The Acolyte's Twin Surprise
An In-Depth Examination of Mae and Osha
This article contains spoilers for Star Wars’ The Acolyte.
You are with me. I am with you. Always one, born as two. As above sits the stars and below lies the sea, I give you you and you give me me.
From the release of its trailer, The Acolyte garnered immense criticism from supposed fans of the Star Wars franchise, loathing the series’s perceived divergence from the canon and wokeness.1 I think it’s absolutely phenomenal. But I guess I am biased since (spoiler) it’s about a set of twins. And Mae-oh (“Mae”) and Verosha (“Osha”) Aniseya are actually one of the best depictions of twins that I’ve encountered. The Acolyte uses their twinship brilliantly to tell a twist-filled mystery that subverts every twin trope that’s presented, making it a beautiful example of what I want media featuring twins to be more like.
Since I do have a lot to gush about and critique,2 I decided to organize this post a bit differently. What follows is a breakdown of the plot by twin tropes, analyzing how each trope is subverted and the evolution of Mae and Osha’s relationship as well as more of my rambling thoughts.
Surprise! It’s your long-lost twin!
The Acolyte opens with a character played by Amandla Stenberg seeking vengeance in an epic battle with a Jedi which she is ultimately victorious in. In the subsequent scene, Osha, seemingly the same character, wakes up for work as a technician. The Jedi arrive and arrest her for the murder of Indara since Osha matches the witnesses’ descriptions and has motive after flunking out of training to be a Jedi. However, Osha is insistent that she didn’t do it and evades arrest. She gets a vision of her twin sister, Mae, who is presumed to be dead and realizes she must have been the one to have killed Indara. Osha tells her old master, Sol, her theory and they agree to work together to find Mae.
The trope of someone being blamed for the crime their twin committed is always laughed about as a clever idea, but rarely actually seen in media. It was fun to see it pulled off and paired with the long-lost twin trope even if it did feel a bit cliche. It’s also impressive to me that the fact this show is about a set of twins was kept quiet so that this opening revelation could be a surprise to viewers. On a rewatch of the trailer, there’s nothing to suggest that Amandla Stenberg is actually playing two characters. In fact, most of the shots are of her as Mae. Is this mis-marketing worth the payoff of the surprise? I’m not convinced it is. I think part of the reason the show’s suffered so much hate could be for not being honest to what it is about.
I also wonder if Disney did not cast twins for the roles of Mae and Osha for the sake of the surprise, as well, since it would have certainly been spoiled then with press tours and casting announcements. It’s a stupid reason (as well as another one I’ll mention later, see footnote 5), but I wouldn’t be shocked if it was the case. However, points are won back for casting Lauren and Leah Brady who played young Osha and Mae respectively. I was blown away by their performances and was so excited to see twins playing twins on screen. And I don’t mean to diminish Stenberg’s portrayal. I enjoyed how she acted the twins differently, especially the subtle way each moves – Mae tends to stalk around while Osha is more curiously alert.
Anyways, the point is that I don’t see why it was so necessary to hide the fact The Acolyte is about twins. I think that marketing the show as what it is – a good twin/evil twin conflict with Osha joining the Jedi and Mae being a dark force user – would be more enticing. This does risk simplifying the series to a well-worn trope with a predictable narrative, however, The Acolyte quickly proceeds to prove it’s anything but that.
(Un)Happy Reunion After Estrangement
Technically, the first time Mae and Osha reunite is after Mae kills Torbin, the second of her four targets, and Osha lets her slip away. The moment proves to each twin that the other is alive, but they aren’t given the time to converse. The episode that follows is a flashback to Mae and Osha’s childhood and the circumstances that led to their estrangement. Four Jedi visit the Night Sister’s coven, seeking to take the twins for training. Osha is curious and wishes to go with them while Mae, their mothers, and the rest of the coven distrust the Jedi and view them as invaders. Eventually, Mother Aniseya relents to let Osha go, resulting in a fight between the twins where Mae locks Osha in a room and lights a fire. Osha escapes and is reunited with the Jedi who tell her the fire Mae started killed everyone else in the coven. In a later episode, we discover the truth from Mae’s perspective – the Jedi came to take the twins forcibly and Sol murdered Mother Aniseya which resulted in a ripple effect that decimated the rest of the coven. Mae escaped as well and believed Osha to be dead when she did not meet her at their spot.
This episode is the most that viewers get of Mae and Osha together and though tensions are high as it builds toward their violent separation, I really enjoyed the nuances of their twinship. From the beginning, Mae is established as the more dominant of the pair, bossing Osha around and speaking for her. Osha desires to make her own path, leading to her interest in the Jedi. I don’t often see power dynamics like this in media, though it is a reality of a lot of twins’ lives. An example of this that really captured my attention was during their force training where Mae blocks an attack and Osha hides behind her, earning a scolding for not blocking as well. This reminded me of my own childhood and the reason why my twin and I had to be separated in classes – when she would get stuck on reading, I would provide the answer for her. From my understanding, this is a fairly common experience of twins, so it was great to see an adjacent version of this onscreen.
