The fifth episode of Leslye Headland’s The Acolyte left the audience absolutely speechless thanks to the reveal of Mae’s masked master. Titled ‘Night,’ the episode is basically one big fight scene from start to end, and we are not complaining. During the battle, Dafne Keen’s Jecki engages in a lightsaber battle with the Master which ends in the padawan’s gruesome death.
Talking about her unfortunate fate in the Star Wars universe, Dafne Keen applauded Leslye Headland for being able to make tough decisions like killing off characters for good. According to her, it’s quite “cheeky” how directors easily bring back characters from the dead and never truly raise the stakes. Is that a Wolverine diss we hear?
Dafne Keen Isn’t Too Fond of Bringing Characters Back from the Dead
After Dafne Keen’s Jecki gets caught up in a lightsaber battle with the Master, he leaves her behind to follow Mae, who has slipped away into the forest. Later, Jecki and Sol catch up with the Master and while it initially looks like the former had gained the upper hand in the battle, taking off his mask in the process, her opponent surprises her and the audience by driving his lightsaber through her three times.
As she collapses, the Master is shockingly revealed to be none other than Manny Jacinto’s Qimir. Did you see that one coming?
Jecki wasn’t the only one to meet her demise at the hands of the Master in the bloodbath, which was episode 5. Another fan-favorite character who died was Charlie Barnett’s Yord Fandar.
While talking to Entertainment Weekly about Jecki’s death, Keen brought up the topic of how directors can conveniently bring back dead characters. She then praised Leslye Headland for actually raising the stakes with The Acolyte.
She stated,
There are so many directors in blockbuster sagas that are so scared to kill off their characters, and are so comfortable with bringing characters back to life, and all of these little writer tricks that I think are quite cheeky. And I really like that she was actually killing people. Because if you’re not making it dangerous, then why are we even here?
Why are we concerned by the story? Why do we care? Leslye has such a backbone as a writer, to make you fall in love with these characters and then slaughter them all like pigs and be like, ‘Yeah, this is our villain. We’re not just saying he’s so big and scary, we’re actually showing you how big and scary he is.’
Of course, Keen was not directly dissing her former co-star Hugh Jackman, but we cannot help but link the two together.
In Logan (2017), Jackman’s Wolverine came to an end that was perfect for his character and left fans on an emotional rollercoaster.
However, once again, thanks to the timelines and the multiverse theory, Jackman is back in the Wolverine suit, soon to be seen in Deadpool & Wolverine. Keen sure is right in praising Headland for making the tough decision.
Dafne Keen and Charlie Barnett Knew About Their Character’s Fates
The fact that Jecki and Yord would be dying mid-way didn’t come as a shock to the actors who were informed about their characters’ fates way beforehand. Keen revealed that they had been informed about the deaths by Headland when they initially signed up for their jobs.
Luckily, Keen wasn’t too keen on making it all the way to the end of season one and she had no problem in accepting a role that would only be a part of the show for five seasons. In fact, it became the selling point for the actress.
She told EW,
Honestly, that’s what really sold me. That was the first thing she said to me in our meeting. She was like, ‘You might be playing an alien, and you die pretty early on,’ and I was like, ‘I’m in! I love playing dead!’
As for Barnett, while he agrees that being cut out of a show “sucks,” it’s still a little fun. He said,
No one ever wants to be cut out of a show. But when you’re playing a character that you know is going to die, it’s a little more fun. If it’s a surprise to you and your job is gone next week, it sucks. But when you know what you’re walking into, you get to have a little more control over it. And I tried to find the lemonade through the lemons.
Headland sure made many fans do a 180 with their views on her show with episode five. While everyone is entitled to their opinions, you cannot deny that the latest episode was one of the best in the Star Wars universe.
You can stream The Acolyte and Logan on Disney+.
