How Star Wars: Jedi Survivor’s Shocking Ending Sets Up a Trilogy
An uncertain future.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s complex story has an unforgettable final act, featuring a few startling twists and heartbreaking character moments. Five years have passed since the events of Fallen Order, and Cal Kestis finds himself wondering if his fight against the Empire is making a difference at all. The promise of a new home that the Empire can’t find is too good to pass up, and the end of Survivor sees Cal come to blows with the others that want the planet of Tanalorr to themselves. Let’s jump into the ending and break down its hints, ambiguities, and what it means for the future.
Warning: major, full-on, endgame spoilers for Survivor ahead.
Infiltrating the ISB
Bode has been able to survive this whole time by working with the ISB, who hid him from the watchful gaze of Vader and the Inquisitorious.
After retrieving the compass that would lead the team through the Abyss, Cal is presented with the revelation that Bode has betrayed them, offering up the location of the hidden base on Jedha to the Empire. Even more shocking is the fact that Bode has been a Jedi the entire time, one of the few other survivors of Order 66. After Cere loses her life to Darth Vader, a grieving and enraged Cal follows Bode to an Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) base in hopes of getting the compass back.
The ISB is essentially the Empire’s secret police, and it's the villainous organization that plays a central role in Andor on Disney+. As Cal explores Nova Garron he meets an ISB commander named Lank Denvik, who worked with Bode in the Clone Wars and cut a deal. Following the passing of Bode’s wife, Denvik agreed to hide Bode and his daughter Kata from the Inquisition, as long as he’d work as an undercover agent. Denvik had ambitions to beat Darth Vader at hunting down Jedi, and he intended to use Bode as a way to ingratiate himself to the Emperor.
Cal learns that Bode lured him to Nova Garron to eliminate the outpost, and after confronting the betrayer and meeting his daughter, Bode and Kata escape while Cal is swarmed by Imperials. Fueled by rage, Cal embraces the Dark Side and gains incredible new powers. His anger almost causes him to eliminate Denvik in a very Vader-like Force Choke before he’s stopped by Merrin. Bode has succeeded in getting to Tannalor, but Cal and the crew discover one final chance.
Bode’s Reckoning
In a tragic twist, Cal is forced to slay the only other Jedi he knows that is still alive.
A recording of the High Republic Jedi Santari Khri reveals that the arrays on Koboh can be used to cut a single path through the Abyss. Cal and his group align the arrays and take a harrowing trip, finally making landfall on Tannalor, which is filled with abandoned Jedi temples.
Cal and Merrin run into Kata and decide to spare Bode, if only so the girl does not have to endure the same trauma of losing her family that they went through. Of course, Bode isn’t going to just surrender. He recognizes that the only way he can keep Kata safe is by making sure he’s the only one that knows about Tannalor. Cal wants to use the planet as a safe haven for everyone on the run from the Empire, including those utilizing the Hidden Path.
Cal and Merrin desperately plead with Bode to surrender, but he refuses. Cal’s anger once again surges as he sees Bode injure both BD-1 and Merrin. In a final showdown, the dueling Jedi try to shoot each other, but Bode’s blaster misfires. Cal is able to shoot right at his frenemy's chest. In a chilling moment, Cal delivers another blaster shot slaying Bode for good, knowing it’s the only way they’ll have peace.
Cal’s Future
Cal, once again, thinks he’s the only surviving Jedi in the galaxy, but that could change as he takes on a Padawan.
There are two major points to cover in the final scenes of Survivor: Cal’s use of the Dark Side, and his future in relation to Kata. Cal and the others give Cere, Eno Cordova, and Bode a proper Jedi funeral pyre, and Cal stands in silence at the funeral for an entire night, even as the others filter out.
A final monologue sees Cal addressing his former master Cere, talking about how he’s determined to carry on her legacy but is also incredibly scared and not sure he can keep going. A Force vision of Cere appears to Cal. “Guide her through the Darkness,” she says. This is in reference to the now-orphaned Kata, who is probably Force sensitive just like her father.
This seems to suggest that Cal and Merrin are going to act as adoptive parents, but beyond that Cal will likely become Kata’s master, educating her in the ways of the Jedi. Of course, the story is also ambiguous about Cal’s connection to the Dark Side. Cal is, arguably, angrier and more bitter than ever, and he doesn’t necessarily make the promise to never let it happen again.
Cal’s group will presumably contact the Hidden Path and start setting up Tanalorr as a safe haven. There’s also the budding romance between Cal and Merrin, and if something like that can work with everything going on.
Survivor certainly seems to open things to a third game, maybe jumping ahead a few years yet again, showing Cal teaching Kata and establishing a new Jedi Temple on Tannalor. It’s easy to see a situation where Kata could actually be the main character of a third game, with Cal serving in a side character/mentor role. If you return to Koboh after the credits, a Star Destroyer will now be orbiting around the planet, suggesting that a future story could involve Cal helping the settlement there fight off the Empire, or flee from them.
There are a lot of lingering questions but the remaining Stinger Mantis crew members are at least safe, for now.
