Episode 8: The Last Jedi Part 4

Skywalker Saga

The Shadows of the Past Trilogy

Episode 8: The Last Jedi Part 4

                On the Supremacy, Kylo marches through the hallways angrily.  He meets up with a couple of pilots and pauses.  “You two are with me,” he remarks as you hear an announcement being made.  “ETA five minutes.  All pilots to their ships.”  Kylo strides across the hanger bay to his fighter, the TIE Silencer, and he climbs inside.  At that moment, he freezes.  It seems as if he is sensing something.  Turning his head to his right, he suddenly sees Rey sitting next to him, as if she is in the tiny cockpit with him.

                Rey, on the Falcon, sits up, fully alert.  She is alone now.  Luke has left the cockpit.  She stares to her left, right at Kylo.  “Are you doing this?” she asks, stunned.

                Kylo shakes his head.  “No.  I take it you aren’t either.”

                She shakes her head.  “I don’t think so.  I don’t really know how to DO anything.”

                “I could change that,” says Kylo.  “I could help you.”

                “Help me?” says Rey.  “If anything I need to try and help YOU.  Master Luke told me everything.”

                Kylo huffs.  “Did he now?  So he told you that he tried to kill me?”

                “Yes,” says Rey, sadly.  “He regrets it too.  Everyone regrets treating you the way that they did.”

                “I have no time for regrets,” says Kylo.  “I have no time anymore for any of them…for anyone.”

                “You must be very lonely,” says Rey, suddenly empathetic.  “I know what it’s like to be lonely.  I’ve been lonely my whole life.”

                Kylo grins.  “I know.  I was in your head, remember?  I saw things…I saw EVERYTHING.”

                “Not everything,” says Rey.  “You couldn’t have seen everything.”

                “I know about your parents,” he replies.  “I know what you suspect about them…that they’re nobodies.  They are deadbeats who sold you into slavery to some junker on Jakku so they could pay off their debts.  It’s sad, really.  Your whole life you have searched for them, dreaming of them, hoping for them to return, to fill that empty void inside…to prove to you that what you believe, deep down inside, isn’t true.  You dream that they are somebody special…someone like Han Solo or Luke Skywalker.  But no…you know…don’t you?”  He shakes his head.

                “There is only one way to be free, Rey.  You have to let go of the past.  You have to kill it.  That’s the only way you can be who you truly are.”

                Rey, tears in her eyes, shakes her head.  “You are trying to turn this around on me.  You forget, I’ve seen into your mind as well, Jacen."  She pauses a moment to ponder this.  "Funny, actually.  Though I've seen into your mind, I still needed Master Skywalker to open my eyes to truly see you for who you really are.  Now that I've stopped looking at you as a mere monster..."

                She shakes the thoughts away.  "Your whole life you wanted them to just love you and accept you.  Your whole life you wanted them to encourage you to chase your dreams and be someone truly special.  That’s why Snoke succeeded in messing with your head…that’s why he still succeeds.  He keeps stroking that dream in you, encouraging you to be something “truly special”.  Meanwhile, he chastens you and scolds you and whips you like some frightened puppy every time you DO do something truly special.” 

                “He’s in your head, Jacen…always in your head.  He messes with you.  I saw it on the Death Star.  I saw you fighting him.  I understand that now.  He’s been watching you since you were young.  He’s somehow managed to worm his way into your mind, always tempting you, always prodding you.  He turned you against your parents…against your uncle.  He turns you against them even now.”

                Kylo sneers at her.  “No.  You’re wrong.  I...”

                “No!” Rey cuts him off.  “You’re fooling yourself.  That’s all it is.  You think you are in control, but you aren’t.  I’ve been thinking.  Snoke has such incredible powers of the mind.  I think he’s been messing with people’s minds for a long time without them even realizing it.  I saw you, Jacen…I saw you in your own memories talking to your grandfather…to Vader.  His voice was answering you.  I don’t think that was Vader.  Don’t you see?  It’s Snoke!  It’s always been Snoke!”

                Kylo seems to be getting more agitated.  “No,” he says firmly.  “I felt him.  I felt Darth Vader’s presence.”

                “But Vader was redeemed,” says Rey.  “Think about this logically.  Stop thinking emotionally.  Vader was redeemed.  He wouldn’t be tempting you to the Dark Side.”

