'The most brutal 15 minutes of Star Wars ever': The Acolyte viewers are in deep shock over episode 5's biggest gut punches

Full spoilers follow for The Acolyte's first five episodes.

The Acolyte episode five is out now on Disney Plus – and, after the show's first four episodes largely underwhelmed audiences, it's finally come out swinging with its latest chapter.

Titled 'Night', the Star Wars series' fifth episode isn't just full of great action sequences that has fans reminiscing over The Phantom Menace's iconic 'Duel of the Fates' scene. Indeed, the show's newest entry is also full of emotionally devastating moments that have drawn all sorts of full-blooded reactions from viewers.

I cannot stress this enough: full spoilers follow for Star Wars: The Acolyte's fifth installment. Do not read past the dividing line below unless you've watched it.

Rest in peace, Jecki

Right after The Acolyte debuted on Disney Plus, aka one of the world's best streaming services, showrunner Leslye Headland told GQ that fans should know that "the Jedi are gonna take some L’s [losses]" throughout the series.

We'd already seen a few Jedi killed off in The Acolyte's first four episodes – Carrie-Anne Moss' Indara, Dean-Charles Chapman's Torbin, and Joonas Suatamo's Kelnacca to name three. The death toll continues to climb in episode five, too, with not one, but two shocking deaths.

The first of those is Dafne Keen's Jecki, the David Bowie-inspired, half-human and half-Theelin Padawan of Lee Jung-Jae's Sol. Initially, it looks like she'll be bumped off of Mae (one of two characters Amandla Stenberg plays in, in our view, one of the best Disney Plus shows). The combative and talented Jedi novice, though, holds her own against her fellow Force wielder, eventually winning the fight and subduing Mae with the aim of turning her in to the Jedi Council.

Unfortunately, Jecki's best laid plans are ruined by The Acolyte's enigmatic Sith Lord. Well, the not-so-mysterious Sith Lord now, anyway – after episode four, I theorized that, based on some clear tells throughout said chapter, The Acolyte's big Sith Lord reveal would be a big let down. That proved to be the case, with the heavily rumored Qimir (Manny Jacinto) confirmed to be the series' primary villain in episode five.

That long-expected confirmation comes moments after a unmasked Qimir murders Jecki. Again, The Acolyte throws us for a loop when Jecki and Qimir battle it out over Mae after Jecki captures her, leading us to believe that Jecki will be killed by Qimir. Like her fight with Mae, though, Jecki more than holds her own and, later in the episode, she teams up with Sol to try and incapacitate Qimir, with the view to taking him back to the Jedi Council as well.

As the two-on-one skirmish – yep, there's another Phantom Menace callback – rages on, it becomes increasingly clear that someone is going to die, and it proves to be Jecki. Amid an intense fight, she's stabbed to death by Qimir's light-dagger – essentially, it's a mini blade hidden with the handle of his actual lightsaber – as a devastated Sol watches on.

Given Jecki's popularity among Star Wars fans, it's unsurprising that so many have been left heartbroken by her demise. On Reddit, user dagobahs wrote "God dammit why'd they have to go for Jecki bruh", while maddiemorph said: "Well that’s a lot more stab wounds than we normally get. Goodbye Jecki." Similar sentiments were expressed by ASithLordNoAffect – "RIP Jecki our lovely Padawan learner" – and Krouisente, who opined: "I was just saying to myself 'Jecki is actually pretty good' just before... yeah...".

Pouring one out for the Yord Horde

Jecki isn't the only Jedi who dies at Qimir's hands. Yord Fandar, a Jedi Knight and close confidante of Sol and Jecki, also shuffles off his mortal coil – Yord having his neck snapped by the Sith Lord when he returns to help Sol and Jecki (at Osha's request) fight Qimir.

As a disciplined, occasionally elitist Jedi, Yord hasn't won every Star Wars fan over, but he certainly has a large legion of followers – affectionately dubbed the 'Yord Horde' – online. This collective, then, was equally emotionally ruined by Yord's horrid death in episode five.

On Reddit, Few_Koala wrote, "I'm speechless right now. Wow, what a crazy episode. I’m actually shocked they had the balls to kill Yord and Jecki", while ShotgunJedi asked "Yord horde how we doin[g]" following Yord's demise. FERFreak731 agreed, saying: "NOT YORD. Yord Horde in shambles", before CRL10 wrote: "JESUS CHRIST!  He just straight up murdered Yord like it was nothing!"

Comment from r/StarWarsLeaks

There's been plenty of praise for the show's action-heavy fifth episode – it made a nice change of pace to the sluggish narrative and superfluous plot exposition, didn't it? – plus the live-action debut of cortosis. You know, cortosis? The malleable metal that Qimir's helmet and wrist braces are made out of, which can absorb the energy of kyber crystals (the solid substance that makes lightsaber blades) and disable lightsabers temporarily? Well, now you know.

Ultimately, though, the post-release chatter has been dominated by Yord and Jecki's deaths. They weren't the only individuals to perish in what's been described by Redditor siberianwolf99 as "the most brutal 15 minutes of Star Wars ever" (RIP to these red cloak Jedi and Pip, Osha's droid companion), but the outpouring of grief and stunned reactions from viewers are largely aimed at that duo. Clearly, nobody is safe is The Acolyte, and its shocking moments like this that might change people's opinions on the divisive show.

You might also like

• Here's how to watch the Star Wars movies in order
• Get the lowdown on all of the new Star Wars shows and movies that are coming soon
• Star Wars: Skeleton Crew: what we know about Lucasfilm's next live-action series