Obi-Wan Kenobi – Part V Review

Now that is the kind of episode I’ve been waiting to see from Obi-Wan Kenobi since we started on this journey a month ago. With Part V – and with only one more episode left to go – we finally get a chance to see just who our central characters really are at this stage in their lives and get the backstory behind Reva/Third Sister that we desperately needed. It’s rare that a short, self-contained series could benefit from fewer episodes, but man, I wish we had reached this point in the story back in Part III or IV rather than rehashing the rescue of Leia one more time. But, better late than never!

Watching the intercuts of young Obi-Wan and Anakin dueling (back in the days when Anakin’s anger was only simmering rather than the full boil it has reached now) as the pair once again fought in real time was a smart move on the part of writers Andrew Stanton and Joby Harold. We get the reminder (for those who may have blocked out the prequel films) that while Anakin might find his former mentor weak for his reliance on the Force as an agent for good, Obi-Wan’s refusal to give into anger allows him to have a clearer mind. This means that he will be one step ahead of his hot-headed former Padawan – and can once again outsmart him without resorting to another lopsided lightsaber fight. As cool as lightsaber duels might be (and they are very cool), it’s much more interesting when we get to see our characters work through a plan that doesn’t involve an ability to win at a physical duel – especially when we know that the characters at issue both survive to fight another day. While the old ways of the Jedi certainly weren’t perfect, there were some positive elements, particularly when it comes to harnessing their abilities to outsmart those who wish to do them harm (something the Sith seem to have a harder time with – lots of plotting there, but very little in the way of strong execution as the whole “anger” and “hate” tend to lead to truncated plans as we saw this week).

This was the clearest image of both Anakin and Obi-Wan that we’ve gotten in this series. We know Obi-Wan is the grizzled old gunslinger left with one last job, who has let his skills atrophy in the despair over his role in the failure of the Jedi (something that Reva aptly called out this episode – Obi-Wan was guilty of abandoning the Younglings, even if he didn’t grasp just what Anakin was up to). And we know Anakin is the brash, angry, and incredibly powerful Darth Vader who will tear apart the cosmos in order to gain revenge against his former Master. But there’s still some good in Anakin (even amidst his murderous rampages and single-minded drive for Kenobi) and there’s still a strength in Obi-Wan and a deep desire to do good, even if he wants to pretend he’s nothing but a hermit on Tatooine now. There’s a familiarity between these two men that we see play out both in the past and in the present – and will see one last time in A New Hope, when Obi-Wan will once again take advantage of Anakin’s drive and anger to plant a seed within young Luke to drive him to become more than he ever thought possible. After five episodes, we finally got the real tete-a-tete we were waiting for between these two characters.

And then there’s the Reva of it all. There were a number of questions circling the character – How did she know Anakin’s true identity? How had she escaped Order 66? Why had she turned to the Dark Side? Well, it turns out she did something truly horrific to contemplate – and something we here in the States only recently saw happen in real life with another small child – she played dead among her dead friends and hoped Anakin would pass her by. Then, in a turn I didn’t see coming although I should have, Reva decided she wanted revenge on the man who was supposed to protect her and her friends but who instead murdered them all. Her turn to the Dark Side was a ruse in order to get to Vader – one that saw her commit atrocities against other Jedi – likely out of the same reasoning she used with Obi-Wan, these were the people who were supposed to protect her and they left her to die. Does it hold up to a close reading? Not really, at least not without more time spent with her to understand how she could square killing innocents in the name of the Empire (non-Jedi innocents) solely as a means to enact one instance of revenge. But it works if you don’t look too closely. And that Anakin figured it out and used her as a puppet to get closer to Obi-Wan? Yeah, that fully tracks. Reva might think she’s strong and that she has the upper hand, but really, she’s no different than the Padawan Anakin we saw in the flashbacks – so controlled by her desire for victory over the one foe she can’t vanquish that she can’t see the forest for the trees. I loved seeing that particular juxtaposition come to fruition in their very lopsided lightsaber battle. While Obi-Wan might be able to out maneuver Anakin still, Reva is no match because Anakin has tried all those moves himself in the past.

So, where do we go from here? It appears only Reva saw the message from Bail (which was such a breech of security on so many levels, first in the message itself and then in Obi-Wan handing such a precious tool off to an idiot), and she’s not doing all that great. Who can she tell? How will she be able to help? We know Vader knows about Luke at some point – if we continue to follow the timeline set forth in the Darth Vader comics, it happens between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back – but I would be shocked if we see anything indicating he learns of Luke this series. So, what’s the point in having Reva discover that there’s a boy on Tatooine who needs protection? That’s the big question mark coming into the final episode next week: How will Luke fit into the final (middle) chapter in this long saga between Anakin and Obi-Wan? And how will Leia magically forget everything that she’s experienced here, alongside a man she doesn’t appear to know in nine years? We have a number of threads that need to be tied up as the series approaches its close. But after a great episode like this one, I’m much more energized to see where this is headed that I was a mere week ago.