I Need Osha and Jecki to Kiss on 'The Acolyte' (2024)

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Episode 4 of The Acolyte.

The Acolyte's Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) are opposites by design. Some differences aren't clashes so much as they are narrative technicalities: Osha's history as Jedi Master Sol's (Lee Jung-jae) former renegade Padawan contrasts with Jecki's status as Sol's current star pupil. The other disparities lean internal. If Jecki strives to uphold the Jedi's objective philosophies, then Osha considers her keenly felt emotions a personal failing. Despite being contradictions, or perhaps because of it, Sol's students have established a tentative camaraderie throughout The Acolyte's first three episodes — only for Episode 4, "Day," to hint at a deeper emotional spark blooming within that shared connection.

When the pair's first scene in "Day" took a flirtatious undertone, you could have knocked me flat with a hummingbird's feather. Was I really seeing not just flirty Jedi on my television, but queer flirty Jedi? It couldn't be; not something that specific to my niche interests. Maybe I imagined things, accustomed as I am to reading between the lines for queerness in my favorite IPs. Imagine my vindication when an interview with Dafne Keen confirmed my suspicions (albeit without spoiling future episodes). If The Acolyte is actually plotting a course for love between these two young women, then consider me this ship's pilot.

The Acolyte

Sci-Fi

The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.

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Release Date

June 4, 2024

Cast

Carrie-Anne Moss , Amandla Stenberg , Lee Jung-jae , Manny Jacinto , Dafne Keen , Jodie Turner-Smith , Rebecca Henderson , Charlie Barnett , Dean-Charles Chapman

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

Seasons

1

Studio

Disney+

Franchise

Star Wars

Osha and Jecki First Meeting Foreshadows Their Dynamic

Osha and Jecki don't meet on promising terms. Osha has been arrested and accused of murdering a Jedi only to discover that her sister, Mae, survived the fire that destroyed their coven on Brendok, and committed said murder. That's a lot of concentrated intensity. Jecki's emotions are less acute, but still a confusing tangle. Her master trusts Osha before they have any proof exonerating her — not to mention that Sol, while kind and empathetic toward Jecki, clearly and deeply favors Osha after all these years.

In an impressive show of maturity, Jecki and Osha's first conversation isn't hostile. Osha helps Jecki solve a tech problem on her control panel. Although wary, Jecki thanks Osha without the snooty flair of, say, Charlie Barnett's (endearing) Yord. Impressed and intrigued, Jecki smiles as Osha banters with her Pip droid, only for Jecki's face to fall when Sol enters the room. Her authority figure caught her behaving contrary to a dutiful Jedi. Her respectful interactions with Sol indicate that she values proper decorum, even when she interrogates him about his love for Osha. She's puzzled why the teacher who holds her at a reserve would indulge his "sentimentality and nostalgia." Color me hopeful for a female alliance instead of the predictable alternative (rivalry), but nothing more.

Osha and Jecki Balance Each Other on ‘The Acolyte’

Collaboration does grow once The Acolyte sufficiently explores their contrasts. Osha boasts a galactic scale perspective about life and loss that Jecki's sheltered upbringing lacks. Comparatively, Osha lived a normal life: she and her coworkers had "crazy nights," at least one of which ended with a tattoo. Although a young woman, Osha has experienced a range of adventures, a strength that can only be to her benefit. She considers herself emotionally compromised, having left the Jedi Order because of her unresolved grief, but a fine line exists between having the cognizance to be aware of, understand, and process one's feelings, and forbidding emotion to the point of repression. Presumably, Jecki has internalized the Jedi's teachings to avoid attachments because they bias one's judgment. Through Osha, Jecki witnesses a more open way to live. Somewhere between extremes, there's a balance, which facilitates their growing bond.

By Episode 4, the roles have switched. Faced with the truth about Mae, Osha astutely realizes that her love for her sister makes her a liability. If Osha couldn't be "a true Jedi" during her Padawan years, there's no hope now; she can't bring herself to kill her twin. Jecki quizzes Osha about a loaded descriptor like "a true Jedi." Osha reiterates how her mourning held her back from achieving detachment. Kindly, Jecki paraphrases Sol's wisdom about sentimentality: "We're not defined by what we lose. We're defined by what we survive. You've survived a lot." Jecki has already proven herself an observant, competent, and assured Padawan, but Osha's presence, a Brendok-born outsider who was inexorably drawn to the Jedi before choosing a different path, lets Jecki's curiosity and compassion flourish in new ways.

