– Spoiler Review –
Obi-Wan, Tala, Leia, and the Path’s escape from Fortress Inquisitorious is short-lived as Darth Vader and Reva track them down and attempt to flush the Jedi Master out, both for very different reasons which bring revelations up to the surface in the penultimate Obi-Wan Kenobi “Part V.”
The link between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader is unshakeably strong, which awoke anew in “Part II” when Reva told Obi-Wan the news of Anakin Skywalker’s survival and later had them both suffering in bacta tanks in “Part IV,” and “Part V” sees them basically both remembering the same training lesson between them as they barrel towards a confrontation once again. That’s right, what a lot of fans have been clamoring for: a flashback has arrived! From the moment I recognized Coruscant in the opening shot, I knew it was flashback time, but I still wasn’t quite prepared to see Hayden Christensen as Padawan Anakin and Obi-Wan almost in his full mullet mode, placing this scene likely somewhere close to the start of Attack of the Clones, I was left grinning ear to ear every time either Obi-Wan or Vader seemed to be mulling on this particular moment. Not de-aging the actors or using CGI/Deepfake technology on them (as far as I noticed), and instead allowing them to play these characters was a blessing and, for me at least (though judging by many reactions online, I wasn’t alone), shows how easily we’ll accept and handwave off the age differences, as it really took me back 17 some years when Hayden grinned like he did in the prequels or Ewan smiled like a proud Jedi Master and older brother at Anakin; I hope Lucasfilm sees the response and finally does away with deepfake Luke and finally just casts someone in the role, as I don’t think the technology is good enough to recapture the subtleties Hayden and Ewan used that sold this flashback hook, line, and sinker (but that’s a conversation for another time).
Regardless, I brought up how these two were remembering the lightsaber training battle together because it felt like if Obi-Wan said something that brough us to the flashback, it was during a moment in their little battle that he had the upper hand or noticed something about Anakin’s aggressiveness, so his favorite teaching moments, while if Vader was shown proceeding the next flashback part, it seemed to focus on Anakin letting out some anger, taking his Master down a size. In the scene, while the duel starts on friendly terms, Obi-Wan calls out Anakin’s growing aggressiveness, saying Jedi try to preserve life while Anakin counters mercy can’t defeat an enemy, and since he even thinks of ‘defeating’ instead of subduing as a priority confirms he’s not quite on the right path. With lightsaber moves nearly matching the intensity of their duel in Revenge of Sith (seriously, the swordplay was impressive by these two again!!), Anakin brings Obi-Wan down to his knees, but this blinding need for victory is what allows Obi-Wan to get out of the bind, though Anakin knocks his blade loose. Obi-Wan still manages to win the day, talking about Anakin’s need to prove himself being his undoing: proving he’s the chosen one, proving he’s the best, proving he’s enough to bring peace and order to the galaxy, proving he’s enough for Padmé maybe even. Regardless of all the potential proving Anakin needed to do back then, what about now, as Darth Vader? And is it really Vader who needs to prove anything now, to his old Master, or is it Obi-Wan who needs to prove he’s a Jedi still, despite 10 years of isolation and self-doubts mounting up? I love all the potential of this flashback scene and while still being overjoyed by seeing them together a Jedi, if only for a little bit.
If anyone needs to prove themselves, I’d say it’s Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi. He’s certainly out of practice as a Jedi, and his lack of involvement stares him in the face in the Path base on Jabiim, a wall full of Aurebesh written names and sayings and the Jedi Order symbol, a testament to the bravery these individuals contain to face something as large and as deadly as the Empire despite the Order’s might cut at the knees. Is he worthy to still call himself a Jedi, sitting alone on Tatooine, watching over a boy, not getting involved? He can’t escape the self-doubts still, even after a victorious flight from the Fortress Inquisitorious, as a recent message from Bail Organa fearing the worse from Ben’s silence and reminding him what’s at stake don’t help either, though when the base’s doors are shut due to sabotage from Lola and it’s confirmed the Empire’s arrived, he casts the doubts aside again and steps up. He doesn’t shy away telling the refugees the odds stacked against them, but he does rally them, saying they can do anything together (“We are all the Path” my fellow The High Republic fans, no?), and they set a plan in motion for the Empire’s siege. It’s Reva who arrives on the planet first, newly christened the Grand Inquisitor by Vader himself (more on all that in moment), and when it’s clear they’re going to break in, Obi-Wan tries to reason with Reva and the truth of her intentions and motives become clear (something I guessed back in “Part III” and “Part IV”), but he pushes too hard and the attack resumes, and after a sacrifice that left me crying, they manage to hold off the Empire for a moment. With Vader on his way next, Obi-Wan knows what he has to do, how he can save all these people as Vader would suspect, and he surrenders. And part of this plan? Making an alliance with the Grand Inquisitor herself.
