Osha Killed Sol for Being Sexist, Says Leslye Headland

Television

In the wake of the season finale of The Acolyte, showrunner Lesley Headland sat down with Collider’s Maggie Lovitt. Of particular interest is the reason Headland ascribes to Osha killing her former Master. Check out an excerpt here:

Lovitt: “What’s so interesting about that moment, where Osha kills Sol, is how much is conveyed even while he’s choking on his words. Also, and maybe this was my impression of it, but my first thought was, ‘He doesn’t even give her the agency to make this choice herself because he’s accepting his fate.’ It just adds so much more insult to injury. You can’t even let her get a satisfactory kill because you’re like, ‘It’s okay.’ It’s so good!”

Headland: “We also knew that it was always going to be the betrayal of the father, and I knew we had to juxtapose Luke’s forgiveness and Vader’s redemption. We’re like, ‘This is a story about the Sith, so that’s not gonna happen.’ You’re absolutely right. There’s this thing that’s called benign sexism, and part of it is this paternal protectionism — it seems like this good thing, but like you said, there’s this, ‘I have to protect you from everything. I have to make sure you’re okay. I have to tell you what track to get on, and then once you’re on that track, I need to support you.’

“Ultimately, what happens is — again, this is a father-daughter relationship — as women evolve in their lives and develop their own personalities separate from their fathers, at some point, they have to reject that protectionism.”

There’s more in the interview, so I recommend checking it out in full if you’re interested. But the explanation for the killing blow is just wild and, honestly, unnecessary. We all know why she killed Sol; it was because he killed her mother, and all this mumbo jumbo just makes it all more confusing, not less.

As for Sol’s paternal attitude towards Osha, I don’t understand why that would be bad. I agree that at some point in our lives, we become adults and speak for ourselves. But Sol never tried to speak over Osha or control her. Even when he argued that she should face Mae, he said because she still loved her and should try to save her. How is that selfish? How is he being overly paternal?

Sol accepting his death is just silly because there’s no reason for it. If he simply explained WHY he killed Mother Aniseya, which was reasonable in context, he didn’t need to die. I truly think Osha would understand if he said he did it to protect Mae, which is true. As far as he knew, Aniseya was turning into smoke and seemingly disintegrating Mae. It’s perfectly understandable to react to that with violence, hoping to protect the child. However, I still don’t think giving up and telling Osha, “It’s okay,” means he is taking her agency away. She is making her own decisions… rather bad ones. He’s not controlling or guiding her at this point.

The only aspect of this excerpt that impresses me at all is the bit about Luke and Vader. However, I don’t think Headland succeeded at what she’s talking about in the show. Sol and Osha never once brought Luke and Vader to mind, either in their relationship or what their characters represent. Ultimately, I think Headland has some good ideas and some real goofball stuff going on upstairs. But now we know she doesn’t have a Star Wars series in her.

But what do you think about this final fight, the “sexism” of a loving father figure, or anything else in The Acolyte? Let us know in the comments!