And maybe, just maybe, Jecki develops her first crush. During their first Episode 4 tête-à-tête, Jecki is surprised to find Osha watching her class practicing combat forms. That quiet, starstruck delight trails into soft disappointment once Osha reveals that she's saying goodbye. Osha leans in, a gentle but teasing glint in her eye: "Don't tell me you'll miss me?" she conspiratorially asks. Jecki fights a bashful grin and entirely fails, looking away and biting her lip.

‘The Acolyte’ Could Bring More Queer Romance To ‘Star Wars’

Cut to me gasping, giggling, and kicking my feet in disbelief like I'm watching a branded romantic comedy. I love Star Wars, romance, and the few and far between combinations thereof. Han Solo and Leia Organa were my bickering childhood blueprint. Not long after, I discovered Timothy Zahn's Legends novels and felt the tectonic shift that was my life changing. Not only could Luke Skywalker, my favorite boy, fall in love, but fall in love with an angry, lightsaber-twirling redhead pursuing her redemption arc? I never looked back.

Luke and Mara Jade's marriage might be lost to us by way of the Disney-Lucasfilm merger, but their supremacy endures in my heart. I rooted for Rey and Finn's friends-to-lovers potential as much as I did Finn and Poe, and Rey and Kylo Ren. The Obi-Wan and Satine subplot from Star Wars: The Clone Wars broke me. Star Wars Rebels gifted me with Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla. I spend my days fundamentally longing for more main character romances in my Star Wars — specifically, romances between Jedi. Even more specifically, between queer Jedi.

Jecki and Osha's exchange has been living rent free in my head. Despite how often Star Wars chooses protagonists in their middle-to-late teens, we've rarely explored young love; rarer still, an example untainted by tragedy or "surprise, you're siblings!" revelations. Osha and Jecki are just outside adolescence, but their nuances define the idea of how different insights strengthen a relationship. Out of The Acolyte's small group, Sol's two Padawans have become the first one to whom the other turns with a question, a joke, or concern. Jecki might feel mild competition because of Sol's favoritism, but Osha holds no baggage. They approach one another as individuals outside the Order's constraints, even if they're divergently informed by it.

‘The Acolyte,’ Please Give Us the Queer Jedi Romance We Deserve

After a life defined by tragedy and isolation, Osha deserves a true, steady, and reliable person. Bonus points accrue if this individual has familiarity with the Force, and is a peer rather than a mentor laboring under their own trauma. Jecki deserves to feel everything associated with being a teenage girl, which often includes a first crush. And because I love to sprinkle angst atop my favorite relationships, Jecki must struggle with the appropriate internal fallout. Caring for Osha is natural, even healthy. However, such normalcy contradicts the Jedi code to which Jecki stridently dedicates herself. Confronting the duality and deciding whether it affects her future grants Jecki's feelings authenticity, especially if Osha reciprocates.

Dafne Keen confirmed to Deadline that she played Jecki's Episode 4 scenes as a socially inexperienced 18-year-old “confused” over her first crush. "As a Jedi you’re not allowed to have feelings for other people," Keen elaborated. "I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that, but I think she does. [...] She’s such a controlled, like self-judging, like perfect student, that I think it’s also almost self-hatred that comes from having those feelings and the kind of constriction, but also the inevitable magnetism that she has towards Osha because of that."

Conveniently, the High Republic novels love me enough to embrace the thorny, glorious complexity that is two Jedi developing lasting feelings. Forbidden romance and sexuality are woven into how the era ruthlessly tests the characters' beliefs. Since The Acolyte takes place 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, it's an established setting for creator and showrunner Leslye Headland to explore a young queer couple reacting to a spiritual environment designed to repress. Osha's conflict has already led her away from the Order. Jecki questions Sol's love for Mae in her introductory scene; the more she learns about the universe from Osha, this thrillingly contrarian presence, the more reason she has to weigh her connection to the Force against the Jedi institution. Yes, Osha also enjoys sparks with Yord, but she and Jecki are structured to fit together. Their relationship bursts with potential, whether platonic, unrequited, or reciprocal. And since Episode 3 already gave us lesbian witches, why not introduce a live-action LGBTQIA+ relationship via the main female character? Make my year by granting me this favor: I dare you.

The Acolyte is streaming now on Disney+, with new episodes releasing weekly each Tuesday.

Watch on Disney+