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The third episode of Disney+'s Star Wars prequel The Acolyte is one that might significantly change how some fans watch the rest of the series, revealing the backstory of the twins at the center of events — with one particular detail that might change the context of the story moving forward.

Spoiler warning! Stop reading now if you haven’t watched the third episode of The Acolyte, and want to remain mercifully unaware of the big reveals!

So… now we have a better idea of what happened to Mae and Osha’s family 16 years ago. Maybe not a complete picture — there was a notable time jump between Osha collapsing in the burning temple and waking up onboard the Jedi ship, after all — but enough of one that we can both understand why Mae and Osha both believed the other was dead for more than a decade (Osha saw Mae fall into the void; quite how she survived remains a mystery, albeit a small one, while Mae believed she was the only person to escape the temple), why Mae has such hatred for the Jedi, and, perhaps most importantly, why both Mae and Osha were seemingly trained in different areas of Force usage:

They’re both witches, raised by their mothers to access the Dark Side of the Force… although, fascinatingly enough, Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) doesn’t see it that way, and in fact rejects the idea of the Force entirely, describing the power she and her daughters can access as being a thread that can be pulled upon. Nonetheless, Mother Aniseya and Mother Coral had trained Mae and Osha for a long time — arguably since birth, if context clues throughout the episode’s dialogue can be trusted — suggesting that they’re potentially very powerful when working in unison… which firmly seems to be the preferred method of the coven, given the number of times “the power of two, the power of many” is repeated throughout the episode.

(Does the notion that Mae and Osha would be more powerful working together feel like major foreshadowing for something later this season? Yes, it really does.)

It’s not just that Mae and Osha already had Force training from a young age that sticks out from the episode; it’s that there’s an explicit mention that the twins have no father. How to take that line, is the question? Is it simply a reference to Aniseya and Coral being their parents, or should we be reading more deeply into it? After all, Coral mentions that she carried the twins, to which Aniseya replies that she created them… did she do so using the Force? And if so, are they Force babies in the same way that Anakin Skywalker is revealed to be in The Phantom Menace? If so, maybe either Mae or Osha could end up being part of a similar prophecy that Anakin was believed to be, even if their own family denied the concept of destiny.

What is Mae, Osha, or a combination of the two, are the figures that pushed the Force out of balance in the first place, leading to the creation of the prophecy of The Chosen One that underscores Anakin Skywalker’s life, and the Skywalker Saga as a whole…?

It’s a heady question, and one that makes the rest of The Acolyte an even-more compelling proposition. New episodes of The Acolyte airs weekly every Tuesday on Disney+ through July 16.

Turn back the clock 100 years before the earliest Star Wars movie and enter the era of the Disney+ series The Acolyte. We have everything you need from guides on the cast, the episodes (and their release dates), it's not-for-kids rating, where it fits in the Star Wars timeline, how the show asks who 'deserves' to use the Force, as well as bigger picture things such as a complete Star Wars watch order, and a comprehensive guide to the Star Wars timeline, and all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows on the horizon.