The Last Jedi Theory: Is Kylo Ren Lying About Rey’s Parents?

(This post contains MAJOR SPOILERS)

One of the biggest questions coming out of The Force Awakens was the identity of Rey’s parents, leading to dozens of fan theories, trying to link her mostly to the Skywalker or Kenobi family. However, The Last Jedi came around and debunked all those theories and confirmed the belief that some had that she was no one special. While this does make sense for the theme of the film and solves the problem of the franchise of all the characters being related or connected, many were disappointed in this twist. This has led many to question whether Kylo Ren was lying when he said that her parents were nobody, so today, I’m going to consider this and present my own theory on whether Kylo Ren is lying or not. After Rey visits the Dark Side cave on Ahch-To, she force-communicates with Ben and they learn more about each other and slowly begin to understand each other. While we find out later that this is part of Snoke’s plan as a way to try and lure Rey to him, it has some unintended consequences. Rey and Ben form a bond and when they touch hands, they both see something. Rey sees the conflict within him, while Ben reveals that he saw her parents. After Ben betrays Snoke and kills him, he tries to get Rey to join him. He reveals who her parents are, but, in a surprisingly gentle tone, makes her say it - “they were nobody.” He then goes on to elaborate, saying that they sold her for drinking money and are dead. Now because he is telling her this as a form of persuasion, some are believing that he made it up to try and convince her to join him. After all, he is telling her to let go and her parents being nobody is exactly what would potentially to persuade her to let go of the past. However, lying about the identity of Rey’s parents doesn’t make sense. First of all, Ben is actually the most honest character to Rey in the entire film, so making it such a huge lie seems out of place. He also says that while she is nothing to everyone else, she isn’t nothing to him and genuinely acts like he wants her to join him. Secondly, Rey’s trip to the Dark Side cave in which she only sees her reflection confirms this. Rey cannot depend on her parents and must forge her own path. Thirdly, she’s the one that ultimately says it, and he just confirms it. It’s clear that her senses were telling her that they were nobody. It also works with what Maz Kana told Rey, that her parents weren’t coming back. Finally, it fits with the theme that anyone can be a Jedi and a hero, a theme that frees the series from being exclusively about the Skywalkers. With this in mind, I do think that Ben is lying about one thing - the fate of her parents. He claims that they were buried on Jakku long ago. One reason I have to question this though is the flashback in Rey’s force vision in The Force Awakens. Rey sees her younger self crying out for her parents who are flying off. Unless they were flying to a different part of Jakku or were driving drunk and crashed on the planet, it looks like they were flying off to somewhere else, and unless they already had a ship, they would have used the money for transport as well as alcohol. Another reason I have to wonder if they are actually dead is the fact that we still have Episode IX, and it would be a great twist if Rey gets to meet her parents and have to face her mixed emotions of anger and sadness. There have been some rumors that Kerri Russell is playing Rey’s mother, but this hasn’t been confirmed. I’m not saying this is what I want to happen, but it would create an interesting narrative possibility, especially since in the trailer, Luke says that noone’s ever really gone. There’s a good chance that I’m completely wrong about this, and we’ll never really know until December. But until then, I’m considering this as a much more plausible alternative to the theory that Ben Solo was lying about everything.