Obi-Wan Kenobi Part IV review

June 8, 2022June 8, 2022 Jeffrey Lyles 0 Comments Deborah Chow, Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Indira Varma, Moses Ingram, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rya Kihlstedt, Sung Kang, Vivien Lyra Blair

One of the coolest aspects of Obi-Wan Kenobi is we’re getting bonus Star Wars Original Trilogy era content no one expected 10 years ago.

That’s why it’s easy to be patient with an episode that has to dial it down a little after last week with our first Obi-Wan/Darth Vader duel.

For his trouble, Obi-Wan had to deal with a traumatic dunk in the Bacta Tank to heal his severe burns. There was more excellent symmetry as Vader was also in a meditation tank presumably cheerfully reliving the encounter with his former Master.

Obj-Wan naturally wouldn’t want to waste time healing while Leia was still in the clutches of the Empire. Tala introduces him to more members of the Path movement to ferry Jedi out of the Inquisitors’ clutches. The leader, Roken (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), lost a loved one to the Inquisitors and has no love for them.

But it’s up to Tala to help Obi-Wan get to the Inquisitors’ headquarters. There was definitely some Jedi: Fallen Order homages here with Obi-Wan gaining access via an underwater tunnel as Tala used her Imperial officer credentials to navigate him to Leia.

This episode cements Tala as a Rebel icon like Jyn Erso. Tala dressed down an Imperial security guard and killed another as she played GPS for Obi-Wan. I dig Tala and would not be upset if Ahsoka encountered her 20+ years down the road to show she survived The Galactic War.

Obi-Wan’s connection to the Force continued to get stronger this episode. He was back to doing his flashy sword twirl after dispatching some Stormtroopers and countering their blaster bolts.

It’s far more satisfying seeing Obi-Wan go through a struggle to reconnect with the Force instead of being in his Revenge of the Sith prime. In this manner Obi-Wan has to work for everything and it’s rewarding seeing those reflexes starting to kick in.

Reva has not made that many mistakes so far, has she? We’re used to a general sense of pockets of incompetence from the Empire. That’s key to make the path a little easier for the Rebels. Reva has constantly been a step or three ahead of Obi-Wan for most of the season.

The writers have almost painted her in a corner as she’s been so brash and impulsive that her first mistake will be her last. Vader was this close from snapping her neck after Obi-Wan escaped…again.

Yet Reva somehow accounted for Obi-Wan or his new allies to sneak into The Inquisitors’ fortress with platoons of Stormtroopers and planted a tracking device on Lola. That’s a ridiculous stretch.

Sure, this is an echo of Star Wars (A New Hope) and Empire with Vader deliberately letting the Millennium Falcon escape, but Vader was after a bigger prize — the Rebels’ base and Luke.

And he had plenty of time during both efforts to rescue Leia to place a tracker on the Falcon once the skirmishes broke out.

The flaw here was having Reva place the tracker on Lola before knowing Obi-Wan was at the base. Maybe you could account for her taking a dramatic extra precaution but there was no reason for her to take that measure in this instance.

While Obi-Wan is working overtime to train and reconnect with the Force everything is coming too easy for Reva. And since she’s always going to be second fiddle in a series with Darth Vader, the continued quick and easy path for Reva is a little frustrating.

Still, the tracker sets the stage for Obi-Wan to confront both Reva and the rematch we’re all waiting for against Vader.

Part IV further developed the bond between Obi-Wan and Leia, reinforced that Tala is a legit engaging, cool hero and puts Obi-Wan on the path for some payback.