Star Wars: The Acolyte Creator Explains Indara and Sol's Shocking Choices

Leslye Headland compares Master Sol to Qui-Gon Jinn.

By Jamie Jirak

The penultimate episode of Star Wars: The Acolyte, "Choice," was released on Disney+ this week and it finally revealed the truth of what happened on Brendok when Mae and Osha (Amandla Stenberg) were young. Warning: Spoilers for The Acolyte Episode 7 ahead... During their time on the witches' planet, Sol's (Lee Jung-jae) concerns for the twins clouded his judgment and his refusal to listen to Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) led to a showdown with Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith). Aniseya turned into a cloud of black smoke, and Sol mistook the action for an attack, killing Aniseya in front of Mae. When the dust settled, Indara chose not to tell the Jedi Council the truth of what happened despite her previous instance of keeping them in the loop. Earlier today, ComicBook had the chance to join a press roundtable with The Acolyte creator, Leslye Headland, who spoke about Indara and Sol's choices in the episode. 

"I think it should be left up to interpretation," Headland said when Jedi News asked why Indara chose to cover up what happened on Brendok. "My personal opinion is that she sees this entire situation as a terrible, terrible tragedy and Sol's insistence that he turn himself in at the expense of the one survivor of this. She believes it to be an incredibly selfish act  ... If this has all been for anything, let's have it be for this little girl to grow up having achieved what she wanted to achieve, which I think is an incredibly passionate thing for a Jedi to decide even if it's misguided."

"Again, I think it's really up to interpretation," she added when asked about Sol. "I can say, my personal opinion, which is that I think that it's just super messy. Each of the Jedi have their own blind spot in this episode, and Sol's is definitely an emotional, spiritual blind spot. He just feels like, 'This is my padawan, I'm Qui-Gon, this is my Anakin, this is the warrior I am meant to train.' And so, the paternal protectivism gets kicked in."

"And that's a thing that, obviously is in media especially, is usually coded as something very, very good. But I think that can also be a dangerous thing," Headland continued. "It's not always coming out of what's best for the child or the object of that protected. And it could be coming out of his own preconceived notions or his inflated sense of self as well, thinking, 'I am the person who can help this child live up to their potential. I'm the person that can save this child from potential danger.' So I think it's a little bit of both. It comes from a very good place and it's very natural, but at the same time, it's not automatically good just because you feel it."

Can Master Sol Be Redeemed?

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(Photo:

Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) in Episode 7 of "The Acolyte" 

- Lucasfilm)

During the roundtable attended by ComicBook, Headland was asked by Screen Rant if Sol can be redeemed for what he did on Brendok.

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"I mean, I think it's in the hands of the person harmed," Headland explained. "That's truly what it is. Does Vader deserve redemption? Luke thinks so, and we saw what Anakin did, but Luke believes that. So I think it's in Osha's hands ... To me, it's between the two of them. It's not an easy moral question for the audience to answer." 

Stay tuned for more from the roundtable interview ComicBook attended with Leslye Headland. The season finale of Star Wars: The Acolyte drops on Disney+ on July 16th. 

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