It has been 17 years since we last Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, his last performance in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith was his best work in the series. The Disney Plus series has been highly anticipated for years, it started with a rumor of movie, but was quickly changed to a streaming series for Disney Plus. The first four episodes of the six-episode series have now aired, and I think there has been ebbs and flows with each episode. The first episode was little slow for me as we had to set up the story of the series, but once the episode got moving, I was hanging on every word of dialogue. Obi-Wan Kenobi (OWK) had fans anticipating an appearance by Darth Vader, but I was blown away when Princess Leia made an appearance. I have a feeling that Leia being in the show is something that will continue for the six-episode run, after watching the four episodes I am sad knowing there will not be more. I was wondering how they were going to make the story work; I was thinking that Obi-Wan would leave Tatooine in an effort to lure the Empire away so Luke would not be discovered. Hopefully there will be a time when we learn why Leia was made an essential character of the show, we know it could not be Luke since he didn't really know Obi-Wan.
The third episode seems to be the one that most people have enjoyed the most so far as it featured what is likely the first showdown between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. It is an okay episode that is made significantly better by Vader's appearance. Vader has been used sparingly since Disney has taken over Star Wars, but he is a big part about what they are doing. Vader in this series has had little screen time, but I think that is to the show's benefit since we know how things between Obi-Wan and Vader will end (a tie) until A New Hope. In Rogue One Vader's appearances were great, they showed just how scary he really is (something that I never felt in the original trilogy). The comics, Rebels, Rogue One and novels have painted Vader as much more brutal and dangerous figure than what we were originally told. Obi-Wan continues to paint Vader as a terrifying enemy, but the show has done a great job at giving us another villain to hate in Reva (Third Sister). Reva (played with gusto by Moses Ingram) is an inquisitor who for reasons yet to be revealed is desperate to find Obi-Wan Kenobi. Reva appears to be single-minded in her pursuit of Obi-Wan, but that has not affected her ability to be dangerous. Having Reva be the main antagonist of Obi-Wan so far has been a really good idea, I always found the inquisitors such a cool enemy.
The Empire has loomed large in the series so far, and not in a good way for the galaxy as they seem to be ruling by fear rather than propaganda. We have not had too much material covering this time in canon (between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope), over the first four episodes my view of the Empire has changed. I always thought the Empire used propaganda to keep people on their side, but by episode one it seems that whenever they appear on a planet, they leave lots of corpses. Episode three teased that Quinlan Vos is still alive; Vos is a Jedi with a very interesting history that is barely known by fans unless you read the Dark Disciple book (I still need to read it). The series has expanded our notion about the Empire, the galaxy and the inquisitors. It will be interesting if this series is able to branch off into something else, like will Tala appear in the Andor series. I know there is some tricky canon issues with what is happening so far, but I will give the show the benefit of the doubt that everything will fit by the end. The Star Wars story group has always done a good job being conscientious of canon, and I don't think anything has changed. I am currently just enjoying the show, and I will be more concerned with canon when we reach the end of episode six.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST 4 EPISODES
Episode one opens with what is a story recap of the prequel trilogy so that fans can be reminded of the story up until the start of the series. The series begins with the attack on the Jedi temple on Coruscant, we follow as Jedi leads a group of younglings away from the clone troops. The Jedi fights off a lot of the clones, but she is killed, and the children run away. We jump forward ten years and travel to Tatooine; we see an imperial ship land, and the Grand Inquisitor (played by Rupert Friend), Fifth Brother (played by Sung Kang), Fourth Sister (played by Rya Kihlstedt) and Third Sister (played by Moses Ingram) get off the ship. They are searching for a Jedi whom they believe is hiding out on the planet, the Grand Inquisitor attacks an innocent bystander knowing that a Jedi will reveal themselves to save the innocent person. The Jedi uses the force to save the person, but he now has to run, but he manages to escape because when Reva (Third Sister) goes for a kill shot with her light saber she is stopped by the Grand Inquisitor who wants the Jedi alive. The Grand Inquisitor tells Reva that needs to focus on her duties and forget her search for Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In the desert of Tatooine we find Obi-Wan working in an assembly line that is harvesting the meat from a dead giant being. As he is returning home (to a cave) he makes his dinner and eats it outside when he is approached by a Jawa looking to sell Obi-Wan back items the Jawa stole from him. The Jawa reveals that he has an item from a Jedi ship, that the Jedi escaped across the dune sea being chased by Inquisitors. At night, Obi-Wan has dreams/nightmares of Anakin which keeps him from sleeping. Obi-Wan ventures out to go and watch a young Luke Skywalker with his Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. At night Obi-Wan leaves parts that Owen will need outside their home; on his way back, he crosses paths with the runaway Jedi. The Jedi recognizes Obi-Wan, but Obi-Wan denies help and tells the Jedi to leave the planet and to stay hidden, the fight is done, and the Jedi lost.
