In the original script at least, Palpatine tells her: “You want to kill me? That is what I want. Kill me and my spirit will pass into you, as all the Sith live in me… You will be Empress… We will be one.” And then later: “Strike me down. Take the throne. Reign over a new Empire… and the fleet will be yours. Only you have the power to save [your friends].”

Which…definitely sounds like he’s going to possess her. And once he does, she’ll have command over the fleet. And even if Palpy doesn’t outright control her, why would any of the Sith fleet/army obey her commands? “Yeah, Palpatine is totally sharing my body right now. Definitely. You can trust me, right? Anyway, ‘Palpatine’ says that we’re aborting the mission, okie doke? Let’s shut it down!” So that’s dumb.

And even though he literally never says that he has to be killed “in anger” for the possession to take hold (he mentions that “she wants to kill him,” and that “killing him will allow the transfer,” but there’s no direct correlation between those two statements), I’m begrudgingly okay with hand-waving that aspect. But again, in regards to saving her friends, none of this has any relevance to the themes of the film. This is when those themes are supposed to come to their conclusion; but instead of talking about Rey’s anger, or her heritage, or anything like that, J.J. and Chris are just like, “Meh, you better kill him Rey, or else all of your friends are gonna die,” as they flap their hands about. How has the film built towards this at all? What is the film trying to say by forcing this (external) conflict on Rey? How is this final dilemma (of the entire Star Wars saga) in any way satisfying?