'The Acolyte' Episode 7: So That's What Sol Did (Yikes)

After teasing us since all the way back in Episode 4 that Sol (Lee Jung-jae) was hiding some key info about what really happened with Osha and Mae’s coven on Brendok, The Acolyte finally makes good on revealing the Jedi master’s secret. In a nutshell, our boy f*cked up.

Keeping with the Rashomon vibes, Episode 7 shows us the Jedi’s point of view heading into the lesbian space witches fiasco from earlier in the season. However, The Acolyte continues to be jam-packed with nuance as we learn that neither side of this conflict was truly trying to do anything nefarious. The coven was just trying to live in peace, and the Jedi were honestly just exploring the planet for a vergence, which is basically just an area where a strong amount of the Force is naturally concentrated. They were not there to stop the coven or take Osha and Mae. In fact, every step of the way Indara (Carrie Anne-Moss) and the Jedi Council want to leave the witches the hell alone and not separate the girls from their family.

What went wrong? Sol.

After the Jedi disrupted the ascension ceremony, Sol became compelled to train Osha against the advice of Indara. She was not having it and was not thrilled that their presence was already meddling with the coven. However, Sol kept pushing and practically coached Osha into passing her Jedi test, which Indara called him on. Sol’s desire to make Osha his padawan is borderline obsessive.

However, just as Indara was calming everything down and getting everyone back on mission, Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman) discovered that something is not quite right with Osha and Mae. Somehow, they are so identical in their midi-chlorian count that it’s impossible to tell them apart. Clearly, they were not created through natural means. Despite this information, Indara insists on following the Jedi Council’s orders and leave the coven alone, but Torbin just found his ticket out of here. If the girls were created by a vergence, my dude can finally stop camping and go back to his comfy indoor home. (I feel ya, bud.)

And that’s when sh*t goes sideway.

Back at the coven, Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) really is prepared to let Osha follow her dreams and join the Jedi. Mae is also furious with her sister, but her anger is being fueled by Mother Koril (Margarita Levieva), who straight up tells her daughter to get mad. So, OK, not everyone is on the up-and-up here. Mistakes were made.

After Sol pursues a hot-headed Torbin back to the coven’s temple, they quickly discover things are going south thanks to Mae’s fire. The two storm the walls and find a terrified and remorseful Mae. Here’s where things get interesting, Sol mistakes her for Osha because, as we learned earlier, the two are unnaturally identical when it comes to the Force. Sh*t gets even weirder when Aniseya starts to bust out some sort of magic that not only makes her disintegrate, but it also has the same effect on Mae.

In a brash move, Sol stabs Aniseya with his lightsaber, which surprisingly kills her despite the fact she’s mostly a black cloud. As she dies, she tells Sol that she was fully prepared to let Osha join the Jedi. “She chose you,” Aniseya says leaving Sol so haunted by what he’s done that he refuses to fight back as Koril attacks him. He simply deflects her every move and is too disgusted with himself to do anymore damage. Torbin, however, is still fighting strong prompting Koril to make use the black cloud magic to get the hell out of Dodge. (Read: She’s still in play for whatever this show is cooking.)

The coven has one last trick up its sleeve though: Taking control of Kelnacca. If you were hoping to finally see a Wookiee wielding a lightsaber in live action, you got it. Kelnacca easily wrecks Sol and Torbin. Granted, Sol’s fighting skills are on full display, but even he can’t take down the Wookiee. That task goes to Indara, who correct me if I’m wrong… kills the rest of the coven by using the Force to push them out of Kelnacca’s mind? It sure looked that way!

Just when it seems like Sol and Torbin haven’t already screwed the pooch 15 ways to Sunday, we get to the pivotal moment where Osha and Mae are on separate platforms as the temple goes to sh*t. (Oh, by the way, Mae’s brief foray into arson really did bring the whole place down.) Here’s where we see Sol’s biggest sin: Making a cold-blooded decision to save Osha over Mae. Realizing he can’t keep holding onto both platforms with the Force, Sol chooses to put all his energy into Osha, leaving Mae to plummet to her death. Granted, we know she survives, he basically killed her.

Back on the Jedi ship, Indara is not happy and has a surprisingly angry confrontation with Sol. There’s a lot of fiery aggression here, which is jarring coming from Indara, who’s been even-keeled and almost zen-like the whole episode. She is pissed at the mess Sol and Torbin made. However, that gives way to concern for Osha. Instead of throwing Sol to the mercy of the Council, leaving Osha without a master, Indara decides that the official report will contain the “truth.” Mae burnt the place down, which led to the coven’s death. Not entirely false, but missing a few details. That lie is also told to Osha by Sol, no less, who lays the death of her family at Mae’s feet as the episode fades to black.

Mike Drops:

— Absolutely love that this episode did not take any easy outs by making the Jedi mustache-twirling villains and having them mow down the coven. (Which I thought was going to happen!) This dynamic also throws a wrench into a lot of Qimir’s rhetoric because we actually witness the Jedi not trying to stop an unsanctioned use of the Force. In fact, they’re given specific orders to leave the coven alone and testing the girls was nothing more than a delay tactic while they waited for said orders. The main catalyst here was Sol, which brings me to what I think is the biggest question being asked by The Acolyte:

Is the Force an asshole?

— This show has not shied away from The Phantom Menace parallels, and boy, were those in full swing this episode. Like Qui-Gon Jinn, Sol is hell-bent on taking a padawan against the direct orders of the Council. Like Qui-Gon, that padawan is also born from the Force and the source of grave repercussions. However, Sol is downright compelled to go down this path. Almost as if he has no choice. The Force is telling him to take Osha as a padawan, presumably because the Force wants the events of the show to unfold. We’re getting into the weeds of predestination here, but I can’t help but feel like Leslye Headland is nudging us towards a gleefully blasphemous thought:

Maybe, the Force is a dick?