We travel to Alderaan, we see a young Princess Leia (played by Vivien Lyra Blair) being prepared for the day by her handmaidens, but it is not Leia but a friend. Leia is in the forest with her droid L0-LA59, her mother finds her and chastises her for not being for a not being ready for a gala. Obi-Wan is about to head home from town when Owen throws the parts Obi-Wan left for him on the ground. Owen says he wants nothing from Obi-Wan, Owen will not let Obi-Wan train Luke. The Inquisitors arrive and Obi-Wan hides, but they interrogate everyone around including Owen. Reva threatens Owen and his family for information on the Jedi, but before Reva can act on her threat Fifth Brother puts an end to it and forces Reva to walk away. Bail Organa and his wife Breha greet their guests, but Leia causes a scene after she is bullied for being not a real Organa. Leia goes back to forest, but there are mercenaries there that were hired to kidnap her, Leia is caught and taken off planet. Obi-Wan gets a communication from Bail asking for help in finding Leia, Obi-Wan rejects the plea for help. The next day Obi-Wan finds the body strung up of the Jedi he turned away, back at home Obi-Wan finds Bail Organa waiting for him. Bail tells Obi-Wan to get over his past mistakes, that he needs to become the man he was. Obi-Wan goes into the desert to dig up his lightsaber, we see that the kidnappers were hired by Reva in an effort to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding. Obi-Wan boards a ship going off world as the episode ends.
Episode two begins with Obi-Wan arriving on Daiyu, Obi-Wan is looking for a clue that will lead him to where the kidnappers are holding Leia. Obi-Wan comes across a homeless clone soldier begging for money, the soldier does not recognize Obi-Wan. Kenobi encounters a young boy who says he can take Kenobi to a Jedi who can help. We see the "Jedi" Haja Estree (played by Kumail Nanjiani) giving help to a woman and her young child. Haja is pretending to use the Jedi mind trick to confuse a dock guard to let them through, Haja takes a fee from the woman for his assistance. Obi-Wan sees Haja's actions and realizes he is dealing with a conman, Obi-Wan threatens Haja into helping him find Leia. Kenobi follows Haja's suggestion of where to look, he has to fight off a couple of guards which he does with more of a challenge than it should have been. Kenobi falls into a trap by the kidnappers, he uses a drug to escape. Kenobi eventually finds Leia; and she reluctantly follows him. Reva arrives and finds the kidnappers drugged, but now she knows Kenobi has arrived. The Grand Inquisitor arrives on Daiyu and questions Reva on whether it was wise to kidnap a senator's daughter just to try and get to Kenobi. The Grand Inquisitor says that Reva is the least of them, and that she came from the gutter as he banishes her from Daiyu.
Reva puts a planet-wide bounty out on Kenobi hoping that she will then find him, but this displeases the Grand Inquisitor even more when he finds out. Leia doesn't trust Obi-Wan because she senses that he is hiding something from her, and when she sees his bounty poster, she runs away from him. Obi-Wan chases her down, but they become entangled with bounty hunters. Leia falls while running on a roof, and Obi-Wan uses the force to catch her and hold her in the air. Leia now believes that Obi-Wan is a Jedi, but they are trapped on Daiyu when the Empire stops all traffic in and out of Daiyu. A bounty hunter finds Leia and Kenobi, but Haja saves them and then offers a way off the planet that will lead them to help. Haja holds up Reva with his pretend Jedi routines, she then breaks into his mind and finds out where Haja told Leia and Kenobi to go for a ship that will take them off Daiyu. Reva finds Kenobi and Leia, but Obi-Wan distracts Reva so Leia can get to the ship. Reva says she won't kill him, she will take him to Lord Vader. Reva reveals that Anakin is alive, this revelation shocks Obi-Wan; but the Grand Inquisitor arrives and stops Reva. Reva impales the Grand Inquisitor on her lightsaber because she doesn't want him to take credit for finding Obi-Wan. While Reva was distracted with the Grand Inquisitor Kenobi runs to the ship and leaves Daiyu as the episode ends.