Backing up a bit, Vader summons Reva for updates on her tracking beacon on Leia’s Lola, and when she tells him they know they are on Jabiim, he rewards her work by granting her the role of the Grand Inquisitor (something we all know from Star Wars Rebels she won’t have for long). It doesn’t take long for the episode to answer several of the lingering questions about Reva, like: why the eagerness for the position? Why the desire to hunt down Obi-Wan? When Obi-Wan goes to stall the initial siege, talking to Reva, he confronts her on how she knew Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader and begins putting the pieces together on his own. Reva confirms his, and many fans’ suspicions: she was a youngling during Order 66, the one we’ve all thought was her in the opening scene of the series premiere, and she came face to face with Anakin as Vader then…just before he sliced up her friends and stabbed her through the stomach. Moses Ingram has brought so much dimension to the role so far and she doesn’t let up in “Part V,” as Reva’s recollection of Order 66 brings so much more tragedy to the scene due to Moses’ performance, and her boiling anger as she confronts Obi-Wan on where he was to stop his apprentice and if he actually wants him dead like she does, is chilling and heartbreaking to watch thanks to Ingram. It’s a gut punch to Obi-Wan’s doubts about himself, this living embodiment of everything his failure wrought, and his lack of an answer is what causes her to continue pressing the attack. When Obi-Wan surrenders, he attempts to strike a deal with her, to help her take down Vader together, by being the distraction so the Dark Lord won’t see her coming, and reluctantly she agrees, even though she’s more than right she’s done enough without him already, but he makes a good point how focused Vader should be on him.
Obi-Wan making a bold stand, surrendering, is all part of a plan that also honors the big made to help the rest of the team escape the blitzing siege by the Empire. After Obi-Wan ticks off Reva when he tries to stall initially, she cuts the door open and the stormtroopers swarm in, a chaotic scene with jittery camerawork that was both a little hard to follow at times, never quite focusing, but brought a sense of the Empire’s overwhelming might against the untrained fighters of the Path. Obi-Wan holds them off the best he can, but he’s not in his prime anymore and has to retreat with everyone else. He’s not the only one at the frontlines as everyone else retreats, Tala and NED-B are right there with him. Earlier, Tala sees Obi-Wan after the message from Bail, sees his distress, and she reassures him everything will be alright. She proceeds to tell him the story of how and why she left the Empire, delivered with emotional precision like Indirma Varma has been showcasing all season, and how what she does with the Path helps her make up for the past, to do better and do right, even though she still failed once. It’s an important morsel Self-Doubting-Wan needs to hear now. For me, it was another highlight on the Tala Deserves All the “Sir, yes sirs!” tour, so when she gets shot in the stomach as they hold off the Empire, NED-B following her shortly, I started to cry because we all know where this goes next. It didn’t diminish the moment or her heroic efforts to know this fate was inevitable the moment she got shot, in fact it bolstered the scene once it was clear she had no way out and Obi-Wan couldn’t help her, while her final words before activating a thermal detonator being “May the Force be with you” cemented the floodgates opening for me. It’s a testament to Varma’s acting and the series’ writing and directing teams how much her death hit, and even NED’s for how she interacted with him, and I’m going to miss her but hope one day we’ll get more stories, set prior to this, that could feature Tala again…maybe one of her dealing with Quinlan Vos as part of the Path?
