WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, in theaters now.
With Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, many of the questions raised at the beginning of the sequel trilogy were answered -- the truth of Rey's lineage, the origin of Supreme Leader Snoke and the history of Leia's training as a Jedi. However, one question still lingers and it's a question that was raised in The Rise of Skywalker itself.
Around the end of the first act of the film, Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewie, BB-8 and C-3PO found themselves on Pasaana, slowly sinking deeper into a sandpit. Certain that the end was near, Finn called out to Rey and yelled that there was something he needed to tell her. Then, just as he was about to speak, he sank beneath the sand, only to discover -- along with the rest of the gang -- that the pit wasn't as life-threatening as they thought, so he never finished that thought, even when asked about it by Rey and Poe.
Aside from a few mentions to prompt laughter, the film showed no real interest in revealing what it was Finn was about to say. Instead, it simply ends without ever returning to his secret, leaving it to the audience to guess what the former Stormtrooper was going to express. The possibilities are endless.
One of the first assumptions audiences might make is that Finn was about to confess his feelings for Rey. When the two first met in The Force Awakens, it was clear he felt something and that it was more than simple attraction, especially toward the end of that film. However, their adventure with Han Solo and Chewie on Starkiller Base prevented it from developing into anything more.
It's entirely possible that Finn was about to confess his feelings on Pasana; ridding himself of any regret in case the sandpit actually ended up claiming their lives. It would definitely explain why he was reluctant to let Poe in on his little secret later on.
That's just one possibility, though. Finn had more than one secret that might have interested his Jedi companion, and it was made evident throughout The Rise of Skywalker. For instance, Finn is Force-sensitive. He never swung a lightsaber, but time and time again, he sensed some of the film's major events in a way that only those with Jedi instincts would be capable of doing. It would make sense for him to tell Rey about his implied abilities.
It's a stretch, but in those last moments -- before the group was swallowed up by the desert -- Finn could have been trying to throw out ideas to save their lives using the Force. A perilous situation would be as good a time as any to confess that particular secret. However, admittedly, it would raise questions about why he would have been so unwilling to let Poe know about his potential connection with the Force, especially since the two were shown to have quite the friendship in the final Star Wars installment.
The Skywalker Saga is over and with it, the journeys of Rey, Finn and Poe. With the popularity of current and upcoming Star Wars spinoffs such as The Mandalorian and the untitled Obi-Wan series, it's entirely possible we'll one day see more of the sequel heroes and that we might learn what Finn was going to say. It's possible, but unlikely. The most prominent theory seems to be that he was going to tell Rey how he felt about her, but we'll never know for sure.
Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant. The film is in theaters now.