The third episode in the series starts with Obi-Wan meditating; he is trying to contact his former master Qui-Gon Jinn like Yoda told him to at the end of Revenge of the Sith. We see Vader getting out of the bacta tank, and having his armor put on. Vader is in his castle on Mustafar, he is talking to Reva via hologram. Vader tells Reva that Obi-Wan is all that matters now, and he promises her the position of Grand Inquisitor if she succeeds and pain if she fails. Leia asks Obi-Wan what using the force is like, and he says it is like being afraid of the dark and turning on the light. Leia and Obi-Wan leave the ship once it lands on Mapuzo, and they head out to meet the contact that Haja said will them to safety. At the fortress inquisitorius Reva tells Fifth Brother and Fourth Sister to send out the probes. They get to the meeting point, but the contact is not there so they decide to take a ride with a local who is a supporter of the Empire. Leia asks Obi-Wan if he knew her real mother, and then she asks if he is her father to which he says he wishes she was. Obi-Wan explains that Jedi are taken from their families at a very young age, he says he remembers very little about his birth family. The local brings them an Empire checkpoint where he tells the stormtroopers that they might want to have a closer look at Leia and Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan is forced to kill them all, but another transport arrives with reinforcements, but the commanding officer of the reinforcements shoots them int he back. The office is named Tala (played by Indira Varma), and she is the contact sent to meet them, but she was delayed.
A probe droid identified Obi-Wan on Mapuzo, so the inquisitors make their way to Mapuzo to apprehend/kill Obi-Wan. Tala brings Obi-Wan and Leia to a village where she has a safehouse for them to hide in until they can board a transport. Tala says there are safehouses on various worlds that lead to Jabiim, that the network is called the path. Obi-Wan notices markings on the wall made by Jedi Quinlan Vos, and Tala says he works with them bringing younglings to safety. They start to enter an underground tunnel that will lead them to a shuttle, but Obi-Wan senses a disturbance in the force caused by Vader and the inquisitors being in the village. Obi-Wan watches as Vader force drags a man out of his house and kills the man's son. Obi-Wan tells Tala to take Leia to Alderaan while he will lead the Empire away from them. Obi-Wan leaves the village, but Vader is waiting for him so Obi-Wan runs away only to be met by Vader again. Leia tells Tala to go back and help Obi-Wan, Tala agrees and tells Leia to follow the tunnel. Obi-Wan and Vader fight, but Vader is too powerful, and he easily defeats Kenobi. Vader lights fuel on fire and then drags Obi-Wan through the flames so he can feel the pain Vader went through. Tala saves Obi-Wan by causing a distraction, and her droid pulls Obi-Wan to safety, but Reva finds the tunnels and meets Leia at the other end. Tala is bringing Obi-Wan to Jabiim, but Reva is bringing Leia to fortress inquisitorius as the episode ends.
The fourth episode opens with a semi-conscious Obi-Wan being brought to Jabiim and put into a bacta tank to heal the burns. Obi-Wan regains full consciousness and gets out of the tank demanding to know what happened to Leia. Leia is being questioned by Reva who tells Leia that Obi-Wan is dead, and that nobody is coming for her. Tala and Obi-Wan visit Roken (played by O'Shea Jackson Jr.) for assistance in freeing Leia from the inquisitors. Roken reveals that his wife was a former Jedi, but she found and killed by the inquisitors. Roken begrudgingly agrees to help because Leia knows the location of the path, and if the Empire finds out it is all over. The plan they come up with that sees Tala use her cover to enter the fortress, and once inside she will open a hatch underwater that will allow Obi-Wan onto the fortress. Reva questions Leia, but she gets nowhere as Leia pushes back on Reva's lies and threats until Reva brings Leia to be tortured.
As Obi-Wan looks for Leia he comes across a hidden section that contains the remains of the force users that the inquisitors have killed. Tala causes a distraction to draw Reva away from Leia so Obi-Wan can rescue her. Reva does not trust the intelligence that Tala claims to have, and when the alarm goes off, she orders Tala to be taken for questioning. Tala gets free, while Obi-Wans fights off stormtroopers using his lightsaber. Obi-Wan and Leia become trapped in an underwater tunnel as the glass starts to crack, so Obi-Wan calls upon the force to hold the glass together until Leia can safely get to Tala. As Tala, Kenobi and Leia become trapped on the flight deck of the fortress they are saved by the arrival of Roken's pilots who take out the stormtroopers. Obi-Wan, Leia and Tala get in one of the ships while the other lays down cover fire. Vader arrives and is mad at Reva for failing, but she says she put a tracker on them and that they will lead them to the path. The end of the episode reveals that the tracker was placed in L0-LA59.
