The Acolyte Episode 7 recap: Brendok still holds some secrets

Star Wars fans are hyped about The Stranger – but for now, he’s being put on the backburner. Here’s everything that went down in The Acolyte Episode 7 instead.

The penultimate episode of The Acolyte aims to solve the questions still left over in this part of the Star Wars timeline… only on this occasion, it’s by going back over what we’ve already seen.

It’s also the first time the new TV show has opted for a single-word title, ‘Choice.’ Gone are the days when good and evil blurred into one, and it’s not good news for the Jedi Order.

In order to understand what she needs to do in the present day, Mae must understand from Sol what really happened on Brendok. In The Acolyte Episode 7, he finally tells the truth. Warning: Spoilers ahead!

The Acolyte Episode 7: Episode 3, but for the Jedi

In a nutshell, The Acolyte Episode 7 is a near-repeat of the events from Episode 3, only this time we’re seeing the flashback from the Jedi Order’s perspective.

Seven weeks before Sol spots Osha and Mae in the woods, the quartet arrives on Brendok, which they truly believe is uninhabited. They’re there to look for something known as a “resurgence,” which is essentially an overwhelming central point of the Force. They find traces on plants and foliage, but nothing much else.

While Indara is committed to fulfilling the Council’s mission, padawan Torbin isn’t as convinced. He’s desperate to go home to Coruscant, and is taking any moment he can to vocalize that. Meanwhile, Sol senses that he’s onto something bigger, which is proven right when we see him clap eyes on the twins for the first time.

From his point of view, Sol follows them back to the witches’ fortress, where he sees first-hand Mae using the Force against Mother Aniseya. Heading back to the ship, he tells Indara that they are not alone, with Torbin proposing that the coven might be the Nightsisters. As seen in Episode 3, the group broaches the coven together, asking to test Mae and Osha.

Sol lets his emotions get the better of him

While we’ve seen it before, the meeting of the minds doesn’t quite happen as we first thought. While Sol tries to find out more about Osha and Mae, Aniseya simultaneously talks to Torbin on his own, claiming to be able to help him achieve what he truly wants. When he says that is to go back to Coruscant, Ansieya puts him in a trance, using that as a bargaining tool against the other Jedi.

Indara thanks Sol for his idea to test the children, meaning that the Jedi have more time to consult with the Council about what to do next. However, Sol tells her that he genuinely wants to test the twins because he feels a strong emotional connection with Osha, believing that she is meant to be his padawan. Indara tells him not to confuse his own wants with Osha’s wants, and to stick to the mission as planned.

Mae and Osha both arrive at the ship for testing – but this time, we see Mae’s test. She’s blatantly lying about what is on Sol’s screen and makes little effort to conceal the fact that she doesn’t want to be there. After she tells Indara about the ascension, Mae claims Ansieya is prepping the twins to be leaders of the coven.

Indara asks how that can be possible as they are just children, with Mae inferring the Ansieya might be planning to sacrifice them. Concerned about their welfare, Indara agrees to Sol’s motion to try a different approach with Osha – which involves telling her about other Jedi children, as we’ve seen.

Despite this, once Osha leaves, there is a problem… Indara says that the Council won’t sign off on taking her regardless of passing because she’s too old. She tries to get the group to return to their original mission, also realizing that Aniseya won’t let the twins go.

Torbin goes against this, believing that the girls are the proof of the resurgence the Jedi are looking for. He leaves for the fortress with Sol in hot pursuit, leaving Indara and Kelnacca to follow behind in the ship.

The Acolyte Episode 7: Mae didn’t kill her family

While Indara has instructed that Sol stop Torbin in The Acolyte Episode 7, Sol instead asks him to help get the girls. They climb the fortress walls just as Osha tells Aniseya that she wants to be a Jedi. Meanwhile, Koril tells Mae to get mad in order to stop Osha from leaving, rallying the witches to protect themselves.

We then cross back to Mae locking Osha in their bedroom before starting the fire. However, the reality is that Mae immediately regrets starting it and tries to put the flames out, fleeing to Ansieya for help. Before she can get there, Torbin and Sol have been met by Aniseya and Koril.

Sol asks how the twins were created after their blood samples showed that Osha and Mae aren’t identical twins, but actually two variants of exactly the same person. Ansieya replies that the Jedi nobility will one day bring them to the ground.

Mae arrives in time to call for help, with Sol believing that she is Osha. Aniseya begins to transform herself to shield Mae from attack, but Sol plunges his lightsaber into her core. She explains that she would have let Osha go with them before dying. Mae screams for her mom before Koril leads the attack against the pair.

There’s some hefty hand-to-hand combat from this point on, which takes an odd turn when Kelnacca appears. The coven is able to control him, launching at Torbin and leaving him with grisly facial scars. When Indara appears, she manages to restrain Kelnacca before stopping the trance, in turn killing the coven. Only Koril remains unaccounted for.

Sol makes his choice

The final scene in The Acolyte Episode 7 takes us back to Mae and Osha, who are each on different sides of a falling bridge. As we saw in Episode 3, the pair are trying to blame each other for what has happened – but Sol has a different role in how Mae’s “death” unfolded.

Instead of watching them both before Mae’s side of the bridge collapsed, Sol was actually holding both sides using the Force. Unable to hold out, he actively chooses Osha, letting go of Mae’s side of the bridge.

As seen before, the pair retreat to the ship. While Osha is unconscious, Indara lays into Sol about his decisions, asking what led him to disobey orders. Torbin asks what happens next, with Indara proposing that they tell the Council the truth – Mae started a fire, and the coven perished.

When Osha comes around, Sol repeats this, offering her the chance to be his padawan.

Continue to jump into hyperspace with everything we know about the Andor Season 2 release date and Tales of the Jedi Season 2. You can also read our Star Wars The Acolyte explained guide for more specific details.

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