'The Acolyte' Finale: Shame, Secrecy, and the Dark Side
Lessons from 'The Acolyte' Finale
So, I didn’t love the season finale of The Acolyte, but that’s OK.
One thing we strive to do here at Geeky Stoics is to find the lessons we can learn from the stories we love, and I love Star Wars.
There’s something that The Acolyte tells us, though you have to dig through some murky storytelling and confusing character motivations to get there.
Spoilers after the break!
All of this is really about Osha turning to the dark side and, more importantly, the role of shame and secrecy as seen through Sol's experience.
It was simultaneously one of the most obvious and frustrating turns of the show when Osha (abruptly) accepted the dark path, essentially turning a blind eye to the fact that her new master had just killed all her former Jedi friends. She was already Dark Side-curious by the time she made the full turn, based on the reveal that Sol was the one who killed her mother.
The tragic thing is, we as the audience know that Sol was justified—or at least an argument could be made—in killing her mother. Her witchcraft had already demonstrated the ability to possess a fellow Jedi and force him to murder his friends, and the dark mist strongly implied she was preparing to possess or harm Mae.
But none of these excuses matter to Osha. Sol had kept this secret in shame for years, and Osha understandably didn’t give him the chance to explain before killing him "without a weapon."
If Sol had come clean when Osha was young and explained the dire straits they were in and how dangerous he thought the witches were, he might have given her the chance to make an informed decision, to even forgive him. Instead, infuriatingly, she made up her mind the second she discovered the truth.
The takeaway here is that shame and secrecy about our past can rot and fester until they compromise every close relationship we value. This is what happened with Sol and Osha. But there’s an alternative: honesty. Admit your mistakes, and you may be surprised at how empathetic and understanding those closest to you will be.
-Riley