LAST THOUGHTS ON EPISODE 1 TO 4
The first four episodes of the series is a mixed bag to me, the highs were really high, and the lows just bored me fast forward. Overall, I think the show has been, but it has been a little underwhelming so far only because I am not seeing what I wanted which is an Obi-Wan performance driven show. We are getting an Obi-Wan very similar to the Luke we saw in The Last Jedi (the best Star Wars film), a man who has failed and pulled away from the world and his calling. Obi-Wan has spent years living without the force, and we see him struggle throughout the first four episode any time he needs to use the force. In the first episode Obi-Wan tells Bail Organa that the Obi-Wan Bail is not the man he is now, I wonder if by the end of the sixth episode we see the Obi-Wan from the prequels. At the end episode four I did not feel that Obi-Wan was the confident Jedi Master, but I did think he made steps in the episode towards getting back to his former self. I had always hoped to see a movie or a series that follows Vader hunting down the Jedi who escaped Order 66, I think Obi-Wan might be the closest we get to that.
One of the big issues fans have had with the series is how it relates to canon, I had talked about it earlier, but I will expand here. Now that there are so many things happening here in the Star Wars universe, canon has become increasingly complicated to manage. The biggest complaint so far has been that it seems that Leia and Obi-Wan are forming a significant bond, but if that is the case why was that not something more noticeable in A New Hope. There could be a simple solve for this canon issue by having Obi-Wan remove the memory of everything from Leia's mind. I could see a situation where Leia finds out that Vader is her father, and that will destroy her so Obi-Wan messes with her memory, so she does not have that trauma. Reva is a character who also feels like is traumatized, her obsession with getting Obi-Wan is coming from somewhere. The other inquisitors referencing that she came from the gutter makes me want to learn more about her past. I think she might be a youngling that was taken by the Inquisitors and tortured until she broke and became dark and twisted. I could see a redemption for her if we learn she was good at one point, but as of now she seems irredeemable.
There was also another canon issue, but I think what we saw was a red herring in that the Grand Inquisitor is dead. We know from Rebels that he is still alive, so my guess is that Reva did not kill him (even if she thinks she did). There could be dire consequences for Reva when the Grand Inquisitor makes his return. The name drop of Quinlan Vos in episode three had me expecting to see him in episode four, instead we meet Roken. I think Quinlan Vos might be a name drop, I would love to see a series that tells his story. Vos was a Jedi who went after Count Dooku and became corrupted by the dark side; Vos was saved by Asajj Ventress. With only two episodes left I would rather they spend their time with our current characters rather than Vos. Qui-Gon Jinn has been teased for the entire series so far, Yoda told Obi-Wan to try and connect with Qui-Gon Jinn and he has obviously yet to succeed. I feel a Liam Neeson appearance is incoming, it would make sense that in a moment of need Qui-Gon will appear to offer Obi-Wan some much needed guidance. I also hope there is a scene where Vader (as Anakin pre-burns) and Obi-Wan talk through the force. Getting Hayden Christensen back seems for nothing if he doesn't get something to do beyond wearing the suit and being in a bacta tank.
Like I said the four episodes are a mixed bag, the series has been entertaining, but I have yet to see a scene that proves this series needed to be made. Episode one was good but lacking in action, so I am going to give it an 8/10 since I liked the story it told. Episode two delivered the action, but the story was not as deep as episode one so that is why I gave it a 7/10. In episode three the ending was fantastic, but the journey to that ending did not grab my attention so episode three is an 8/10 too. In episode four I felt the show had its first real misstep as I did not care at all about what was happening so the episode was only a 6/10 for me. I know episode three is not bad, but I did not like the story, I felt that mission would have made more sense in a finale that ended with Obi-Wan and Vader having another showdown. This series seems to be about setting up that showdown that will be the last time the two meet before the events in A New Hope. The prequels are not as bad now as we felt at the time (especially after Rise of Skywalker), but this series has yet to prove that it was a necessary creation. Ewan McGregor is delivering a good performance so far, and I think it will only get better over the final two episodes. Right now, what is keeping me excited is the Obi-Wan and Vader stuff, as much as I like the performance that the young actress is giving as Leia the canon issues pull me out of that storyline.
Thank you for reading my review of the first four parts of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, let me know how you are feeling about the show so far.
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