The Rise of Skywalker revealed that Palpatine killed Rey’s parents through a formidable assassin known as Ochi of Bestoon. But why did the phantom Emperor go to the trouble of sending one of his greatest assets to kill a seemingly useless clone?
After all, the tie-in novel for Episode IX explained that Rey’s father was a failed experiment. The book even uses the word “powerless” to describe the nameless character, which begs the question: Why was he a threat to Darth Sidious’ contingency plan? While the canon doesn’t provide a specific answer to this, a new theory put forth by the folks at ScreenRant tries to tackle this mystery with everything we’ve come to know about the Sequel Trilogy timeline.
Of course, some would argue that Palpatine was trying to tie up loose ends. While that is a valid argument in and of itself, the events surrounding the birth of Rey and her life on the planet Jakku – of all places – seems far too convenient to simply disregard. For one thing, Chuck Wendig’s Star Wars: Aftermath novel had previously revealed that the dark lord visited the desert planet after the events of Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Once there, he established a secret observatory to map the Unknown Regions and find the ancient Sith fortress of Exegol.
What’s more, after the Emperor’s demise in Return of the Jedi, the remaining Imperial loyalists were given instructions to seek out Jakku, and from there, make their way to the Unknown Regions, where they reunited with their leader and formed the First Order. A planetary bomb was set to detonate, not only destroying the New Republic fleet, but also Palpatine’s hidden base, and all the evidence that would be found therein. Luckily, the Rebels managed to defuse the bomb in time, which brings us to the sequels.
We know that Rey’s parents visited Jakku within the Star Wars timeline. When the Emperor attempted to find them, they left Rey to Unkar Plutt to make sure of her safety. But choosing this peculiar planet to settle down on is strange, to say the least. Perhaps the clone was trying to find Palpatine’s whereabouts in the Unknown Regions and reveal it to the galaxy? Coincidentally, Luke Skywalker was also looking for signs of the Empire’s resurgence at the same time. The son of the Chosen One even managed to track down Ochi, identifying him as a person of interest.
Maybe Darth Sidious was terrified of Luke finding out about his survival. After all, the big bad was vulnerable at that stage, and the Last Jedi was one of the most powerful warriors of the light side in history. The last thing he’d want was for him to show up and ruin the Sith Eternal’s plans to rebuild the Emperor’s might. As such, it stands to reason that that’s why he had the assassin kill Rey’s parents, thus making sure that Exegol would remain out of sight for the foreseeable future.