Mysteries keep piling up acolyte.
Between the twins’ shenanigans, the secret Sith Lord, and what’s really going on on Brundock, we’ve got a lot to live up to. But starting with Episode 6, “Teaching/Corruption,” a new question arises: Who is Chimere/The Stranger’s (Manny Jacinto) Jedi Master?
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As the Stranger tells Osha (Amandla Stenberg) in their first (and, frankly, very sexy) confrontation after the massacre in Koffal, he was once a Jedi. But according to him, the Order abandoned him—just as they abandoned Osha. Among those who tossed him aside was his old Jedi Master, who left some horrific scars on his back.
And who is that Master? There’s only one answer: Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson).
Discussing the stranger’s scars, Osha said they looked like the stranger had been stabbed in the back. But in reality, they looked more like he’d been whipped. Guess who we see wielding a lightsaber whip in the next scene? It was none other than Vernestra.
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In just a split second, she sent a villain to Koffal. But it was enough to connect Venestra’s weapons to the stranger’s scars. The two story elements introduced in the same episode are anything but coincidental.
acolyte It’s been fairly obvious in all the big reveals so far, and that’s by design. As creator Leslye Headland told Entertainment Weekly about the Stranger Things reveal: “I think a good twist is not to hide everything from the audience and then throw it at them, Like ‘hey, this is what you didn’t see! We hid it, so luckily you didn’t see this! Pity or sentimentality.
In the case of Venestra as the Stranger’s old master, the lightsaber whip and distinctive scar are real examples of telegraphing. However, they are far from the only ones. She keeps a tight lid on how she and Thor (Lee Jung-jae) deal with the new Sith threat. Not only did she personally oversee the operation, but she also didn’t seem to tell anyone else about sending Thor to Koffal, let alone her reasons for doing so. Plus, Henderson is playing Venestra’s worries like she knows more about the situation than she lets on.
Just like Thor still carries Brundock’s emotional baggage, Venestra carries her own. You can bet that as we learn more about their past, we’ll see the true limits of the Jedi Order.
acolyte Now streaming on Disney+, with new Airs every Tuesday at 9pm ET.
