(This is a commentary based on the scene between Vader and the Emperor in "The Empire Strikes Back". For sanity's sake, I will try to stick to the DVD version of the scene with Ian McDiarmid and dialogue changes. I do not intend to make a judgment on the changes themselves, only what they mean as the scene now stands.)

I think we can all agree that Palpatine was no dummy. This is a guy that single-handedly engineered the impeachment of the leader of the Republic followed by his own ascension to said leadership position, a full scale war (including the creation of a clone army from scratch), the transformation of the democratic Republic to the tyrannical Empire (not only under the nose of the Jedi but with fervent majority support), and the eradication of the entire Jedi order, and by the time anybody figured out what was going on, not even Superman spinning the world counter-clockwise on its axis would have been able turn back time enough to make things right. And he did this all with enough spare time in his hands to act like the father Anakin Skywalker never had and catch the latest Broadway shows.

The reason I bring this up is that I always thought something was odd about the Sith master's trans-galactic phone call to his apprentice in the middle of "Empire". (Just an aside, the dude has made so many of those holographic communiqués, I shudder to think what his long-distance bill is.) Now, after having seen Episode V again in context after having seen "Revenge of the Sith", it occurred to me that the scene has always been redundant. It doesn't really change Vader's motivation or the course of the plot. It exists purely for the audience. Before the scene, Darth Vader is hell-bent on tracking down Skywalker, and after the scene, he continues to be. Only now we know why.

So, my question is, if Vader's mission basically remains the same, why does Emperor Palpatine, evil super-genius, waste his Anytime Minutes just so his apprentice can say, "Thanks for the tip, but I'm way ahead of you, boss." The argument now seems to be that Vader didn't know that Luke Skywalker was the son of Anakin, and Palpatine was giving him the low-down.

Balderdash! Palpatine may have been an arrogant son of a womp rat, but he was too smart to not know that Vader was already searching for Skywalker. And, even though this is much debated thanks to the changes in the DVD version, I doubt that he had so little faith in his apprentice to not put two and two together and figure out the true identity of Luke Skywalker. Sure, Palps didn't want his apprentices too smart, but surely he didn't want one that was as dumb as a box of hair.

Let's look at the evidence. The passage of time between the end of "Star Wars" and beginning of "Empire" is supposed to be, what, three years? Okay, so in three years Vader goes from being foiled by a young Rebel at the Death Star to being "obsessed with finding young Skywalker." This means that, presumably, Vader found out the name of the Rebel that blew up the Death Star, and he also already knew that the Force is strong with him.

Now, this may be inconclusive, as it has been repeatedly suggested that Skywalker is a common name in the galaxy. This may be true, and Vader may have initially thought little about the coincidence in family names. However, this Skywalker showed up on the radar immediately after Obi-Wan Kenobi (a.k.a. the only other person with Padme on Mustafar when Anakin "killed her") showed his face to Vader for the first time in twenty years, and Luke is associated with the Millennium Falcon, the very ship that brought Kenobi to the Death Star to begin with. After three years of thinking about it, Vader must have figured this was more than a coincidence.

Palpatine knows exactly what's going on. He's figured out that Luke Skywalker is Vader's boy, and he's pretty sure that Vader's figured it out as well. When the hologram of the Emperor appears before Vader, it isn't a courtesy call to tell Vader about his long-lost son. The Old Hooded One is doing what he does best, manipulating the situation. Who knows how long it took Palpatine to figure out who Luke was? It was probably immediately. He just sat back and kept an eye on Vader to see what he would do when he figured it out. Sure enough, Vader commandeers the Imperial Navy, starts scouring the galaxy for Skywalker, and is killing off Fleet Admirals left and right for such minor offences as hitting the breaks too hard coming out of hyperspace. It's time for the Dark Lord of the Sith to put his apprentice in his place.

After the Emperor delivers his "revelation", Vader may act surprised (as he should if he didn't really know), but he's really thinking, "Aw crap! The old man figured it out before I could get to Skywalker. Um... Don't worry, boss, I got an idea. Why don't we turn him to the Dark Side? Yeah, that's it. That'll buy me more time." Sure, when he's around Imperial officers and other lackeys on Palpatine's payroll, he's giving orders like "I don't want the Emperor's prize damaged" and talking about taking Skywalker to the Emperor. But as soon as he gets Luke alone, Vader wants Luke to join him so they can "destroy the Emperor" and "rule the galaxy as father and son!"

I may be over analyzing, but that one scene is just too redundant where it in the plot of the movie to just be a way to reveal the Emperor. I mean, it could have been the first scene in the movie, or that conversation could have taken place during the opening crawl, then Vader has all of those probes shot off to find Skywalker. Next time you watch "Empire", skip over that scene and see if that makes any difference. Or maybe Vader did accelerate his plans to find the Millenium Falcon and capture young Skywalker before the Emperor could.