                Kylo pauses at this.  Then, when he speaks, he is barely able to control his emotions.  “Did he?  Do you know that for sure?...or is it just another one of my uncle’s lies?  Luke Skywalker was the only one there at the time Vader and the Emperor died.  He’s the only one who can say what happened.  How convenient!  I don’t believe him anymore…not after everything.”

                “He told me that no matter what he would always trust me.  He told me that he would always protect me.  Lies!  He tried to kill me while I slept like the coward that he is!  He is no different than any other Jedi.  They were all cowards.  All of them!  Jedi…Sith!  They all must burn!  I will forge a new way in the Force.  I will be the catalyst that will bring true balance to the Force - a true balance between the Dark Side and the Light.”

                Before Rey can say anything else, in the hanger aboard the Supremacy, the announcer says, “We have arrived at our destination.  All squadrons commence the attack.”  Then Kylo turns to his controls and ignites his engines.

                Aboard the Falcon, Rey is alarmed.  “Jacen!  Wait!  Where have you arrived?  Who are you attacking?”  Then, in a panic, she races out of the cockpit.  “Master Luke!  Master Luke!”

                Aboard her transport, Leia sighs tiredly while staring out a window at hyperspace.  Holdo enters, carrying a tray with two drinks.  “Thought you could use a bit of something to relax,” says Holdo.

                “Thank you!” says Leia in relief.  “You’ve read my mind.”

                “We’re almost at the rendezvous point.”

                “I just hope we’ll be greeted by more of our fleet.  Are we sure the distress call went out successfully?”

                Holdo sits down next to her.  “Positive.  Listen…don’t worry.  Everything is going to be fine.  We’ll rally the remnants of the Resistance and New Republic and strike back again and again.  Maybe now the Republic forces will actually listen to you.”

                Leia shakes her head.  It is obvious she senses something is wrong.  “I have a bad feeling about this,” she remarks.  “Something’s not right.  I can…feel it.”

                Holdo no longer looks hopeful.  “I don’t like it when you say that.”

                And then, the ship drops out of hyperspace into a mass of destruction.  It is clear that a battle has occurred here.  Debris from destroyed capital ships and Starfighters riddle the empty void.  All of the ships in the fleet are instantly pelted by chunks of metal, both big and small, shaking the craft violently.

                Both women stand.  “What is happening?” asks Holdo in alarm.

                Leia stares out the viewport.  As she speaks, we see the vast expanse of destruction.  “The rest of our fleet…our scattered remnants…they’ve been destroyed.”

                Then the Supremacy appears hovering above the wreckage.  TIE fighters swarm about beneath it like insects.  The swarm immediately dives for the debris field, eager to attack the last of the Resistance ships. 

                In a hallway of Leia’s transport, Leia and Holdo rush towards the hanger bay.  Leia speaks through a comlink.  “Contact the Raddus now!  Alert the hanger bay to prepare a shuttle for me.  Holdo and I will be on the Raddus as fast as we can.  All fighters to battle stations.”

                The TIEs swarm into the debris field and begin firing upon the larger ships, raking gashes in them just before their shields could be raised.  The Supremacy then begins to fire, blasting debris in an effort to clear a path to the Resistance fleet.  Aboard the bridge of the Supremacy, Phasma and Hux stand facing the viewport.  Phasma snaps, “How long before the rest of the fleet arrives?”

                “It’ll be but a few minutes, General,” says Hux with a sneer.

                “We just need to pin them here,” says Phasma.  “We need to hold them long enough to keep them from making another jump to lightspeed.”

                “We don’t have to worry about them going to lightspeed,” Hux remarks, a bit smugly.  “If you were a bit more familiar with the Supremacy’s capabilities you would know that it is outfitted with a hyperspace inhibitor, just as the Death Stars had been.  We merely need to keep them within range of the inhibitor, and they will go nowhere.”

                Phasma turns her helmeted head back towards Hux.  “Watch your tongue, CAPTAIN,” she says, emphasizing his new rank.  “The only reason I’m keeping you here right now is BECAUSE I am not yet as familiar with starships and their capabilities.”

                “Yes, General,” he replies coolly.

                Aboard the Raddus, Poe tries to race to get to his fighter, as he did in the original.  However, unlike the original, Poe climbs into his X-wing and once more races out to fight. 

                Kylo weaves around the Raddus like a bird of prey.  He and his wingmen pound it hard just as Poe’s X-wing races out and climbs towards them.  Kylo sneers.  “The black X-wing is mine.  Cover me.”

