If you've seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens, you already know that Rey is a total badass. Yet despite spending over two hours with the film's protagonist, we don't know much else. Spoilers for The Force Awakens ahead. The question of who Rey's parents are in Star Wars lingers long after the credits roll, and will likely have fans theorizing from now until Episode VIII is released. However, if you paid close attention during one of the movie's most intense scenes, you might have picked up on a subtle detail that supports the current front-running theory that Luke Skywalker is Rey's father.
Rey's parentage is left purposefully mysterious throughout The Force Awakens. We know that her family left her on Jakku as a young child, and that she was always hopeful they'd return for her, but that's really it. The fact that Rey is later discovered to have very strong powers of the Force suggests that she might come from Jedi, and her connection to the stories of Han and Luke makes the possibility of her being related to them very strong. But none of these prove a solid connection between Rey and Luke specifically. For that, you'll need to recall her interrogation by Kylo Ren at the First Order base.
Kylo, himself the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, is able to use the dark side of the Force to essentially mentally torture people, through what looks like an extremely disturbing version of Legilimency from Harry Potter. He goes into prisoners' minds to see their thoughts, and as he mentally searches Rey for the map leading to Luke, Kylo taunts her by revealing some of her innermost thoughts. He recounts how, when she struggles to fall asleep, Rey imagines a vast ocean, with an island in the middle. At the time, this seems like an insignificant detail, but when you consider Star Wars' closing scene, it becomes extremely important.
In The Force Awakens' final moments, Rey and Chewbacca go to find Luke, having finally put together the map to his location. We see the Millennium Falcon approach a planet, and swoop down over a vast ocean. After flying over the water for a few moments, it approaches an island, where Rey soon finds Luke. It seems quite possible that unknowingly, the image Rey has been using to fall asleep was Luke's location all along, suggesting a very close connection between the two — one that goes beyond the Force.
Consider the fact that Rey seems to have spent her entire life on Jakku, a desert planet. When she first goes to Takodana with Han and Chewie, she is overwhelmed by its lush nature, and remarks to Han that she didn't know this much green existed. It shows how sheltered Rey has been by refusing to leave Jakku, and how unfamiliar she is with other settings. This makes the fact that she even imagined a large ocean and island stand out, leading me to believe she didn't imagine the scene at all. Instead, I think Rey was unconsciously using her untapped Force powers and connecting with Luke, seeing where he was without ever realizing it.
Thanks to Kylo, we also know that Luke wasn't the only person with Force powers out there for Rey to connect with. If she was sensing Luke, it was because they are connected as more than fellow Jedi, but as father and daughter. For all of those years, Rey was searching for her family, but she might've known where they were all along, every night as she fell asleep.
For more on Star Wars, check out Bustle's podcast The Chat Room:
Images: Walt Disney Motion Pictures; Giphy
