Obi-Wan Kenobi - Episode 4 - Review

When we last saw our hero, he was badly burned, his charge taken by an Inquisitor and Darth Vader just standing over the scene, it wasn’t a great place to be if you are Obi-Wan. But while Darth Vader let the hero go, the man he blamed for all his pain and suffering, it seems you can’t keep a good Jedi down as Obi-Wan, burned or not was going to push forward in his mission to rescue Leia and return her home. The problem though, was that the episode didn’t feel like there was danger in the current stage of the mission.

I've been critical of Disney+ shows in the past because they always seem to struggle as they get to the penultimate episode, Loki had it, Boba Fett had it and now Obi-Wan has it. It seems that they all take, what is the equivalent of a two-hour movie script and then try to stretch it out to fill 4 1/2 hours of television; they would like to tell you it is six hours of television but as we know by this episode none of the lengths ever make up an hour. The problem with this elongated approach to television shows, is that each and every time they do it, we get an episode that never runs as long as the others, very vaguely moves the plot forward - if at all and worst of all, can be chopped up and placed into other episodes. This is what the 4th episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi presented to its viewers, an episode that had some information that was relevant but a whole lot of stuff that wasn't.

Leia being in an interrogation room and under the welcoming care of the third sister, could have been scarier than anything, but again the approach that Reva talk really brings home the theory I have that she doesn't want to be a bad person. Of course, some people may argue that strapping a child into a torture device isn't exactly a nice thing, but she did almost everything possible to avoid that fate. What I don't buy isn't that the time it took Obi-Wan, to be transported to another planet and placed within a bacta tank, have most of his injuries healed and then fly to yet another planet, there was no interrogation of the young Princess. I get it that TV shows generally have to point out everything to the viewer so things don't come out of left field, but in actuality it now equates to them not doing anything define hours upon hours and that is weird.

I did like the part of Obi-Wan swimming into the facility, I got very familiar Phantom Menace vibes from that sequence and the fact that he keeps trying to reach out to Qui-Gon Jin, just makes me feel more nostalgia for Episode 1. I am appreciating the fact that Obi-Wan, who essentially gave up using the force, isn't able to just turn it back on, with nary a thought and be a full-fledged Jedi once more, but I really wish there was a little more that he could do without going super Jedi. This is not to put a damper on the story, but rather that we need to have a sense that the hero is going to be victorious and yes of course we know he will be fine because of how the timeline plays out, but it still needs that sense of progression inside the series. TV shows like Smallville had the same problem where they would put Clark Kent in a dangerous situation and try to make out, that he may not survive and while we know Superman would survive this is the opposite here. We know that Obi-Wan is going to have his abilities back at some point, we have seen him use them in Episode 4, there just needs to be a little more push forward in the show.

It has to be said that Ewan McGregor is doing a phenomenal job in portraying Obi-Wan Kenobi again, in the first outing everyone just compared it to Alec Guinness, but as the movies went on, he really made the character his own. Now though we get to see the character with a vulnerability that we honestly rarely get to see in TV, especially in shows with such a fanciful nature like Star Wars. Even though he knows he needs his abilities, he knows he's not ready because of the history, the past that he can't let go of and every time he tries to use the force you can see him struggling. It makes you connect with the character far beyond anything from the movies, which given how what we saw of him in the movies is saying something. It is interesting to see Moses Ingram play more of a softer side to Reva this week, I did enjoy those moments that you could see frustration, it really helped ensure that the character wasn't forced in to being a one note baddie. The character still lacks real sense of sith-ness, but it is fun to see Ingram taking on subtle shifts in the personality to suit the mood of the room she's in and make her feel more of a threat.

As far as fourth episodes go for a Disney+ show, this wasn't the worst, however it really needed something extra and given its abbreviated runtime I can't help but think something was cut. The entire ‘we found trophies’ moment was depressing and somewhat serial killer, but it would have been far more effective had there have been a Jedi we knew in amongst the collection. While we didn't get to see a lot of Darth Vader, it was fantastic to see him essentially lose it, something that clearly doesn’t happen much, given the reaction around him and one can only hope that in the final two episodes there is more of a confrontation between Darth Vader and the Inquisitors, plus a good fight with Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Given how this episode ended there is a clear threat now to the hero and his charge, but how that plays out in the long run we have to wait and see. For now, if you haven't seen the 4th episode, I would honestly wait until episode 5 is out and watch them back to back so it feels like you get a complete experience.

The Score

7.5

The Pros

+Obi-Wan trying to regain access to the Force and not getting it easily is great

+Reva showed more sides to herself and takes away the one note bad guy persona she has had til now

The Cons

-The show didn't really include anything that made the episode stand out

-Another drag of a Disney+ show in the fourth episode, highlights the issue with the approach