Obi-Wan Kenobi - Episode 5 - Review

With the end of the fourth episode, our hero Obi-Wan was safely away, his charge back in his care and all was well, except for the tracking device placed within the droid. That clearly meant a siege or battle was on the cards for this episode and both were present, but more than that, it gave us a look at the dynamic once again between Obi-Wan and Anakin. The episode moved at a brisk pace, but it didn’t feel rushed, but as the penultimate episode, is that enough?

This episode was going to go one of two ways, the first was that Obi-Wan and Leia would leave the planet quickly and continue their trek back to Alderaan or they were going to get caught on the planet of Jabiim and that second option is the one that played out. While that could have made for a boring episode, it seems that the crew behind this series knew that people wanted to see a proper fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin and we got that, sort of, but it did tie nicely back to the issue at hand, surviving an assault by the Empire. What was interesting about the characters in the base, is that they all wanted to remain safe, but one slightly impassioned speech from Obi-Wan and they were willing to fight, it was a quick turnaround that didn’t make a lot of sense. It did however lead to everyone having things to do, even Leia and it was nice to see a rebellion, small as it is, trying to fight back against the behemoth that is the Empire.

Mixed in throughout the episode was a flashback between Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting, in a training match and while it was clearly meant to have been something around the time of Episode 3, given Anakin’s outfit, neither actor was de-aged. This is likely going to be contentious issue for many viewers, but I for one didn’t care that they were still the same ages as their current day selves, it didn’t take away from the on-screen action. Sliding them in between the mainline story beats though, that was a little weird, if only because it implied both Obi-Wan and Darth Vader were remembering the exact same fight, given how we kept seeing things from their perspectives after wards and while an ok thing, it really lacked impact. It would have been nicer to see the entire sequence play out, while Obi-Wan was knocked out, coming too remembering that, would have made more sense, instead of just randomly remembering how Anakin used to fight.

Speaking of fighting, the 3rd Sister got her much-desired promotion to Grand Inquisitor and it was a short-lived promotion, because I said in the first review, she clearly wasn’t meant to be the baddest of the bad guys. The connect to the flashback at the start of the first episode also helped connect the tissue that she was once a youngling, which again was really obvious and again having Anakin look older than he was, could be ignored. The issue I have with Reva, is that she spent years attempting to get close to Vader and in a single conversation with Obi-Wan she decides to change her entire plan and confront Darth Vader when he is ‘not expecting it’. For someone who apparently committed unspeakable acts of violence, in order to get her revenge and was willing to patiently wait for years and years to get to her goal, seeing her change course so drastically was just stupid, but they are Sith, so what can you do.

But speaking of the Sith, we finally got a somewhat decent Lightsaber fight in the show, yes, the one between Obi-Wan and Anakin was great, but seeing it not cut up would be better, it however was very similar to that of the fighting we had seen them do before. The fight between Darth Vader and Reva however was something new, something we have never seen on film before, a fight between two Sith. You can clearly see just how outmatched Reva is from the outset, Darth Vader didn’t even need to turn around to stop her attack, instead willing to let her try, before he turned around and just destroyed her and right after he pulled a ship down from the air, ala Starkiller. How the story of Reva will end, we will have to wait and see, but there is clearly going to be more of her, not only because of her finding the recording pointing towards Tattooine, but because she didn’t die. There is no telling if her story will wrap up in the next and final episode, or if there will be more of her in live action going forward, however given her defection from the Empire, how they make that work could be interesting. Also, the appearance of the old Grand Inquisitor was not interesting, not because he was still alive, but the fact that we were meant to be impressed by it, if Darth Maul can survive being sliced in half and dumped in a giant hole, one Lightsaber wound won’t keep a bad guy down.

There were a number of times in this episode that we could clearly see when the cast was in the Stagecraft sets, more from just the placement of things and while for the most part, this series hasn’t had the issue much, seeing it pop up again breaks the atmosphere the show was building. You can argue that those times don’t matter, its more the action on screen, but like the reveal of the loader droid in episode 3, realising it’s a person in a suit, just doesn’t feel good. That being said, the shot with Darth Vader and the ship, even though it was on the Stagecraft set, was so well executed, I can almost forgive the shots that weren’t. The team knew they had only a finite amount of time and resources to make the shots work, so picking that one as the focus was the right call.

The penultimate episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi was good, it kept the pace going, without feeling like it was rushed. The flashback between Obi-Wan and Anakin was great and served to highlight the brotherhood that they used to have, which should make the final fight with them next episode even better. Reva’s revelation that she was playing her own game, was so predictable and even though the payoff was unsatisfying, it did lead to a wonderful fight between the two Sith.

The Score

9.0

The Pros

+The action kept a constant pace, while not feeling rushed and even with flashbacks the story felt good

+The fight between the two Sith was great, not only was it interesting, it worked opposite the flashback sequence to see just how far Darth Vader has become

The Cons

-Reva changing her plan at the last minute was stupid, there is no other way to put it

-The old Grand Inquisitor still being alive was not something that needed to happen and just felt out of place