                “Yes sir,” both pilots reply, and they maneuver away as Poe and Kylo fly straight at one another, lasers lancing all around them.

                Aboard the bridge of the Raddus, Admiral Ackbar cries out, “Raise the shields!  Now!”

                “Sir!” someone cries.  “The first few hits from those fighters disabled our shield generators.  They hit us before we could power them up.”

                Ackbar swivels in his chair.  “Contact engineering.  We need those shields back online at once!”

                Rose, in the engineering section, hears the command over the comm.  She and her fellow technicians race towards a massive piece of equipment in the ship’s underbelly.  “We need to reroute power through conduits A16 and G42,” Rose tells them.  “That’s the only way we’re going to get the shields online.”  The technicians scramble to comply.

                Leia’s shuttle then boards the Raddus.  As her and Holdo descend the ramp, an officer approaches at a brisk pace.  “General!  The medical frigate is being hit…hard!  It’s not going to last long.”

                “Order fighters to protect the evac shuttles and evacuate the frigate at once.  Bring everyone from the frigate to the Raddus.”  She turns to Holdo.  “Tend to the survivors.”  Holdo nods and breaks away from Leia.

                Finn suddenly jerks away in his pod, stunned and confused.  “What the?  What’s happening?”  Then, just as in the original movie, Finn wrestles with the equipment as everything begins to explode around him and lights flicker on and off.  Medical crews are frantically running about, trying to grab the wounded and sick, and any medical equipment they can get.

                Suddenly, the medic who tended Chewie at the end of Force Awakens, approaches him.  “You’ve definitely looked better,” she remarks.  “I know you probably have a lot of questions, but we don’t have time right now.  We’ve got to get to the shuttle.  Here!”  She throws him some towels.  “Clean yourself off quickly.  Your clothes are over there.  Put them on while you run.  Get to the hanger.”

                “What?  Where’s Rey?  Which way’s the hanger?  What’s going on?” Finn cries after her.

                “Just follow the stampeding personnel.  You’ll find it,” the medic calls back as she vanishes through the med bay doors, wheeling a patient off with her.

                Poe and Kylo continue to dance in space, chasing one another around.  Poe, seeing the Supremacy closing in on the Raddus, begins to grow more and more apprehensive.  “We can’t keep doing this,” he tells BB8.  “I’ve got to distract that ship…but if I do…”

                He then switches his comm on.  “Admiral Ackbar.  That mother ship is closing fast!  I’m going to do what I can to try to get its attention.”

                “Negative!” cries Ackbar.  “We have very little fighter cover as it is.  If you leave, we’ll be exposed.  We haven’t gotten the shie…”

                “Don’t worry, Admiral!  The Force is with us…right?  Everything’ll work out.  It always does.”  Then he disengages from Kylo and weaves through the debris field.

                BB8 squawks at Poe.  “Yeah…I switched him off.  We don’t have time for that.”

                Kylo watches Poe leave, and for a moment he seems to consider pursuing.  Then, all at once, he jerks on the controls.  “Form up on me,” he says coldly.  Then all three fighters head straight for the bridge of the Raddus.  “Hit the bridge.  The shields are still down and it’s exposed.”

                “Yes sir,” both pilots reply.  Then the three TIEs streak across the topside of the ship, blasting everything as they go.

                Leia reaches the bridge of the Raddus just as Kylo and his wingmen zoom past it and fully into view.  She freezes, sensing him.  The scene plays out as it did in the original movie.  Jacen is unable to fire the shot to blow up the bridge.  The only difference in this scene is that just before the shot is fired, Leia cries, “Get off the bridge!”  Then she darts for the door with remarkable Force-enhanced speed, and she leaps at it just as the fireball erupts, sucking everyone out except Leia.

                Instead of being flung into space and then somehow flying back into the bridge, Leia’s final reaction saves her life.  The explosion launches her the rest of the way through the doorway just as the bulkhead slams into place, sealing off the devastated bridge.  However, Leia is therefore flung hard into the wall of the hallway just outside the bridge.  She crashes to the floor of the hall, completely unconscious, blood streaming from a wound in her head.

                Meanwhile, Rey is informing Luke of what happened between her and Kylo, but upon sensing Leia’s pain, Luke immediately says, “We have to go…now!”

                “That’s what I was trying to say to you, but…” says Rey, but Luke’s exit towards the cockpit cuts her off.

                “Chewie!  Time to go.”

