Now that the Galactic Union has turned the Republic and Mandalorians against each other, it’s going to try and stage a comeback using the distraction. They have a powerful Force user on their side now–Ben Solo, now called Kylo Ren–and they also have the Crusaders, the Mandalorian-born troops stolen as children. It’s going to be up to Finn, Rey, and Poe to try and foil them and keep gathering information to let the Republic and Mandalorians know they’ve been tricked into this war. Leia, despite being a fugitive, is talking secretly to her trusted contacts in the Senate trying to end the war. Lando fends off a Mandalorian attack himself and actually strikes a rapport with their commander, Idrian Fett, the Chief Commander of the invasion and a clansman of the Mandalore Boba Fett himself. Idrian (played by Idris Elba) is a good and honorable man but hates the Republic because his son was stolen by what he believes to be Republic commandos AND YES THE SON IS EXACTLY WHO YOU THINK IT IS.

Meanwhile Rey’s search for her family comes to a tragic conclusion when, in the course of the mission, she finds out that the site where she was left behind by her family and later found by space scavengers was also the place where a Mandalore-Republic skirmish took place. She is devastated to learn that her parents most likely left her behind to keep her safe while acting as a distraction to draw the Mandalorians away from her. The leader of the mission on the Mandalorian side, and the man who likely killed her parents, was Idrian Fett. Finn holds her and cries with her; the pair affirm they may have no family but do have each other. Rey vows to take her revenge on Fett and make him know her pain.

The trio together with Han undertake a daring mission to steal crucial information from the Union headquarters. They find out that the Union is now headed for Coruscant itself, and will be mobilizing its moles in the Republic security forces itself (the chief of them being Phasma) to take it over. They face down Kylo Ren while leaving with this information, with Rey’s Force sensitivity showing itself in the fight. This is also when Kylo Ren accidentally kills his father, who had joined the mission on the hope of bringing back his son and was acting as a distraction. The trio just barely make their escape while Ren is completely destroyed with grief, rocking his father’s dying body in his arms.

Despite the Falcon jumping into hyperspace, the Union ships keep catching up to them and the trio cannot get away. They make a sweep of the ship, frantic to find the tracker, but nothing shows up. Then Finn has a terrible suspicion and turns the sweep on himself; the tracker was implanted in him, likely years ago without his knowledge. With Union ships gaining on them, fuel running low and no time to find and remove the tracker, he makes his way to an airlock. Rey follows and begs him not to eject–they’ll find some other way.

Finn appears to relent and comes to envelope her in an embrace. Rey tells him she can’t do this without him, and Finn tells her she means more to him than anything in the galaxy. They share a tender kiss, and Finn uses the distraction to push her clear of the airlock and locks himself in. He ejects, his eyes locked with Rey’s in longing, while Poe runs onto the scene. Rey screams for Finn and, in a burst of Force ability, almost pulls him back in. Finn breaks her pull, showing his own Force ability for the first time. Poe physically pulls Rey back from the airlock, himself fighting tears, and orders BB to take them into hyperspace. The Falcon makes the jump, no longer trackable, and Finn is picked up by one of the pursuing Union ships just as he is running out of air.