The Force Awakens has a tendency to veer between being aggressively obvious and being subtle to the point that certain aspects of it have flown completely over most people’s heads (see the climactic duel for the perfect illustration of this). One aspect of the film that embodies both of these elements is the dynamic between Kylo Ren and Snoke – I’m going to analyse their relationship as it’s presented within the film, with some reference to the script and reasonable inference.

The Kylo Ren and Snoke dynamic is very, very clearly presented as a close parallel to the relationship between Darth Vader and the Emperor. Their first scene together is, in essence, a remix of key lines and moments from the pivotal scene between Vader and the Emperor in The Empire Strikes Back. You have exchanges that are obviously designed to parallel each other (“there is a great disturbance in the Force. Have you felt it?”/”I have felt it” and “There’s been an awakening. Have you felt it?”/”Yes.”), a small masked and black-garbed figure gazing up at a looming holographic image aboard a Star Destroyer, and a discussion of parentage (“This boy is the offspring of Anakin Skywalker”/”In the hands of your father, Han Solo”). It isn’t subtle, and it’s not meant to be subtle.

The subtleties of the relationship between Kylo and Snoke – the details that make it interesting – are mainly concentrated in the mutual distrust and suspicion that characterise it. At the end of their first encounter, Kylo insists that he will “not be seduced” (by the Light). Snoke appears to take a dim view of Kylo’s self-confidence, replying with “we shall see. We shall see.” In the script, this is followed up with some additional detail that I can only describe as bizarre:

A gentle, satisfied nod from Snoke, and Kylo Ren, obsessed, filled up, exits. Snoke watches him disappear, a grotesque evil SMILE growing – as he DISINTEGRATES – Snoke has been a HOLOGRAM all along.

From that, the implication seems to be that Kylo is fired up by the encounter, more determined than ever to marry himself to the Dark side and please his master. Kylo, though, is far more weak and vulnerable to the temptations of the Light than he can bear to acknowledge, and I have the impression that Snoke is fully aware of his weakness and is perhaps even perversely entertained by it. Kylo is a source of twisted entertainment as much as he is a tool.

The irony of this, of course, is that Kylo’s weakness for the Light is exposed in the next scene he and Snoke share together – with this being clearly telegraphed by the continued absence of Kylo’s mask. Kylo is visibly humiliated – he was overpowered by an untrained girl and made vulnerable by her (removing his mask, having his mind probed). Here, Kylo’s failure is no longer a simple prospect – it is a reality, and Snoke is furious with him. His already low expectations have been disappointed. Nonetheless, Snoke is also intrigued by what he hears and he wants to see Rey for himself. Here, you have a notable divergence between Kylo and Snoke. Kylo had shown no intention of taking Rey to Snoke directly, instead begging his master for guidance on extracting the map from her. In other words, Snoke’s plan is quite separate from Kylo’s.

When he faces Han, Kylo is met with his own fears and anxieties as voiced by his father. Han says “Snoke is using you for your power. When he gets what he wants, he’ll crush you – you know it’s true.” And since I can’t share a gif of Adam Driver’s remarkably nuanced performance, I’ll share the relevant line from the script:

Kylo hesitates. Somehow, he does know it.

Note that Kylo makes no attempt to tell his father that he is wrong. Instead, Kylo can only say “It’s too late” – he knows Han is right, but he believes he has done too much and gone too far to do what his father asks of him. Despite his affirmation that he will not be seduced in his first scene with Snoke, it’s crystal clear that Kylo has doubts in Snoke – just as Snoke has doubts in Kylo – that mount over the course of the film.

While many people have interpreted Han’s murder as the ultimate sign that Kylo has overcome his inner conflict and fully committed to Snoke and the Dark side, that conclusion only works if you focus on the surface of the film’s narrative, seeing the murder but not Kylo’s reaction to it. Kylo is an emotional wreck following Han’s death, more conflicted and wretched than he ever was previously. Most crucially, in the film’s climax Kylo is shown to be acting as an agent of his own emotions rather than the servant of Snoke – his master goes unmentioned and unacknowledged by Kylo following Han’s murder, and Kylo’s dialogue to Rey makes this implicit betrayal overt (“It’s just us now!”/”I can show you the ways of the Force.”). The very end of his arc in The Force Awakens shows him acting for independent and selfish reasons, driven by his obsession with Rey and his intense, raging hatred of Finn. Snoke’s influence is striking only in its absence.

And this, of course, is what makes Kylo so dangerous. Whereas Vader consistently positioned himself as a loyal servant of the Emperor, bowing to him, calling him “master” and loyally following his commands (up until a certain change of heart, of course), Kylo is ultimately interested in his own agenda and his own emotions and desires. You can see this in his behaviour with him – Kylo never calls Snoke “master” and never bows to him. With Snoke, he never adopts an aspect that suggests subservience.

It’s worth considering why this is. When Vader joins the Emperor in the form that we’re most familiar with (black mask, cloak, wheezing, etc.), he is a husk of a man – half of his body is missing, the rest of it a scarred mass of ruined flesh. Padme – the woman he loved enough to kill children for – is dead (he believes) by his own hand. He also thinks that his unborn child died with her. Vader has no independent purpose left at the end of Revenge of the Sith, so is in a position where he is willing to entirely give himself over to the Emperor and his cause. Kylo, however, was a boy enticed to the Dark side by promises of power and personal fulfilment. He still has a family, a healthy body and wishes and desires of his own – in other words, he has far more compelling reasons to doubt and distrust Snoke than Vader ever did to mistrust the Emperor. The dependence between Vader and the Emperor was actual, in large part connected to Vader’s physical ruin and emotional desolation, whereas the dependence between Kylo Ren and Snoke is clearly a far more tenuous construct that is – by the end of the film – seemingly on the brink of breaking.

The relationship with Snoke was forged in Kylo’s youth – potentially when he was a young child – and I think the dependence Snoke successfully fostered in his apprentice is becoming steadily more fragile as Kylo grows older and develops a broader range of experience. Snoke has been trying to keep Kylo frozen in a state of perpetual adolescence – a state characterised by indulgence, violence and careful control – but that attempt is shown to lie in ruins by the end of The Force Awakens. One chapter of Kylo’s life has closed with the end of the film, but another is beginning – by continuing his training Snoke is clearly preparing to adopt new tactics with his apprentice, and it will be most interesting to see what those tactics are.