                “What’s our plan?  What are we going to do?” asks Rey, sliding in behind Luke as Chewie joins them in the co-pilot’s seat.

                Luke doesn’t look back at her but continues to flips switches.  “I’ve already viewed many possible futures, Rey.  I’ve seen a lot of different outcomes.”

                “Any of them good?” asks Rey.

                Luke then looks back at her and smiles.  “Remember what I said before?  Visions of the future should be the same way.  They are only guides and tools to help YOU decide your future.  Don’t let your visions force you to choose anything.  That, again, was another of my father’s mistakes.”  

                Then he winks at her.  “So don’t worry about it.  I’ll explain the plan on the way.  Right now, we’ve got to get past those Star Destroyers.”  He then gestures out the viewport up towards space where the three Star Destroyers still remain as the Falcon lifts off into the air.  

                There is, once again, an intense scene where the Falcon escapes into space and then outruns the Star Destroyers with fighters in hot pursuit.  The Falcon makes the jump to lightspeed, but the three Destroyers follow, hot on its trail.

                There is a brief scene showing the cargo hold of the Falcon for a moment.  Luke’s packs and belongings all sit in jumbled piles on the floor.  Then, all at once, the packs begin to twitch and move.  Something is alive back there, and it is endeavoring to escape.  A moment later, a Porg’s head pops out of one of the packs, followed by several more from various other packs.  Before long, the Porgs are all popping out and making noise as they begin to scatter throughout the ship.  It is not clear whether they stowed away in Luke’s pack or snuck aboard while the ramp was lowered and Chewie wasn’t looking.  It doesn’t matter.  The point is that they still make their appearance.

                The scene switches to Poe as he races out of the debris field alone and straight for the Supremacy.  He immediately ignites the experimental boosters, using them to close the distance just as fast as he did the Fulminatrix.  Aboard the Supremacy, Phasma turns to Hux.  “Is that a lone X-wing coming to face the Supremacy?”

                “Looks to be so,” says Hux with a smirk on his face.  “He’s insane.  He must have snapped.”

                Phasma then turns back to the viewport.  “Swat him like the gnat that he is.”

                Then cannons from the Supremacy begin to turn on Poe as he weaves about and flies straight over the top of the massive warship.  Suddenly, alarm sirens blare at BB8 announcing that the boosters are overheating.  Frantic, BB8 activates a few fail-safes, and the boosters are immediately detached, flying off wildly straight at the bridge.  They explode into the Supremacy with very little effect.

                Aboard the bridge, everyone takes a step back as they watch the boosters explode into the viewport.  Reflexively, they raise their arms to shield their faces, as if that would save them.  “Shields held,” an officer announces.

                “This makes no sense whatsoever,” Phasma replies.  “What is he doing?”

                Hux steps up next to her.  “He is distracting you, GENERAL.  I say we ignore him.  Focus on the main ships.  They’re almost out of the debris field.”

                Phasma turns towards him in frustration.  “Ah!  Handle this, Hux.  My realm is on the ground.  I hate space battles.”  She then storms off the bridge. 

                Smiling victoriously, Hux takes command.  “Ignore that fighter.  Keep closing on their main ship.”

                Just then, in the bowels of the Raddus, Rose and her technicians finally power the shields up and shout with a victorious howl.  “Admiral!” Rose cries over the comm.  “Shields are up.  Admiral?...Do you copy?  Bridge?  Anyone?”

                In the hallway where Leia is lying, Holdo and several others, including 3P0, rush to her side.  “No!” cries Holdo.  “Leia!”

                Aboard the Falcon, as Rey is shown frantically explaining to Luke what happened between her and Kylo, everything begins to slow down, and Rey’s voice grows muffled.  Luke turns away from Rey, his eyes filled with pain.  “Leia…” he breathes.  Then he closes his eyes, as if lending her strength.

                Back on the Raddus, Leia is lifted into the air by many and carried off in a rush down the hall.  Everything is still moving in slow motion as the music plays dramatically.  Leia looks quite dead. 

                Aboard his fighter, Kylo and his two wing mates now zoom back towards the Supremacy.  As they do, he also seems to be lost in thought, time slowing down.

                Then a massive explosion tears into the Supremacy, unexpectedly.  It draws Hux’s attention instantly.  “What the devil was that?” he cries in disbelief.

                “A missile from that X-wing.  It seems to have been one of those same types that punched holes in the Death Stars.”

