Continuity mistake: When Rey enters the Emperor's vault on the Death Star she is wearing her satchel, slung across her body. When she falls out backwards after seeing Dark Rey she is still wearing it, when she stands to confront Ren, it's gone.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Starring: Mark Hamill, Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley, Billie Lourd
Emperor Palpatine was behind everything. Rey is his grandaughter, her parents abandoned her to protect her. Palpatine's grand plan was to have her willingly kill him, whereupon his spirit would pass into her, together with the thousands of Sith Lords before him, and she would reign as Empress. He sucks the life force from her and Ben, who has returned to the light, restoring his body, and fires lightning into the sky, disabling the Rebel armada which has come to defeat the Final Order fleet. Rey drags herself to her feet and using crossed lightsabers deflects the Emperor's lightning back into him, destroying his body utterly, but mortally wounding herself in the process. Ben uses his last bit of strength to heal her wounds, bringing her back to life. He smiles and fades away. Finn destroys the lead ship of the First Order, and the Rebel armada makes short work of the rest. Rey returns to Tatooine, where she buries Luke and Leia's lightsabers together. Asked her name by a local woman, she sees the force ghosts of Luke and Leia smiling at her, and she declares herself as Rey Skywalker.
Luke Skywalker: The force will be with you.
Leia Organa: Always.
Trivia: Anthony Daniels once again appears as C-3PO, making him the only actor to be in all Star Wars films. Similarly, C-3PO and R2-D2 are the only characters to appear in all 9 Skywalker saga films. Sadly R2-D2's original actor, Kenny Baker, passed away in 2016.
Question: How did Palpatine come back? Cloned? Or somehow survived the Death Star explosion, which seems unlikely.
Answer: It is not said exactly how he came back. He says that he had died before which presumably is him dying in ROTJ. The most we get is the reference to Sith ability that some consider unnatural.
It is not said how he came back, but I get the idea that he was using the Force to keep himself alive. At least that's the message I was getting when I saw that Palpatine's fingers were wilted away. And I thought that the power he was using was urging his life to go on, but his physical appearence was being dragged behind.
Answer: The line "The dark side is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural" is a direct reference to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, in which Palpatine says the same line verbatim to Anakin. Recall that a major plot point to that prequel is that the Sith have long been rumored to have found a method to cheat death. This film strongly suggests that Palpatine had indeed discovered this method. The film doesn't go into specifics. My understanding is the novelization says his body is a clone. Going by his appearance in the film (blank eyes; body manipulated by machine), it suggests to me that he is a reanimated corpse.
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Chosen answer: According to the novelization, Palpatine sensed Vader's internal conflict and created a clone as a backup in the event that Vader betrayed him. When Vader threw him down the shaft, Palpatine transferred his consciousness into the clone's body.