Her sacrifice makes the Empire’s siege and holding them off almost seem hopeless for Obi-Wan, another failure in front of him, but he sees a different way, a different option, to buy everyone time, hence his surrender and attempt at a truce with the Grand Inquisitor Reva. Not long after she has him escorted back into the part of the base they control, Leia is able to override Lola’s sabotage with the help of Lola, whom she frees from Imperial control, but Vader arrives on the planet to collect his prize as well. Instead of sticking around to help Reva confront Vader, Obi-Wan breaks loose and rejoins the Path as they fill in the shuttles, but Vader arrives just in time like any good horror movie villain, pulling down the ship and tearing it open to get to Kenobi…only for another shuttle to take off, hiding deeper in the base the whole time. It was cool to have Vader’s fury and might so succinctly shown, but the next part takes it to a whole other, and even more impressive, level, though it also calls into question Obi-Wan’s choice a little.
Reva approaches Vader from behind as he watches Obi-Wan fly out of his grasp again, but he halts her lightsaber strike with the Force alone, chiding her for thinking he wouldn’t see her coming. She screams in anger, Obi-Wan not helping save her from Anakin once again and knows she must continue the attack. Their duel is both a showcase of her skills, that she can hold against him for as long as she does, but also of his might, of how much he’s grown since his little duel with Obi-Wan glimpsed in the flashback. Instead of letting anger get the better of him, he’s already channeling it with everything he does, and not trying to prove himself to Reva because he already knows he’s better, his display of power includes holding her off with just the Force at first, then after stealing one half of her Inquisitor blade, defending himself almost effortlessly from her attacks. Obi-Wan wasn’t even a proper opponent for him when they dueled in “Part III,” and while Reva can’t defeat Vader either, at least she’s a challenge to some degree, allowing Obi-Wan Kenobi to showcase Vader in his fury-laden prime again. Vader does what he did to her as youngling, stabbing her in the stomach, and when a fully healed Grand Inquisitor arrives at Vader’s side, his deception of her, how badly they used her, is laid bare. They’ve known about her rage over what happened and used it, pushed her, so that she would help bring out Kenobi and put herself in the line of fire at the same time, and even if it wasn’t to kill her, it was to test her, a test which to them she failed.
After taunting her, Ol’ Grandy leaves with Vader, the only thing sustaining Reva her burning anger (like Maul after being bisected or Vader limbless and burning on the sands of Mustafar) over being used, by both the Sith and by Obi-Wan, who sort of left her there to face Vader when he couldn’t bring himself to do it. I know it was more to maintain the secrecy of Leia, to prevent Vader from finding her, but it’s still a poor deal when Obi-Wan leaves Reva, knowing she likely won’t survive the encounter, but he sees it as a necessary sacrifice to protect both the girl and boy. But it’s not just anger that looks to propel Reva forward in the show’s finale despite her stinging defeat, she happens upon Obi-Wan’s communicator (dropped by Haja after Obi-Wan gave it to him when he surrendered) and hears Bail’s very important words about not just the girl, but a boy as well, warning Obi-Wan he, and Reva knows whom the “he” refers to, can’t learn who they are. With that huttlet out of the cage, and the episode ending on a sleeping young Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan will face the repercussions of his actions of leaving Reva to suffer at Vader’s hands alone far sooner than he ever imagined (which probably was never, as he probably assumed she’d die). Obi-Wan senses this vital information has been revealed and he’s left spiraling, the bad news compounded by Roken telling him the hyperdrive is out on the ship. With no way to contact Bail for help, can Obi-Wan get to Tatooine before the injured Reva can? Can they escape the Imperials behind them to even get to safety in the first place? As far as cliffhangers go, even with us knowing the overall outcome, this one’s a nail biter!
Flashbacks and revelations abound on an emotional and thrilling penultimate episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, “Part V,” setting up for a finale that, while we know overall what will happen, has a bunch of threads that remain tantalizingly unresolved!
+ Anakin and Obi-Wan Flashback Scene…my prequel child heart almost couldn’t take it!
+ Reva’s revelations and Ingram’s arresting performance
+ Tala’s emotional exit
+ Lots of intriguing questions to be answered in the finale!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.
OBI-WAN KENOBI SERIES REVIEWS
Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part VI