‘The Acolyte’ Episode 7 Ending Explained: Making the Jedi Into Villains Is Not a Clever Twist

‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ recently released episode 7, and the first reactions to it are not good. The penultimate episode of the show turned out to be yet another flashback, it’s the same flashback that we’ve seen in episode 3 but it was told from the perspective of the Jedi.

If you’re looking to avoid spoilers, I recommend you stop reading now since this article is basically a collection of spoilers. If you don’t want to bother with this week’s episode but want to catch up on the events, or you had trouble understanding the latest episode episode the show – read on!

The Jedi were not on Brendok by random chance

As I’ve already mentioned episode 7 is a flashback episode that retells the events of episode 3 from the Jedi perspective. We learn from Master Indarra that the Jedi are trying to locate something called The Force Vergence, a concentrated amount of force that can be used to create life where otherwise it would be absent. Master Indarra presumed that vergence is somewhere on Brendok since the planet should be devoid of all life due to the hyperspace disaster that took place some time ago, and yet it’s teeming with life.

Her padawan Torbin is however anxious and doesn’t see the purpose in locating this source, he is anxious to be back at Coruscant as soon as possible, and his emotions are starting to cloud his judgment. Master Sol sees Osha and Mae playing in the forest and sees them using the force, he has a gut feeling that Osha is meant to be his padawan despite Master Indarra warning him not to meddle and to leave them alone. Sol is convinced that the girls are in danger and Indarra contacts the Jedi council to get more information regarding the training of the girls.

The first contact with the witches turns into a disaster

The Jedi make their way to make contact with the witches, Kelnacca disables the elevator controls so that they can’t escape (potentially why the fire spread so quickly). We can see the retelling of the same scene from episode 3 during which the Jedi come face to face with the witches in order to persuade them to have the girls tested for force sensitivity.

This time, we learn that Mother Aniseya managed to use Torbin’s anxiety to infiltrate his mind and take over him. Seeing someone wielding such power makes the Jedi afraid but still, they manage to leave the fortress without incident, with Aniseya’s promise that she will send the girls to be tested.

The test shows that the girls are exceptionally force-sensitive, having the highest midichlorian count seen ever. Sol and Indarra suspect that this is due to Force Vergence. They also discovered that Osha and Mae are practically the same person split in two, so much more than twins and that the only thing that can cause that to happen is vergence.

Indarra also says that Osha is too old to be trained, by Sol is adamant that she is meant to be his padawan. They quickly rule out Mae due to the fact that she is already branded with a dark mark.

There’s been a huuuge misunderstanding

Hearing this, Torbin decided to infiltrate the fortress and take the girls. Taking the girls would help him return to Corsucant faster, and his motivations to do so are fueled purely by anxiety and bad emotions. Master Sol takes off with him, convinced that the girls are in danger.

Indarra takes off with Kelnacca as well, wanting to stop them from doing something stupid. Meanwhile, at the fortress, we learn that Mother Korin was the one who told Mae to lock Osha in a room and set the fire.

Torbin and Master Sol meet with Mother Aniseya and Sol, seeing her manifest the dark side of force and project herself into a cloud of dark energy, kills her. Sol was afraid and clearly did not know how to react in this situation.

With her dying breath, Aniseya says to Sol that she would have allowed Osha to go with him to Coruscant to be properly trained as a Jedi. Mother Korbin attacks Sol, but he refuses to fight back. The fire keeps spreading and raging, but this is now what killed the witches.

Mother Koril escapes into a black mist, and the reaming Witches of Brendok decide to turn Kelnacca against his comrades by entering his mind. The battle between Kelnacca and the Jedi ensues and is only stopped when Indarra arrives and manages to take control of his mind.

The pushback that Indarra sent killed off the remaining witches, and they fell down dead. The fortress is at this point engulfed in flames, Sol rushes to save the girls but he can only save one. He decides to save Osha.

Are Jedi the baddies?

Back at their ship, Sol is panicking and Indarra basically says that they will lie to the Jedi council and Osha herself. When she wakes up they sell her a story about how Mae planted the fire and all the witches were dead.

This is completely uncharacteristic portrayal of the Jedi, which is what the fans have been disappointed with the most. No one has clear motivations for why they are doing stupid things, starting with Torbin who is “anxious,” and Sol who “feels” that he has to do everything in his power to get Osha (you mean attachment….), and I can’t even explain what happened to Kelnacca and what allowed the witches to take over him. It’s just…weird. Vergence, the connection between Osha and Mae, and the fact that Sol lied to Osha for all these years will likely either turn her into a better Jedi than he ever was or push her to become Qimir’s Acolyte in the final episode.

Also it’s likely that Mother Korin has been training Qimir, since she obviously managed to escape and hated the Jedi from the first moment.

This was not a clever twist at all, since I’m personally pretty sure that the Jedi have been depicted badly since the beginning in the first place and everyone suspected that they had a much greater role in the downfall of the entire coven.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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