Another aspect I admired from the episode is the parenting of twins. Mother Aniseya and Koril treat their daughters as two individuals rather than a packaged set. Though the mothers compare and worry over Osha’s differences from Mae, she is never considered lesser because of this and ultimately Osha’s wish to not be a part of the coven and join the Jedi instead is respected by Mother Aniseya.
The final thing about this episode that I’ll gush about is Mae and Osha’s identicality. There’s a good mix of scenes where they wear different clothes or the same outfit. In either case, there’s little hand-holding done for viewers to distinguish the twins and we’re expected to learn to tell them apart from context and Lauren and Leah Brady’s small physical discrepancies. Until Mae is anointed into the coven and gets the tattoo on her forehead, there is no glaring visual difference between them. It never felt impossible to tell the twins apart, but it didn’t feel immediately apparent either. This didn’t strike me as much with Amandla Stenberg’s portrayal because Mae and Osha’s scenes were so distinctly split and whenever they were together, there was hardly ever the need to tell them apart with the camera’s avoidance of showing both faces.
Which I guess leads me to the revelation that, yes, the twins do eventually reunite! After a lot of Jedi, including some of Osha’s good friends, are murdered at the hands of Mae’s master, Qimir, Mae and Osha face each other. However, given the circumstances and the unresolved conflict from their childhood, it’s hardly a happy reunion. What makes this scene so heartbreaking is that both Mae and Osha’s motivations to honor the other “dead” twin are proven to be misplaced. For Osha, she had to leave the Jedi Order because she refused to let go of her grief for her sister, but now she finds Mae is not only alive, but also murdering the Jedi Osha is closest to. Meanwhile, Mae has been seeking revenge against the Jedi for her family, but upon learning Osha is alive, is ready to give up her quest only for Osha to again choose the Jedi over her.
Osha refuses to forgive Mae or listen to her warnings about the Jedi and it ultimately leads to a fight where Mae knocks Osha unconscious. I really loved how rich with drama this scene was and how well established the logic was for why Mae and Osha couldn’t easily reconcile their grievances. The context of the flashback episode only deepened this reasoning and set the expectation of what Mae and Osha’s relationship could be. This reunion propels the twins into opposition, but, curiously, their places end up reversed.
It’s a (Parent) Trap!
With Osha unconscious at her feet, Mae cuts her hair so she resembles her.3 She impersonates Osha so that she can get away from her master and closer to her final target, Sol. Mae is absolutely shit at pretending to be Osha – just lurking around and criticizing “her” past training as a Jedi.4 Still, it takes Sol an embarrassingly long amount of time to figure it out and stun the impostor.
Meanwhile, Osha has been abducted by Qimir, who, unlike Sol, is entirely aware of which twin is his apprentice. His whole manipulation is about giving Osha the illusion of control and drawing similarities between his experience being rejected from the Jedi and hers. He challenges her perspective and an understanding is established between them.
I found a lot of aspects of this swap really fascinating. First of all, it was only intentional on Mae’s part as opposed to most twin swaps where they’re both consenting and in on it. Initially, I was worried that this would be an ideology swap as well with Mae going to make amends with Sol and Osha being seduced to the dark side. The latter does happen, but Mae stays stalwart in her conflict with Sol. Essentially, Mae and Osha didn’t have mirror experiences in their swapped positions because they have differing pasts. It moved them along on their independent journeys rather than being used as a tool to foster understanding between them.
When Mae awakens restrained, Sol wants to discuss his role in her past and work together to take down Qimir and rescue Osha. Mae easily escapes and steals an escape pod and heads for Brendok with Sol in pursuit. Meanwhile, Osha sees a vision of Mae killing Sol without a lightsaber. The feat is the final test Qimir set for Mae to become his Acolyte. Qimir and Osha make a hesitant alliance with Osha wanting to get to Mae and save her old master and Qimir being her only option to get there. This sets the scene for the climactic confrontation.
Morally Gray is my Favorite Color
Osha reaches Mae first and Mae attempts again to reason with her. Osha blames Mae for why she could never become a Jedi – because she couldn’t let go of her anger at her for starting the fire. Mae counters that Osha was fed a lie by Sol and tells her that he was the one who killed their mother. Osha doesn’t believe her and the pair fight again, but are evenly matched, mirroring each other’s movements.
Mae gets away and joins Qimir in battling Sol. She manages to get Sol to confess to murdering her mother and Osha overhears. Blinded by her anger at her old master’s betrayal, Osha force-chokes him and the lightsaber she holds “bleeds” from blue to red. This is the power that Qimir has been searching for. Osha is the Acolyte.
