mundi exists), but she serves as an avatar for the internal issues the Jedi are facing.

The first time we see Vernestra on The Acolyte, she is talking to Sol about the “political enemies” of the Jedi. This already was a big red flag. The Jedi should not have political enemies. They should not be involved in politics at all. They are servants of the Force, and the day-to-day machinations of the Senate, or any other political body, should be something they don’t concern themselves with.

Is this an unrealistic ideal? Perhaps. But the decisions the Jedi make should not be driven by how they might be perceived or how Senators might react. Leave those worries to the politicians.

The finale shows us why.

Early in the episode, Vernestra has a meeting with Senator Rayencourt who is checking up on her investigation into the murders of the Jedi committed by Mae and The Stranger/Qimir. The Senator challenges the Jedi on the status of her investigation and why she hasn’t reported it to the Senate yet.

Rayencourt lays into the Jedi as an organization. “I think the Jedi are a massive system of unchecked power, posing as a religion,” he tells Vernestra. “A delusional cult that claims to control the uncontrollable (...) Not the Force. Your emotions. You project an image of goodness and restraint but it's only a matter of time before one of you snaps. And when, not ‘if’, that happens, who will be strong enough to stop him?”

He is, of course, right. One day, Anakin Skywalker will snap. Influenced by Darth Sidious, but still acting under his own volition, Anakin turns against the Jedi and wipes them out. The galaxy descends into chaos, the Empire is born, and the Sith rise to fill the power vacuum. Anakin, himself, leads the forces of tyranny under the terrifying visage of Darth Vader.

He is also right that the Jedi denying their emotions is unnatural, though he reaches the wrong conclusion.

The person who stops Vader, Luke Skywalker saves Anakin by appealing to what remains of his humanity with the most powerful emotion: love. Luke in that moment is more a Jedi than anyone else. He acts selflessly, willing to sacrifice his own life as a demonstration of his love for his father. So while Rayencourt’s concerns about this era of Jedi may be justified, he is also wrong about the Jedi needing to be reigned in.

Is change needed? Yes, absolutely. But Rayencourt would water down the Jedi until they are nothing but a glorified police force, acting at the behest of the Senate, rather than servants of the light. What the Jedi need to do is reexamine their relationship with themselves and their emotions. Leaving your emotions unchecked can be dangerous, to be sure. But so is denying them.

Vernestra doesn’t understand this either. She doesn’t realize that the same emotions the Jedi work so hard to suppress are what will save them in the end. She can’t see past her need for the Jedi to exist to see that they need to adapt and evolve to survive. Her life experiences have led her to the conclusion that the galaxy needs the Jedi and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to protect that—even if it means acting in a very un-Jedi-like way.

The Fallen Knight

It’s through this lens that we are to understand the choices Vern makes in this episode (and the season as a whole). She needs quick resolutions, regardless of whether or not that leads to the right conclusion.

The seeds were sewn for Vernestra’s actions in the finale in episode six when she travels to Khofar and discovers the aftermath of the Jedi’s showdown with The Stranger. Remarking that the Jedi had been killed by a lightsaber, Vern leads the Jedi Padawan Mog to the conclusion that Sol could have fallen to the dark side and been responsible for the carnage. “A dangerous allegation,” she says, ominously, of Mog’s hypothesis.

Whether Vernestra sees the plan to frame Sol as her only option or merely a backup, if the real culprits cannot be brought to justice, is unknown. Regardless, when she arrives with her strike team on Brendok and notices that Sol has already fallen, she seizes the opportunity.

Of all the crimes the Jedi commit in The Acolyte, and there are many (rushing to judge Osha for Mae’s actions, the death of the witches covent on Brendok, etc.) this is among the worst. Vern blames an innocent man for the murder of nearly a dozen Jedi, tarnishing the name and legacy of someone she called a friend after his death. She knows there’s more to the story, but pinning the blame on him is more convenient than the truth so she makes him the scapegoat.

