The Rise of Skywalker: 5 most groan-worthy plot points
3. Rey gains a necklace at just the right time
The hunt for Exegol and the Sith wayfinder began on Pasaana, where Rey and company find themselves in the middle of a celebration put on by the native Aki-Aki. The Festival of the Ancestors, we are told by C-3PO, occurs just once every 42 years — surely a nod to fans who first saw the original Star Wars film when it was released 42 years prior.
A small Aki-Aki child provides one of the movie’s most adorable moments as they ask for Rey’s name and place a Kern-nut necklace around her neck. Just seconds later Kyle Ren leverages their connection in the Force, calling out to Rey and seeking to influence her towards the Dark Side. As she resists he reaches out and plucks the necklace from around her neck.
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In minutes, somehow, that necklace is given to a First Order science officer and identified as coming from Pasaana, and off the First Order goes to confront the Resistance team. Doesn’t that sound a bit convenient? A crucial sequence of events is only possible by this one tiny event, a necklace placed around Rey’s neck.
If Kylo Ren reached out just 60 seconds sooner, he would have had no way to discover where she was located. Presumably the team could have explored the area at their leisure, with no harrowing speeder chase or confrontation necessary. Chewbacca doesn’t get captured, Rey doesn’t blow up a transport with Force Lightning, the crew doesn’t ultimately end up going aboard Ren’s Star Destroyer to rescue Chewie, and on and on.
Not only is it overly convenient that Rey dons this jewelry at precisely the right time, but the path from Kylo Ren snatching the necklace to identifying Rey’s location was a bit unbelievable as well. It all seems to happen in a matter of minutes. Did Ren have a specialist standing by, ready to analyze whatever he grabbed from Rey? What sort of database did they have on hand to identify that necklace immediately as coming from Pasaana?
This isn’t the worst offense of a script filled with plot holes, but this one reeks as being a band-aid on a storyline that needed a way to bring the First Order to Pasaana. There were both more creative and more believable paths to the same outcome. J.J. Abrams did not take them.