No one could confuse Palpatine's and Vader's relationship as rosey. One could even make the case that they weren't friends at all, merely tenuously balanced weighty matter at opposite ends of the scales of will and power.

But if there was any moment when it became clear to Palpatine that his battle-scarred apprentice was wavering in purpose, it was in the events leading up to Vader's and Luke's last meeting, in which two promises were to be kept - Luke's to Yoda, and Vader's to Palpatine. Father and son had to be reunited. Just how remained to be seen.

From the instant Vader lopes into the Imperial Throne Room high atop a ghostly spire on the unfinished second Death Star, the Emperor's tone is, too say the least, none too pleased...

"I told you to remain on the command ship," he bitterly reminds Vader.

Vader will not be deterred. "A small Rebel force has penetrated the shield
and landed on Endor."

Palpatine, as we know, is non-plussed by the news. "Yes, I know."

And here is where it starts to fall apart. Vader realizes that it's time to make his play. But he is confused as to why the Emperor has not made his. He pauses, some think out of fear, some think out of thought, before he delivers the fateful news...

"My son is with them."

Now, this is troubling. The Emperor, up until this point, has directed nearly every single detail, minute to magnificent, in the rise of the Sith. He has murdered, genocidally. He has corrupted on grand scales. He has lied, and manipulated, and most importantly, he has utilized his dark visions of the future to bend the fate of the Galaxy to his will. The more the Dark Side of the Force envelopes everything and everyone, the more his ability to read every nuance of this insidious fabric increases exponentially. Until now.

"Are you sure?", he queries with skepticism.

"I have felt him, my Master."

You have to imagine the instant turmoil of the great mind of Palpatine at this moment. The very idea that the Dark Lord would not know something of this importance, either through conventional means or the Force, is unfathomable. And so it's time to face ugly possibilities - one of four things is out of place here: Vader's senses, his own abilities, Vader's loyalty, or the Force. All of them - bad tidings. He plays his next card carefully, but with malice aforethought. What follows is a carefully crafted threat, coiled like a most venomous viper.

"Strange, that I have not," he coldly concedes his blindness. He levels a steely gaze on his apprentice, wary and full of intent.

"I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear, Lord Vader."

Translation: You sense something I don't. You're either getting soft on me, or you're plotting something. Either way, be careful, old friend...

Now I have to stop and wonder why this is happening. Why would Vader, who we already know is truly up to something, be capable of seeing what the Emperor can not? When did this ability suddenly jump from Palpatine's toolbox into Vader's? Surely, Vader has always been able to sense things. But if he could do it as well as his Master, he would have seen many, many things by now. And if he could do so without the Emperor being aware of the same happenings, then someone else would be sitting in that lovely dark Barco-lounger perched high atop the north pole of this technological terror. Someone with a breathing problem and a bad temper.

So what's happening here? A tectonic shift in Vader, and in the Force, that's what. Vader is sensing something that is locked away from Palpatine's Dark Side detections. That could only mean that what Vader is sensing is not Dark at all. Some small part of Anakin is awakening, and some small part of his better half is connected by a tendril of good nature to his son. In short, Palpatine can not see through the very cloud of the Dark Side he created.

Vader, on the other hand, apparently does not know exactly what this means, other than he may have some advantage. "Apparently", I say with reservations. However, the flipside of this advantage is his immediate danger. His loyalty, and/or his usefulness in this dark enterprise, is being tested. Questioned. Interrogated, in fact.

Palpatine does not like this one bit. It's time for truth or dare - Conflict or Clarity, and Vader is on center stage in a very menacing spot light under the gaze of the most powerful being in the Galaxy. And so he must deliver an affirmation of some sort. But I wonder about it's meaning.

"They are clear, my Master," he answers.

But were they? Vader, at this point, is in open warfare with himself. He is undoubtedly mired in conflict, all the while his mind is racing to shape his plans for Luke. He is still convinced that he and Luke together can take the Emperor down. He is split, and again even drawn and quartered, his pschye fractured along fault lines both within himself, and his alliance to the Emperor, and some odd connection, if not yet compassion, in his sense of fatherhood. And not the least of which is immediately vexing is that he probably now questions about himself what the Emperor questions - what is happening here? What he does not realize is that the weakest link in this 3-ring showdown is not Luke, nor the Emperor. It's him.

So I truly wonder, and I am honestly not completely sure about this - at what stage was Vader in his inner conflict? The obvious answer is that he has a deathgrip on his dark persona, and is beating back Anakin's resurgance. But what if it's the other way around? Was it a lie when he affirmed his clarity with the Emperor? Or had he already changed his mind? What, then, was he clear about, I wonder...

This was either Vader's greatest lie to himself, to the Emperor, or both.

DM out