This is not to say that Sol is without sin. His actions on Brendok, while partially understandable, speak to similar failings as Vernestra. In a moment of fear, he panics and kills Mother Aniseya even though she was going to let Osha join the Jedi, which is what he wanted. His, along with Torbin’s, rash decisions and perceptions about the Jedi’s role in the galaxy created the situation where the entire covent is wiped out. He made terrible mistakes and ones he should have faced consequences for. But the galaxy will likely never know he was innocent of the murders Vern framed him for.

Vern has strayed from the Jedi path. Her values are no longer what is right, or what serves the will of The Force. Partially she is motivated by wanting to keep an annoying senator off her back. But her genuine belief in the importance of the Jedi has blinded her to their actual mission. She has not fallen to the dark side in the same way Osha or her former apprentice have, but her actions can only be described as selfish. She fears what may happen if the Jedi—and, by extension, her—lose their position of power in the galaxy.

To be fair to Vernestra, she is a product of her time. She operates in the galaxy she was born into, where the relationship between the Jedi and the Republic is already close. In her youth, her master would meet regularly with the Chancellor to discuss matters of galactic importance. She has known no other galaxy than one where the Jedi and the Republic work hand-in-hand. And, for the most part, that relationship has succeeded.

As the audience we have the advantage of knowing the future, that this partnership takes Jedi to places they should never go. How they become generals and political operatives. In some ways it seems almost unfair to judge the character for her motivations, not knowing what we know. The status quo seems to have worked in her lifetime, so why not uphold it?

But in upholding that status quo, she inadvertently undermines the very thing she’s striving for. In making these compromises to her values, she helps move the Jedi further down the path that ultimately leads to their destruction.

So while we can be sympathetic to Vern given her circumstances, it still doesn’t mean that what she’s doing is right.

The Cover-Up Is Worse Than The Crime

The repercussions of Vern’s optics-based choices add force to the growing wave that will one day all but wipe out the Jedi Order. By not enlisting the full strength and wisdom of the Jedi council to investigate, she will inevitably come up short of a devastating truth: the Sith have returned. And they’re growing stronger and more daring. A highlight of the finale was the brief cameo from Darth Plagueis, watching from the shadows. Plagueis, we know, will one day train Darth Sidious, the Sith Lord who returns the Sith to control of the galaxy.

Plagueis’ appearance also reveals another unintended outcome from Vernestra’s choices. Sol’s justification for many of his actions is wanting to understand the vergence in The Force that allowed the witches of Brendok to create Mae and Osha. “Do you have any idea what kind of power that is?” he asks Osha. “In the history of the galaxy, very few have been that powerful.”

Manipulating the midi-chlorians to create life is the power that Plagueis seeks. A power we’re led to believe he one day achieves. And the Jedi have delivered proof that this power exists to the doorstep of his cave on that “Unknown Planet”.

The specifics of what Plagueis will do with this information is an open question, one best left to be explored in future seasons. But there is no denying that this is a victory for the Sith. While the Jedi fight with the Senate, and amongst themselves, the Sith are left to their own devices. They can experiment and plan for their return. While The Stanger and Osha likely don’t play a direct role in that return, what Plagueis learns from them will certainly inform his future actions.

Among the many tragedies inherent in The Acolyte is how close the Jedi came to unravelling all of the Sith machinations. While the final scene of the season implies that Vernestra will finally seek out some help from Yoda, we already know it’s too little too late. Their best chance at unlocking the mystery of the Sith has passed them by and the consequences, we know, are devastating.

To be clear, Vernestra is not solely responsible for the Jedi’s fall. She is not the only Jedi who thinks the way she does, nor is she the only one who comprises their values in favour of efficiency. As I said before, she is an avatar for this way of thinking among the Jedi. She stands in for the countless other Jedi who would make the same decision she does.

The point here is not to lay all the blame at Vern’s feet, nor is it to drag her name through the mud. But to understand, by watching her actions, how the Jedi lost their way.

