One of the most fascinating characters in Star Wars had a cameo in The Acolyte

(Editorial note: This post contains spoilers for Star Wars Season 1: The Acolyte.)

Darth Plagueis has made his live-action debut thanks to the season finale of The AcolyteThe show didn’t make much mention of the Sith Lord, instead opting to simply show him staring down at the Stranger (Manny Jacinto) and his future padawan, Osha (Amandla Stenberg), from behind a rock. Still, it’s a pretty monumental moment for seasoned dorks who know the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise by heart.

Plagueis was first introduced through then-Chancellor Sheev Palpatine, who told the legendary story of the Sith Lord to Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. According to Sheev’s story, Plagueis was a powerful master of the Force, eventually becoming so powerful that he gained the ability to use the Force to manipulate life itself, granting himself immortality. This immortality came with a catch, however. It came only by transferring Plagueis’ consciousness to a new vessel, rather than allowing his own mortal body to live forever.

What Sheev (aka “Future Emperor Palpatine”) doesn’t tell Anakin, of course, is that Plagueis was also Sheev’s master, and that Sheev learned all of the Wise Master’s tricks and even improved upon them. For example, Plagueis’s transference is Palpatine’s way of keeping himself alive for the events of The Rise of Skywalker.

More importantly, Anakin himself was a pure creation of the Force, and it has never been officially revealed who was behind that. Maybe it was the Force itself. Maybe it was Sheev, who wanted to shape Anakin into the perfect student. Or maybe it was Plagueis himself, which would explain why he was in The Acolyte.

The Acolyte‘s entire plot revolves around twins Mae and Osha, who are two parts of one soul, a life force that seems to have been more or less created using the Force by a coven of witches—with a little help from a vergence. But with the 11th-hour revelation that Darth Plagueis was hanging around, it seems entirely possible that the Sith master was secretly working behind the scenes to create a perfect vessel for himself.

After all, what better to transfer your consciousness into than a blank slate strong in the Force? Or were Mae and Osha perhaps his trial run to create a full life before creating Anakin to be his true successor?

Anyway, at least some of these questions will definitely be answered in The Acolyte Season 2, if that ever happens. But for now, Star Wars superfans will just have to be content (or extremely dissatisfied) with the fact that they finally got to see Plagueis in the flesh.