Thanks folks! It leads on nicely from this part earlier in my edit where Palpatine and the mask are being more explicitly linked from the outset, though a first time viewer wouldn’t yet know that: https://vimeo.com/549080534
So when he returns to Vader’s mask after he events of TLJ, he searches “deeper” and thinks he is discovering more about the presence speaking to him.
Hooooly sh!t. I would kill to have this added to Hal’s cut of TFA. This is what the sequels needed. Moments of foreshadowing and hints at what’s to come.