Warning: SPOILERS for The Acolyte are ahead!
If you thought that the major deaths in The Acolyte Episode 5, titled “Night,” meant that no other important characters in this Star Wars TV show were going to be killed off, you were sorely mistaken. In the Season 1 finale, fittingly titled “The Acolyte”, Lee Jung-jae’s Sol was killed by Amandla Stenberg’s Osha, his former apprentice, after he admitted that he killed her and Mae’s mother, Jodie Turner-Smith’s Mother Aniseya, 16 years earlier. It’s arguably one of the darkest moments in the Star Wars franchise, and Hanelle M. Culpepper, who directed the Season 1 finale, opened up to CinemaBlend about what it was like shooting this death scene.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Culpepper about her work on The Acolyte, which also included helming Episode 6, titled “Teach / Corrupt”. On the subject of Sol’s death, I asked her what the atmosphere was like on the day that scene was shot, and if she remembered anything about Lee-Jung-jae’s approach to his character’s final moments. Culpepper (who's also the first director to direct TV episodes in both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises) started off by saying:
Yeah, I remember that was such an exhausting day for him. He gave so much emotionally for that. He really went 100% even when I wasn't in his close ups. And I, of course, tell them so that they can kind of pull back a little bit, but he really gave it each time. The hard thing about that is I really wanted him to be in between Osha and Mae, and he's having this very emotional back and forth with both of them. That means he had to stay in that deep emotional place both times, all the angles in both directions. There was no chance for him to be like, ‘Ok, this is the easy angle for me,’ especially since he continued to do it even when I was shooting the wire shots. And it was very impressive to see, and it was heartbreaking. I remember on set getting into tears watching him do that scene because you could see how much he cared for Osha and how much guilt he felt for what he did when he spoke to Mae.
Sol killing Mother Aniseya was shown in the prior episode, “Choice,” as he struck her down with his lightsaber when she tried to use her power. Not only had she not intended to harm him, she used her dying words to inform him that she’d planned to give permission for Osha to leave with him and the other Jedi. Sol rationalized keeping this information from her by saying he was trying to protect her and giver her she’d dream of, but learning this knowledge pushed Osha to the Dark Side. Before he died, and as Mae and Manny Jacinto’s Qimir watched on, Sol told Osha it was “ok” what she was going to do, and seconds later, he was gone.
Along with Lee Jung-jae knocking it out of the park with his performance generally speaking, Hanelle M. Culpepper pointed out that what made his work on The Acolyte overall even more impressive was that this was his first time working on an English-language show. As she told me:
And all of that was the language barrier. This was his first English-language series. By the time I came along, he knew so much because they had gone through this whole process, but that was his first one and still he understood everything. He brought it all so deeply. It was pretty amazing to watch. We were all in awe, and the great thing is he gives so much then, and Amandla gives so much. So when you have two actors who are giving each other that much and it's from something deep and real and they're feeling it, it just sparkles on screen and you see it.
While there’s certainly no shortage of people around the world who’d seen Lee Jung-jae play Song Ji-hun in Squid Game, the role that netted him an Emmy, The Acolyte was an impressive way for him to make his English-language debut. Alas, Sol’s time on the Star Wars series is done, and his reputation has also been tainted by Vernestra Rwoh blaming the deaths of Idara, Torbin, Kelnacca and the Force witches on him. Venestra did this after sensing the presence of Qimir, her former apprentice, on Brendok, and while she kept this from the Jedi Council, that Yoda cameo at the end of the Season 1 finale indicates she may trust him enough to tell him the truth.
There’s still no word on if The Acolyte Season 2 is happening or not, but you’re always welcome to revisit these first eight episodes with your Disney+ subscription. As for Lee Jung-jae, he’ll be back for Squid Game Season 2, which premieres to Netflix subscription holders on December 26, and will be followed by the final season in 2025.
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