While this ending was somewhat predictable, I still really enjoyed it. Sol’s death is the moment where the good/evil twin dynamic is destroyed. It’s less common in media to see the dark(er) side succeeding and framed as a positive thing. I also like that it wasn’t a reverse of stances either. As I mentioned earlier, Mae is pretty set in her opinions, so it was fascinating to see Osha be corruptible.
I would say that both twins end up (in a fairly dark shade of) morally gray. I adore this complexity and the morbid poeticness of them now being able to reunite because of Sol’s death. His presence was the catalyst in the rift between Mae and Osha and the reason they were separated. A big part of Sol’s motivations was to cover up his own guilt and missteps, but he had another reason to be invested in Mae and Osha’s fates as well…
Wait, Are You Guys Twins?
This leads me to my biggest criticism about The Acolyte. The second flashback episode follows Sol’s perspective of his time on Brendok. He’s there to look into a possible vergence, a giant force well, and instead meets Mae and Osha. Part of testing the girls for Jedi potential involves a blood test. The tests reveal high force sensitivity and are exactly identical which is impossible, even for twins. The Jedi conclude that Mae and Osha were artificially created by Mother Aniseya and are one consciousness split into two bodies. Essentially, Mae and Osha aren’t twins at all but one essence.5
Before his death, Sol explains that he wished to bring the twins before the Jedi council so that their creation could be investigated. He claims that the power Mae and Osha possess is incredible and dangerous. Mae and Osha never address this revelation.
So, yeah, all the stuff I mentioned about their twinship? Irrelevant. Mae and Osha shouldn’t even really be a part of this blog. But I’m protesting this fact and proceeding with raging denial. Mae and Osha are twins to me.
There’s nothing to suggest that Mae and Osha are governed by a shared or the same consciousness. They are two distinct individuals with free will. Regardless of how they were conceived or biologically related, they were raised as siblings. However, Sol is repeatedly insistent that they aren’t sisters. This needlessly discredits their relationship and twinship.
Another aspect about this that annoys me is that this truth of their creation further otherizes the twins and their family. Mae and Osha have two mothers so in part this is meant to explain how they were conceived. When paired with the fact that they are members of a coven of dark force users, the circumstances of Mae and Osha’s existences and hints at their purpose is framed as ominous. Everything about Mae and Osha’s upbringing has this undertone of unnaturalness. They shouldn’t exist and that desire to investigate why they do is what ultimately drives the Jedi to invade the coven. The Jedi are perceived as being in the wrong for this, but I still feel that despite the series supporting the dark side, The Acolyte still associates these women with evil and otherness.
The odd specificity also stands out to me. Why is this detail of Mae and Osha being one consciousness important or relevant? Aside from motivating the Jedi’s interest in the twins, it doesn’t impact anything. Why was this choice made for the story? Why couldn’t Mae and Osha simply be twins created by the force? My guess is that this is meant to be further developed in season two.6 My far-fetched theory (and fear) is that Mae and Osha are going to fuse into one person as hinted at by the persisting idea that they are “one” and the eclipse symbolism. I hope I am just being paranoid and Mae and Osha get to continue their individual journeys.
The ending did leave me a bit confused with the twins’ long-awaited reunion being so brief and their hasty decisions on how to proceed. Osha asks Qimir to take Mae’s place as his apprentice and he agrees. They declare that since the Jedi will arrest Mae for the murders, her memory needs to be wiped for their safety and she agrees. Qimir uses the force to take away her memories, including all traces of Osha.
This felt unrealistic to me in how quickly this decision was settled on and how there was very little hesitation or resistance. It was over dramatic and unnecessary. Additionally, it sets up season two to be a mirror of this first season, but with Mae being used to seek out Osha. However, there is a poeticness in that both twins got what they wanted – Mae is free of Qimir and has completed her quest for revenge relatively unscathed while Osha can finally embrace her power with the force.
Overall, I did enjoy The Acolyte and feel it is a show worth watching whether you’re interested in twins or not. The complexity of the trope subversions strung throughout the narrative, small details of twinship, and rich moral conflicts outweighed the more disappointing aspects of the series. Mae and Osha are incredibly unique and I’ve never seen twin characters like them before. It’s awesome to have another, more nuanced, set of twins featured in the Star Wars franchise alongside Luke and Leia.
Apparently, I’m an outlier in recognizing it’s not canon divergent and considering diversity to be a good thing!!
I never said it was the perfect show.
This may actually be my biggest complaint about the show. Mae cuts her hair with a lightsaber and it doesn’t scorch the ends or anything! Not to mention it is a perfectly straight cut and the exact match to Osha’s hair.
Obviously, I wasn’t expecting Mae and Osha to have traded poster board presentations and quizzed each other like in The Parent Trap, but seriously? The effort was nonexistent!
The other stupid potential reason why there weren’t twins cast for this role.
If we even get a season 2.