‘The most brutal 15 minutes of Star Wars ever’: Acolyte viewers are deeply shocked by Episode 5’s biggest blows
Full spoilers ahead ahead The acolyte‘s first five episodes.
The acolyte episode five is now available on Disney Plus. After the first four episodes of the series largely disappointed audiences, there is finally a new chapter.
The fifth installment of the Star Wars series, titled ‘Night’, is not only full of great action scenes that fans will reminisce about The phantom menace‘s iconic ‘Duel of the Fates’ scene. The show’s latest entry is also filled with emotionally devastating moments that have elicited all sorts of full-blooded reactions from viewers.
I cannot emphasize this enough: full spoilers follow Star Wars: The Acolyte‘s fifth episode. Don’t read past the dividing line below unless you’ve watched it.
Rest in peace, Jecki
#TheAcolyte Spoilers —-Masterful response to the loss of Jecki. My heart. pic.twitter.com/IwX7UqbrWNJune 26, 2024
Immediately after The acolyte debuted on Disney Plus, dubbed one of the world’s top streaming services, showrunner Leslye Headland said GQ that fans should know that “the Jedi will suffer some L’s (losses) throughout the series.”
We had already seen a few Jedi killed The acolyte‘s first four episodes – Carrie-Anne Moss’s Indara, Dean-Charles Chapman’s Torbin and Joonas Suatamo’s Kelnacca to name three. The death toll continues to rise in episode five as well, by not one, but two shocking deaths.
The first of these is Dafne Keen’s Jecki, the David Bowie-inspired half-human, half-Theelin Padawan from Lee Jung-Jae’s Sol . At first, it seems like she’ll be ousted from Mae (one of two characters played by Amandla Stenberg in what we think is one of the best Disney Plus shows). However, the feisty and talented Jedi rookie holds her own against her fellow Force-wielder, eventually winning the fight and subduing Mae with the aim of turning her in to the Jedi Council.
me when Jecki dual wieldsvsme 2 minutes later #TheAcolyte pic.twitter.com/KLeRgY62mYJune 26, 2024
Unfortunately, Jecki’s best laid plans are ruined The acolyte‘s enigmatic Sith Lord. Well, the not-so-mysterious Sith Lord now, anyway – after episode four, I theorized that, based on some clear clues in said chapter, The acolyteThe big Sith Lord reveal would be a major disappointment. That turned out to be the case, with Qimir (Manny Jacinto) confirmed as the series’ main villain in episode five.
That long-awaited confirmation comes shortly after an unmasked Qimir kills Jecki. Again, The acolyte throws us for a loop when Jecki and Qimir battle it out over Mae after Jecki captures her, leading us to believe that Jecki will be killed by Qimir. But much like her battle with Mae, Jecki more than holds her own and later in the episode she teams up with Sol to take out Qimir, with the intention of bringing him back to the Jedi Council as well.
While the two-on-one fight – yes, there is another one ghost threat callback – races along, it becomes increasingly clear that someone is going to die, and it turns out to be Jecki. In the midst of an intense battle, she is stabbed to death by Qimir’s light dagger – essentially a mini-blade hidden in the hilt of his actual lightsaber – as a devastated Sol watches.
Given Jecki’s popularity among Star Wars fans, it’s not surprising that so many have been left heartbroken by her passing. On Reddit, user dagobahs wrote “God damn why did they have to go with Jecki bruh” while maddiemorph said, “Well, that’s a lot more stab wounds than we normally get. Goodbye Jecki.” Similar sentiments were expressed by ASithLordNoAffect – “RIP Jecki, our dear Padawan student” – and Crouisentewho opined: “I just said to myself, ‘Jecki’s actually pretty good’, right before… yeah…”.
I’m pouring one out for the Yord Horde
#TheAcolyte spoilers —- gone but never forgotten😔 pic.twitter.com/C23RPjYBx0June 26, 2024
Jecki isn’t the only Jedi to die at Qimir’s hands. Yord Fandar, a Jedi Knight and close confidant of Sol and Jecki, also slips off his mortal coil – Yord has his neck snapped by the Sith Lord when he returns to aid Sol and Jecki (at Osha’s request) in the fight against Qimir.
A disciplined, sometimes elite Jedi, Yord hasn’t won over every Star Wars fan, but he certainly has a legion of followers – affectionately known as the ‘Yord Horde’ – online. So this collective was briefly emotionally ruined by Yord’s gruesome death in episode five.
Friendly reminder that we don’t have any footage of Yord and Jecki after episode 5 🧍♂️ pic.twitter.com/DSYuoaTWL9June 25, 2024
On Reddit, Little_Koala wrote: “I’m speechless right now. Wow, what a crazy episode. I’m actually shocked they had the balls to kill off Yord and Jecki,” while ShotgunJedi “Yord horde asked how we are doing” after Yord’s demise. FERFreak731 agreed, saying “NOT YORD. Yord Horde in ruins”, previously CRL10 wrote: “JESUS CHRIST! He just killed Yord like it was nothing!”
There’s been a lot of praise for the show’s action-packed fifth episode – it was a nice change from the slow story and unnecessary plot exposition, right? – plus the live-action debut of Cortosis. Cortosis, you know? The malleable metal that Qimir’s helmet and wrist braces are made of, which can absorb the energy of Kyber crystals (the solid substance that makes lightsaber blades) and temporarily disable lightsabers? Well, now you know.
But ultimately, post-release chatter was dominated by Yord and Jecki’s deaths. They weren’t the only individuals to die in what was described by the Redditor Siberian Wolf99 as “the most brutal 15 minutes of Star Wars ever” (RIP to this red-robed Jedi and Pip, Osha’s droid companion), but the outpouring of grief and stunned reactions from viewers is largely aimed at that duo. It is clear that no one is safe The acolyteand it’s shocking moments like these that could change people’s minds about the divisive show.