                “What!” Hux cries, quite alarmed.  He slams his fists down on the controls closest to him.  “All fighters!  Return to the Supremacy at once!  Repeat!  All fighters return to the Supremacy at once!  Blast that X-wing at all costs!”

                Poe weaves about howling in triumph again.  “It’s a good thing I told the technician to outfit Black One with the last of those Starkiller missiles we had on reserve at the base,” he tells BB8.  “Now let’s blow this sucker to smithereens and rejoin the fleet.”

                BB8 howls, however, in reply. 

                “What?  Three fighters…Awe…not again,” says Poe in disappointment.  “Fine…One last hit.  Let’s see if I can do a little more damage before we get out of here.”  Then he twists his fighter straight for the bridge of the Supremacy once more.

                Hux sees him coming.  His eyes are filled with fear.  “Stop that ship!  Stop it, I say!”  He nearly shrieks out the last part.

                Poe continues to avoid enemy fire as he dances towards the bridge, his face strained but focused.  “Just one shot should do the trick.” 

                Behind him, Kylo closes in, his TIE Silencer faster than Poe’s X-wing.  He switches his own missiles on.  Then he locks on target.

                BB8 squeals.  “I know!  I know!” cries Poe as red lights flash on his instruments.  “Blast it!” he exclaims, then he launches the missiles anyway, even though there is no lock.  Jerking away just at the last second, Poe’s X-wing narrowly avoids getting destroyed by Kylo’s missiles.

                On the bridge of the Supremacy, Hux hears an officer cry, “Missiles launched!  They’re coming right at us!”

                Hux flees for the exit as the entire crew does the same.  The missiles come streaking straight at them and detonate before Hux and his crew can escape.  There is a massive explosion and the entire ship is rocked, throwing Hux and all others to the floor.  However, the missiles did not hit home.  The bridge remains intact, and Hux breathes a sigh of relief as he stares up at the viewport that is still, thankfully, there.

                Kylo’s missiles arc back towards Poe, and Kylo’s lasers open fire as well as his wing mates’.  Poe twists and spins and skips across the surface of the Supremacy, cheating death with every second.  The missiles collide with a gun tower on the Supremacy, but Kylo and his wing mates continue pursuit.  To make matters worse, the rest of the TIE fighters begin closing in on him from where the Resistance fleet is now emerging out of the debris field.  “We gotta get outta here!” cries Poe, now wishing he had maybe thought this plan out a little more.  BB8 chirps a response.  “I got no more missiles.  They only had like four left.  Wait!  I got another idea.”

                Then Poe throws a series of switches.  “This is either going to save us or kill us, Buddy.  Hold onto something.  I’m disengaging the hyperdrive’s fail-safes and we’re going to make a real short hop to the fleet…hopefully…Either that or we’ll explode and our deaths will at least be very quick.  Right?”  BB8’s response doesn’t seem thrilled.  Poe flicks the last switch.  “Here we go!”  And just like that, his ship launches the short distance to the Raddus.

                But with that, the engines explode and go flying off in several directions, taking the wings with it.  Poe grips the controls tightly as he appears to be heading on a collision course with the Raddus’ main hanger.  “Raddus!  This is Poe Dameron!  I’m coming in hot!  Tractor beam me!  Tractor beam me!”

                And just as his demolished and flaming fighter is about to slam into the energy field, it comes to a halt, hovering in space.  Poe is slammed into the dashboard and then back into his seat, and for several moments he just breathes as what’s left of his ship is pulled back into the bay.

                Holdo barges into the second bridge of the Raddus and quickly takes command.  “Order the fleet to move in the opposite direction of that flagship,” she barks as the crew following her hurriedly takes control of the massive ship.  “Have all ships keep ahead of the Raddus so that we can use the Raddus’ superior shields to defend them.”  Then the Resistance fleet turns away from the Supremacy, heading towards the deeper void of space.

                As the Supremacy begins to pursue, the remaining First Order fleet arrives at last in the system.  Aboard the bridge, Hux comments, “It’s about time.”  He then flips on a comm channel.  “All ships pursue the Resistance fleet.  No need to waste anymore fighters.  We can keep up with them and our inhibitor will prevent them from going to hyperspace.  If they try, they’ll just end up like that blazing X-wing pilot did.  And even if, for some reason, they don’t, our hyperspace tracking systems will continue to guide us right to them.  They can’t possibly escape us now.  It’s only a matter of time.”  And he smiles triumphantly.