‘The Acolyte’ Finally Shows What the Witches Can Do

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Episode 7 of The Acolyte.

The Big Picture

• The witches of Brendok possess powers that surpass even Jedi mind tricks, showcasing their ability to control others completely in Episode 7 of
  The Acolyte
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• The witches demonstrate unique and powerful abilities, showing a different aspect of the Force not seen before in the Star Wars franchise.
• Despite their demise, the legacy of the witches lives on in Osha and Mae, hinting at potentially dangerous consequences if they work together.

The Acolyte has introduced many things to the Star Wars franchise, but one of the most significant is the witches of Brendok. This society is the home of the twins Osha and Mae (Amandla Stenberg). They are a new group of Force users, separate from the witches of Dathomir, who call the Force by a different name. Referring to it as the Thread, the witches show considerable mastery of their powers, but not in the same way as the Jedi. Though the witches are killed 16 years before the main events of the series, they appear in two flashback episodes, exploring Mae and Osha’s origins. During their introduction in Episode 3, “Destiny,” the witches show little of their abilities, but Episode 7, “Choice,” remedies that.

Revisiting the destruction of the witches of Brendok, The Acolyte continues to explore this Force cult, showing exactly what the “power of many” can do. Episode 3 shows little of the witches’ power as it focuses on Osha’s subjective perspective, who, having grown up there, didn’t need to focus on the witch’s abilities. Though it sets up the interesting characters of Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Mother Koril (Margarita Levieva) and hints at a mystery surrounding the twins’ birth, the episode reveals little. However, their return does not disappoint again. This time, the series delves into the witches and their fight against the Jedi, which Osha was unaware of, showing the witches of Brendok as formidable opponents and demonstrating that their powers are unlike anything we’ve seen in the franchise before.

‘The Acolyte’ Shows Off the Witches’ Terrifying Powers

Episode 7 tells the same story as Episode 3, but this time from the Jedi’s perspective, revealing more than a few mysteries about their mission and how it went so wrong. Yet, as it does so, the witches show off the extent of their abilities. As the Jedi attempt to learn about their society, the witches feel threatened. Mother Aniseya uses her powers to get into Torbin’s (Dean-Charles Chapman) head, scaring the Jedi, but the true extent of their power comes later. When Sol (Lee Jung-jae) kills Mother Aniseya out of fear, the witches attack, led by Koril. The first ability they display is to turn themselves into mist and travel to a new location, but that is not their greatest power.

Just as they chanted in their first episode, when they are working together, the Brendok witches are at their most powerful. After their disappearance, the witches become more of a threat, uniting their powers to take control of the Wookie Jedi Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo). They sit in a nearby room, humming and swaying as they ruthlessly exert their power by forcing him to attack his friends. Even as a group, they are not all-powerful, and Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) manages to free Kelnacca’s mind, killing the witches in the process. But the fact that the witches of Brendok are capable of such a power is concerning. The power to control another is one that not even the Jedi can use.

The Witches Control Suprasses Jedi Powers

The witches of Brendok’s abilities are not totally unfamiliar in Star Wars. The Jedi have a related power often called “Jedi mind tricks” or “mind touch.” However, the Jedi’s power is far less extreme. Though Jedi mind tricks can influence a person’s mind, they do not wield total control over an individual as the witches of Brendok do. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor) often uses this power, convincing the Stormtroopers in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope that “These are not the Droids you’re looking for” or in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones by sending a death stick seller to rethink their life choices. Yet, this works differently. The Jedi can cause a person to follow a very specific, verbal instruction that the target repeats like they are hypnotized and, according to Anakin (Hayden Christensen), only works on the weak-minded.

Jedi mind tricks are a far cry from what the witches do. For one thing, it’s hard to imagine that the Jedi is weak-minded, and the witches use their power differently. They control Kelnacca for an extended time, not vocalizing the movements he should make but wielding complete power over him nonetheless. Kelnacca forgets himself, attacking his allies and wounding Torbin, making this much more than a suggestion. This is more similar to the dark side version, which Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray) learns from a Sith Holocron in Star Wars: Rebels, using it to force a stormtrooper to kill his allies and walk off a ledge. Yet Ezra uses simple commands and has to perform the motions, unlike the witches. They put Kelnacca in an intense battle that lasts longer and uses more complex motions. The extent of this ability shows how truly powerful the witches of Brendon are…or were.

The Witches’ Powers Continue To Be Important to ‘The Acolyte’

Having been dead for 16 years, the powerful group of witches is no longer a threat if they ever were, considering that it was the Jedi who invaded their home. However, their unique powers raise the question of what other groups may be able to do. The Jedi and Sith may be the most familiar groups to use the Force, but they are not necessarily the most powerful. The Jedi are not shocked by the existence of another group of Force users, showing that there are others. As The Acolyte explores a different time in the universe’s history, the witches of Brendok are just one of many people the Jedi could face. However, there is a more immediate implication of their power.

Though the society and witches are gone, their future remains. Osha and Mae carry their legacy and trained in the witches’ powers when they were young. The witches’ abilities suggest that Osha and Mae are capable of unique feats if they were to work together, which they have yet to do. As the last of the Brendok witches, the twins should be able to wield a similar power if they unite. Mae and Osha have each proven themselves powerful on their own, but, just like their forbears, combining their power would amplify it. But with Mae’s history and Osha teetering on the edge of the dark side, that is a dangerous possibility.

The Acolyte is streaming now on Disney+, with new episodes released weekly each Tuesday.

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