Lee Jung-jae and Amandla Stenberg in The Acolyte
The Big Picture With its penultimate episode this week, The Acolyte finally unraveled the truth of what really happened between the Jedi and the witches of Brendok. While it was clear that something nefarious took place when Osha and Mae were children, Episode 7 showcased just how badly the Jedi—and particularly Sol —handled their interactions with the witches.
So the first two episodes were setting up the world and establishing the High Republic in live-action. Episode 3 was meant to give us a sense of how the Jedi in this particular era might interact with a culture that's not theirs, possibly read into the way that Force children are identified, also leaning on the Qui-Gon/Anakin template for that. But then Episodes 4, 5 and 6, we wanted the Stranger arc, meaning we wanted to introduce the main threat and then in Episode 5, double down.
Then it became about crafting, “How do you create a Jedi character that can do something so irrevocably wrong and still, in his heart of hearts, believe that he was atoning for that sin via his love for Osha?” Unlike Vader, he doesn't say, “Join me, and we'll rule the galaxy. I'm trying to get you over here.” Obviously, The Stranger is a little bit more that character.
Of course, you've gotta do that visually. You've got to do it with the blocking and the fighting and all of the obstacles and the mistakes that everybody makes. But when it comes down to it, it's the difference between a mother who says, “I believe that you have your own agency and that you can make your own choices even though you are young, even though you may not be ready for it yet.
Which I think works well. It's also why Qui-Gon Jinn, even though he's in one movie, stands out. I know everybody hates the whole Gray Jedi thing, but that's why that whole theory was born. It's this idea of something that exists in between the two extremes, and that's why that character is so compelling.
Also, part of the intrigue of them being a consciousness that split into two bodies, what that means to me is that they are patient zero of the attempt to use the Force to create life. It's the first guinea pigs. “Let's try this. Let's try this.” The issue is that what I'm positing is that one of the first times it was tried by a powerful being, it worked and it failed. So, Anakin will always be stronger than these girls.
It's so funny to me to think about how the Jedi would react to finding out that there are Sith creating life when you have the Jedi later on in history creating Clones specifically to be fodder for war. Where's your moral high ground now? HEADLAND: I do think that I would leave that up to interpretation. I do think that you are correct about Indara’s methods, though.
HEADLAND: There's gonna be a lack of oversight when you're that big. How can you? It's not possible. They're not all a hive mind. They're individuals with their own thoughts and feelings. HEADLAND: They are dead, but I would say it's up to interpretation. My personal thing is that I felt that it tracked that, exactly what you said.HEADLAND: If she’s severing that, she’s like, “Okay, I have to sever the thread from him.” How do you know it's not going to affect everybody else that's connected to that? Now Coral — no body, no death.
HEADLAND: Absolutely. It was so important to me because this, I think, would be saying that the Jedi are bad, is if they massively overpowered this community and then just burned it to the ground. What my argument is, is exactly what you just said, which is, I can't tell you that the witches are not — she says dark, unnatural; this is definitely some sort of dark side usage that's going on.
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