Star Wars: The Acolyte episode 7 "Choices" ending explained

Episode 7 of The Acolyte, "Choices," was yet another flashback episode. This time, we got the perspective of the Jedi, which gave us an ending that was dovetailed with the ending in episode 3, "Destiny."

Star Wars: The Acolyte episode 7, "Choices," ending explained

Despite this being another flashback episode, it did not feel redundant, even though it has many scenes similar to those in episode 3. We get to see events from the point of view of the Jedi, which adds a lot of context and helps us understand what actually happened on Brendok prior to the finale next week.

We now understand what Sol did on Brendok and why he feels ashamed. He killed Mother Aniseya in a very un-Jedi-like way. She was in the midst of some sort of witchcraft that was dissolving her and Mae's being. Spending the entire episode fearing for the children's safety, Sol made a split-second choice to stab Mother Aniseya in the stomach with his lightsaber.

Later in the episode, we also see that he chose Osha over Mae. He had to use the Force to keep both of them from falling. As his strength gave out, he only had the ability to save one of them, so he chose Osha. This is more defensible because it really did seem like he could only save one of them, but we can understand why that decision haunts him.

The episode's ending shows Sol and Indara trying to rationalize what happened and come up with the "truth" that they will report to the Jedi Council. They ultimately decide that they will blame Mae for the fire that they will say killed all of the witch coven. They decide to omit the fact that Torbin and Sol rushed into the coven fortress against the orders of the Council. Both of them did it for selfish reasons. Torbin wanted to go home to Coruscant, and Sol wanted a padawan. Both believed that the witches could be a danger to Mae and Osha, which is feasible from their point of view, but that could also be a rationalization for their impulsiveness.

Keep in mind also that earlier in the season, there was no record of Osha having a twin. Either Indara didn't actually tell the truth to the Jedi Council, she omitted Mae all together, or for some other reason, Mae isn't on the Jedi Order's record.

Ultimately, the episode does a good job of showing nuance and complexity. The Jedi were not looking to destroy this coven, and the Jedi Council even ordered the Jedi on patrol to leave them alone and not interfere (though some fans have already speculated Indara lied to Sol.) We can understand why Torbin and Sol did what they did, even if it was the wrong choice. To a certain extent, we can understand why the Jedi decided to cover this up. Indara says that it would be wrong to deny Osha her dream of becoming a Jedi after the Jedi essentially took her family from her with their choices.

Now, we will see how all of this resolves in next week's finale. Will Sol ultimately pay for his mistakes, or will he have a moment of redemption? Will Osha learn the truth about what happened, and will this lead to her joining Qimir and the dark side? Now that we know all of the backstory or at least most of it, we can see how this story finally concludes.