It’s a tragedy because we know where she started from. We read about her adventures as a young adult where she stands up for her beliefs and swoops in to actually save the day. She knows what’s right and stands up for it. But somewhere along the line, her worldview changed. As she grew older and became more entrenched in the institution of the Jedi, she began to lose sight of the actual mission of the Jedi.

Her intentions are good. She understands from her experience in the Nihil Crisis (currently playing out in the High Republic books) the force for good the Jedi can be. But she now sees preserving the Jedi’s place in the halls of power, so they can continue to be that force for good, as her ultimate goal. A goal she decides she is willing to sacrifice her other values to maintain.

And when enough Jedi make the same choice, to sacrifice their values in the name of power, the institution loses its way.

Always In Motion Is The Future

We’ll likely know what the future holds for The Acolyte as a TV show in a few weeks when the D23 Expo takes place. Lucasfilm is expected, as always, to have a major presence there and the convention has been the sight for major announcements and reveals in the past. A second season of The Acolyte would be a significant reveal and feels likely given the reports of the show being the second most-watched Star Wars series.

But, if D23 comes and goes without a season two announcement, then it feels likely the show will be a one-and-done. Which would be a real shame. And not just because of the Yoda and Plagueis cameos, that were clearly included to drum up interest in more episodes. But the show has been a fascinating look at the Star Wars galaxy, challenging viewer’s notions about good and evil in interesting and exciting ways.

Has it been perfect? No. There have been several decisions that have held the show back from reaching the same highs in terms of quality as Andor (still the best of the new Star Wars shows in my mind). The choice to do two flashback episodes covering the same events gave the season an uneven feeling. Not to mention some of the character decisions feel like they needed to be fleshed out more (Torbin in episode seven and Mae in episode four in particular behaved in ways that were just baffling). And the season absolutely would have benefited from weaving in more of Vernestra’s struggles with the Senate. The scene with her and Rayencourt in the finale was so good I found myself thinking, “Where has this show been all season?

But there have been so many strengths too. The world instantly fell in love with Yord and Jecki (only to lose them five episodes later). Meanwhile, Sol’s arc of grappling with his past failures, wanting both the justify his thinking and make amends for them, was both painful and beautiful in the best ways. And then there’s Manny Jacinto. Fresh off giving one of the all-time great sitcom performances on The Good Place, he showed just how much range he has. Initially introduced as the comic relief character—who was funny without being anything like Jason Mendoza—only to be revealed as a terrifying but enticing villain, he stole every scene he was in.

This is not to take anything away from the rest of the cast, Amandla Stenberg in particular. Stenberg did a phenomenal job playing the dual role of Osha and Mae, making each of them distinct and imbuing them both with real heart.

Plus, this show gave us Bazil. It should be renewed for that alone.

A second season would look very different from the first. For one thing, most of the main characters are dead. If you look back at the pictures from Celebration London when the cast first appeared together, only three out of ten (Jacinto, Stenberg, and Henderson) play characters who are still alive.

But this presents an opportunity. The show can reinvent itself while also continuing the storylines from season one. The Acolyte was initially pitched, as “a mystery-thriller that will take the audience into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers”. While it did deliver on that in the first season, it was definitely more Jedi-focused than I expected. With The Stranger now training Osha, and Plagueis looming in the background, the next season might flip the focus. The dark side characters could be front and center, while Vernestra’s efforts with Yoda and Mae serve as the B-plot.

Or it could be something completely different. The Acolyte always strived to upend our preconceived notions. So it wouldn’t shock me in the slightest if Headland took things in another direction altogether if she gets another season.

However, even if The Acolyte doesn’t continue I would still call it a success. The show set out to explore how the Jedi could fall so far and the Sith could rise so high.

“When you're looking up to heroes, you don't have to face what's right in front of you,” Senator Rayencourt says, speaking plainly about what we have been experiencing across the last eight episodes. Often, as fans, we look to the Jedi as though they are perfect heroes who can do no wrong. But The Acolyte asks us to take another look. To see the people behind the myths, and understand that everyone is failable.

Only when we understand that, can we start to fix what’s broken.